Good News, Read all about it!

We have just heard that the building project has been registered. So now we as a mission can start raising funds for the building of the Espungabera houses for the new missionaries. If anyone feels led the project reference number is; SR-MOZ-152-U and funds can be sent to our Cape Town office (if from in SA) or any one of the international offices if from outside SA. E-mail for banking details to finance.sa@aimint.net
We have been praying and hoping that we will get additional help in our area. So this such an encouragement to us.

Update about Dawn's dad & mom

Thankfully Jim was released today but has to be back in the morning for further tests and check-up so he is out of immediate dangers but not in the clear yet.
Then Dawn's mom Dorothy was diagnosed a short while ago with cancer in her throat which was the cause of what seemed to be a non stop cold. She had her first radiation treatment on 12th of March and is scheduled for a cat scan tomorrow to check the status & to decide if they will start chemotherapy. Please keep them in your prayers as well.

Urgent Prayer request

Dawn's dad Jim was taken to Hospital last night with another heart attack and was quite confused. He has all sorts of scans etc. done. He has now been placed in High Care and is complaining of the heart burn feeling. He says it's very sore. This is about the 4th or 5th in just over a year.

Itinerary for Home Assignment

What's our itinerary like from August to end of January?

In August we plan to be in the Pretoria and Johannesburg area for most of the month. September we plan to be in Natal. October sees us spending much of our time in the Free State. November we have planned to be in the Cape. We would even now appreciate your prayers for all the organising that needs to be done so we do not sit around wasting time.
Please check out our prayer requests below as we are concerned about a number of things.

As always when one goes on Home Assignment, we will not be allowed to return unless we are fully supported. So please do pray with us.

"all dressed up and nowhere to go"

Not quite! but the thing is we have prepared two building site and have dug all the foundations for the first. On Monday I will go and cart stone for the foundations and once that is here on site we will place the stone in the foundation ready to start building. But we are still needing to get funds raised for that. So we are depending on faith that the funds for the building proper will soon come in.

PRAYER REQUEST

We have a number of important things coming up which need to be soaked with prayer. So we would really value your partnership.

1) We are going on Home Assignment from 31st July until 31st January 2010. This is so that we can make contact with all who support & pray for us. In 2010 we will be receiving new missionaries to our Espungabera area and Dawn & I are going to be "team leaders" so we can not be away when new missionaries arrive.

2) Pray that we will be able to make the best use of this time to see everyone but also to find new supporters as we are finding ourselves under supported which is also a reason for the Home Assignment.

3) We bought the Land Rover knowing that it would need an engine overhaul within 30,000 -50,000km. So we will need to have this done in August soon after arriving in SA. We will need a reliable vehicle for the next term of serving the Lord. We have got an estimated cost of R30-000. Please pray about this.

4) Toni's schooling as she gets to the last one and a half years of high school has become more and more costly. This has caused a few accounting problems. But we need to look a bit further as well. Before July 2010 she will need to be enrolled into a university. That process has started already but we will need to find a bursary or scholarship or some form of help for her tuition.

5) We will once more be doing a huge amount of traveling. So safety on the roads will be key. And we will need to make appointments. Pray for opportunities and openness to us.

6) With new missionaries going to be arriving in 2010 we need to start building houses. We need to build two on our property. But will be starting with one house for a family and a smaller one later for two single folks or vise-versa. AIM as a mission will be looking for partners in this regard. So we can house new missionaries in our area.

Update on the Farming God's Way

Leighton has made quite a few experimental beds of maize, sunflower, beans and cow pea. This Thursday we are going to have the first of a few open days where he can teach and show how different ways of planting make a huge difference.

2nd to 5th March

We needed to make a flash trip down to Musina so that I could apply for a new passport. So we arrived in Musina after dark on the Monday evening and made our way to Tsipise where we put up our tents in the dark.
Tuesday we went to the Home Affairs office in Musina and duly got my hands dirty with finger print ink. The result is I now have a temporary passport and a new permanent on the way. Let's pray that the 6-8 weeks will be just that.

Church service 1st March

It was a pleasing sight to see that at the mid-week Bible study in the evening their must have been about 70 people. This in the bush and at night. That set the pace for Sunday morning service. There were many more folks at the Sunday service. And as there had been a number of conversions over the last weeks we combined a Baptism service done by Domingos and then I was asked to take the Holy Communion part of the service.

Just before the communion service but after the baptism's as the new members were about to return to their benches, a young girl about 15 years old flopped down writhing and ranting in front of us. So Domingos & I began praying for her, asking Jesus to remove the evil spirit. A while later she became calm and relaxed, just as we thought that was over she started again, three times. She was released from three demonic spirits. PRAISE THE LORD!

Not quite done yet; as we were praying during the second manifestation another young girl also flopped down with the same kind of manifestation. Praise the Lord only one evil spirit. Satan is working every bit as hard to destroy the good work of Christ.

Feb. Bible school

Bible school was held from 24th February to 1st March. And we went this time to the Makumba church for the week of teaching.

Mateus has really worked hard at building up of this Church. For those who have been here, this is where Thomas after watching the Jesus film manifested a demonic spirit and started throwing stones at us. And Kennith, Trevor's son dive tackled him.

The week as mainly dedicated to teaching farming God's way with Leighton teaching the leaders some farming practices which were new to them. We had expected many more of the leaders to come. But it was raining hard the first two days. I suppose one can't blame a guy for not wanting to walk in the rain the whole day.

February been and gone

As I sit and update this blog it seems such a long time since I did it. And the realization came that a whole month has shot past,wow!

After a few long trips recently the Land Rover needed some attention so a few days were taken up in the beginning of Feb. with tyre changes and oil change.

Then I (Jinx) went to Kenya to be with Toni at her banquet and It's preparations. I left Espungabera on 12/2 & arrived back home on 23/2. RVA kids prepare a theme for the senior class and then set about building the set and they put on a play/drama that goes with the theme.

Toni's class decided on "Charlie and the chocolate factory" So many of the parents are asked to help the kids build the sets for the hall. So that's where I come in. I was asked to do the electrical side of things, spot lighting and lighting for above the tables as well as black lighting. Wow what a lot of work! Any way It was good to see Toni with friends and also to be part of her school life.

The kids had a bunch of fun with the paint.



Toni and her date walking up to the banquet hall.