Soweto Sewing Center

God is doing some amazing things through the missionaries with work with. At our team prayer meeting recently, my teammate Sarah shared some incredible news about how God is working in a small community called Braamfischerville and I thought I’d pass it on to you.

First, a little background…
Sarah and her husband Jay have been working with OC Africa for around 12 years with a focus on community development and uplifting area called Braamfischerville for the last 7 years. “Uplifting” basically means doing everything they can to help the people get out of poverty and walk in the abundant life Christ intended for them. They have created sustainable income generating projects, they sponsor an orphan boy to be able to keep him in school, they assist with health needs, they assisted with a starting a church, they do Bible studies, help with funerals, they plant gardens, expand people’s houses so that they can care for more orphans and foster children, showed the Passion movie at Easter time, and helped build a pre-school so the little kids could have a safe place to play and learn. If you knew all their challenges over the years, you too would be wildly impressed with their tenacity and the incredible things God has done in this small community.

Last Friday, Sarah was sharing about her sewing center project. The sewing center was birthed through the assistance of a short term team from the USA who came over with some sewing machines and patterns. Fast forward 2.5 years and now the sewing center has 5 ladies and 1 man on staff and although they are still struggling to see steady revenue come through, they are all making beautiful things and making money! Sarah proudly said, “They can make ANY kind of bag from generator covers to purses and there are several who are making their own patterns. They are extremely gifted individuals!”

Sarah has been going in weekly to do a Bible Study with them as a part of “leadership development” and has been taking them through the gospel of Mark. Recently, they talked through chapter 8 and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Sarah gave an invitation and she believes that all genuinely gave their lives to Jesus that day!! Isn’t that incredible?!!!!!

(Sarah with Judith)

Recently, Sarah was doing her personal Bible study and there was a theme about living generously and investing in eternal things coming through. She made a note to herself that someone was probably was going to request money from them soon. Sure enough, a couple hours later, the leader of the sewing center, Judith, phoned and through tears told Sarah this story:

Her daughter Palesa was the only student (out of 6-7 kids) in their community who passed her matric exams. (which are like really hard tests before you’d be granted your HS diploma in the US). She did it! She beat some incredible odds to stay in school, to learn, and to apply herself to get good grades! She was accepted into the Forensic Science program at the University of Johannesburg and would qualify for grants and loans to cover the cost. The only problem was that this family still owed the High School R500 ($70) for outstanding school fees. The school would not release her diploma/matric certificate until they paid the fees. Without the certificate, she would be unable to complete the paperwork to apply for financial aid (the financial aid deadline was a few days later). Without the financial aid there would be no University education, without the education, no career… You can see where this is going. Her future was hinging on $70/R500.

Sarah and Jay were able to give from what God has blessed them with to help this bright young lady have the chance to get a good education and create a life for herself.

They are impacting the nation of South Africa, one life at a time.

These are the stories that make my heart smile, and I think God’s heart smiles too!

Happy 2011!

We can all see that I neglected this blog the entire year of 2010. (sorry!) Rather than giving you all my lame reasons why, I am hoping to redeem myself through sharing our family's adventures in 2010 through this awesome Smilebox. Enjoy!

May God bless you in 2011. - Janell

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Summarizing...

Okay, if there is such an award...I think I would win the category for Most Absent Blogger of 2009. I think I have posted some 4 or 5 blogs this whole year. Yikes!

Everyone knows that transitioning from one kid to two brings a lot of changes. I was using this reasoning as my excuse for not blogging more. However, we were blessed with a relatively easy transition and Miesha really loves her little brother. She is always trying to help me by giving me his pacifier/dummy or patting his back when he is crying.

I told myself that I would get back into the habit of blogging once baby Titus started sleeping through the night. He started sleeping through the night around 1.5 months which is SO AWESOME! Now, I use another excuse for not getting my blogging current. I go back and forth between these excuses: a month ago we transitioned from the USA back to Africa and we are tired from the LONG (40 hr) journey and still have jet lag...or we are having yet another lightening storm and I am going to turn off my computer so it doesn't get fried by lightening...or we are still living out of suitcases (8 months now!) while housesitting for friends and I'll become a better blogger once we are settled into our own space again in early January.

Anyway - lots has been going on, so I thought I would catch you all up in one fell swoop again.

Since I blogged last - the very most important event was the arrival of our new baby boy - Titus Glen. He was born via c-section on August 24th and is the sweetest little boy ever. He was average weight (7 lbs) at birth, but proceeded to quickly grow into his strong name by almost doubling in weight his first month. He was 12 lbs at month one and 14 lbs month 2. He is a very happy little eater. As I mentioned before, he is a fantastic sleeper and already sleeps 8-9 hrs a night for me which is SO WONDERFUL! He is good natured, laughs hysterically at his parents when they make funny faces at him, tolerates his sister, has a bit of a snore, and sometimes even laughs in his sleep.

We had some wonderful memory making with family and friends in the States during our final two months after Titus was born. Here are a few picures:

When we arrived, we spent some quality time looking for a rental house. Through friend connections, we found an amazing house, for an amazing price and we will be moving in in early January. We are praising God for his provision. Also, the place we are housesitting for is available to us to use until January 9, so the timing is perfect!

On November 29th, we participated in the church service for World AIDS Day in Ennerdale with a very special group of friends. Pastor Wessie and his Compassion Team gave a heart wrenching overview of AIDS statistics in South Africa, complete with personal testimonies from the congregation and a powerpoint presentation showing all the projects where people are being served a helped by their church and ministry partners. OC Africa was recognized as a ministry partner as there are 3 missionary families from our team who all contribute to serving in Ennerdale and Finetown. (Finetown is the impoverished community next to Ennerdale where there is 80% HIV infection rate and where the majority of the Compassionate Care Team’s efforts are focused) In 2008 we took our short term team to Finetown for a week of service doing work in a pre-school, assisting at an orphanage, doing house visits to encourage and give food parcels, doing grief conferences, teaching first aid, and more. It was a blessing to participate! The few pictures we took turned out blurry, sorry.

On Friday we sponsored a Christmas party for the AIDS group I have been involved with in the past. This group is our “test group” for the Bible study lessons I have been writing. I haven’t seen the group since last year’s party since early last year we were preparing for furlough, packing up our rental house, my pregnancy with Titus made me exhausted, and we were in the states for 6+ months. I was so excited to see everyone again! In the past the party was at the church, but this year the venue changed since Pastor Bhembe left the senior pastor position at the church to attend Bible School full time. We arrived at the party destination an hour in advance to set everything up and then waited and waited and WAITED. Dan went with Pastor B to pick up a few people who needed a ride and then we waited and WAITED some more. About four hours later the party finally started, but the 25 people that I had planned the party for still had not arrived. Then we were told the lady who is in charge of the program, who I have worked very closely with in the past, was in the hospital. The van who went to pick up all my sick friends from the church didn’t come while we were there. After about an hour of singing with the local kids and a few grandmothers, Dan and I had to leave to pick up Miesha and Titus from a friend’s house who was babysitting them. The food packets that we made and the feast of a lunch we prepared were still on the agenda, but we were not able to stay any longer. We got a text message later the next day saying my friends from the HIV support group finally did arrive after we left and that everything was a big blessing to them. I have to be honest and say I was a bit disappointed since I wanted to see everyone and to celebrate with them, but obviously God knows best. I hope to get to see them in the New Year. Please pray for THELMA who is my friend who is in the hospital. They don’t know what is wrong with her yet, but she has been unable to keep food down for a week now.

Last Saturday was our Thanksgiving Feast/End of Year Party with our church. We celebrated how God has worked in our church, the growth of our members (we have gone from 80 people to over 300 in the two years Dan and I have been attending!) and there was a beautiful presence of thankfulness. We took a picture of the “small" group that we co-led the six months we were here and I have attached the photo here. About a third of the group wasn’t there for the photo, so you’ll only see about 30 of the 50 of us.

Tomorrow is Miesha's 2nd birthday! She is an amazing little girl and we love her so much. We are grateful to God for the gift of her presence in our family. Here are a few of the many faces of Miesha:

Thank you for your love and prayers for our family.

I hope to be blogging more in the New Year...I'll make it my New Year's Resolution!

Smiles,
Janell

my version of nesting

Our baby boy is due to arrive in 3 days and I am doing my version of nesting...catching up on Facebook, blogging, missionary correspondence, emails, scheduling stuff, etc. Nesting is very different when you are living in other people's spaces!

We had a GREAT time at the beach and for those of you who are my FB friends, pop over there to see some super pics. Here are some highlights:



This is Miesha seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time and sticking her feet in the frigid water. Such a cutie!

At Long Beach...checking out the International Kite Festival. It was far less cheesy than I thought it would be. Some of those kites were AMAZING and HUGE. Miesha's kite was neither amazing, nor huge, but we made it and it cost $2 - who can beat that? BTW, the Nemo kite in the background behind them - we saw it for sale in a store for $600 and in the air there, it is one of the "medium ish" ones. Yikes!

Miesha at the bubble booth

Stay tuned for some super cute baby boy Hartley pics early next week! Yippee!!!

Janell

quick update

Hello all,
We are counting down the days and hours now until our baby boy appears! At dinner with some supporters Friday evening they asked how we knew exactly when he was coming and we were teasing them saying that we were so busy we told the Lord it would be helpful if He could fit him into our schedule on a Monday evening and God said that worked for Him too (smile) …the reality is we actually have a scheduled c-section on Aug 24th. So close now!!! This is the part of every pregnancy where the mom wants to fit a fast forward button to skip this uncomfortable final phase and get to the part where you can hold the baby. We have plans to take Miesha with us to the coast for a few days to celebrate our 9th anniversary this coming week and we are hoping he’ll wait to make his appearance until our scheduled date. Dan and I were chuckling as we realized tonight that in the three and a half months that we have been in the USA, we have constantly been living with people/family with the exception of one night when we arrived a day before our hosts came home. We are really looking forward to having just the 3 of us in a beach house for a couple days. We also think it is important to have some quality time with Miesha before baby #2 comes and turns her world upside down.

Miesha has caught yet another flu bug and when I took her to the Dr to check things out, he said she has a combination of clogged tear ducts, a sinus infection, a nasty cough, and it seems her 2 year molars are coming in early…all of which are making her pretty miserable! Please pray that she’ll fight these bugs off soon and that she’ll be well by the time baby arrives.
Dan is enjoying a few days break from working on the house and is requesting prayer for his back. Now that he has slowed down a bit, he realizes that the project is causing an old back injury to throb a bit more than is comfortable.

I am doing good generally, with only the usual aches and pains from the final weeks of pregnancy to complain about.

Dan keeps telling us about the fun he had coaching at the kid’s evangelism soccer camp and he did a great job preaching last week (on a very challenging assigned passage – Gen 29-30!) – thanks for your prayers.

Janell