Pain in the Night, but Joy in the Morning

I realized lately that I haven’t properly explained the set up of Africa Ablaze. There are about 12 of us that live on the Africa Ablaze campus. The campus has 4 dorms, and 3 private houses, a multi-purpose hall, horse arena, and more. Piet and I live here full-time, and whenever it is time for camps, the students arrive at our door step and we entertain them for the duration of their stay. I have to admit I’m happy to be married because my days of staying in dorms are OVER!

The children who come on holiday camps have been booked in by their parents. We don’t advertise it as “church camp”, but it is an invitation to understand who God is and how he works in our lives. The June/July camp definitely topped the April camp. There was a real spirit of God’s presence touching the lives of the young people.  Many received Jesus into their hearts.

I have to admit that when we first joined the ministry I wasn’t super excited about camps and working with kids. Piet and my specialty is youth. However, I find myself playing the part of the mother on camp, and I hear the phrase, “You are going to be such a good mom one day” said much more than expected.  Piet also finds his role an easy one to play: camp facilitator and worship leader. He is learning well how to blend authority, discipline, and friendliness. Everyone loves him.

Every day there were sessions where we would sing songs and teach a moral or Biblical lesson with the kids. We had a lot more opportunities to teach this camp, which is not only fun, but has really helped us grow.

As I mentioned a while ago, life just seems particularly difficult lately. Piet and I feel that we are going through a lot of trials. I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s still a distance away. Many of you have probably heard about our car by now. We had bought a really great car for a good price, but unfortunately we had been scammed and the mileage had been set back, AND the car needed a new transmission. Luckily we caught it in time and were able to get our money back. And here we are, a month later, we have bought an excellent car! We got an even better price on a car with very low miles. We are very confident that our new Ford Focus will last us years. We want to thank EVERYONE who helped contribute toward our car! Thank you so much!! We would have never done it without the loving support of each of you.

At the moment, Piet and I have been given an amazing gift of a condo about 50 minutes away. We requested a week off to really just take time to pray about our future. In all honesty, we aren’t sure if we are at the right place at Africa Ablaze. We felt called, but now we doubt. We are taking quality time to think about our goals, visions, and plan for the future and to seek God’s heart for us. Things were just getting too much, and I personally felt like I had nothing left to give until I slipped away and completely recharged.

We are also (yes…the trials continue!) in the middle of trying to sort out my visa. It’s literally been months trying to get it right. I have about 9 days left on my current permit, but I am getting an extension this week, and will apply for a spouse permit. We actually don’t qualify for the spouse permit because we don’t make enough money, but we are praying for a miracle!

We know this is a lot. I don’t usually like writing so much because I never know if anyone will read till the end. But thank you for taking an interest in our lives. We have some real desperate needs at the moment if you can please stand with us:

-Pray for God to speak clearly about our future this week
-Pray for the visa extension to go through and grace for a spouse visa
-For the enemy to remove his hands from our lives
-For the financial stress to be taken away

We really do love each one of you. We feel a connection even though we are far.
“Jesus, your love has no bounds” –Phil Wickham

The Bakers