We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration and a Happy New Year to you also!

We enjoyed a laid back Christmas brunch with two other missionary families and then had a quiet evening at home playing games with a gal from church. We also had our annual Boxing Day BBQ with the missionaries we work with. Dan had a horrible sore throat for a couple days (including Christmas!) but we are thankful it cleared up in time since the two of us led worship this morning for our teammate Paul’s church plant. It is an Anglican church so it was a little more reserved than we are used to, but it was an interesting change of pace.

Our church is sending approximately 20 young people on a mission trip this week to a small little town on the ocean called Kenton on Sea. Kenton is a party town and during the week between Christmas and New Year, approximately 8,000 young people pitch tents on the beach, listen to their favorite live rock bands, they drink WAY too much, they sleep around, and do drugs. Our church has a free coffee bar that is open all night to help kids sober up, there is a medic who helps with the obvious side effects of drinking too much, they watch out for the gals who might get taken advantage of and they have a lot of fun trying to engage people in conversations about God. They were a huge blessing to the community last year and saw a lot of people give their lives to Christ. Please pray that God will work powerfully in and through the lives of those who go, that they will have many opportunities to share the love of Christ and that many people will respond and give their lives to Christ.

One of the gals who came on our first short term team is returning to Africa to teach school in Bulembu, Swaziland for 1 year. We love Jasmine and are excited she is coming back! It just proves to us the value of short term teams since many who come for a short time end up coming back to commit for longer seasons! She lands on the 2^nd, we are hosting a “welcome back” BBQ for her on the 3^rd and then we are driving her to the Swazi school on the 4^th. We will likely end up back at the Chomba’s home for an extra day or two and Dan can do a little more work on the building we are finishing for the orphan guys who live with Lewis and Maggie. We are looking forward to more time with this wonderful family!

Sorry it has been so long since I've written here. To resolve the picture issue I had to ditch internet explorer and start all over with a new search engine. Switching things around on my technology isn't my favorite, but at least now you can see pictures again. yeah! I haven't been paying much attention to my blog since I have been enjoying facebook so much! I'll post pictures of Miesha's birthday party soon. Smiles, Janell

Help!

All you really experienced and consistent bloggers out there - this rookie needs some help!

I no longer have the ability to upload pics into my blogs. The actual feature is gone from my "create" posting page. Any suggestions?

Thanksgiving in Africa!

We ended up with 100+ people for the Thanksgiving Feast at our church that we helped to coordinate. It was amazing to be able to share such a special holiday with so many people who we are becoming friends with. Dan carved 10 turkeys in an hour (with an electric knife!) and did a fantastic speech to give everyone a history lesson for the reason for thanksgiving. I went shopping for food for 6 hrs on Tues and then cooked for 3 days with Janet (who is a catering expert and should really count for 5 people) and the Bible students at the church. (these students also were on the Swaziland and Zambian mission trips with us earlier this year) It was really amazing – everyone loved it and has asked us if we can do it again next year. We are up for it!!

Dec 1st is World AIDS Day. It is a time to remember those who are suffering from AIDS and to raise awareness about the disease. Three families from our missionary team will be participating in a special service at Ennerdale Uniting Reformed Church with Pastor Wessie. We partnered with this church’s compassion ministry with our short term team in June and did AIDS visitation to homes and to Village of Hope Hospice Center. After church tomorrow, we will be returning to Village of Hope and I am excited to see everyone and to reconnect with some of the patients.

Then, this coming Thursday we will be hosting a Christmas Party for the AIDS ministry at Moroka Church of the Nazarene. I have worked with this group for almost 2 years and this will be our 2nd Christmas Party. Last year, this was my favorite ministry event of the year and I am looking forward to it very much. This is also a very handy way to utilize the thanksgiving leftovers from the church party - bring on the turkey!! The Bible students from our church will be helping at this event also. For some of them, it will be their first exposure to people who are sick with AIDS.

Thanks again for praying for my recovery from the operation. I think it is truly a miracle that I am doing so well and credit it to all the prayers on my behalf. I haven’t had pain in days (even with all the long hours of prep for Thanksgiving) and even the scar is really faint. God is good.

I’ll write a long newsy posting with pictures once we have completed the Christmas party on Thursday.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,
Janell

Parties

While I haven't gone out much - this recovery has given me some good "deep thinking" time, I have read some books, have watched a couple chick flicks (thank you Barb!) and have decided to enjoy all the people who are giving to our family here. Sometimes it takes getting some of your guts cut out in a foreign country for me to slow down enough to realize how many people love us!!

For the many phone calls, e-mails, encouraging notes, flowers, CHOCOLATES, visits and meals - we are SO GRATEFUL. I was even given a very-hard-to-find-in-Africa Dr. Pepper! (thanks Michelle) Funny how much Dr. Pepper is speeding up my recovery!

I get the fantastic priviledge of planning two holiday parties and at this point I can do a lot of planning from my computer or while sitting down which is working well.

I am having fun searching for Thanksgiving recipes, checking out what Martha Stewart's website recommends for centerpieces, and trying to figure out where I can find autumn colored stuff when it is spring here in Africa. The Thanksgiving Feast is for a group of about 120 at our church. This morning in my Beth Moore study I was reading about Thanksgiving in the Old Testament. Well, actually it is when the Israelites were preparing to build the sanctuary in the desert so that the presence of God would dwell with them. Their songs of thanks and their outpouring of gifts - so many that Moses had to tell them to stop giving. It is one of the few times where the Israelites did things right!

I am trying to brainstorm creatve ways (besides an open mic to share what you are thankful for) that will cause my friends here to reflect deeply and meaningfully on how God has blessed them and to say thank you in a new way. If you have any ideas...please let me know!!

The week after our big Thanksgiving Feast at our church, on Dec. 4th we will be throwing a huge party in Soweto for my friends who are sick with AIDS. As usual, the party is already growing from "only around 25" to closer to 50. I think I am going to mentally prepare for 80 so I don't get surprised later on! This was one of my favorite events last year and I know I am going to love it again this year. We are going to do a Christmas program with a devotional by yours truly, some Christmas games, have a choir sing, eat together and have a special gift giving time. For many, this will be their only Christmas gift. When I asked my friends Mafika and Dumi what they wanted for their gift this year, their answers broke my heart. They asked for a toothbrush, laundry soap, and body soap. They need the basics this year. Since times are hard everywhere, those who are the recipients of charity feel the lack most keenly.

It will be so rewarding to be able to bless them all. Thank you to Fairfield Community Church for sponsoring this event!

Janell is home

Hey Everyone –

This is Janell writing and I am happy to be HOME and writing you myself! J I had no idea that this weekend was going to be so eventful. On Friday, I had actually started writing a letter to everyone explaining how everything had been fairly “normal” for us since Dan’s kidney stone, but I am going to scrap that letter and start over.

While spending time in the hospital is not my idea of a good time, I did receive good care, my inflamed appendix is gone forever, and I am the happy recipient of some great pain pills, so life will slowly get back to normal here. I am under strict orders not to pick Miesha up for 6 weeks to protect my internal stitches from tearing, but I have no idea how we are going to manage that one. My missionary friends are bringing meals this week which will help a lot. We actually have the Vanderhaar family staying with us through Wed and they have been super helpful to watch Miesha while Dan was at the hospital with me. Megan has been cooking…they have been a blessing.

I am so thankful that Dan turned down several opportunities to travel in the next couple weeks. Actually, he would’ve been in Zimbabwe this whole time if he had said yes to one request and could've been hunting this weekend with friends. Praise God he was home. He gets a gold medal for being a great husband and dad through crises time for both Miesha (chicken pox) and myself!


Miesha is pretty emotional. I am sure it was a bit confusing to have been gone so much. I am looking forward to snuggling with her again when she wakes up from her nap this morning.

THANK YOU all so much for your prayers for our family. It has been challenging, but we feel your prayers and are so grateful for the many friends we have here who are helping us also. Thank you for your notes while I was in the hospital. It was fun to hear from so many of you.

Janell