Our MCV family enjoyed such a sweet time of God’s presence on Christmas Eve and Christmas day!  We enjoyed a special candle light service at the church on Christmas Eve.  We sang, danced, and delighted in His Holy Spirit as He burned us anew with His love!

On Christmas, we gathered together in the morning for a special time of worship and testimonies.  The kids led the worship and testimony time, which was thrilling.  Song after song, different kids would lead out and everyone would join in.  What a joy watching these precious ones loving on their Heavenly Daddy!

After testimonies, we sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and talked about the greatest gift!  After thanking God for His gift in Jesus, we called each child up individually by house.  After the kids received their gifts, we prayed for the families as a whole.  We asked the kids to wait for the end before opening the gifts, so each family could enjoy this special time together in the houses.  This was an incredible time for each family as each child raved over their new clothes and toys.  Each family also enjoyed their special Christmas meal within the MCV homes.

House of Love- Khoza Family

House of Peace- Dube Family

BackDoor Overflow- Florence and Pulane

Sitholes (staff family)

Baby House- Mauro's family and Angel (not pictured)

Teisa and kids....

Jean under surrender!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for standing with us, for sending us gifts/provision, and for praying for us!. We love you and we so appreciate your vital part in this ministry and growing family.

Blessings from your family in South Africa!

Excitement is in the air as we gear up for the biggest and best birthday of the year. Amazingly, our SA family was able to bless over 140 orphans in the Extended Kids Outreach program via eight local churches…Just today, we hand delivered gifts in BackDoor; praying for each child and home. What a joy sharing the greatest gift ever- JESUS!!! And last Friday, we hosted over 350 local kids with a Christmas program, chicken feast, and candy bags. Things got a little crazy during the feeding and giving out the gifts, but not even a small riot can stop His love from being poured out! And we cannot forget to praise God for our 20+ kids at the children’s village who soon enough will be overwhelmed by Daddy’s lavish love! Wow, wow, wow! We rejoice in His wonderful provision!

“Sing to God, sing praises to His name; extol him who rides on the clouds, by His name and rejoice before Him. A FATHER of the fatherless, a DEFENDER of widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in FAMILIES; He brings out those who are bound, in to prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.” Psalm 68:4-6

Thank you to all who have poured out your hearts in prayer and your pockets in giving so that we are able to bless abundantly these amazing treasures at the children’s village and the awesome ministries flowing out of the SA base! You are a great Christmas present to us through the love you so generously pour out. We also want to thank those of you who have specifically lifted us up to the Father on a daily or weekly basis. Without you, we could not continue being His hands and feet in Southern Africa!.

Blessings to you as you celebrate the love and joy of our Savior during this holiday season. And may the Lord pour out an abundance of His Holy Spirit and provision on you in this CHRISTmas and this upcoming New Year!!!

Family…

Jean often says, “Our family just keeps getting bigger and bigger!” Amen! Presently, we have over 20 kids and 2 babies at the children’s village and hundreds more being cared for in the feeding program, preschool, and extended outreach ministry. As the family grows, everything else seems to grow: the joys, the triumphs, the needs, the problems, etc.  As in any big family, there is never a dull moment and everyday, new adventures!

As the days go on, we are learning more and more about the beauty of God’s family. There are no orphans in God’s family. Only sons. Only daughters. Each one deeply loved and wondrously healed. With our Heavenly Daddy leading and guiding the family, we receive His full inheritance and His promises on earth as it is in heaven.  Our precious family in South Africa is not there yet…but we are in pursuit! We have seen so many orphaned children with tragic pasts come to Jesus and find healing in His presence. We have watched the orphan spirit dissolve away as a child embraces his or her place in God’s family! Just two weeks ago, as one of our newest girls was dropped off by Social Services, the social worker wrote on her intake file, “She refused to do dishes. Therefore, she was not wanted in the previous home.” What? Hounding the social worker for more details, we learned of the girl’s tragic history of sexual and emotional abuse (a little more important than not washing dishes!) Head and eyes downcast, the young girl did not want to talk at first. We watched as her new foster mother embraced her and began the process of making a genuine heart connection with the beautiful girl. Slowly, this precious, wounded young girl opened her heart. Within an hour, we saw the beauty of family at work.

We are enraptured by the splendor of God’s family–the Body of Christ. For the believer, no matter where he or she goes in the world, God has a family waiting, even more so, God has a family longing to grow! Each and every person in the Body is needed to fulfill His great command and commission (1Cor. 12:12-13; Matt. 22: 37-39, Matt. 29: 18-20).  The holidays are an amazing time to reflect about this truth. We want to encourage you to embrace this holiday season with a renewed passion for family. God has given us such an amazing, yet diverse family! In South Africa, we have so many cultures coming together- siSwati, Afrikaans, British, American, and Mozambican. Please know, you are a vital part! You are such an awesome blessing to us and we pray for you often! Until we join the greatest family reunion in heaven, may we pursue the fullness of the Father’s heart and see more and more children enter into His eternal family!!!

Blessings! We wanted to give a brief update on the past few weeks! We have 3 new kids since our last blog! Two boys were brought to us for temporary placement as a child trafficking investigation takes place. Please pray with us that the social workers and government officials will be able to find out the truth as quickly as possible. We have already fallen in love with the boys, but we want them with their real families if it is God’s will. Another young 11 year old girl came to us under interesting circumstances. Her social worker wrote on her intake form “refused to wash dishes” as the reason she was kicked out of her previous foster home. We have learned of some other extremely tragic reasons including that our precious girl is pregnant. Please pray for her and us as we walk with her during this challenging time.

Warrior baby is doing great! He has been out of the hospital for over 3 weeks! Although he still has good days and bad days, we believe he is on the road to complete healing. He started ARV’s 10 days ago. It was extremely rough on his body the first week, but he pressed through! He is now taking his medicine much better (5 days without vomiting) and being more playful. Yesterday, he played Peek-a-Boo for a long time- laughing and smiling!

We also want to praise God for some amazing visitors who have stopped by the past few weeks! We had a painting crew from AFM church led by John and Xannie who blessed our socks off by helping paint the final house. We also hosted a group of saSawati church women who came and prayed over our kids and center. This was such an amazing answer to prayer as the women also brought 3 weeks worth of food for our kids! We also hosted two dear friends from America- Samara and Becca! They have served in so many areas- from painting to treating all the kids to KFC! We are so grateful for all our extended family members who make so much possible!!!! For example, we have the most amazing servant in Holland- Jill, who continuously sends us blessings from fresh vegetables to clothes to fortified food supplements for our kids! Thank you so much friends!!! We love and bless you!