Happy 2017

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 15^th, 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.

Loving Africa

The Bakers