March 2006 NEWSLETTER

Hello to all

Oh my, I have such a lot to tell, so I do apologize if this newsletter is a tad longer than usual.


Headlines. . .

We are heading for our permanent residence :)

Through a sequence of events (a testimony in itself), we have been connected to an American couple, (both Pastors), who are actively involved in ministry in SA. (Jesus Restoration Ministry).

Pastors Salina have purchased 7 acres of land in an area called Oakford (Just outside of Verulum), and have prayerfully offered us a long term lease on a portion of their land, which we have prayerfully accepted. We in turn can be of assistance to them, in partnership, as they have not yet got their ministry registered.

This land is just up the road from the very first piece of land that we looked at purchasing 3 years ago. It also turns out, that Pastors Salina's attorney is the son of the owner of the land we looked at 3 years ago. Coincidence??? The family had been keen for us to buy this land as they had felt that the land should be used for the work of the Lord. They have subsequently set the land aside for the work of The Lord.

In this area of Oakford, is also the Catholic Oakford Priory, which has been there for many years, and The William Carrey World Mission School.

The area borders the township of Osindisweni, which is a rural settlement; and is close to 2 government hospitals (Osindisweni and Mahatma Gandhi), where many abandoned babies are taken. This means that we are positioned in a good place to serve the community and reach those who are very much in need.

This is all VERY exciting! And now, the challenges:

The land that we will lease has no buildings on it, and we are currently in the process of getting plans drawn up, in order to build the needed facilities.

Our current lease comes to an end on 15 April 2006, and we are really hoping to move straight onto the land, in order to spare the unnecessary expense of renting another house for 6 months (At about R6000.00 per month) . The challenge we face is to find some form of livable structures (like log cabins etc) to put up while we fundraise and build the permanent structures.

As you can appreciate, all this costs money. We are approaching some log cabin companies, but to date have had no success at securing donations of this nature.

So, we would ask each one of you, to please commit this to prayer, with thanksgiving for what has already transpired. Please make use of every opportunity to share what we do with others, so that we can expand our support base, and raise the money we need to build. (Building costs are in the region of R2800.00 per square meter).

Thank you to all our current supporters, without whose help, this ministry could not function, and reach out to the orphans of our country. We are in urgent need of obtaining additional monthly sponsors as we begin to extend our boundaries.

All donations, be they monthly contributions or once off donations are tax receiptable in South Africa as well as in Canada (via FEB International). If anyone would like more information on this, please feel free to contact me.

If you would like to make a pledge, please complete the attached form and forward it to us.

Thank you again for continued prayer and support.


Kidz news:

Jake - always doing daring things. I saw a T-shirt that I thought would suit him perfectly. The inscription on the shirt reads "I DO MY OWN STUNTS". Yes, That's Jakey. Here is a picture of the stitches I mentioned in the last newsletter. I think I should dress the boy in a crash helmet each day.

Seeing that we do not have a huge amount of play area, the kids watch a little more videos than they did before. One of the favorites is Shrek 2. The other day Jake came up to me with a brown envelope he had found, waved it in the air, and announced: "Far Far away Mommy." (I could have eaten him up it was so cute.)

I decided that Mary and Jake (being almost 3) and waking every 2 hours each night for juice, should say farewell to their bottles. This turned out to be a very stressful 2 weeks. I thought we would never get through it. Mary screamed (and she has a foghorn for a voice) until I thought the police would arrive to see what we were doing to the children. Two days later I was ready to phone the police myself and ask them if they wouldn't mind having her for the night!

We are past the worst now, and bedtimes are starting to settle down again, but the one night we thought we were very blessed and that Mary had gone to sleep without a performance, so we just sat and enjoyed the quietness. About 20 minutes later I decided to just go and check on all the little ones, and the picture below tells all. Nope, Mary was not asleep at all. She had found the baby powder . . .

Siya and Simon have also had a hard time adjusting to all the changes. (New school, no Granny, no jungle gym, No swimming pool, and very little garden to play in.)

Siya went through a phase of just being in trouble EVERY day! He just could not resist doing all the things he knew he shouldn't. Poor boy, he just seemed to be in trouble every day. He is doing better now. He loves playing imaginary games, and he is very creative in his play. Here he can be seen - preparing for Kayalami…

Siya saw the ENT in January regarding the removal of his tonsils,(if they get any bigger they will jump right out of his throat!), but the ENT refused to take them out, as he says HIV+ve children are too prove to septicemia after surgery. So Siya has to live with his large tonsils and resultant sleep apnea.

Simon went into hospital for his minor surgery (testicles surgically descended). He was a real little champ, and took it all in his stride, without much complaining or crying. He is recovering very well. Simon's hero is Spiderman. His favorite shirts are the ones with Spiderman on, and he has this plastic Spiderman figurine which gets dragged out - if you "mess with him!" Spiderman will come and sort you out!

Sadly the new school had no room for Jake and Mary. That age group was full. I did not fuss too much as we will probably have to re look at preschool once we move, but Mary is really needing to go to school. She is such a bright little button and would really benefit from the stimulation. I hope that we will be able to set up a preschool very soon once we are on the land, and pray that we will find a suitable preschool teacher to come in and run the preschool. (Ideally we would like to find a suitably qualified volunteer / missionary who would come in for a minimum of 1 year to get the preschool started).

The kids miss the swimming pool and our big yard, but anyway, we try to make the best of the situation. We have had some really sweltering days and desperate times call for desperate measures. . .

Tazz and Jay are doing well. Tazz is really enjoying high school, and has such a busy schedule; I can barely keep up with her. She is playing touch rugby for the school and really enjoying it. When Touch Rugby season is over she has softball so she is very happy. Added to this are her guitar lessons, scrap booking and a load of schoolwork.

Justin is doing well. He will be modeling in the schools fashion show on the 23rd of March, so he has practices after school every day until 5. (I'll put a pic in the next newsletter). He now has his own motorbike, but cannot go very far on it at the moment, as the earliest we could book his license for was 2nd June. Once he has his license he will be able to take himself to and from school everyday, and anywhere else he wants to be. (Which will also be a great help to me).

Surf has been really poor for the past couple of months, so he has been a bit miserable, not being able to go for a good surf, but hopefully the weather patterns will start to improve soon.


Volunteers:

Rachel is "home", and we are always thrilled when she comes around. She has a busy schedule with varsity and work, but when she has time to spare, she comes over, or takes the big boys to the beach.

We have Anne Kelly, from Canada, arriving on the 16th of March for 6 weeks, and are looking very forward to having her with us. The children always benefit from having someone around with the time to do constructive play and fun activities.

Once we are in our new premises, and start taking in more babies; we will be needing volunteers badly, so if you know of anyone who would like to consider volunteering in the forthcoming months, do encourage them to get an application form filled in and sent to us.


Our Needs:

As I have already mentioned, we need to raise the funds to build. We also need to find money to erect some wooden cabins initially (which go up very quickly). Once the buildings are completed these cabins can then be used as volunteer cottages.

Monthly funding to keep the day to day living expenses and education fees covered.

Still in need of a combi (or a big 4 X4 to navigate the dirt road to the land).

Volunteers, including a pre school teacher.


And from my heart:

I am sure you all know that I had 3 weeks, when I got back from the fundraising trip in November, to find a place to move to; and move. We found a place.

A couple of days after we moved into this house (which is quite elevated), we saw the most beautiful double rainbow. We were able to see the entire arc of the rainbow, and it was really awesome.

I was reminded of a song on one of my children's CD's:

Oh rainbow lets me know
God still keeps his promises He made long ago
The thunder may crash and the winds may blow
But when the storm has past
The rainbow lets me know…

What a comfort to live under the hand of God. To know that whatever comes along, He is bigger and greater than it. No matter what trials we face, we can be certain that He will see us through.

Thank you God for your rainbow.

Yours in God's service
Ruth


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