“Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” ~Psalm 37:3-4

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Jesus was echoing this Psalm when He said we are to seek first His kingdom and everything else will be added unto us. I have found this wonderful promise to be true as I have tested it in my life. The part I felt the Lord highlighting, was verse 3: “Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness.”

Is it OK to confess

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“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” ~Isaiah 42:16

It’s officially holiday time now here. The schools have finished for the year. The shop owners are starting to close down and run off into the farmlands or to the coastline. The travelers are flooding through the town of Otjiwarongo like a flash flood of human faces, on their way to somewhere else. Some are tourists from foreign lands such as Germany, the UK, and of course our own homeland – with cameras ready to capture the images of beauty in Etosha. Others are the masses of people returning to their family homesteads, leaving their workplace in the city behind.

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“Then Jesus said to his disciples, „If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.‟” ~Matthew 16:24 -25

You know, lately I’ve been tempted by the enemy. Not towards some sinister sin that would get me kicked out of the church. No, to a certain kind of sin that would make me welcome in almost every church out there today. I’m tempted to be ordinary. I’m tempted to rest up and be more concerned about illnesses, financial troubles, getting our medical bills paid on time, fixing that lemon of a car, and setting the alarm to the correct time for tomorrow so I can start again…

I often find that God will inspire me to teach on topics that force me to examine myself [I hate it when I am able to use myself as the “bad example” in a message!] Well, I am going to stick my neck out again and share a quick excerpt from a recent message, where I advocated throwing away worldly caution and engaging in a revived “Teenage” kind of faith:

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Instructions on How to Give

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing! ~ Zephaniah 3: 17

I just finished reading this passage sent to us in an email from a loved one this morning. The timing of it is no accident. The sender knows well that our family has been experiencing some real trials on this side of the ocean. In the past (almost) year since we returned to Na-mibia after our home assignment we have undergone several major life transi-tions – such as moving to a new town and taking in an additional foster child. We have also taken on greater responsi-bilities in Christian ministry here since moving to Otjiwarongo.

The Lord has been using this period of time in the last 2 months to highlight some areas of our lives that needed at-tention. One area of great prominence has been with our kids.

Click here to read more in the Graham’s March & April Newsletter (PDF format).

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. ~Isaiah 55:8

I almost couldn’t hold in my laughter.

It was last week on Thursday when I sat in Mcshall’s classroom with several other parents who came to meet the teacher and see what our children have been doing so far in school. We squeezed about 30 parents into the small room and we all sat down in the little chairs meant for children. So many parents, from different tribes and tongues gathered closely together.

And then there was me. The token Caucasian-American in the room. Sitting next to me was a middle-aged Damara woman— someone from the same tribe as Mcshall. Her head looked like it was on a swivel. She kept looking back and forth between the school papers with Mcshall’s last name (which is definitely a Damara name) and my face. This went on for about 10 minutes (no exaggeration), and it be-came more obvious as time went on. She looked shocked and confused. I bit my tongue to keep myself from laugh-ing. I am sure she was thinking, “How did this happen?!?!?”

Click here to read more in the Graham’s February Newsletter (PDF format).

As we reflect upon 2010 and look forward to what the Lord has for us in 2011, I rejoice in His promise that we highlighted in our Christ-mas Card/Email – to NEVER leave us, nor for-sake us.

What comfort we can have in that, loved ones! If we are in Christ His word says that NOTHING can separate us from His love! One thing I can always say at the end of each year is God saw us through and the one thing I always know for certain about the future of the new year is that God will see us through. Praise be to our omnipotent, forever loving, compassionate Father!

It has been a year of learning and growing. We have been learning to live together and love each other as our family expands.

Click here to read more in the Graham’s January Newsletter (PDF format).

Hi All,

We’ve attached the latest update in PDF format. Please let us know if you have trouble opening it!

Oh, and we spent HOURS trying to make it beautiful, because you all deserve the best – so, we hope you enjoy!

Love and blessings,

Steve & Karrie

Click here to read more in the Graham’s November Newsletter (PDF format).

Hi There!

Because of the many photos (and formatting issues that go with that) I am sending out this newsletter update as an attached PDF file and not just as an email. Please let me know if you have any problems with it, and I can resend as an email – but then you can’t blame me for the squirrelly way things will appear. J

In this update you’ll find stuff about:

• Intro – He makes ALL things New!
• McDonald (Mcshall’s brother)
• School Updates
• The Latest on all of our Kiddoes
• & the Financial Update
• + Lots of photos

 Stay in touch. We miss you all dearly.

 Love and blessings, Steve

Click here to read more in the Graham’s October Newsletter  (PDF format).

“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

Hello from Namibia!

I hope you have been enjoying your “hot” summer! J We feel sorry for you, we really do! At least we don’t get the humidity here. We had some real intense heat ourselves, but have enjoyed cool temperatures of around 70 degrees here with overcast skies for the past couple of days. Sadly, after anxiously anticipating the arrival of winter (June-September) each year now only to be disappointed when the season comes and goes with not much cold, we have finally come to grips with the fact that winter here bears no resemblance whatsoever to winter as we have known it! (kinda like the waterless “rivers”). In Arandis “winter” means only that the nights are bearable and we can have the hope of a cool day or two once every two weeks or so. Still, we take what we can get and boy do we cherish those cool days!

The end of August here in Namibia marks the end of the third term for the school children who go on holiday (school break) beginning this Monday and lasting until the second week of September. Talitha Kumi celebrated the end of the term by having a “Fun Day” this past Friday. Adults and children alike participated in relays and other fun games. Next week a few of our short term volunteers from Germany will be hosting many activities for the children in our ministry including much loved trips to the beach. Read the rest of this entry