We say goodbye to July and the cold weather
it brought. Hesitantly we welcome August. The climate is warming but the wind
has increased. The dry grass and suffocating dust is now being sprayed every
which way by the excessive wind. We fight to endure a few more weeks of such
weather; we will be rewarded by the warmth of spring.
We are sad to say that the friendly noises
of various guests in BEAM house have now come to a halt. The numerous teams
that have visited during mission trips have all moved on. We were very used to
having visitors and thoroughly enjoyed their presence (and help with our
ministry tasks). Our most recent visitors were an amazing couple from
Cornerstone, Justin (Justice) and Ginny Irvin. Besides their willingness to
serve where ever and however, they also brought a lot of grub. They came
stocked with four crates of food parcels packages by Kids Against Hunger. Most
of the food has been distributed through BEAM Africa to a township in Maubane.
Justin and Ginny were here to participate. Also, thanks to Justin, construction
on the Siyathemba fence has continued since the tragic injury from The Pig
Incident. We cannot express our gratitude of the amazing Irvins. We ask that
you keep them in their prayers as they returned home to some discouraging and
expensive house problems.
We are excited about many upcoming events
over the next couple months. We have some meetings scheduled in August that
will ignite some new processes in South Africa and possibly Lesotho (a
neighboring country). We might be visiting Lesotho for a few days as well. Our
friends at Siyathemba are working on a new church structure and have begun new
relationships with potential volunteers. Our partners at BEAM Africa are
aggressively continuing Life Skills courses and have begun new relationships
with a ministry in a township north of their current center. Also some close
friends of ours are expecting their first child in September and we could not
be more excited for them. Last but not least, in mid-September we will be on
home-assignment for a month. We are coming back to the US! Most of our time
will be in Colorado but are hoping to afford a trip to MA and possibly AZ. As
we iron out more details we will post our agenda.
We have much to look forward to and are
very excited about all of it. We are beginning to see the effects of our
efforts here and are thrilled about it all. We know that none of it would be
possible without the faithful support and prayers of our friends and family. We
thank you so much for everything you do!
God bless each of you!
Mike & Jeanine
