by Jessica Hughes | Mar 8, 2017 | Uganda
Today is International Women’s Day, and as it happens, it is also the time for intramural football (soccer), in which the various faculties play each other.
Someone remembered and announced in chapel that I have “ever supported” the theology football team with water and glucose, so my patronage of the football team continues.
Sadly, we lost last week, so I made a point of telling my students that what I wanted as a gift for Women’s Day was a win. I told them several times, so they would know that I was serious.
They did not disappoint.
Now I have to think of an incentive for Saturday’s match!
Continue reading Women’s Day gift at Here I Am.
by Johann and Louise Vanderbijl | Mar 7, 2017 | Health, South Africa
A friend of ours, whom we respect and whose opinion we hold in high regard, recently introduced Louise and myself to a group of strangers as “kind of rock stars in Anglican missionary circles”. My first reaction was: YIKES! What will these people think when they actually get to know us? My natural tendency is to wrestle Paul for first place as chief of sinners…not as a rock star!
Of course, as missionaries, it is wonderful to have friends who serve us as our “champions” and who see us through lenses so vastly different from our own. We are grateful for those who make us and our ministry known to others, because they see something of value in what the Lord is doing in and through us. But rock stars?
I jokingly chided him for the undeserved title and he responded in good humor, but pointed out in all seriousness that in the Kingdom we should all be rock stars because Jesus is worth it. Serve Him with everything you’ve got to give. If that be the case, then yes and amen! We are quite happy to rock on!
As you know, Louise and I have been driving around a few States visiting our family, many old friends, making many new friends, preaching and speaking in churches and small groups…and now we are at St Christopher Camp and Conference Centre…still networking, but also enjoying the Lord and His beautiful creation in this part of His world. We hear our Lord saying to us, “Come aside and rest a while…”
There is a cross here that means a lot to us, as it was here that our Lord first called us back into the mission field…a special place…a thin place…and He continues to speak and lead and guide.
Of course we are anxious to return to the field. Our team at “Growing the Church” has written to ask when we are coming back as there are many in the 28 Diocese who are ready to begin with the Discipleship course…a course designed to disciple others to disciple others to disciple others. As we will be working in seven different southern African countries, this ministry is massive and has the ability to reach thousands.
But here’s the rub: we still need to raise more support before we can return. Would you pray with us? If you haven’t already, would you help us by signing up as a financial supporter? Please ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in this…we desire His blessing as much as yours.
SAMS-USA has said that, based on the cost-of-living guidelines for Southern Africa, our monthly financial need over the full length of term will be $6,295.50. We will also need about $20,000 for our vehicle and transport fund as we will be travelling quite a bit to six different countries…of course, we will have to sail to St Helena. J
Every penny counts…every penny…
We still have a number of stops to make before we can return, but we are praying for a return date in early April.
OR…make checks out and send them to:
SAMS-USA
P. O. Box 399
Ambridge, PA 15003
Please be sure to clearly state that the check is intended for Johann and Louise van der Bijl.
If you wish to support our vehicle/travel fund, do so via check only and write in the memo line: van der Bijl vehicle fund
We are grateful for the role you play in our lives and in the lives of those we serve. We pray for you regularly and appreciate you very much.
As always, we are only an email away…please write to us should you have any questions or concerns.
Every blessing and tons of love.
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Johann and Louise van der Bijl
by SAMS-USA | Mar 7, 2017 | Gap Year
We are pleased to introduce to you Nate and Erika Twichell, new SAMS-USA Missionaries and the directors for the Anglican Global Missions Partners (AGMP) Agape Year program, a gap year program for recent high school graduates. Learn more about them:
From Nate:
God doesn’t always take the most direct route. The past three years have proven this fact to our family. Shortly after meeting, we both shared our desire to partner with God’s mission in reaching every tribe, nation, and tongue. We hoped God would lead us to do this together, but we weren’t sure what it would look like. We’re two different people with different gifts. How could God use us together to do infinitely more than we could ask for or imagine? God took an interesting route in bringing us to this next step we’d like to share with you. Through seminary, unemployment, a gnarly job search, rewarding work found, God led the way. It was hard at times to trust He had us in His good hands. And, then His hand led us even further along, further into that vision He gave us early on and has been our heart’s prayer.
From Erika:
For both Nate and me, Agape Year has been a great teacher for hopeful anticipation. Five years ago, Nate and I met on St. Nicholas Day and shared a call to mission. One year ago, we accepted the call to start and direct Agape Year from the Anglican Global Mission Partners. Often we stand in wonder of how God has heard our prayers. Often we are caught in dismay, knowing it is only through His grace we are sustained. His grace has kept us while we are developing partners and the program and living our daily life of full-time work and child rearing. This year we’ve seen God bring His vision into greater formation and anticipate seeing it more fully fleshed out this year. So, we enter this season undergirded with grace and walking in faith.
In faith, we are accepting applications for Fall of 2017 to be our first cohort. Please pass along this application to 18-21 year olds you think God may be leading to participate.
Nate will be leaving his job at Trader Joe’s so we can give our full attention to this program. We currently have 45% of monthly support raised, but are still in need of $3000 per month in support. Would you join us? Would you help us connect to others who God may be calling to be a part of Agape Year? Praise be to God, He has provided what we need for our start up costs. We stand amazed.
Original content by Nate and Erika Twichell. Follow their blog posts here.
How you can get involved:
Prayer! Tons of peace and wisdom as we seek to bring Agape Year to reality
Financial support! We’re in need of $3000 of monthly support to continue to be sustainable as full-time directors of Agape Year
Participants! We’ll be in the D.C. area mid March and South Carolina early April with the hopes of recruiting both participants and supporting churches. We’d love to meet up with you or appreciate any connections you think would be helpful!
SAMS Missionaries and Agape Year Directors
by Chuck and Bonnie Milliken | Mar 6, 2017 | SAMS Missionaries, South East Asia, Thailand
MONDAY, March 6, 2017
Yesterday I wrote a long blog with several pictures and then found that only part of it, a small part, got posted. My mistake, I’m sure, so I’ll be more careful today.
So far, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. We live in a busy area, very crowded with tiny restaurants and other small stores lining the streets. Since we are located next to an ENORMOUS university–I don’t yet know how many students there are–which is really several campuses strung together, there are naturally students everywhere also and their favorite mode of transportation is motorbikes which line the streets. Mostly, we just walk in the streets because the sidewalks are crowded with “stuff” from the stores and restaurants spilling out onto them. There is a large, open air food court close by and we have sampled from the array of street food on offer. I will send some photos of that when I have a collection.
Everyone we have met has been so friendly and helpful but most have very little English. I find, once again, that people can generally get basic information across even when they don’t share the same language. I went to the 7 Eleven (yes, there are many here!) yesterday to try to find a card reader for my new camera. Two employees immediately came to help me when they saw me looking at each one they had. when it turned out they didn’t have one that would work for me, the young clerk led me out of the store and a couple of blocks away to a store that could help me. I couldn’t believe that. So nice.
Fr. Lee and others with the church have also been more than helpful. Serene, another temporary missionary (although she is about a third of the way through a year’s mission) from Singapore, has been so good to us. She lives two doors down the hall. She took us to a major shopping center on Saturday and we picked up a few things for our new digs. A shower curtain with a tension rod was one purchase as our tiny bathroom has a European-style shower–a shower head in the corner of the room which means everything in the whole room gets wet when you shower.
TUESDAY, MARCH 7,2017
I am having technological difficulties and cannot currently send any photos so hope to resolve that somehow today. It is frustrating because I have so many pictures I wanted to share. But, I’m posting anyway and will catch up with the pictures as soon as I can.
Yesterday was our first day to teach. For the first session, four students showed up. We observed Serene teaching and also participated. I really enjoyed the students who are eager to learn, friendly, and respectful. Afterwards the students hung around to talk for a long while and play board games. They seem to enjoy that a lot. They went out to get some dinner, brought it back, and we all ate together.
The Cornerstone Student Center where we teach is just across the street from us and there is a little “living room” there which is used as a second classroom when needed. We can use it to hang out in when we want so we don’t have to just sit in desk chairs in our room. It also has a washer which I will put to use soon. There are no dryers so I will bring everything back here to dry on our balcony.
Hopefully, I will have some photos the next time I post.
Sa Wat Dee Ka
by David and Mary Beth | Mar 6, 2017 | Belize
So instead of writing a regular update today I decided to go a different route and tell you what it’s like visiting different people’s houses every week … Which means a few less pictures, sorry! I was talking to a friend just last week about how different it is going to someone’s house here verses in the States. For instance, when I was living in California and wanted to go over and see a friend I would call and we would setup a day and time to see each other. Here in Belize we visit people three days a week in the afternoon and evenings. All it takes to go see someone is to show up at their house, shout, “Good evening,” and then we are typically invited in to visit with the family. Sometimes we do call ahead and make sure the family will be home in the evening, but most of the time it’s more spur of the moment. I think that is one of the qualities of Belize that I’ve come to really appreciate. People here are readily welcoming and happy to have us come visit.
I’m going to tell you about two different visits we have done recently that have stuck out to me.
A few weeks ago we went to Georgeville just to walk around and see who we ran into for visits. As we were talking to one gentleman these two boys from St. Hilda’s school ran up, all excited, and asked us to come to their house to visit their mother. We were happy to go and so they led us back along the path to their house, running ahead to hide behind bushes, shouting for us to keep up, and finally dashing up the steps to their home shouting to their mother that, “Father David is here!!” We knew the boys already, just from school, but we had never gone to visit their home. Their mom was happy to have us come in and visit with her, but her excitement was nothing compared to the boys. In pretty much every home we visit I enjoy talking with the family and getting to know people better, but what made this home stand out to me were these two boys. Right when we came into their home they played hosts. We were talking to their mother and one boy ran up and asked if we liked coffee (he’s maybe 9 years old), and then he ran back into the kitchen to try and make some. He would then run back out with a can of food that he was trying to open so we could eat. As he was out talking to us we watched as his little brother snuck back into the kitchen, grabbed a large spoonful of sugar and stuffed it into his mouth before running back out to keep asking us questions. These kids were excellent hosts, and extremely adorable … as well as having excess amounts of energy! Their mother, a very friendly woman, told us how much her sons loved the chapel services at school and how they actually remembered the different subjects and would come home talking about them with her. Her son then ran out with his Bible and wanted to read one of the passages David had covered weeks before in chapel. The boys wanted us to pray with them, read more Bible stories, and sing songs from church. They did not want us to leave! After we had prayed and said goodnight to everyone one of the boys came up to me asked me, “Can you sing me that one song from church that goes something something something something something something and sounds really pretty?” I laughed and said, “I’m sorry, I’m not sure which one that is.” To which he replied, “Just sing every beautiful song you know from church really fast.” It was so cute! Sadly I did not have time to sing him every pretty song I knew as it was now well past sunset and time to go. It was fun to unexpectedly visit a family’s home we had never been to that not only had really cute kids, but a family where the kids primarily wanted to talk about things they learned in chapel. This visit was one of those encouraging ones where I really felt like we were getting to know these people and making a difference in the little boys’ lives.
Now every week we go on lots of visits, with some being good and some being really hard. The visit I just told you about was fun and easy. We got to know the family better and spend time with these kids outside of the school setting. But this past week has been one with very hard visits. We have visited a few people this week with very sick children. I didn’t know you could love kids you just met so quickly, but this week proved that you could! I’m just going to tell you about one of the boys today, but please pray for both.
Last week we were asked to go to Cristo Rey Village and visit a sick little boy from St. Andrew’s school. We hadn’t met the family before, but we went to their house right away to pray for him. When we got there the little boy was curled up on the couch and clearly very sick. As David talked with the parents I started to make silly faces at the boy. His fever would come and go in the evenings and as it started to fade he began making faces back at me. Eventually he got up and came over to me and we played for the rest of the evening. This kid is a pro at making silly faces. He would make one and then instruct me to copy him exactly, to which I apparently did not do correctly because he would repeat it over and over saying I still didn’t have it quite right! He then went back to his room and grabbed his book of truck stickers and then proceeded to plaster my body with lots of stickers. He told us all about how he missed school and so he decided to throw a party the next day (to the “oh reallys” of his parents) so we and all his school friends could come and eat lots of food and then spend the night in the living room. He then informed us that we would of course all have to sweep the house after as it wouldn’t be fair for his mother to clean at his party! He was full of ideas and plans to see all his friends again soon. He didn’t want us to leave ever and kept making sure we knew not to leave when he would leave the room for a minute. At the end of the evening when we were going to pray for him David anointed his head and when his mom went to brush his hair back after the boy panicked and said, “Don’t touch! That is where the special stuff is!” It was very important to him! This little boy won my heart so quickly!
After a couple days we went back to visit the boy and his family again. Right when we walked in the door, after giving us big hugs, he looked at me and said, “I know what you want!” He then ran out of the room to get his stickers and cover me again! After talking and playing for awhile the boy then informed everyone that he was going to marry me. David turned to him and said, “I’m sorry but she’s already married to me!” This did not convince the kid. He said he was going to build me a house and plant lots of flowers around it so we could get married. David informed him that those were fighting words, to which he laughed and then replied very seriously to me, “If you don’t marry me I’m going to take back all the stickers!” A very serious threat! Well, he finally settled with marrying our daughter if he couldn’t have me. Ha! He was so funny!
The next time we visited he immediately gave me a sticker (I think that’s a thing now), and we continued playing a talking for the hour or so that we were at their house. He even called us yesterday to say goodbye before going off to the doctors. While we could barely understand him on the phone, (he’s a rapid speaker!) it was a very cute gesture!
It’s hard telling you about that last little boy. While I’ve only known him for a week and half so far, he’s already, as David calls him my “little buddy.” It’s hard telling you about him because while I had so much fun visiting with him I know he is very sick: acute leukemia at eight years old. While I would play with stickers, make silly faces, and run around the house, David would sit with his parents and discuss his sickness, treatment, side effects, doctors, and every hard and horrible detail of what’s going on with this little boy. I got to grow attached to a very lively little boy full of stories and games, who, other than a few moments of clear sickness or pain during our visits, was otherwise ignorant of what lies ahead of him. David got to sit and comfort grieving scared parents and look over test results.
It’s hard to tell you about this. It’s hard because if I just left out the leukemia part it would look like another story of a cute little boy and an otherwise good visit with a very friendly family. But sometimes the visits we make here are hard. It’s never, ever easy to see sick children. I’ve been so angry this week at the sickness all around us. How incredibly unfair it seems to see children suffer. I already said I’m only telling you about one sick boy, but this has been a week of life threatening sickness with lots of people here in town. I don’t know why these things happen, but I do know God is still in control. We’ve already seen answers to prayers just this week with my “little buddy” getting admitted to chemotherapy faster than expected! While it has been really hard to love these families so quickly and then see them hurting, I’m happy God put us in a place where we can get to know them, pray for them, and minister to them in these difficult times.
So that’s just quick look at what our visits are like here in Belize. Sometimes our visits are just happy and encouraging, like the first one, and sometimes we visit families that we instantly love and still grieve with during incredibly hard times.
Please be praying for the sick here in San Ignacio. There are three families that we visited this week who are scared and need prayers for healing and peace.
Thank you for continuing to pray for David and me too!
