Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ.

2008 – seems to be spinning past even more rapidly than 2007. I pray you are having a fulfilling year so far.

This report back, of ministry and current developments in my life, will take a little more time and space than usual. I would love you to join me in Praise and Thanks to God for bringing me through a very challenging time.

My grateful thanks to all of you who have, and are praying for healing for my foot, who called, visited, brought food and flowers, ran errands, sent encouraging emails, nursing and caring for the wound to prevent infection. Ministering to me in so many ways. I so appreciate the love you have shown and prayer support given. – God has graciously and miraculously answered your prayers, by the miraculous healing. The Surgeon and Physiotherapist are amazed that after only 4 months I am up on my feet! Cant walk – yet – but this is helping to get the circulation going. I am up on crutches, and trying, even if the distance I manage is only from bedroom to kitchen and back!

If you see that this report is too long, please print it out, and read later at your leisure. I have including photos, for those who do not have email, hence the space to type is less, taking an extra page, but I hope the effort is worth it for you. I so wanted to share the blessing visually.

The next News/Prayer letter won’t be till around May or June, so there will be plenty of time to read it before the next one arrives!

I will also use a few headings so that you can read the bits that interest you first! 

HEALTH

The last 4 months since the accident in October, have been the most challenging in my life! I thank God for His presence as He has carried me, enabling me to cope. We all have the hectic time of year around Christmas, especially here in the Township, and God provided other wonderful folk with legs! – Who were able to meet the entire ministry needs, as well my personal described above. I literally could NOT move or care for myself, very humbling, relying totally on the Lord and His children.

Due to prayer, I have made wonderful progress, from a wheelchair, to a walker, to a crutch! The next step is now Aqua Physiotherapy, learning to move the foot in water; very pleasant while in the water, but painful once it is over.  There is still constant agonizing pain, literally all the time – learning to walk on all the screws and plates “foreign bodies” – and the ligaments to attach to the bones, pushing through scar tissue (painful). BUT, I am healing and that is what counts. I am determined to do my part and not be a baby! The next News/Prayer letter – will God willing tell of me driving too!

OCTOBER

The Youth had a very successful Camp. Two of our Sunday school teachers were leaders, and were impressed with the impressive amount of leadership skills they learned. They came back highly motivated.

I returned to my home after 2 weeks in hospital followed by 2 weeks convalescing at Mark and Cyndi’s home. Then my first week home with care from Elijah, who ran errands, watered the garden, and much more. Thanks to Heather, who organized the 10 meals from the lovely ladies of St. James Church, which helped so much.

Elijah transported our youth together with DCC help in transport to the annual visit to our Mother church, where the new baby (Siphiwo and Sino’s) was proudly welcomed. They sang a duet, much to everyone’s delight; we did not know our Pastor could sing! A boy of 8/9 years old from Sunday school thrilled the congregation by accompanying the Youth Choir on the keyboard!

NOVEMBER.

God supplied miraculous help indeed! Irene is from Australia; God spoke to her during her morning devotion and suggested she come to Cape Town to take care of me. Irene obeyed, and flew half way round the world, not without objections to the Lord, arriving 10 days later at my home! Elijah, who had cared for me after returning home (about 10days) had to leave for a Camp with SU for 2 weeks, then fly to Johannesburg, the beginning of December where he was married on the 15^th December. God’s timing is so perfect.

Irene stayed for 2 months, caring for me through the critical stage and saw me progressively be healed from a state of being unable to move, to getting into a wheelchair, then a walker – before she returned home. Leaving her with peace of mind and re assured that I would be able to cope. Praise God for her and her obedience to serve Him. We went from complete strangers to very close friends, we shared much laughter as well as hard physical and mental work and she coped! Irene is a wonderful cook and makes a good “cuppa”, Irene could not manage my Van (Kombi) as it is very long, but, did manage to learn to drive a car with gears that Mark and Cyndi loaned us while they were away in USA, on sabbatical.

Elijah helped me, by using the Van (Kombi) to attend the annual “tea” the Ladies of Eversdal Church ladies have. They do a wonderful work of collecting groceries, clothing, also pots and pans (which are always gratefully received) for the poor and needy. His charm earned him lots of cake and cookies. They even assisted him to load everything into the Van. The Van was loaded almost to the ceiling. 

Elijah helped me collect toys from Grove Primary, this year, Ursula, the teacher who does all the work of collecting from the children, contributed R750 in vouchers for toys for the AIDS orphans. Irene added to this and made it R1000. This amount was added to the amount we obtained from St. James the Less church for the AIDS orphans. We managed with the help of Lyn and Barbara (who did the shopping) to sort and grade these new toys for 216 children from 6 to 14years – boys and girls – a huge task.  There was a wonderful collection of toys from Creative friends and Lyons Club, the Young mothers, Lisa and the 2 Karen’s made up parcels. This made handing out so easy as each child took a parcel. Our wonderful Tokai Church congregation collected clothing, toys, and very useful items for the preschool.

These toys were given to the Sunday school and children in church, around 150 – 200 children total.

There were hundreds of toys we gave to the very poor street children in the area in Site B (Photo opposite) which we gave out from the pre school

This handing out took 10 of us almost FOUR hours in 30-degree heat, the children never got any less than what you see in this photo. We had to have those waiting come inside to SEE for themselves there was nothing left, very sad that so many did not receive a gift.

DECEMBER

Another “ session of “gathering the toys”- Thanks to the Italian Motorbike riders and the amazing toy run they do each year. We were privileged to get 500 soft toys from them for the street children. Daphne and her family also made up wonderful parcels for the very poor children in Site B.

All these scores of bags of toys must be sorted, in order for the handing out to go quickly, into age groups. Antionette and Mark – took a whole day helping us to sort – in sweltering heat, then repack to take in the Van (Kombi) to be handed out at Christmas to the poor and needy in Site B.

Our church at DCC did not, as usual, forget that older folk would also love a gift. All the ladies worked together one morning to make up hundreds of beautifully wrapped, for the congregation and the elderly.

St. James the Less Church in Essex England had a harvest festival service and decided to donate their collections to assist the AIDS orphans at a school I had visited the previous year. I told Guy Negus of this need, and he passed this along to his congregation. We were all overwhelmed at the outpouring of love shown by his congregation. I contacted the Principal Mr. Daniels and he said uniforms (Track suits) were the most pricy and could not be afforded by people looking after these orphans, So together with Irene, we ordered, priced by sizes for every class, age, collected and sorted and then delivered 216 track suits for the AIDS orphans – There are still an additional 89children to receive Track suits, who now attend a daughter school this year, and when we get the tracksuit colours, they will have them.

We are also getting school shoes and socks. Another mammoth task getting the sizes, but we will do it!

The funds then left will go toward other orphans in the school to get uniforms. This idea came from the teachers, saying the children needed to all wear the same clothing. This helps boost their confidence when they feel they are no different to their classmates, a great incentive. Thanks again to all those who gave so generously from St. James the less Church. May God richly bless you all?

Creative friends made up packs for the senior citizens in the Community. They also did a lot of work making up “ Education packs” of school stationery items. They made 40 for the senior youth, and 40 smaller packs for the junior Youth.  The remaining packs were handed out to our Sunday school kids

Irene helped in the organizing of all these projects. She was delighted to see them develop from start to finish, which entailed lots of hard work. Irene lost 5 kilo’s. She really needed to get back home to recuperate! Fortunately it was not all hard work, Irene managed to see a great deal of Cape Town and surrounds, and a trip to Victoria Falls and the Chobe Game Park.

Irene and I visited my church Durbanville Community Church (DCC) for the Christmas service; we stayed over with my family in Durbanville to celebration of our Saviour’s birth on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We visited other Christians for lunch on the Sunday after Christmas. On New Year’s Day my dear friends, Tyree and Ceddie, drove us to Franschoek, and treated us a delicious lunch, seated in a beautiful garden with a lake and ducks, a glorious summer’s day and quaint Restaurant, situated just outside Wellington. Praise God for loving friends and family.

JANUARY 2008

This month is set aside to prepare for a really busy year ahead. This had Irene and I hard at work preparing all the Sunday school materials, teacher’s lessons and handwork for 12 teachers.

The middle of January, the start of the school term here, a training day for the Sunday school teachers. Our new Sunday school superintendent, Lukhaya, was introduced to the teachers. I have handed the Sunday school over to their very capable hands and pray for their ongoing growth and development.

We have 3 new teachers, and hope after the First term to assess them to see how they are coping. If they can cope, we hope to open the Sunday school in Site B.

At the Teachers training day, Irene saw all our hard work being handed out to the teachers. Each teacher is given their own “Box” containing, Xhosa Bible, crayons, pencils, biscuits, sweets (for verses learned). Included in the Teachers “box” is the Teachers lesson book, containing the term’s lesson programme, with lessons, verses and visuals and handwork. The Teachers then had a week to prepare their lesson, before the Sunday school opened the following week, the first Sunday in February.

During her stay Irene made many of my wonderful friends, who were very grateful to her for looking after me for such a long time. Two months is a long time to be away from your home, and we all appreciated her sacrifice and being so obedient to God’s call We all look forward to her returning one-day soon for another – less hectic – visit!

Irene arrived safely back in Australia, much to the delight to her cat who now follows her around! Back to her swimming pool, friends and the more relaxed lifestyle.

While here Irene visited several Churches, St. James church a couple of times, St. Stephens and DCC a couple of times and of course Uyesu Unathi Community Church, in Khayelitsha, a couple of times. In this photo (below), Elijah is saying farewell to Irene in the Church service. All my friends and family were so grateful to Irene, but no one more than me!

Special thanks must go the St. Swiz and the congregation, for their wonderful support during December. Thank you for the prayer support and the support to help in costs. God has provided me with Nonzukiso, who has repented and come back to the Lord in a wonderful way. She is helping me with the house. God has also provided Armstrong, from St. Stephens Church, just around the corner from me. Any emergency, I call Lyn in the office and she comes around, God is so good in providing all my needs. I must learn to drive (when the muscles return in my legs – I have no strength to push down the pedals!)

FEBRUARY

Now, it is all systems go! The Ministers are working out the Year planner, their job descriptions and goals for 2008, with all the staff and our new Youth Minister – Elijah. His wife Nowinele should arrive soon. We are all waiting to meet her. Elijah will work with the junior youth, in age groups 14 – 16 years and 16 – 18 years – organizing camps, devotions, training, counseling and outreach to those who have left church. He is still with SU, so at present only “part time” with us. Thanks to the supporter who has contributed to support Elijah. He still needs more support.

Thanks to the supporters who continue to contribute to the support of our other 2 Ministers and their families and the huge flock God has given them.

Simphiwo and Sino and their little girl Simphiewe, are doing well. They will be involved a great deal more in Admin, Leadership Training, Cell groups and Computer courses. The next is just starting up now in Feb. with Marie Louise, Mark Thomas had now had 10 Computers sorted out to use, so slowly this is growing as well.

Thozamile will continue to be involved preaching on the radio, and other Radio broadcasts, He is also the Director of The Minister’s Fraternal and attends meetings involving all the Churches in Khayelitsha. Thozamile does Counseling, meets with the Elders and Church Council and staff meetings and Board meetings and all developments in the Church, like cell groups, and Mission outreaches with other Churches. Bongi, his wife is teaching in Sunday school and will help with the Women’s (Mammas) meetings.

PROJECTS AND CHALLENGES

Our first challenge is to complete Equipping the Kitchen. We have already have a beautiful big Gas Stove that has been donated by our friends in Germany Ellen and Manfred, who fund raise from their Church in Germany. We are presently busy securing the Kitchen with galvanized gates and spiking on the wall as well as a cage for the Gas Cylinders. The installation of all this should be completed in February.

Once this is done we need to install cupboards with a second donation from Germany. We will then operate a Soup Kitchen. We hope this is up and running by winter, in June.

The preschool remains a huge challenge, and we are leaving this in the hands of God and the Law.

Unfortunately the present tenants will have to leave, due to the unchristian behaviour, there seems no way we can now reconcile, which is extremely painful.

There have been curses made on our lives (paid a witch doctor to have us killed) put curses on the Church and us. We pray for our Holy Spirit’s restraining grace on them, and for their repentance that they may turn back to God. Greed and Mammon are very powerful sins to keep from repentance.

However, we will not allow Satan to use them to get us to loose focus on the wonderful purpose and plan has for His work and for His Kingdom.

PERSONAL CHALLENGE

To focus on fund raising for: the work, for support for the Ministers, for the completion of the Kitchen. To focus on learning to walk and to have patience and not to become frustrated, but to rest and trust in our Lord. Thank you all, for your continued support, making this Ministry possible, and a witness for our Lord, here in Khayelitsha.

God bless you. Your Missionary in Africa, Laura

PRAYER REQUESTS.

Protection against Satan’s attacks: on personal, property, vehicles, buildings, homes and families

Provision for all the Ministry needs: – for new sponsors, to cover Church, Medical/rehabilitation fees.

Building expenses, to completion of Kitchen and future plans for a Resource/Life skills centre.

Wisdom and guidance for Keith our Lawyer, and the Court case that the preschool has started.

My health, to have patience in the months ahead as I learn to walk.

Continued support for the Ministers, and more supporters to partner with us in this Ministry.

Banking Details:  ABSA Bank, Claremont Branch, Cape Town. SOUTH AFRICA. –

Khayelitsha Ministry Account Number: 9069 099 055.  (Call/Savings Account)     OR    

Uyesu Unathi Account Number:  9073 159 146 (Call/Savings Account)

For more information see webpage – www.uyesu.org.za