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