This December holiday was a very lovely time for our family.
We made new traditions and carried on with old traditions. We made the most of
our time off with seeing movies, going on a game drive, setting up the
Christmas tree, counting down through our advent calendar, watching lots of
Christmas movies on tv, seeing Santa, playing in fake beach sand, spending
quality time with Piet’s family, making cookies, and eating lots of ice cream!
However, one of the most significant things we did was give
Christmas presents to sick children in a local government run hospital. Our
kids helped pick out the toys to buy, wrapped them, and prayed for the
children. Unfortunately, they were not allowed in as the children in the ward
were VERY ill (most were hardly conscious and others were out for operations) and
it wasn’t safe for them to be exposed to their germs. Our two objectives were
to teach our kids to give because Christ gave himself to us as a gift, and to
show these sick children and their parents God’s love during a difficult season
of life. It was quite an emotional visit, but we continue to trust God for
their ultimate healing.
As a family, our kids have hit some significant milestones
recently! Lesedi turned one year old on December 15th, and started
walking JUST this week! He looooves music and rhythm, loves his sister, smiles
constantly, climbs on EVERYTHING, continues to make us laugh and is in general
a VERY happy guy!
Harmony turns three years old this Friday! She has quite the
strong willed personality but is a very smart girl. She has just started
PRESCHOOL last week. She is enjoying it, but is still adjusting to the new environment.
She goes to school half day, five days a week, which gives me a little break in
the mornings.
It has always been our goal to eventually be self-sustainable
as a family. Piet’s olive business has started to take off and we are
anticipating the opportunity to supply multiple restaurants with olives, olive
oil, and other products. Piet believes strongly in equipping and discipling young
men and women who have just finished high school with practical sales skills. During
December he started working with his old high school and alongside his former
principal recruiting and training students in sales while having one on one intentional
conversations with them. At the moment, the unemployment rate in South Africa is around 25% and many people believe that violent crimes are a response to
frustration of the lack of jobs and opportunities. (http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/unemployment-rate) We are just trying to do our small part to teach others about sustainability as well.
Lesotho Business Skills Training
We continue to receive updates regarding the Lesotho business
skill training program. Please pray with us as they look into registering the
program into a college! The new facilitators and the church board are taking
this to a bigger level. We are excited to see them dream this big! We are
invited in February to drive down to Lesotho to run a section of the business skills
training.
Dreams and Prayer Request
I, Leah, have a big dream as well. The Lord gave me a new
revelation that I am dreaming about and researching into about how best to
execute. In short, I have a deep passion for kids who are struggling in school.
There are many rural schools in our area and quite a number of students are
struggling to pass each year due to various circumstances. My desire is to
ultimately open some kind of a center for afterschool tutoring to help these
students progress through their high school years. It’s still in the stages of
dreaming and researching, but I’m hoping to start pouring into young lives very
soon. I would love it if you would pray with me about this big dream and how I
might best execute it! Thank you in advance.
Thank you for your love and support in our lives
It does not go unnoticed! We cannot survive without the backing of our loved ones.
It does not go unnoticed! We cannot survive without the backing of our loved ones.
Loving Africa
The Bakers
