This morning we received a newsletter from Jeanetta, our dear friend who we will be with in South Africa. Her note is long for a blog format, but I wanted to give you the chance to read it too... because our hearts are so longing to jump inside this email, and inside this world as we read it.

Currently, we are still at about 20% of our monthly funding... and our house isn't even showing, let alone selling. You can, if you will, continue to pray with us on these two issues. We have seen God be so beautiful and busy... we have joined hands with 4 new monthly sponsors in March - and are moving out of the house at the end of the week. (more on that later)... we are moving foward, right now I just wish God would choose to show off a little bit and make water flow from the mountainside. :O)

for now... Jeanetta's words of Emthonjeni...

Two births and a funeral
“a time to be born and a time to die…a time to weep and a time to laugh…” Ecclesiastes 3: 2 & 4
Today I attended the funeral of a beautiful young 19 year old girl from our Zandspruit community who was shot and killed with her boyfriend a week ago Sunday. Tragic is the only way to express their deaths. Among the shacks of this poorest of the poor, they met death for no reason. Only the boyfriend’s shoes were taken. Stolen shoes are a status symbol of criminals for revenge and hatred which they display on the electrical wires for all to see. Nomsa (her name means grace and I have included her picture) was a part of our Emthonjeni dance team PHYCS and her mother is one of our ladies who found a source of income through our sewing club. They are part of my community. More importantly these two women are two of God’s dearly loved souls. Today was a time to die and a time to weep! As I stood there with hundreds of souls singing and crying for the great loss of Nomsa, I felt anger for the crime which daily violates these precious people. Poverty is a dangerous place for humankind especially for women and children. As I stood there with red dirt blowing over our feet and faces, I stood up on the inside of my soul and asked God to help me remember this pain and to feel His compassion for the suffering and fears of the poor.
A few weeks ago during a job review with our gardener, Emmanuel, I began asking him about his life and hopes for his future. As he opened up, I shared with him that God loves him very much and has a good plan for his life. I asked Emmanuel to consider praying to God and asking Him what he should do with his life. He said he wanted his life to change. We looked up one verse after another which I underlined for him as I explained what they meant. After more discussion, Emmanuel asked to pray to God for His guidance and for salvation. I explained that he did not need to love and follow God to continue to work at Emthonjeni but he replied he wanted to do this for himself not for Emthonjeni. Right there in his job review, Emmanuel in his own language asked Jesus Christ to forgive him of his sins and to enter his life. That Wednesday he left with a new Bible and a new heart. This was a time to be born (or re-born) and a time to laugh and rejoice.
My third story contains the following: a king of KwaNdebele, a community called Kwaggafontein, a building of “walls” called Emthonjeni, of opposition, of foreigners coming to help and of prayers to God and His plan prevailing…I so relate to the story of Nehemiah as I live in my African world.
“I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, ‘Let us start rebuilding.’ So they began this good work” Nehemiah 2:18
Upon my return to SA in January, my friends from Rocklin, CA arrived. We had a very good mission trip where we served the community in KwaNdebele with visits to the local hospitals, clinics, prisons, schools and homes. They also encouraged the local pastor of all the local Christian churches to live close to Jesus for we can do nothing apart from Him. This team gave from their hearts as they pioneered into the community to earn the right with the church leaders to share God’s love with them. For two nights we showed the movie, “Passion of the Christ”. Hundreds of locals came and watched. The second night we gave an opportunity for the crowds to respond to the Gospel. Our team stood in the front to receive the people to pray. A man came and asked me to pray for him. In our conversation I realized he was the king of the region of Kwaggafontein. We prayed together out loud with him repeating after me the prayer of salvation! What a privilege. Next Pastor Frank from Rocklin met the king and “danced” with him in joy! Although this night had been literally filled with disturbances of the electricity going out several times during the movies and other crazy things, God had been faithful and many people including the king gave their hearts to Jesus. His father was the one who gave us the land for the community center and had died. His son who received Christ is now king. (Included in the pictures are the king at His inauguration, which Pastor Jacob preached at, which is an all time first for a “Christian inauguration” and I shared about Emthonjeni’s work in their community)