You asked for more photos...

Here they are. I had nothing to do with the photo of Liam and Brian in our profile, but it is cute.

Bob & Susan in South Africa again

Three weeks ago we thought about going to South Africa to see our new grandson. Two and 1/2 weeks ago we purchased tickets and now we have been in South Africa for 6 days. Wow, the time flew by.

Liam is as cute as you can imagine. The photos do not do justice for the little guy. Brian and Lois are good parents--they should be after dealing with the 18 Africans here! Yes, we are taking bunches of pictures and holding him as often as possible. We can actually see changes in him over the past few days. He will be walking before you know it.

Susie has been doing her usual chore here of making sure the donated clothing and supplies are organized and in order. The women on the team here from NY have assisted in sorting and carrying the boxes upstairs to the storage "safe." Yes, it is a safe--huge one. Susie talked some of the guys into building her more shelving to help organize the stuff. God has blessed The Pines with clothing and shoes from the US and the means of getting those items here.

Between transportation duties Bob has helped Brian remodel the team dish room/kitchen, install 2 new water heaters and do miscellaneous tasks needed to make the 3rd flat functional. Did you know that water heaters hang on the wall here? Some of them on the outside of the building 10 feet in the air!

As usual, The Pines is a busy place with around 40 people living and working here right now. That includes 18 children, 6 missionary family members, 12 team members, 4 staff, and Susan and me. The third flat was opened on Thursday and Mama Agnes and 4 girls live there now. The 4th flat is nearing completion. The Monroe team did a great job in constructing the flat, there are a few details that need to be completed.

The children here are attending a wonderful Christian School so they are gone most of the day. Bob gladly accepted the job of taking the children to and from school most days. There are 16 children who go to school. Somehow I cannot account for one child but Lois says they are all here. I am sure glad I don't have to keep up with 18 children. If I find out that I have lost one somehow, I will let you know!!

I am attaching a few pictures and will do so in the next few days. Let me know if you enjoy the posts by responding with feedback! Thanks for reading.

Wonderful Christmas

About the time I promised to maintain the blog, we lost internet service and did not get it back until today! So, Lord willing (as always), I will continue the blog until we get back to Iowa.

Cape Town
Brian & Lois took us to Cape Town last week for a few days. It was beautiful seeing the mountains, the sea and some new wildlife. We saw monkeys, ostriches, penguins, baboons , seals and impala living in the wild. They must be intelligent animals because we saw no road kill.

Christmas
What a Christmas! It began with a busy day of preparation on Monday wrapping and sorting gifts that had been donated by sponsors and others. The Pines children had opportunity to take R15 (about $2) from their earnings for doing special jobs to purchase a gift for someone that does not live at The Pines. They chose old neighbors in Thabon township and #7 and others. We all went to the store on Monday afternoon so they could chose and purchase their gifts. Talk about stressful--11 children who probably have never shopped before trying to decide what they should buyfrom hundreds of items in the store. It took about an hour with 5 adults assisting.
Christmas day in this part of the world begins with Christians going to church for an hour of worship! We are thrilled to see how these children respond to workshipping God. They love to sing and did just that many times on Christmas day. They learned about a dozen carols this year and enjoy singing them. After church we prepared a potjiekos (like a stew on the grill) and then the children opened gifts while it was cooking. The excitement was electric! This is the first year that 7 of these children received gifts for Christmas--normally they would receive a set of clothes and very little celebration. They have been learing for 2 months now the true meaning of Christmas. Oh, I have to tell you, before we opened gifts Brian asked if one of the children would pray. Refiloe (girl 10 yrs old) prayed for a couple of minutes and very clearly thanked God for sending Jesus to save her from her sins and for the priviledge of celebrating His birthday. It was a joy to hear a recently saved girl express herself so well!
Lunch was served to about 29 people at The Pines. The afternoon was spent driving to the various destinations to deliver the gifts the children had purchased for others. They had as much joy giving those gifts as they did opening their own gifts. The witnessed great joy in their friends as they opened the gifts--I am talking joy as in jumping up and down screeming for 15 seconds! What a Christmas to remember.
Thank you to each one of you for making this Christmas a reality. No matter what part you have in this ministry, you indeed have a part in what God is doing at The Pines. Lives are being changed and children are coming to Him! Praise the Lord!

Bob & Susan still in South Africa

Yes, we are still here and will be until the 29th of December. We will keep the blog going with our activities.

Yesterday we got back from Johannesburg after taking the team and spending an extra day so Brian & Lois could buy Christmas gifts for the children. The children were thrilled to see the van come rolling in--they even tried to peek in the back seat to see what might be there!
The rain continues here--at least it keeps it cool.

Today we head for Cape Town for 5 days. Keep checking back as I will post pictures and anything else I think might interest you.

Bob

On Our Way Home

The team is busy saying goodby to everyone here at The Pines. We all enjoyed our stay here but the time has come to leave! We arrive at the Des Moines Airport at 3:14 on Monday.

Thank you for your part in our trip and for your faithful prayer. Your share in this ministry is huge and we thank you.

See you soon!

Almost Done!

After another long day of tiling, we are almost done with the kitchen! Yesterday the entryway and hallway were tiled and prepared for grout. Dawn and Gina did a little more painting and Suzie cut tile. Rose, Holly, and I worked in the garden in the morning and swam a little in the afternoon. We had a nice evening out at a local restaraunt; we celebrated Cebesile's birthday! The waiters were very friendly and sang two different birthday songs to her. It was good entertainment! There's only a little work left, so pray that our knees and muscles will hold out as we finish today.

The closer we come to the end of the project, the more bittersweet I feel. I love that we have been able to take on a huge task, and by the grace of God, have (almost) been able to complete it. It has been wonderful to see Brian and Lois work together in ministry. How neat to see people I have grown up with, friends, serve the Lord and impact others for Christ. The children here are bright, funny, outgoing kids who are excited about life and excited to learn about Jesus.

At the same time, the needs at The Pines and in South Africa are so great. How selfish I am to even consider my own wants when people here are dying and in need of the gospel of Christ! How can we leave? I feel choked up even writing about good-bye!

This morning, our plans are to grout the tile, put on all the drawer fronts, and put in the counter top. We hope to finish by lunch time and then spend the afternoon doing some souvenir shopping in Welkom and playing with the kids. Gina plans to go back to Reahola and follow-up with the boy she led to Christ on Monday. Tonight, we are having a barbecue with all the children and house mothers. It will be a fun last day at the Pines!

We miss you all, but I am not ready to come home! For now, I am off to grout.

Abby for the Team

work, Work, WORK

Yesterday was a day of WORK! Everyone helped to tile the kitchen, finish varnishing and sanding the cabinets, paint the walls, and scrape the mud out of the cracks to get ready to grout. I think we all slept hard last night!

The tiling job proved to be a little more difficult than we had anticipated, as the cement floor was definitely not level. We were continuously pulling up tiles because they were not laying flat. Today we will tile the entryway, hallway, and inside the pantry. Pray that the South African mud will cooperate!

The painting is basically finished. We still have to paint the ceiling in the nursery, the hall, and the wall of the pantry. We may also have to sand and varnish the cabinets once more before they are done.

Everyone was able to pitch in yesterday. Suzie is an excellent tile cutter. Bob, Marvin, and Brian laid most of the tile. Gina and Dawn painted the walls and trimmed. Jim was the mud mixer. Holly and I handed tile to the men and did general "gopher" jobs. Rose swept and helped Dawn with lunch. No matter what ability level, each one could help out and get dirty.

Dawn, Holly, and I took the kids swimming again yesterday afternoon. They all love to swim! It's work just to get them out of the pool at the end of the afternoon! Mokhosi and Mpho cannot swim on their own yet, but have discovered that if they jump into the pool with a noodle, they don't need any help! They refer to the noodle as their "horse," are constantly shouting things like, "Yee-haw!" and "Giddy-up, horse!" They were pretty proud of themselves.

Much work was done yesterday; the feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day was good for everyone. It makes the sore muscles worth it! Pray that we can complete the kitchen today. It will be nice to leave here knowing that God has allowed us to finish the job we came to do.

Abby for the Team