Our family is growing!!!

Neal and I are excited to share that we are expecting a baby! We prayed for this little one for months and God has heard us and blessed us! We will try to keep this blog updated as our pregnancy progresses. We are currently 10 weeks pregnant. Our baby is the size of a small lime and has all of his/her vital organs developed, can move his/her arms and legs and suck his/her thumb! 100 brain cells are being developed every minute! Can you believe how great is our God! What a miracle. This is a picture of our little peanut at 8 weeks when we went for our first scan. He/she even waved at us when we were watching. The baby is long already, so we are sure he/she will be tall like daddy.

Compassion Days

During the 4 weeks of our Keep Them safe holiday program during the World Cup, we offered a variety of programs to the children and teens who came to the center. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, our volunteers (from Germany, Brazil, America, and South Africa) teamed with our Kayamandi youth volunteers led Kids Games in the mornings from 9:00am until 12:00pm. Kids games is an internationally known program that reaches kids for christ using games and sports. Then at 12:00 the kids went for lunch and continued with an afternoon program that included arts, team games, dramas, and special events until 4:00pm.

On Wednesdays, however, our kids morning program was a bit different. Wednesdays were our "Compassion Days" when our kids and teens went out into their community and learned about service by serving hands on. Across the 4 Wednesdays in the KTS time, our kids cleaned the streets, painted the play equipment at 2 parks, planted trees at 2 parks, leveled the ground for our new classrooms, and cleaned for the sick and elderly at their homes.

It was so beautiful to see the youth and children in Kayamandi taking ownership for the hygiene and cleanliness of their neighbourhood. Even now, weeks later, the kids are still looking out for "their" tree and making sure that nothing bad happens to it. Compassion Days are a great way to get kids thinking about other's needs and not just their own.

World Cup Holiday Program: KTS

The Soccer World Cup 2010 South Africa

During the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, from 11 June- 11 July 2010, our students were out of school and needing to stay busy in order to stay safe. Knowing the huge threat of child trafficking during this time, we organized a program in Kayamandi called Keep Them Safe (KTS). The great part about KTS is that the staff of Kuyasa did not run the show, we assisted our young emerging leaders from Kayamandi to plan, direct, and manage the huge 4-week event. The young leaders, who have just finished high school and who are interning at Kuyasa for the year, gained skills in event planning, people recruitment and management, conflict and time management, proposal writing and partnership with other NGOs and stakeholders. KTS was an intense 4-week long program that hosted about 800 children and 200 teens each day from 8am until 4pm across 6 different venues in Kayamandi. We were all exhausted, but through the strength and power of the Holy Spirit, we made it though still smiling.

Workshops

The second week of our 2-weeks of holiday madness with our teens was great. We hosted workshops in public speaking, study skills, job interview skills, and ended with a speech contest. The 40 students started the speech workshop terrified to speak in front of others, but throughout the week and after lots of practicals we had 11 students compete in our speech competition. I was SO impressed at the variety of their "influential topics" and how well-prepared they were. The 6 winners will travel around with Cassie Carstens and a Brazilian soccer team as they talk to the local high schools here. Here is a picture of me speaking about speaking...

On the first day of our workshops after the public speaking portion we partnered with a group called Shout it Now who do HIV counselling and testing. They brought to our centre 50 laptops and showed the teens an interactive "MTV-style" interactive video about testing. It was a great programme and we hope to partner with them again in the future.

Service Projects

During the two-week school vacation, we were very busy. Our teenagers led the children in Kids in the morning and then after they fed the kids lunch, they had a chance to attend special teen activities. In the first week, our teens hosted "service projects." The service project teams were split into 4 groups: Cleaning parks and streets, cleaning schools, serving the sick and elderly, and appreciation of community heros. I led the appreciation team. In 1 week we baked 16 cakes and made 16 thank you cards for our community heros like the police, fire department, NGO's, social workers, doctors, nurses, orphanage workers, etc. The kids and teens then got to tell their community heros how much they appreciate all that they do. It was really special to hear the kids express themselves and how the people were so touched to get a thank you and a chocolate cake. The fire station were so pleased that they gave us a ride around in the fire truck until we were dizzy. It is so easy to show appreciation, but we so often take the time. Our young people learned the value of a thank you and we hope that the value of gratitude will follow them in their lives.

Kids Games

During the 2-week school vacation, we hosted a lot of special programmes that we would not have had the time to present during the normal school year. For 2 weeks we arrived at the office early and set up for a morning of Kids Games. Kids Games is an international programme that pairs games and fun with life lessons and experiential learning. We focused on the themes of serving each other, love, working as a team, respecting people and property, forgiveness, and honesty. We started each day with a drama to illustrate the theme and then our teenage youth leaders took the children in their team on a journey to experience the theme for themselves. We averaged about 200 children each day and saw the growth a huge success!

Our First Fruits

As Neal and I trust God for great things one day, we are trying to be faithful with the little that we are given now. We are so excited about our little vegetable garden in the back yard of our apartment! We feel like proud parents as we show you the "first fruits" of our garden. Our first tomato is a beautiful reminder that God keeps His promises and that our dreams will be realized one day. In the mean time we are fully committed to the place and ministry that we are in. We are learning all that we can everyday.

First Aid/CPR training

Everyday we encounter hundreds of children, youth and adults at our centre. It often occurs to me that the Lord really protects our kids from harm because our building is old and our children like to take risky chances. For years, I have been concerned that a child would choke at our feeding scheme, or fall from our Learning Centre loft, and we would not be equipped to save those children. Therefore, I have done a lot of research and have found a First Aid/CPR training course that will equip our staff to help in such emergency situations. The Lord provided us a donor from Germany who backed our vision of safety, and has paid to have 15 of our staff certified. We have recently hosted the First Aid/CPR training and invited representatives from other NGOs, churches, and daycares in our area to also learn how to handle emergency situations. I have so much peace knowing that we have 23 new "first responders" in our community trained and able to serve better than before.

Sharing Views Water Day

Last Saturday, 20 February, was close to if not the hottest day of the year. Reaching 43 degrees celsius (about 109 degrees farenheight), we were all weak from heat exhaustion. That didn't stop our Sharing Views team, however, from providing the kids with a fantastic Water Day. Nearly 700 children from the Kayamandi community came dressed in swimming suits or underpants ready to get wet! The local fire department came and sprayed the kids with water and foam, and there were lots of water games and even a water slide! Everyone involved loved it, and the water helped us to survive the intense summer heat!

My Garden

I was reminded of Proverbs 31:16-17 recently. It says,"a wife of noble character... goes to inspect a field and buys it. With her earnings, she plants a vineyard. She is energetic and strong, a hard worker..." Now, I am not claiming to be that cool, but I did get a small bit of money last weekend that I invested into the soil. Our office had a small yard sale bazaar where we could sell things to the community and cheap rates. I decided to help work the bazaar and ended up earning R70 (which is about $10.) I then took that money and went to the nursery where I bought tomato, green bean, eggplant, strawberry, spinach, basil, coriander, thyme, and parsley plants. We have a small plot of land in the back yard of our apartment, and I was SO excited to take a stab at growing the food that we will need for nourishment. Food is getting very expensive and more and more nutritionally deprived due to the shipping of vegetables. Therefore, I am very excited to try to grow our own plants that will keep Neal and I healthy this year. Look out proverbs 31 woman... here I come!

Prayer Team 2010

We are very excited to see what God is doing this year in our prayer team. The prayer team is led by Abongile, one of our graduated students, who has recently joined our social work team. The group has grown and is now including many younger children as well. The kids and teens are eager to stand in the gap and intercede for their families, communities, country and the world. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing the hearts of children trusting God for miracles and coming humbly to their Father in Heaven in prayer.

Opening Learning Centre

This past Monday, Feb 1, we finally opened our learning centre classes for the year. Up to this point, we have been marketing and recruiting new tutors. Then we had to have orientation trainings, and coordinate their schedules and transportation. It has been an admin nightmare, but with good results in the end. This week we have already signed on 45 tutors, and have helped over 200 students in grades preschool- grade 10. The students seem eager to learn and our partnership with the schools has never been stronger. We are so grateful to God for the doors that He is opening! Yesterday we had our grade 8-10 math classes and we were short of teachers. A group of grade 11 students also came for help, so we were spread very thin. I don't usually tutor math, due to my terrible math skills, but I gave grade 9 math a try and we ended up having a fun and educational class for us all.

Tahoe in the New Year

On New Years Day, Neal, my mom and I headed up the mountain for a trip to Lake Tahoe. My mom used her timeshare to treat Neal and I to 4 fantastic days in a condo in the Tahoe snow. Our trip included some fantastic R&R, sledding, snow shoeing, Neal and my mom skiied and I got an hour massage (still have bad knee). This 4 days with mom was such a special gift for Neal and I. It's memories that we will remember forever.

Merry Christmas!

Neal and I loved being able to see my family for Christmas. For Neal, it was his first Christmas in Winter, and his first look at the "American Christmas." On Christmas eve we enjoyed time with Dad and Sharon, my Grandma and Grandpa Nixon, as well as with my Uncle Mike and his wife Cindy. Then on Christmas Day it was loads of fun at My Dad and step-mom Sharon's house with all of their side of the family over. Christmas part 3 was with my mom, and her side of the family. We met with my Grandma, aunts Judy and Sandy, Mom, and a second Cousin Maureen. It was a nice quiet christmas with family at home.

I'm an auntie!!!

On October 17th my only sister Jessica brought the most adorable baby boy into the world. Our family has been so excited to welcome baby Charlie as the newest member. Neal and I had the privileged opportunity of going to visit Jessica and her husband Paul on December 14th at their home in Madison, Wisconsin where we got to meet Charlie for the first time. I loved every minute of our snuggle time!

Nana and Lusi

On December 12th Neal and I had the privledge of visiting Nana and Lusi and their new family the Taylors in Canton, Ohio. Nana and Lusi lived with me and Katie in the months preceeding Neal and my wedding. After much prayer and tested faith, God came through in such a BIG way. He provided the girls with a safe loving home with the Taylors in Ohio. After a year the girls are more beautiful than ever. It was wonderful to see how confident and responsible they have become. We love you Nana and Lusi!

Kuyasa Summer Camp

Our annual Kuyasa Summer camp was an awesome week. The camp was full with 18 youth leaders, 80 teen campers, and 3 staff. I was so amazed to see how God used the youth leaders to minister to the campers. In addition to a fun time had by all, many campers made first time commitments to follow the Lord, and most of the others made recommitments to strengthen their faith. Our God is SO GOOD!