Walk the Talk

We are always amazed by the Father’s love over us even though we have experienced it over and over again; He is just a surprising Dad. As you all probably know by now, we have been busy with planting simple churches, running the pre-school ministry, Saturday youth program and over Easter

weekend we had camp for four days and the theme was “Walk the Talk.” We also have a new opportunity to grow the computer classes that we had started last year. A primary school opened up their school for us to run the computer classes for community as well as their grade 7 students. We are very excited! Also, we were very blessed last week as a few friends from our church in Johannesburg were able to come and spend time with us here to see our ministry in action.

As we continue to go house-to-house visiting people in their homes we come across open homes with open hearts and closed homes with closed doors. Some people are really curious to know about Christ. The common question I (Piet) get in the village always has something to do with ancestral worship. People always say God and ancestors are partners in their lives. Just two days ago I met with one of the guys I play soccer with in the village, he was curious know about my work here in Lesotho. I saw a perfect opportunity to introduce Christ to him, but I answered his question about my work. He then turned and asked me, “Does the work you’re doing require someone to be a born again believer?” I replied, “Yes!”
“Now I see a problem,” he said to me. “I am not part of any religion; all roads lead to the same place in my view.”

This is a perfect example of our daily lives as we introduce Christ to the people here. The truth that it is hard, but even if one person opens his/her heart to JESUS it makes my day. Sometimes I spend my entire day, or even weeks, without leading anyone to Christ.

We have gained momentum in one of our simple church gatherings which is truly good news! It is difficult to get people to commit as they work hard for their survival. Sometimes people won’t show up for an appointment or if you go to their house, no one is there. I used to struggle with that and often I would get frustrated. But the

Lord reminded me that I am here to serve these people and I need to try and fit into their schedule. We are still working developing the simple church model in the village. The ladies are continuing to meet after the ladies retreat in small groups based on their areas. There is one powerful move in the Nkoeng village and we are privileged to be part of it!

Last year we started a computer skills training class with a few boys from the village. The training took place in our house when we lived in the village. The dream and the vision of the computer class is to reach out and provide practical skills for the young adults in our village. We have been praying for bigger venue for the computer skills training and the Lord has answered our prayer. The local primary school has opened up their school hall for us to use and they have also asked us if we will consider equipping the grade 7 students. God is opening doors and ministry opportunities beyond what we even dreamed and we are excited! The computer classes will re-launch this week.

We then are left with a few practicalities to consider and pray through. The school doesn’t have electricity but we have asked a lady next to the school if she can allow us to use her power and will be pay for the usage. Our biggest challenge is that we will need more laptops, extension cords and a good projector as we will be teaching during the day and our current projector is not in great shape. We want to ask if you feel led to invest in this initiative or to help train in the classes please get in contact with us.

We are grateful to our friends and family at The Barn as they have recently donated another three laptops for our training classes! Above all else we are truly thankful to you all for standing with us in prayer and investing in the kingdom.

Do you talk the talk? Or walk the walk? Or do you actually walk the talk? These are just a few of the

questions that we explored at our April camp over the Easter weekend.

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25. The theme verse for the camp requires everyone to participate with the Spirit if they claim to have the Spirit within them.

How can we make our actions match the words that we say? The kids were challenged over the weekend to live out their faith all the time. It’s easy to be a Christian “on paper” or even say all the right things, but it’s quite another to put it into practice and truly “walk” in it.

Together we explored The talk, The walk, being Devoted to Christ, and seeing if What you see is really what you get. There was one illustration that I’m sure a few of the kids will not quickly forget. On the table were two bottles of soda; one Coke and one Sprite, or at least that’s what they said they were. They were asked to taste both. If the label says it is Sprite, then it should be Sprite, right? Wrong! The bottle proudly stated that it was Sprite, however there was vinegar inside. Are other people, and especially the Lord, going to be disappointed by what is really in our hearts?

A goal of the bi-annual camps is to get out into the community for outreach. In their teams, the kids went into the local community and shared some of the lessons and truths that they had been learning. What a great way to truly walk the talk!

The pre-school ministry continues to flourish as we seek to teach kids the Word of God on Fridays. As a team, we are doing a great job in making sure that we support the teachers as much as we can. Leah has started working with the teachers in training them to form a lesson plan and a daily schedule for the kids.  The objective is that Leah will help the teachers to plan and teach with relevancy.  We are excited to see what God is going to do in the pre-school and especially in the teachers.

Last week with the visitation of our home church in Johannesburg, were we able to create a playground for the pre-school children in 3 days! The team worked hard to clear land and create something exciting for the kids. The team even had the chance to pray over the teachers.

Now each time the children play outside, they will remember the blessings of the Lord.

Truly Loving Africa,

The Bakers