Newsletter December 2017


HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018!

Dear Ones, 

We send many happy and heartfelt greetings from Texas. We have had our first CHRISTMAS family reunion in 17 years...where we are all together! What a joy and what a tremendous blessing. We hope you have all been able to likewise celebrate a wonderful and heartwarming Christmas. We also want to thank each of you for the year that passed. Together we have been able to impact many lives and bring many hope, love and encouragement as well as a new outlook on life!

Family Reunion:



In front of the tree with our precious daughters, granddaughters, son-in-law and the family dog!


We went for an outing to San Antonio, about an hour’s drive away, and saw the famous Alamo and went on the beautiful River Walk!

Bringing Christmas Cheer:


Visiting Sir Lowry’s Pass with a loaded van before our trip!


A special big THANK YOU to SA Sweetlands who assisted us with sweet for 300 goodies bags for the children of the village.




 Here we are with some of the volunteers from the soup kitchen. Altogether we distributed 35 gift cards with the value of R 300 ea.


We were also able to bless numerous families with delicious ducks for their Christmas celebration!


Here are the sweets for goodiebags for 300 children in 7 daycare centers in Sir Lowry’s Pass, sorted and ready to be delivered. 



Time did not allow for us to present the bags ready-made. (Seen above is a sample of the bags.)

Fellowship:


Christiaan leading our last united fellowship before our Family Reunion, and preparing to fill the gap.


Philip and Emily called in several groups of children from the street to pray for and encourage them.



 As usual the Lord provided a nice meal for all. Here we are serving Bonnie Chows, which Christiaan brought. Thank you Christiaan! For desert there was ice cream and cookies!





There was also plenty of sandwiches for the children in the street. 

Family Sweets:


Making Christmas sweets with our youngest granddaughter (middle) and her friend.


Baking ‘klejner’ a Danish Christmas cookie that is twisted through the middle to form a ‘knot’ and deep fried like a doughnut.


Christmas morning—the children enjoying the traditional hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy sugar cane! Relatives of our son-in-law came over as well and we enjoyed a lovely time of fellowship!

In closing we again want to thank you for the year that passed. We eagerly anticipate the year to come as we pursue all that the Lord has laid on our hearts: Opening our own Bible school in Sir Lowry’s Pass, following up on a empowerment program, while continuing to seek to improve living conditions, provide basic needs such as food, clothing, hygiene supplies, etc.

Until then we wish you all the best and pray that you may be rested and refreshed for the great things ahead for you in the new year and that all your dreams may be fulfilled!

With much love and appreciation,


Philip and Rita.


HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018!












Newsletter November 2017

Dear Ones,
          We hope you are all well, looking forward to entering the festive season, that reminds us all to rejoice in the Lord and remember His great goodness towards us! “God is not unrighteous forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister”, and we want to THANK YOU for the wonderful teamwork throughout the year. 

TEACHING:

Together we rejoice at the fruit it has born in new people coming to the Lord, believers, being established in the faith, lives being changed and new hope and courage being born in the hearts of many. In the photos below are pictured some of our Bible study groups. Because we have grown we are now meeting at Emily’s Play School 3 times a week in order to ample space to accommodate everyone that would like to participate. In the first photo Andrew Wommack is teaching on Ä Better Way to Pray (via DVD), then, Philip is teaching on how to avoid some common pitfalls, and in the last picture Rita is teaching a course called “Open Bible” which provides guidelines and pointers on how the study the Bible and how to avoid taking Scripture out of context, etc. -- This month one of our students was also baptized, with two more to go!






HOME IMPROVEMENTS:

House improvements are continuing. In the picture above is K.’s floor which is almost done. The old wooden floor was broken up and tiles are now being laid. K’s living conditions are being completely transformed from what they were. Next she is receiving a new mattress and a sleeper couch for her living room. There are also plans of painting the dark walls white, hanging curtains, etc.— In the photo below is the new bathroom of the brick house we recently put up. This month the plumbing, which was a big job, was more or less completed (In the new year we hope to provide a geyser, which then will need to be installed) meanwhile the family has been tiling the bathroom stall.  — As seen the wall still needs to be repaired, etc but many big improvements have been made for this family that were all living in a small shack. Thank you to all of you who directly or indirectly are helping us helping others!




SUPPLIES:

We were overjoyed when the Lord miraculously provided approximately 400 kg of chocolate ice-cream. It came at a perfect time for Christmas and was distributed to 4 soup kitchens (3 of them for children) and 8 kindergartens as well as to private families! A wonderful blessing to many!





100 liters of milk was distributed to the kindergartens and the main kitchen. Joyce’s soup kitchen also got 25 liters of cooking oil just in time for the Christmas celebrations. A bakkie full of clothes, which we received from our precious Gracelife family, was shared out as well, plus the twice weekly food pick-up from Woolies and @ 60 kg of bread and crackers which was received from Dis-Chem.






HOME STRETCH ON CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS:
We want to thank all of you who helped us with gift cards/and or the funds towards it. We are presently busy writing Christmas greetings, which will include a wonderful message about our “Man of Love” and all He has done for us. We are happy to have been able to start early as we along the way are being reminded of yet another needy soul...But we rest assured that no one will be overlooked and that the joy of the Lord will be spread abroad in all of our hearts.


           We still hope to do something special for the children in the kindergartens and will let you know more about that next month.


In closing we want to wish you all a joyous Christmas season and to encourage you to take time to  spend time with the One that it is all about! Enjoy!


,

 By Shayne B. Holesgrove


Christmas is a time of celebrating the miraculous birth of Jesus and all that this means to us. It’s easy to get caught up in the Christmas hype and the consumerism, but I want to encourage you to join me over the next few days as we reflect on the birth of Jesus and prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus this Christmas.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”Isaiah 7:14 NKJV

This prophecy from Isaiah foretold the virgin birth of Jesus 700 years before it happened. This verse is quoted in Matthew chapter 1 in the account of Jesus’ birth:
“So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”Matthew 1:22-23 NKJV
This is supernatural: a virgin will conceive! This is not normal; virgins don’t usually get pregnant but it was an essential part of Jesus coming to save us.
“When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. His sin spread death throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for all sinned.”Romans 5:12 TLB

Through Adam, sin entered into the world and became part of every person’s inheritance. From Adam onwards, every person born would be born with a sinful nature, except for Jesus.
“Mary asked the angel, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of God shall overshadow you; so the baby born to you will be utterly holy—the Son of God.”Luke 1:34-35 TLB

God’s Holy Spirit placed Jesus inside Mary’s womb, and that meant that Jesus was born perfectly righteous and holy; He didn’t have Adam’s genes. It was essential that Jesus was born without a sinful nature so that He could save sinful man.
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”Matthew 1:21-23 NKJV