The Play Center

Here are my adorable little kid's that come to the Play Center that I started up here at the mission. AREN'T THEY PRECIOUS?! I love them, (even when I have to change poopy pants, and hear screaming and crying for awhile...) Enjoy!

Girls' night out

Here's some pics from our Valentine's girls night out. We had so much fun talking and laughing about different things and about our different cultures/countries. That's one thing I really enjoy about being here. I have friends from Venezala, South Africa, Holland and learning and hearing about all the different lingo (words) and ways people do things is quite interesting and sometimes brings many laughs : ) Good times, good times.

Will You Be My Valentine?

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

For those who have that special someone, I pray your day is full of blessings in each other's presence.

For those (like me) who don't have that special someone, I pray that you know that you are soo beautiful and cherished by ME and by your friends and family.

And for those who don't care about Valentines Day.. well... I pray your have another great normal day.. being boring...

As for me, my valentines day has been really great so far. I helped Dione help the pastor this morning with decorating Angeline's office with hearts and flowers and words. They really haven't done anything for Valentines any year so she is getting A LOT today. It's soo cute! Then we are planning a candlelight supper for them tonight : )

And I did recieve a beautiful red rose from some anonymous person...but, I should let you know that all the women at the mission did as well. haha.

Tonight I'm hanging out with 8 girls and we are dressing up all fancy and going out to the Steak House for supper. 6 of us from the mission, plus, Andrea, my physio therapist and her friend, Katy and another girl, named Terese.

Remember, God loves you! And me too : )

PACKAGE FROM HOME!

Oh my goodness, yesterday was soo exciting. My mom and our friend, Terri, had sent us a package beginning of November and it came yesterday! 3 months later... haha. Oh well, it was the perfect day to get it. Thank you soo much mom and Terri! And thank you Gramma! It was a great surprise to see a gift and card from you too! I love you all so much! It was nice to have a second Christmas in Africa : ) Thank you for the gravy, the sweet santa hats, the amazing cute soft fuzzy socks, the beautiful family picture, and the PROGRESS! Oh my goodness, I never thought i would ever be so excited to get a newspaper in a care package but I was. haha, it's funny cuase i never read the paper at home but now that I'm here I was soo interested in it. I gave it to Sanjay to read. He saw the job listings and now he wants to come to Canada. What a guy. haha Today I took a lot of the candies and some of the toys that were sent to the hospital vist and it worked out soo perfect for us to give the gifts away to mourning mamas and mama's going through great stress and worry and for the children who are stuck in the hospital. So thank you so much for being a part of the ministry here through the gifts from Canada!

God's Answer to My Prayer

This is Judy. I wanted to share with you about her because she is so special to me and because she is God's answer to my prayer. Before I even came to South Africa, about 4-5 months before, I started asking God that He would send someone around my age that I would really be able to connect with in Africa. Someone to hang out with and just be able to be myself around and build a strong friendship with. And I know without a doubt that Judy is His answer for me and I really just wanted to share that with you and to give the glory and praise to God.

Judy came in Novemeber, along with Sofia, from Venazuela. She is not fluent in English yet...but she tries so hard to learn it. Her language struggle is yes, a struggle, but such a blessing too because we have some good laughs with her as she tries to describe what she is saying through sometimes very funny actions and gestures. But, most of the time I understand what she is trying to say which is really great. She definitely is getting better. She is a nurse and so she helps a lot with the care center here and is a really get help on outreaches when we find people who have wounds, cuts and more.

Judy is soo crazy, and Dione will agree with me, for she lives with her. She is crazy and yet a very sweet, gentle person. And she is 25, only 4 years older than me! She is such a joy in my life and I'm soo thankful to God that He brought her here. Our God is so great and I'm so thankful that He listens to even our simplest prayers. What a faithful God we serve.

Update on Pieter and family

Thank you so much for all who have been praying for Pieter and his family. His operation last Tuesday (a week ago) went very well. It was four hours long! They removed an huge ulcer that was attached to his stomach, liver and pancreas. And the first few days after the operation we needed to pray hard that no infection would come and it didn't! God has been so good in this situation and please continue to pray for proper healing with the wound and stitches. Please along with his physical health, pray for his spiritual well-being as well as Marties and their children. The devil really tried to get us down and away from the Lord during the times when we are weak. And on behalf of the family, thank you so much for your prayers from across the ocean : ) God has heard your prayers.

Oops

Sorry, D just let me know that I gave you guys some wrong info. It was not a couple months ago Pieter almost died, it was two years... Ok, that's all I wanted to let you all know. Have a happy Sunday! Oh ya, I guess I can let you know that he is now in really good care in the ICU and he's blood count had gone up. And they had really good nurses and help when they got to the hospital so praise the Lord. The doctors say that if he doesn't bring blood up again they will do an operation on his stomach Monday or Tuesday. So you can keep that in your prayers. And if you could pray for his wife, Martie, to find a place to stay in New Castle while he is there in hospital. For some weird reason she had to come back home to Dundee yesterday because the hospital wouldn't let her stay in the ICU with Pieter... I dunno but I sure would have put up a great fuss if I was in that situation. She tried but didn't work... Thanks everyone for your prayers.