It's Almost That Time!

There are only two more months in the calendar year; however, our ministry year ends in just a few weeks.

We have just had our second and third (combined) graduation of business training students! We had one class of 13 that we met with every Saturday, and eight students who went through our five-day intensive course, which made 21 graduates in all. We are so encouraged by these men and women who have a passion and desire to build their future by increasing their knowledge of how to run a business. I'd like to share another testimony of one of our students. We've been helping her out for the last several months and she was a part of our 5-day intensive course. She decided to give her life to the Lord at our graduation ceremony! What an honor to be a part of her life.

We are passionate about those who are in the “market” world and this is our way of equipping them with skills to not only succeed, but to spread the Gospel where they are at—here and now—in the place of business. We are also encouraged in the fact that word of our business course is spreading throughout the community. Of the 21 students, four of them were not a part of our church, but came to know of our class by word of mouth. We have even secured a number of course slots for next year.

A few weeks ago, Piet single-handedly spearheaded and executed a church-wide outreach. Some of the church members attended an evangelism course and he had the idea to send the whole church out practical evangelism outreach. He organized everyone into groups and each group had a leader that completed the course. Each group was sent out for about an hour to go house to house and preach the gospel! Everyone came back and reported what happened and how exciting that many people gave their lives to the Lord! Piet and I stayed behind and entertained the 40+ kids. All in all, it was a very successful afternoon.

In three weeks, we will be making our way to Johannesburg for our two-month long stay. I, Leah, will begin seeing my doctor in Johannesburg four weeks before baby boy Lesedi is due, and so the wait begins! My parents will arrive roughly two weeks before my due date and will stay through the end of February. We will only be returning to Lesotho at the end of January in order to wait for the processing of Lesedi’s passport.

As it is the end of the year with the coming of a new baby, our expenses are increasing. This is an invitation to give a small donation towards our expenses if you so choose. We know that many of you are already regularly giving to our ministry and we are highly appreciative of all you do for us. Here are our additional expenses:

-Leah’s South African visa, for which we will apply in January: R1350 ($105)
-Medical expenses for the birth that the medical insurance does not cover: R3500 ($270)
-Lesedi’s birth abroad paperwork and passport: R2600 ($200)

Thank you for your love and support that keeps us going!

Loving Africa,

The Bakers

Business Class Graduation!

Last Friday night, our very first class of business students graduated! It was such a wonderful night of laughing together, encouraging one another, and eating good food of course! We are so proud of these 15 people who were dedicated enough to put in the time and energy needed to complete the course. We saw a lot of sacrifice being made in order to be a part of the course.

I want to brag about one particular young lady who is 21 years old. At the graduation ceremony she shared a bit with everyone present about her journey. She was quite intimidated at first being the youngest in the class. However, she pressed on and learned so much. She contacted a relative who was pleased with the fact that she was taking this business course and promised to help her fulfill her dream. This relative of hers is currently trying to secure land for her here in Butha-Buthe to establish her own B&B! We are urging her to never give up and see this dream of building and owning her own Bed and Breakfast transpire.

The 8-week class was wonderfully successful. Each person ended the class having created a business

plan as well as a working budget for their future or current business. Our role in their lives now will be to follow up with those who are already in business at their place of work to make sure they are still moving forward and to help them maximize their profits. Because the course is Biblically based, we are also checking in with the students to see how they are incorporating the Gospel into their business/business practices. And for those who have not yet started their business, we will continue to work with them in whatever ways needed to ensure that they are on the right track to start up their trade.

September 2015

Visitors

Jason and Shane, eating like the Basotho!

We were so blessed to have visitors, Shane and Jason, from the Stirring in Redding, CA with us for a week last month. They jumped right in with us and encouraged us in everything we were doing. They helped build cupboards for the church kitchen, prayed over us as we initiated the young adult’s service at the church, and played with us on our days off.

Ground Shakers from Maseru

Worship Explosion Conference

Over the weekend we had a “worship explosion” conference. It was a great time of worship through out! We had a guest band from Maseru that blessed us with their music one night. Once in a while the pastors will ask me (Piet) to speak which is really a privilege. As I was praying for this conference I felt the Lord say:

The common concept of worship is people singing songs, but I am interested in why they sing. Why do the lyrics mean so much to you? The greatest worship towards Me (God) is an adequate response to my word in every second of your life. Become the song you want to sing to Me. There is no worshiper without reading the Word of God.

Piet Speaking at the conference

For me personally this was the greatest reminder of a character/ lifestyle worshiper. After all, worship is a truthful response towards God’s desire communicated through HIS word. How we read the Bible and our understanding of worship will determent how we worship.

Our little worshiper!

Business Training

Learning about Budgets

Piet and I are now in week 6 of teaching our business training classes. I have to admit that this has been so fulfilling for me personally.  We run a class during the week (Thursdays and Fridays) and a weekend class on Saturdays for those who work during the week. We have about 15 people in each class and they are mostly in their 30’s and 40’s. It has really been a lot of fun. The curriculum for this 10-week class is specifically tailored for African entrepreneurs and is biblically based. After each person has completed the course, they will have the opportunity to apply for a small business loan if needed. They will have all the practical and spiritual knowledge needed to successfully run their own small business. A few people in the course are already running small businesses and are using the training course to enhance their

Team Building Game

knowledge and skills.

This afternoon I sent out a bulk text message to our students just to tell them I’m really enjoying interacting with them in the course. I got a handful of very nice responses back, but here are two in particular I want to share:

I wasn’t fine today. But I woke up and would like to pass my vote of thanks to you good people. I fell in love with the training and am indeed putting into practice what I have learned there…with the information I got from the training I now make everyone who buys on credit [IOU] to sign so that there is proof that they owe me money. Thanks again and it’s my prayer that people may see and acknowledge and make a great use of you while you are still here. May my God richly bless you, my mentors.

I feel honored to have been given this chance by God to be a part of this training. May the good Lord continue to bless you richly for the sacrifice that you are to us.

We really feel privileged to be able to teach this impactful course to the locals here in Butha-Buthe.

Young Adults

The Saturday evening young adult service has been slow going so far, but not bad for a brand new program. Two weeks ago, we had a braai and watched an inspirational movie and had a decent turn out. We have put together a small committee to help us plan and dream for the future and we are still discussing and discerning what the service should look like. Our desire is to leave this ministry with the local young adults and we feel that dreaming and trusting God together for direction with the locals will be a great vision transplant. We hope you will pray with us in this matter. 

Personally

Mommy at 26 weeks!

Our family is doing well! Harmony is growing up so fast. She is no longer a baby, that’s for sure. She is an independent big girl who talks a lot and loves to read books and do puzzles. Our baby boy on the way is also doing fine. It’s been a good pregnancy with no complications. Only 3 ½ months to go!

Piet’s health is, in general, fairly good. He still struggles from time to time with his anxiety, but hasn’t had any major issues or attacks in a few months. We praise the Lord for that and continue to trust for complete restoration. You are welcome to email him if you would like to know more or if you would like to encourage him in any way. 

Thank you and we love you.

Loving Africa,

The Bakers

August 2015

Ministry

Though things have started slow, we are beginning to gain some momentum.

The stage in progress

Construction begins

The completed stage + worship team

Piet has been helping with some construction projects at church. He and quite a few church members just completed building a new stage at our AFM church. This was just in time for this month’s conference that was held at the church. Every month the church hosts what they call a “mini-conference” or a series of workshops with a different theme each month. We have just come out of the business conference. A unique feature of this conference was that different

business owners in the church had a chance to display their products and services. Piet often either speaks at the conferences or helps with the sound and media. Last month Piet and I spoke at the family-themed conference about marriage and how to maintain a healthy family spiritually and emotionally (see picture at the bottom).

A lady displaying her goods for sale

The business courses that we will be teaching were supposed to have started already, but we have had to postpone as we are having some conflict in terms of times to run the courses. Everyone is very anxious to start, so we are really hopeful that the kinks will be worked out very shortly!

Visas

An update about my visa: I have recently discovered that I cannot yet apply for my permanent residency. I have been given different information than before that says I can only apply after five years of marriage (though I was under the impression I could apply after five years of being on a temporary visa). So, I will complete the application and interview process in January 2016. Our Lesotho visas expire this month, so it is quite urgent that we get our paperwork filed as soon as possible.

Supporters and Friends

Next week we are happy to have two friends from The Stirring church (one of our sending

AFM Church congregation

churches) in Redding, Ca. They will be with us for the week and will be witnesses to our lives here in Lesotho. We won’t put them to work too much as their main objective is to visit and love on us. What a blessing this will be. We love having visitors as life in Lesotho can get quite lonely at times.

Family

As you know, we are expecting our second child in December! Everything has been looking very good and we are happy to announce that it is a boy! We are also glad to share his name with everyone: Lesedi Zander Bakers. My (Leah’s) parents will be joining us in South Africa and Lesotho for three months. They will be here for the birth of our baby boy and for a while after to help us get settled into being a family of four. Also, an aunt and uncle of mine will be visiting for a few weeks as well. We couldn’t be more excited!

Piet and Leah talking at the family conference (Harmony didn't want to be left out)

Thanks for always keeping up with our goings-on and sending us messages and emails. We love hearing from you. We appreciate your love, support, and prayers. 

Loving Africa,

The Bakers

 

Crossroads

Piet teaching Crossroads

New ministry in Winter time!

Hello all!

This month has been a time of transition, rest, and set up.

The youth and kids enjoying the main church service

Crossroads Course

We have been working at the church for about two weeks now. We have mostly been setting up our ministry projects and preparing for the months ahead. We are nearly ready to start with our business training courses. Also, the young adults Saturday evening service will kick off in two weeks with one or two social events. We really hope that the "20-somethings" will enjoy a time of fellowship and a more relevant approach to church. A young adults service is quite rare in an African context. The church does have a youth group aimed at high school students, though it is filled with young adults as well that crave that kind of fellowship. We are hoping to create a place that will draw young people from outside the church as well.

Crossroads is still running and we are really enjoying teaching the class. It is a relatively small, but intimate class setting.

Our family just returned from a very nice time in Durban, South Africa! It was a time of refreshing, rest, and warmth! In Lesotho, the mornings and evenings get down to 32-35 degrees (0-2 C). We enjoyed lovely days in Durban of 70's (21-25 C) everyday! Winter can be quite difficult here as we don't have heating in our house and it's also not well insulated. We basically just do what we can to survive the three months of extreme cold!

We are making a quick trip up to Johannesburg this weekend to fix our documents. Piet's passport has run out of visa pages, so we'll need to apply for a brand new passport. And I (Leah) need to apply for permanent residency in South Africa. The process takes 12-18 months. My current spouse visa expires in just over a year, so hopefully I will have my residency before my visa expires. If you recall, I have had more than a few issues with my visa in the past. We'll also need to reapply for our Lesotho visas in August, which will be about $200 (R2000).

Prayer Requests:
-Please be in prayer for us as we get settled into our ministry with the church.
-Please pray for our documents to come through quickly.
-Please pray for finances for our visas

Thank you once again for your love and support,
We truly couldn't do what we are doing without the financial and moral backing of each one of you!!

Loving Africa,
The Bakers

Health and moving forward

Piet’s health

Piet is doing much better than he has been over the past two months. Piet has been in the ER on 3 different occasions for bad panic attacks. He suffers from anxiety and it generally mimics a heart attack. Of course this has been very scary for all of us. He is on medication and will hopefully be starting therapy soon. It has really been a hard few months, but we trust the Lord that all of these things will slowly work themselves out with these measures. Piet is unfortunately not on a medical insurance at the moment, so these many doctor and hospital visits have been quite pricey. We are waiting to hear back from one of our supporters if they will be able to cover the monthly costs of insurance, so you can be praying for us in that way.

Leah’s health

I have also not being doing great health wise, but I have been feeling better the last few days. The good news is that one of the reasons for my not feeling well is that we are expecting our second child! We are so expectant and looking forward to December when Harmony will finally have a sibling to play with!

Ministry

We are ending our season with LXP in a matter of weeks! We cannot believe how fast two years have gone by. We are parting on good terms and are looking forward to a new season with the local church here in Butha-Buthe. We will continue teaching a weekly discipleship class one evening a week and will be doing business mentoring for people in the church and the community who wish to start up or continue to run small businesses. The church has tried this before but hasn’t had anyone to devote enough time and energy to nurture it. We also have plans to start a young adults gathering on Saturday nights as a way for the 20-somethings to connect with one another and gather in a relevant environment. We will discuss topics, watch teaching DVD’s, and worship together. 

We are really enjoying our growing relationship with the church as they are very outreach oriented which is rare for an African church.

That's about all for now!

Thank you for your prayers and support

Loving Africa

The Bakers

Summertime in the kingdom

Greetings from the kingdom.

Not much is new around here, but all is well!

We recently had our second graduation for the phase one and phase two computer class students. The students are a mix of young and older adults. Each phase is a three month course and gets progressively more complex with each new course. The goal of the computer classes is two-fold: skill training and discipleship. Two people gave their lives to the Lord this time around, which is great news! We encourage the class to meet in groups during the week to strength their faith. Please pray with us in this area. We are also seeing momentum in the village as more and more people are becoming interested in learning how to use a computer. It’s exciting that a new class of phase one students will be starting next week.

Wednesday is our community service day in the village. Because the local primary school has graciously allowed us to use their facilities for the computer classes, we wanted to give back. For the last few weeks we have been replacing any and all cracked or shattered windows at the school. The team and a few of the youth that are not currently in school are really enjoying serving others in the community. It is a great occasion to love on people not only with our words, but with our hands and feet as well.

We have recently accepted an opportunity at our local church to teach a discipleship and evangelism class. We will be using materials from the Crossroads course from the South African Theological Seminary. Although the pupils will not be getting credits, it will be a very helpful beginner’s theology course and will help them greatly in their ability to evangelize.

We would like to ask for your prayers for the nation of Lesotho. There has been political instability off and on over the past few months. The national elections are taking place this Friday and there are concerns that things could get out of hand if the people are unhappy about the outcome. South African police are all over our town as extra hands in case things get out of control here. Pray for God's peace and sovereignty over this nation.

Our family is doing well. Harmony is growing like a weed! She has been walking for about a month now and is extremely chatty. She is mommy’s little helper around the house as she enjoys sweeping, washing dishes, and making the bed! We are right at the age of teething and picky eating so there is never a dull moment with Harmony around. About two weeks ago, we enjoyed a quick overnight trip to the town of Clarens, right outside of Lesotho. There is a beautiful national park where we went on a hike and had a picnic.

We are so blessed to be in such an awesome season in our lives.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and most of all, your love for us.

Loving Africa,

The Bakers

Happy New Year!

The Bakers family has had a very wonderful Christmas season. We spent three weeks in South Africa with church friends as well as with Piet’s family whom we do not see very often. Harmony had a great first Christmas and was very spoiled by friends and family. We also had a small celebration with a few friends while in Johannesburg for her birthday and will celebrate this coming week with friends here. It’s hard to believe that a whole year has gone by. What an incredible year it has been in watching her become a little person.

Our ministry with LXP Lesotho has started up again and we are looking forward to what this year will bring. The normal things are on the agenda: door-to-door ministry, camps, Beat the Drum, abstinence club, and computer classes.

Playing Games During the Christmas Party

Before we left, we ended the LXP Lesotho year with the Christmas party. It was a time where everyone in village who we minister to in some capacity gathered together to share testimonies of how God has been working in their lives throughout the year. The members of the Bible studies, the computer class, and the youth all shared testimonies as well song or dance items. We didn’t personally count the number who attended, but I would guess between 250 and 300! What a turn out!

Our local church here in Butha-Buthe held an annual conference at the end of December. Piet arranged for a few of the Barn’s band members (from Johannesburg) to spend a few days with us and lead us in worship during the conference. It was a very nice time having friends with us as well as celebrating 40 years of ministry with the AFM church.

Praise Party at the Conference

The Barn Team

I know that we often ask everyone to pray for us, but this time we would like to pray for you. If you have any specific prayer requests we would love to trust God with you this year. One goal that we have for this year is to connect with you all deeper in 2015. If you are not our friends on Facebook, please find us Leah Bakers /Piet Bakers or email us leahv77@gmail.com /piet.bakers@hotmail.com .

We can’t express enough how much you all mean to us. Thank you for standing with us, supporting us, and loving us.

Loving Africa,

The Bakers