“Always rejoice, constantly pray, in everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
-1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“Are you a thankful observer of the countless indications of His provision, His presence, and His grace? An ungrateful person is a proud person. If I’m ungrateful, I’m arrogant. And if I’m arrogant, I need to remember God doesn’t sympathize with me in that arrogance. He is opposed to the proud.”
- from “Humility – True Greatness”, by C.J. Mahaney

We Have a House – With GRASS in the yard!!!

We have had some small and exciting victories in our move to Otjiwarongo. Though it hasn’t been totally easy, we can tell that the Lord has His hand in this move. Every trip we have made there recently has produced fruit beyond what I’ve become accustomed to.

On a day where I was giving a tour of the town to the Country Director (Rob) and Southern Region Director (Dudley, who oversees all of our activities in Namibia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Angola, South Africa) for Africa Inland Mission we took the opportunity to see a house that was available for rent. I had received a phone call saying that the people who intended to rent this house had backed out at the last minute.

The owners told me their asking price for rent, which was significantly above the maximum amount that AIM would usually approve. Still, we decided to look at the house just so the Rob & Dudley could get a feel for what was out there.

We explained to the owner that the price was too high for us. As missionaries we totally expect to live in rather humble dwellings anyhow. The written housing policy for the Southern Region of AIM would allow us to live in a dung hut, so long as it had plumbing!! So, I saw this as an exercise in “tourism” more than a genuine house search. Read the rest of this entry

In God we Trust

When we visited Johannesburg for the Missionary Ventures South Africa conference, we were blessed, refreshed, and taught humility. “Uhuru gets pap & vleis.” and we were able to visit Soweto. That little quote is from “Team Uhuru’s” battle cry. During our conference we learned the value of teamwork, and watching out for one another. The other pictures are from the outside of Nelson Mandela’s house in Soweto. The guide explained much of the history of the township and the Mandela family. Would that there were more in the world like that man. We would be much closer to the ‘Kingdom’ than we are at present.

Click here to read more in Mike’s September Missive (PDF format).

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Personal Greeting

I can hardly believe it is September already.  The past two years have flown by!!  There are only 14 more Mondays before the children and I will board a plane to JFK.  Yes, the decision is that at the very least,  Hailey, Janis, Stefanus and I will travel.  Trusting God,  our trip is booked and we will be in the states for two months.  After 11 years of trusting God to provide through a myriad of partners,  I am ecstatic that I can just rest in the fact that He has a plan!  Thank you for your continued prayers, love and financial support! 

What’s Next

• We can move forward with a first phase of building on our school property!  We received a donation to prepare the land, build a fence, sports field, and a small building for housing donated sports equipment.  The same company has encouraged us to put in another proposal for our first classroom building in 2011!  Praise God! 
• The Ministry of Education in August tells us that our application submitted in February should have been done differently.  Once again we are going in circles.  God alone can bring this nonsense to a full stop! 
• The trip to Germany I mentioned in my last newsletter has been canceled.  If the  trip is to be made it will not be until 2011. 
• Ms. Candace has completed her two month commitment that stretched into five and returned to her home.  Ms. Jackie will join us shortly to retake the reins of this household that she had in March while here.  Though it is still a short term solution we are convinced it is best to bring in someone the children know.
• Ms. Josephine, an incredible asset to us since June, will leave Arandis the beginning of September. 
• Two senior experts from Germany will join us at the same time. 
• Lea is teaching at TKCA for the entire month of September.  She has come with a fresh spirit and training in special need children!
• We must make a plan for Revival and we are investigating a deaf school in Windhoek.  Revival is different than all our other children as she is with us unofficially through the mother who needed help.  We are researching what we have as options. Read the rest of this entry