The Year of the Rat???!!!

Okay, so those of you who skyped with us yesterday will find this old news, but for our kids it was an extreme highlight and they have not stopped talking about it. Last Sunday, I posted on my facebook page that Africa is full of adventures because I had a bird fly in our house and had to catch it in a bag and let it loose outside. Not unheard of for some people, but new to us!
Yesterday, I was cuddling with Faith and she yelled "Mom, I just saw a rat go in the kitchen!" Well, I was a little unsure that she really saw a rat, but I had Bryan check it out with me anyway. Sure enough there was a rat behind our refrigerator. Now, we are not talking about a cute little pet rat. No, this was a big, grey, nasty looking rat and it was in our kitchen. We closed all the doors to the kitchen (it is a shared kitchen with our suitemates) and opened the back door to the outside of the kitchen so we could hopefully scare it out. I know it doesn't solve any problems by letting the rat outside instead of killing it but our only "weapons" were a broom, frying pan, and feather duster. While we worked on scaring the rat out, the kids ran outside to find the stray cat that has adopted Beautiful Gate (and it was pouring rain so they got SOAKED). They told the maintenance man (Edward) about the rat during the process so he came to check it out.
In the meantime, Bryan and I had hit the rat a few times with our "weapons" and it lodged itself in the back of our fridge. Then Edward came in with a spear and stuck it into the back of the fridge and "took care of" our rat problem. The kids think of him as a hero now and today they saw him and said, "We don't have any more rats today!" They had a hard time going to bed last night due to fears of more rats, but we managed to calm there fears. Adventures will continue to await our family, I am sure, as we have already begun our new year with the rat!

Wanted- Coffee and a friend! :)

Okay... so I am the sappy one of the 5 of us because I am the first one who has been feeling homesick for my family and friends. I am not depressed or having a horrible time, I just want to hang out with some of my friends and have a cup of coffee(Biggby sugar bear never sounded soooooo good). Beautiful gate is amazing and I am loving all the kids. I like going out with the play groups and just hugging the kids and getting some of their wet sloppy kisses all over my face. It is such a blessing to be here and know that I can in some small way, make the kids' day a little brighter. I feel like I want to just have some of my friends or sisters or moms to share it with, in person (Bryan is wonderful, but it is nice to have a girl to talk to sometimes). I don't feel like I want to go home, I just want to ship some of you here to share this with me and carry some of the burden with me because it is a blessing to serve here, but it is not always an easy load to carry. I know I'll make friends here, it just takes time :) I love all of my wonderful friends who will be reading this and I am thankful that there is facebook and skype because it makes a big difference.
Blessings,
Anita

Merry Christmas

Hello Friends and Merry Christmas! I hope your Christmas was enjoyable and full of good memories as you celebrated Jesus's birthday with friends and family. We drove to Ladybrand, South Africa and spent the day with Ray, Sue and their family. It was relaxing and enjoyable for all 5 of us. The weather was warm and sunny the entire day so our 3 kids spent every possible minute in the swimming pool with the 4 other children who were there (there was also a baby, but he was too small to join them). The children had a bit of a highlight in the afternoon when Sue gave them some packages from the post office that she had picked up a few days ago. Oma and Papa had sent some Christmas presents for them and they were so excited to get some mail (we also enjoyed a Christmas card from Vern and Mary, thanks) as well as a few gifts:) They did not want to leave when it was time to go, so I'll say they must have enjoyed their Christmas visit. I hope each one of you had a wonderful Christmas too. God Bless You!
Anita
P.S. If you are reading this I want to wish a very happy birthday to my special friend, Julie Wildschut today! I love you Julie!

Beautiful New Arrival

Okay, so I don't know what I was talking about in the last post. Yesterday, Beautiful Gate had the pleasure of receiving another Child of God into our care. He arrived around 4PM and I dare say that he is probably not more than a few days old. He was found at a mall in Maseru, when someone saw a shopping bag move on it's own. After looking in the bag, the person found this beautiful baby boy! Anita and I have been in that shopping mall a couple of times already. I don't think that we can go back to that mall without watching every corner and bag anymore. We are sad that his mother has made this choice, but we are happy that he was found and brought to Beautiful Gate. We look forward to watching him grow and hopefully be adopted soon into a loving family. Who knows what he will be when he grows up? Only God knows. Mercy has already asked if he could be her brother.....but she quickly followed that with asking to have 10 just like him. :)
Please pray for him and any other abandoned children in Lesotho. We pray that they may be found quickly and brought to safety. And, that they may be united with their forever family as quick as possible.
Bryan

Beautiful Gate Update

Well, we have been here for 16 days (including today) and our family has been blessed to see 4 kids leave into loving homes. We will be witnessing our third official farewell adoption send off today. And one other family was found and came to pick up their child. I was blessed by being able to help with the farewell ceremony on Monday, as Ray was not able to make it to Beautiful Gate that day. So, I filled in for Ray. There is nothing like "trial by fire". I hope that I did a good job filling in for Ray. Today, I will have the same opportunity as Ray is taking a well deserved Christmas break.

We have also not had any new kids dropped off at Beautiful Gate, which is a blessing! But, I am afraid that January will be a crazy month. Most of Lesotho shuts down from mid December to January for Christmas break. So, I think that the department of Social Welfare is probably at a skeleton crew and will all be back after the new year. But, we will be prepared and love any child that comes through our gates.

We also have had the pleasure of meeting other missionaries here in Africa. Jim and Josephine Zylstra have joined us at Beautiful Gate for the week to tour Lesotho. For those of you at Haven CRC, you will recall that Haven sponsors them through CRWRC as well in their work in Uganda. What a small world! It has been great to see some familiar faces and also be able to show them around Maseru yesterday.

Last Friday, Anita and I were able to witness a new family meeting their child for the very first time. There were many tears of joy and it was such a blessing to see! The only way that I could explain it was when each of my children were born. The very first time that you get to hold your child and nothing else in the world even matters or even exists. That was what they were like. The rest of the room ceased to exist. We could only watch in amazement! I don't think they took their eyes off their new son for the rest of the day! Today is the farewell ceremony for that family. Please pray that their new family will adjust well and that the Lord will fill their lives with love and peace!

We have also been able to locate our home schooling supplies. We have to do one or two more steps yet, but hope to have the supplies by January. This has been an answer to prayer, and now that we know the steps, should make future purchases much easier. Please pray that we receive the supplies soon. They kids are doing well, but having a structured school day could be very helpful. Plus, they have had a long enough Christmas vacation (Nov 20 - Dec 31). We have been working on some reading with the kids and Elijah does have a math book along. But, having all the supplies will make Anita's job much easier.

Please pray that our house in Zeeland will rent soon. It is a tough time to rent as Christmas is a time that no one wants to move. But, we know that God will provide. If you know of anyone, please send them to Corey at Cornerstone Real Estate Management.
Also, please pray for our banking situation. We are having issues trying to transfer funds, but hope to have that resolved in the next week.

Thanks again for all your love, prayers and support. We miss you all!
Bryan

God's Message

As only God can do, He has turned our disappointed and frustration around today into joy and peace. Nothing has changed in the area of school supplies or banking issues, but we had a good service at church today that went straight to our hearts. The sermon was about Joseph and Mary and the struggle they must have endured with people questioning why he married her even though she was with child and people may have shamed and shunned Mary for her pregnancy outside marriage. The pastor pointed out that it took 30 years for Joseph and Mary to even begin to understand what God had planned. 30 years of questioning looks and 30 years of wondering what did it really mean to be the parents of God's Son.

Then the pastor took an unexpected turn and began to talk about what God has called each of us to do and asked whether or not we are obeying that call. He walked around the congregation and started saying things like has he called you from being a teacher into adopting 10 children from Africa, has He called you from being a regular pilot into being a pastor pilot, and then when he was standing near us (and we have never been to this church and he does not know our story), and said, 'has He called you from being an accountant into being a youth care worker'. My eyes welled up with tears and it was like a message straight from God. He has called us here and we obeyed His call. Why are we disappointed? Why are we not trusting Him for every detail? Why do we have doubts? It was as if we were meant to be there this morning because the message was just for us :)

He went on to talk about what would have happened if Joseph would have refused to marry Mary or what if he decided to not go to Egypt when the angel told him to take Mary and Jesus. Egypt was a foreign land. He had no connections, no family, and no friends and he just had to go for the safety of Jesus who wasn't even his own son (through blood anyway). I have joked a few times with a friend of mine who really did not want me to leave and I told her that I have to come to Lesotho because I don't want to be swallowed by a whale or carried away by an enormous eagle, but in all honesty God has a plan for each and every one of us and we need to just trust His plan and obey it because you never know who you are meant to touch or lead to Christ (it could be just one person or a whole group of people). We needed the reminder and I am sure we will need plenty more in the next 5 years. Thanks you so much for helping us be here and being our encouragement because we KNOW God wants us here right now.

I have some cute little kids to go play with 3 of my own and about 30 others :)
Have a blessed Sunday,
Anita

Disappointed

Well... The kids and I were anxiously awaiting Friday because our homeschooling supplies were suppose to arrive on Thursday and then Mae Sue would hopefully be bringing some on them on Friday morning. Well Mae Sue came, but not with our school supplies. They are stuck in customs and we need to receive a fax with a detailed description of what is in the boxes and then we have to pay R1700 to get them out of customs. I guess the Geurink Safari class will be postponed until January :(. I knew that our container was going to get stuck in customs, but I did not expect our school supplies to get stuck there too.

I think what has been disappointing us the most is how hard it is to get anything done while here in Lesotho. We had difficulty opening our Lesotho bank account and after 2 days of waiting in lines and getting all the correct paperwork, we opened an account. Now, we tried to transfer money from our American account to our African account, but it won't work because our African routing number only has 6 numbers instead of 7. We can't talk to anyone because we are in Africa and we have been getting the run around on email from our bank! I am beginning to see why everything takes longer to get done in Africa because this has been quite the hassle. I know everyone says TIA=This is Africa and I guess I now know why they say that. I guess my other advice is- there is always a hidden cost too in Africa so be prepared to pay extra for a lot of things (our bank account here is one where you have to pay to deposit and withdrawl money, crazy).

Sorry to do a little blog venting, but Bryan and I have been a little stressed out by some of these details and could use a little prayer while we wait to get them figured out. God is in control and tells us not to worry because He will take care of the details of our lives and we just need to remember that.