A New Care Center

While we were on furlough, there were countless times we were asked what happens when you have a child at Beautiful Gate that is over the age of 5. Our answer has been that we do our very best (or should I say our social worker does her very best) to get the children reunified to an appropriate family member or we try to get them adopted either locally or internationally. In a few instances, these options just do not work. Since I have been here, we have only transferred 3 children out of our facility. One to another care center where he had some siblings and two to foster care (which is not really set up well in this country yet). All others we have held onto longer than their 5 years until they have been adopted.
Unfortunately, we have several children who are over the age of 5 and have reasons that they are unable to be cleared for adoption or because of their age (7 and 8) and special needs they have not been matched after several times of being in a matching meeting. It is painful to realize that our care facility cannot provide what these kids need. They need a mother who can care for them, help them with school work and meet their growing emotional needs. Our house mothers are very busy working with all the infants and toddlers in their homes that the needs that our older children have are having to be overlooked, not by choice or lack of caring but by lack of time.
While Bryan and I were away on furlough, plans have been worked out through a local church and a local ministry which has a good relationship with Beautiful Gate and they are opening a care center focused on children 6-18 years old. They are working very hard in trainings and getting their home ready for some children and will be opening officially next week. 4 of our children will be transferring into this new care center. Benno (who took over for us while we were on furlough) has been working with them to help this transition to go very smoothly and has some plans for visitations in the next few days so they can meet their new mother and see their new home.
We are excited to have another wonderful care center that we can trust to give the same quality care to our children. We are sad for them that they will never be adopted into a family of their own, but we trust God that He will help this new mother to be the mother that can meet all their needs physically, emotionally and most importantly spiritually.

Safely home to Lesotho

We made it home to Lesotho late Friday afternoon! Yeah!!! We had some fun adventures as usual to get here. Our first 2 flights were delayed, but thankfully we were able to catch our connections. In Chicago we were told that our (Bryan and I) carry-ons were too big for Lufthansa so we had to do some serious reshuffling so that none of our electronics or other expensive items were in the 2 we needed to check because they refused to gate check them and had them checked all the way to Jo burg and last time that happened we had things stolen from our luggage. We got that sorted and then got to Germany for our 7 hour layover. We did some sleeping and walked around the airport as we waited and then 1 hour before our flight, Bryan took our tickets to the counter to make sure everything was in order and we were told that we would not be allowed to get on our flight to Jo-burg because we did not have a Visa. We have always flown into Maseru before and since we had no proof that we would be driving to Lesotho (despite our Lesotho Visa's) we were not trusted to fly to Jo-burg.
We did not know what to do and so Bryan and I circled up our kids and I prayed about our situation. We did not want to have to purchase tickets to Maseru because it is way to costly for our family of 5, but we did not want to be stuck in Germany either, so we prayed for God to make a way. Immediately after our prayer, Elijah said, "Don't worry we will be on our flight because God says that whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:240." I had to agree with his reasoning and 10 minutes later, Bryan went back to the desk and they worked out a way for us to buy refundable tickets out of Jo-burg in February so we could get into Jo-burg and then all we had to do was cancel the tickets at the Lufthansa counter at the Jo-burg counter (we did all the steps involved so we are praying for no problems in the cancelling and refund of our tickets). Now we know a lot more information in case we ever desire to fly through Jo-burg again and it only applies if you have no flights out within the next 90 days so it does not effect short term teams, volunteers or adoptive families, so now we know :)

Now we are getting settled into our home again and we have had the chance to listen to some of our staff trilling and shouting in happiness of our return as well as hugging all the staff, hugging and kissing all the children and playing in playgroup yesterday. I missed it so much and it feels so good to be a part of the Beautiful Gate team again. A massive thanks goes out to Benno and Wendy who helped in the day to day running of Beautiful Gate along with Kristen. The 3 of them did so many good things for the staff and kids while we were away and we have come home to find everything in good order. I thank God for volunteers like them who made it possible for us to have a furlough.

Send Off Service

On Sunday night we had a very special "send off" service at Haven CRC our home church. We have had two opportunities to share at church about our experiences in Lesotho and also on furlough and Sunday night was a time to just get together and share a meal. We had a pot luck and I brought along some papa and chakalaka for any brave souls who were willing to try new food (African food). Then Bryan and I were able to share about Beautiful Gardens and about our furlough and to have a time to thank our church family. They have been so supportive over the last 3 years and Bryan and I are so blessed to be a part of such a loving church.

Our pastor shared some verses and then each table shared communion together. It was a great way to spend time together, remembering why we do what we do and remembering God who gives us His strength through His beloved son Jesus who gave up everything for us. When we stop and think about all that Jesus has done for us, it is always a good reminder that what we are doing is nothing compared with what He gave up for us.

We finished off the night by singing my favorite new song Great I AM and then they circled around us, laid hands on us and prayed for us. I thank God for all this love and support from our church family and it was the perfect way to be sent off to do God's work over in Lesotho. We are not worthy of the call we have been given, but God is always there equipping us and giving us His strength.

Today is our final day in America. It is hard to believe how fast the time has gone. I feel sad to leave those I love, but I feel eager to reconnect with our Beautiful Gate staff and kids that I love. Doing mission work is such a strange mix of happy and sad with all the hellos and good-byes but God will keep giving us just what we stand in need of.

Here is a link to the Great I AM song on youtube if anyone wants to listen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9yWgU8SZa8

Cheerful Givers

I have read the verse in 1 Corinthians 9:7 many times before, it says, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
But, I have never truly seen it done before in quite the way I saw it done last Friday evening. A fundraiser was put together for the Beautiful Gardens project by a couple of special women, Pam and Mary, at Graafschap CRC church. They had a lot of helpers and put together an evening where we all rode in an airplane to Lesotho, Africa to help build a house for Beautiful Gardens. There were skits, music, exercise, and so much more. To be honest it was so funny at times, I along with a few other people, was literally crying. I could never pull off something like that so I am thankful that God has gifted so many people with the ability to bring laughter and fun to a fundraiser.

Here are a few photos from the evening...

Our beautiful angelic hosts for the evening, aka the top flight attendants who did many funny skits along with organizing the fundraiser. These ladies are so much fun!

Yep, Captain Bryan flew our plane to Africa. He did go a little off script on occasion to show his own good humor.

Apparently I have been living in Africa too long because I have never seen a tummy whistler skit before. I was crying from laughter. I will not disclose who the whistlers were though :)

Elijah got to join his buddies Jesse and Shelby for an in flight exercise routine.

As we closed the night, I reflected on how much joy had been shared throughout the evening. It means so much to me that despite the lighthearted atmosphere of the evening, every person there knew that they were there because of the orphans at Beautiful Gate. The money that they put into their envelopes would be going to be used to help in the care of orphans across the ocean through a building project,  and I got to sit back as people pulled out their checkbooks with smiles on their faces. I saw real cheerful giving and I learned something new about being a cheerful giver that night. Doing God's work is joyful, I should always give with a smile and with gratitude in my heart! Thanks again Graafschap Church. 

The goal was to raise $40,000 so they could build one house, but actually the number they announced at church on Sunday morning was $127,000, enough for 3 houses. You just can't beat God's giving!



 

What faith can do through an 11 year old!

When I went to Lesotho for the first time in 2009, my team was lead by my friends Keith and Lori Kroll. They had lived in Lesotho for 5 months with their 3 children a few years before our trip. During that time, their 5 year old daughter was impacted a lot by Beautiful Gate and by Lesotho. She has made an incredible video and tells her story in a way which is honest and real. She is working toward a goal of raising some funds to help build a rental home at Beautiful Gardens as a way of supporting the children and staff of Beautiful Gate. Please take some time to click on this link and watch her video and prayerfully consider your role in helping her reach her goal! Thank you Morgan for showing us all what faith can do and for having faith to move a mountain, or in this case build a house!


http://www.youcaring.com/nonprofits/one-brick-at-a-time/75564

I may not have done this right to make the link work, but it does work when I copy and paste it. Thanks everyone!

South Carolina and Halloween

Despite our apprehension about another road trip, our trip to south Carolina was a huge success! It was a blast for our kids as they reconnected with their cousins and I also enjoyed some time to get caught up with my sister, brother-in-law and dad again. We went hiking, to the zoo and just spent time playing together at the park and in the backyard with a big pile of leaves and it was wonderful.

The Greenville zoo was celebrating the birthday of their giraffe.

It isn't "fall" unless there is a huge pile of leaves to fall into!

The leaves wore her out :)

I felt a little inspired by the elephants so did a little reenactment in the gift shop.

 

It was also a highlight to hang out with our friends Tim and Antje as well and to see our kids all get along so well after 3 years of not seeing each other. Tim and Antje peppered us with questions about our time in Lesotho and also invited their bible study group over so we could share with them about Beautiful Gate. It was really good to answer their questions and look back at our journey thus far and it also got us more excited about going back to Lesotho. God is so good and He provided a lot of great connections and conversations during our time in South Carolina!

When we came back, we jumped right into the Halloween activities and Mercy really enjoyed her first "American" Halloween that she could remember (I have pictures to prove other years but she does not remember). We have carved pumpkins, done some face paint, and trick or treated with friends. This coming week is FULL of meetings and speaking engagements for Bryan and I as our time is winding down swiftly here in the states. We leave for Lesotho on December 4th so it is little over a month away.

On the Road...Again

I'd be telling a flat out lie to say that any of us Geurinks are excited to hit the road again for a road trip, but that is what lies ahead tomorrow. I am already having lack of minivan and DVD player regret, hahaha. I am excited, however, about getting to see my sister, brother-in-law and 3 nieces soon so despite the lack of enthusiasm for the car ride, we are all happy to be seeing more family that we haven't seen for 3 years (wow that is a long time).
We are off through the Great Smokey Mountains to South Carolina and the forecast looks pretty good for the week. It will be good for our kids to get reacquainted with their cousins through some time at playgrounds and hopefully a little hiking too.
At the end of the week, we will get to see our friends Tim and Antje who were in a bible study with us many years ago and who happen to live only about a half hour from my family (how convenient). Bryan and I will have the opportunity to share our testimony with their bible study group and about the ways God's glory has been evident during our time at Beautiful Gate, so prayers for wisdom and God's words would be appreciated. Well, off to finish packing before we hit the road!