Until All Have Heard

When God first called me (Leah) to Africa, I had always dreamed of working hand-in-hand with beautiful brown faces and pearly white smiles. I imagined the smells of Africa, the red dirt, the mud huts, the wildlife, and little bare feet. God also gave me the desire to meet someone someday. I dreamed that the love of my life would be deeply involved in ministry and would invite me to join him not only in his ministry, but also into his life as his partner forever.

Hanging out before the youth program starts!

One day, four and a half years ago, the dream started to become a reality.

Since I have been in South Africa, I have been involved in more than four different ministries. I started with my Adventures in Missions team of about 50 people in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa. We then moved to Port Elizabeth. At the end of the AIM trip, I decided I would call South Africa home. I then came back and worked with Lighthouse Family Church in Port Elizabeth. When I finally did meet my prince charming, he invited me to be a part of his ministry at Refilwe in Johannesburg. Circumstances caused us to search for the Lord’s next step for us. We ended up at Africa Ablaze for a few months, and once again, felt the Lord drawing us away, this time to work with the Barn Christian Fellowship Church. It is more than a year later and we once more feel the Lord calling us home to His heart.

I have always struggled a bit in terms of moving around so much in ministry. I always thought my ministry in SA would be firmly planted. I never understood what God was doing with us, but always trusted that He knew best. I recently read about Paul’s ministry and it really brought things into prospective.

Transporting water via horse and carriage

Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy…Then [Paul and Timothy] went from town to town, instructing the believers
to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem…Next, Paul and
Silas traveled through the area of Phyrgia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit prevented
 them from preaching the word in the province of Asia...Paul and Silas then traveled
through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica…
Acts 16:1,4,6; Acts 17:1

Paul was an itinerant missionary. He went wherever the Holy Spirit led him and his companions. Acts speaks of how there were times when the Holy Spirit prevented them from entering a certain place for whatever reason. There were definitely times when I felt the Holy Spirit move us (Piet and I) from a certain ministry because of certain events that had transpired or were yet to transpire. He knows best. He loves us. He loves His people and desires that all will know Him. And isn't the point for all to hear? How can all hear unless we go?
  So we go.

It is time once again to move into a different kind of ministry. One that is close to our heart. One where we will clearly see the tiny footprints in red dirt; one where we may very well live in a mud hut; one where we will disciple; one where we will love deeply.

Lesotho.

We will continue to follow the leadings of God’s heart and consider the wise counsel of our prayer partners in our lives until all have heard.

We leave for Lesotho in less than three weeks. We have a place to stay in Butha-Buthe, we've rented out our house here in Joburg, sold our car, and we've recently bought a new car that will handle the crazy mountainous roads of Lesotho. We have put together a needs list for our transition into this new country and new ministry. Please contact us if you are able to help us make this transition a smooth one:

The house we will be moving into is completely empty (no shelving, stove, etc) so there are a number of things we need to either buy second-hand or receive through donations.

-cheap storage units for kitchen and bedroom
-second-hand oven/stove
-2 sets of curtains
-moving and transport costs (it is a 4-hour drive from Johannesburg to Butha-Buthe)
-set up costs
-monthly pledges for living expenses

Truly Loving Africa

The Bakers  

Village Life

The cultural differences between the Basotho people and black South Africans are few. This month of watching the Basothos looks very similar to what I, Piet, remember as a child. Most people here spend a lot of time and effort simply surviving. They farm for food, fetch water from distant taps using wheelbarrows and water jugs; some kids go to school while others stay home to shepherd livestock (below). Most of the elderly people sit outside and watch the sun rise and set each day, this has become a daily lifestyle to most people in the villages. Season by  season, most people in the villages struggle to keep their mud house standing and have to reapply layers of mud after every rainy season.

We have experienced the multiple sides of ministry here with LXP Lesotho and feel this is where God has called us. It is a huge move for us and one that will require a lot of adjusting, but we are excited to take the plunge.

Walking through the village to visit families

To quote Elizabeth (our friend and missionary), LXP is “lifestyle ministry”. Everyday is a way of life lived out amongst the locals. Many of the days are spent waking up and trusting God to give new perspectives to the villagers and new opportunities to us as his vessels.

The things that we do, however, include house visits, a weekly youth program each Saturday afternoon, discipleship of the young leaders, homework help, as well as helping Godfrey and Elizabeth with their building project.

A granny dressing me in a Sotho blanket like a local!

I, Leah, feel most at home when doing house visits. It is such a blessing to meet people where they are at and visit them in their homes. We help them with daily tasks or simply sit and chat about how hot it is outside. Of course the ultimate goal is to bring them closer to Jesus. It is important to make sure that they are challenged in their faith or simply brought into a first time relationship with God.

I am smiling as I see jars of peaches here in our kitchen. I received three jars from old ladies in the community this week. It is their gift to us for visiting them. I love the fact that their doors are always open and they truly appreciate a personal visit. That single jar of peaches is something they may not be able to afford to give away, but they do it with gladness.

There is one particular old lady that we have visited quite a few times in our month here. She has been suffering from a swollen and sore ankle for nearly a year and we trusted the Lord for her healing. Yesterday as we visited her, she was no longer wearing a wrap around her ankle and was telling us how she can walk up and down with no pain! She then called for another old man to come and sit with us. She explained that he has been complaining that his legs have been hurting his as well. She told him that she wanted us to pray for him so that he, too, could experience God’s healing as she had.

There is another elderly couple in the village who are in the process of building an extra room on their house. It was on its way to completion when the rain destroyed part of this room. As the builders in this area generally attend to many projects at once, it was taking quite a long time for this room to be completed. We took out a day this week to assist the builder (pictured right). We collected big stones from the mountain and helped mix the mud to hold it all together. The mud mixture is red sand, donkey dung, and water. Surprisingly, these houses hold together quite well, though the Basotho people continuously add layers of mud throughout the year. They generally do not add cement as it is costly and not easily afforded by many.

And so, it is time to say “bye for now” to a people we are just getting used to. We are now entering a time of transition from one country to another. Thank you for your support and your prayers for us!

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Truly Loving Africa,

The Bakers

Piet leading worship at "Amazing Race" Camp

Greetings from Lesotho!

Hello Friends and Family!

Greetings from Lesotho! We have now been in Butha Buthe, Lesotho for a week now and are really enjoying our time here!

We have just finished with our youth camp: The Amazing Race which took place over Easter weekend and coincided with the school holidays. The youth (ages 8-20) are all from the same village and are apart of the LXP youth program each Saturday afternoon. LXP offers camps bi-annually as a time of refreshing and spiritual enrichment in the lives of the youth. On this particular camp, there were 80 youth and the theme scripture for the camp was Hebrews 12:1-2a.

The camp kicked off with learning about what a race is, and the fact that we are all running the race of life.

The first morning they were unexpectedly woken up at 5:00am to “persevere” through a three hour trek up and down the mountain. As the weekend continued, they learned about throwing off the sin that holds us back, running with others (teamwork), running victoriously, and running well (self-discipline).

The camp ended Monday morning and we are now taking a few days to relax and revive ourselves!

For the rest of the time while we are here, we will be doing the necessary things for our return to Lesotho in the near future.We are really enjoying our cultural immersion here in Lesotho. Piet is able to brush up on his Sotho language and I, Leah, am learning bit by bit as I go. We are also loving the warm hospitality from the Sotho people.

Prayer Requests:

-Please pray that we make the right decision about where we should stay long term. We have found two possible options. One is in the town (running water, electricity) and the other is in the village living among the people and like the people (electricity, but fetching water daily). 
-Please pray for other logistics as well such as renting out our house in JHB and selling our Ford.

Truly Loving Africa,

The Bakers

Margate Outreach

Two weeks ago I, Piet was in the city of Durban (in another province/state) for an outreach with the church young adult’s band. We drove down on the Monday (about a 7 hour drive) and started ministering Tuesday morning. The objective of the outreach was to reach the young people in schools in a way that is relative.

We arrived at the schools at 8am and played praise and worship songs at their morning assembly gatherings. We then invited them to a “praise party” on Friday night at the youth group of the church we were partnering with, Margate Baptist.

One of the school assemblies

We worked with both a public/government school as well as a private school. We were so impressed how the students were going crazy for God! They loved the music and we felt we connected well on their level. We ministered to about 300 students the first day and 400 the second day. 

On Friday night it was time for the praise party. There were many different ministries and churches represented in that church hall. There were probably about 800 people in that church. Many of the young people gave their lives to the Lord and there were a lot of volunteers to pray with them.

School #2

On Saturday, we ran music/worship workshops at the church. We invited other churches worship leaders and band members from the area. One of the things we taught was how to take a popular gospel song from a CD and make it relevant for a church service.

At the end of the outreach the team was exhausted, but it was such a nice time. We really enjoyed working with the church in Margate and reaching out to the young people. God moved in Margate! Overall, I really want to thank everyone for your prayers. I know many of you were following the outreach on facebook. I have personally been inspired and reminded by the Lord to continue to use my musical gifting so that many could know Him.

While I was in Durban, the Lord reminded me of the story in the Bible about the people with different talents. The one who didn’t use his got it taken away. The point of a gift is to use it. Edwin McManus asks the question “is an instrument really an instrument if it isn’t played?” During that week I learned, I served and I grew. One can never stop growing in God.

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In other news concerning the life of Piet and Leah, we are just one day away from a personal discovery and outreach to Lesotho. We have been praying about moving out of South Africa and into another African country for a while now. We feel that God has opened the door for a ministry in Lesotho called LXP Lesotho. If you remember, we took our team on an outreach trip to Lesotho in October.

We are joining good friends of ours, Godfrey and Elizabeth, who lead the organization. On Monday, we are going to the town of Butha Buthe for a month to have deeper exposure to the culture, language, and ministry opportunities. We are confident that God has called us long-term, but we are using wisdom to “test the waters” before uprooting our whole life in Johannesburg.

Please pray with us at this time as we are handing over Year of Your Life/S2S and trusting God for new opportunities in Lesotho. We feel this month will be a refreshing time as we listen to God’s voice and serve the people of Lesotho. We are so excited!!

We are still available via email for this month, so feel free to send messages our way!

Truly Loving Africa,

The Bakers

S2S 2013!

Hello family and friends! 

Last week was the official launch of our gap year program 2013! As you can see by the title, we are in the process of changing our name. There is another church in our area who runs a gap year program called "Year of Your Life" and they have kindly asked us to change our name. Our slogan for the last year's team was "Sold out to Serve", so we decided to adapt this as the new name for our program (S2S for short). 

The structure of our team is slightly different this year. At this point we officially have three students (all guys!). We also have the leaders: Piet, Cindy, and myself; as well as two girls, Cassandra and Maxine, who work full-time in children's ministry at our church. These two ladies help out quite a lot in our school ministry and other aspects of children's outreach with the team.

We took our team to a Christian campsite in Hartebeespoort for an orientation week last week. We did lots of team building games and sessions regarding attitude, values, leadership, diversity, trust, and conflict management. This was a great time to connect with the team and hear everyone's stories. 

This week we have started up working at the primary school, high school, youth group, and kid's club. We will also be working again with the retirement home, a baby shelter, after school playtime, and we also hope to start up an initiative in the informal settlement (township).

We are excited about this year and anxious to see what the Lord will do. 

We are still praying about our future and feel that the picture is slowly coming into focus. We will be thrilled to update everyone when the time is right.

Thank you for all of your support over the years. The other day I realized I have been in South Africa for 4 1/2 years! I can't believe how the time has flown.

God bless, dear friends

Love,

The Bakers

A White Christmas

Hello Everyone!

We trust that you had a very lovely Christmas holiday and that it was spent with family, friends, and loved ones. Wherever you were, we pray that you felt the love and presence of the Lord.

We ended the YOYL 2012 year with our graduation ceremony where each of our 7 students were presented with certificates of completion for their year of service. The very next day we boarded the plane bound for San Francisco.

Piet and I were very spoiled in our 5 weeks in the US! We had such a great time and we were sad when it finally came time to leave.

Most of our time was spent being wined and dined by old friends for me, and new ones for Piet. We eventually got to the point where we were no longer hungry and simply ate because it was that time! We were treated so well and loved by everyone that we were able to see though we were saddened that time simply did not allow us to see everyone we would have liked to!

Our time in Livermore was spent with my parents, Grandparents and a few dear friends. We took a week to explore parts of Southern California making sure not to miss Disneyland! On the way, we spent a few nights in Yosemite where Piet saw snow for the first time. He will definitely say that this was a big highlight for him! We were also in Redding for a week visiting the Stirring and a few of my old college friends. Piet felt right at home and fit in so well with the Stirring culture. We can truly say that our time away was precious and we have come back refreshed and ready for this new year.

Today is our second day back to work. We are working out the kinks of the YOYL program and preparing for the students to arrive on the 5^th of February. We will have our Orientation week from 5-8 February and hopefully will start off the year with a bang!

Please do join in praying with us and for us. Not only for this year but for us personally. There are a lot of things on our hearts at the moment, though not much we can share at this point. We are still praying about our future in ministry and open to whatever (and wherever) the Lord has in store for us.

To those in the US, thank you to each one who gave us a meal or even a cup of coffee. Our time with you was truly valuable and will not be quickly forgotten. To those in South Africa, thank you for receiving us back with open arms. We look forward to 2013 with you!

All our love,

The Bakers

Two Weeks Till Home Time!

We are literally counting the days until we board that plane bound for San Francisco. 12 days from today and then we travel for approximately 25 hours. Things haven't been easy in the last few months, but we are pushing forward and trusting God for the best.

You may have heard or seen on facebook that Piet has gotten in two car accidents in two months. The first one wasn't so bad and our car isn't too badly damaged, however, Piet cannot continue to run the business because the chassis on our car is bent and we cannot risk towing the trailer while it is not fixed. The second accident, however, was in our friend's vehicle. The damage to the vehicle itself wasn't terrible, but the angle of the impact could have caused serious damage to Piet. He could have either lost his legs or snapped his neck. We are so thankful that God was watching over him because he walked away with only a small scratch on his foot.

We only have the rest of this week and next week of YOYL. The year has really been winding down nicely. We haven't been as involved in the schools as of late because of exams. We have been focusing on community outreach and recruiting for next year. Our YOYL graduation ceremony is on the 1st of December and Piet and I fly out on the evening of the 2nd. We will be in California for 5 weeks. We will be sharing about our ministry on 9 December in Livermore, CA and we will be in Redding the week after Christmas.

We pray that you have a lovely Christmas season celebrating the birth of Christ, wherever it is you will be spending it!

With Love

The Bakers