Closets at The Island Church overflowing...

It was time once again to distribute clothing and various household items to the Hlalane settlement.

With little ones on their backs, mothers patiently waited their turn to choose items for their children, husbands and themselves. After one trip through the line, they returned to the end of the line for one more trip through the tables. I think there was as much joy on the faces of the church volunteers as the recipients when they saw God's love meeting the simplest needs.

After the tables were empty, the children were anxious for our regular Wednesday Bible Story and a meal from the soup kitchen. Sitting in a 'boat' in the 'water' singing "My God Is So Great" we praised Jesus for helping Peter walk on water, and helping us with our impossible situations when we look at Him for help.

"My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do... for you!"

Back in school... No, not for ministry, Nathan is literally back to academic studies.

Jehovah Jirah (God - our Provider) put it in the hearts of close friends and The Island Church council to supply the finances for the 3 year programme; fulfilling Nathan's hearts desire to complete a Master's programme in Biblical Counseling.

During this hot summer, you will find him in the coolest room of the basement, reading, listening to lectures and writing papers... to prepare for the next season God has planned.

Commissioning Service for BSSM...

Challenging the audience to visualize the room (place of service) God has them in as bigger than it appears... in fact it is only limited to the restriction we put on it; it was in thes context Trevor shared his testimony. (Invited for this special occasion, Trevor & Sharon Baker from Revival Fire Ministries of UK). When Trevor met Christ he had just come from living in a 9 X 9 prison cell, and God asked him "How big is your room?" He moved from that cell of confinement into a mansion of freedom and open heart in which the Holy Spirit's power was only limited to his imagination.

Having completed their 2nd year of study at the Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry, the students were commissioned to activate their effective ministry giftings. Through a spiritual impartation, Trevor prayed for the students in order that signs and wonders would follow to ultimately lead people to salvation in Christ and initiate healing and restoration. Armed with this annointing the students were sent forth to all the nations in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Back home in Knysna with Nathan, safe-n-sound, and back to ministry!





Acclimating myself slowly to life in South Africa, I joined Nathan last week at the Hostel... had a wonderful time with returning students that I knew from last year, playing challenging thinking games when they weren't doing homework.




This week,
- taught Children's Church - the class has changed (new school year started in Jan) now teaching 18 students, but 7 of them are 4 and under! Nathan has 16 in his 13-18 yr old class!


- Back into the schools this week, with an assembly at Tembalitsha supporting Nathan as he spoke to over 900 students about the gift that their Heavenly Father has given them of their sexuality, and the importance of abstaining until the right time (marriage) to give away the gift!

















- Tomorrow will be teaching the children at Hlalane (soup kitchen) about Jesus having compassion for and healing the man with the withered hand.
- Thursday will be a meeting with Eunice at YFC to learn of my new responsibilities (changes happened while I was in the US) mostly a new program "Families Matter" which includes parenting camps (the next one is Feb 27/28).





A side note... this morning while Nathan was facilitating BSSM (Bethel Supernatural
School of Ministry) at church, I spent the whole morning chasing sugar ants... Having the uncanny nack to find any single speck of food, they have taken over the kitchen, including the fridge!!! This is now war, since I also spent yesterday wiping down every surface with bleach and spraying all know entry crevices with crawling bug spray!

TIA (This Is Africa)

Sorry, I didn'ts have any pictures of parents when I posted the blog...

Here are the proud parents

Tiffany Stobie and Johnny Saraceno

Ella McKenzie Saraceno

January 18, 2010

6 pounds 11 ounces

20 inches long

born to Tiffany Stobie and Johnny Saraceno (not pictured)

Proud Grandmother - Julianna Overmeyer

Proud Aunties & Uncle - Kirsten Stobie, Ciara and Brian Stone

Plett Christian School Assembly

(email from Nathan)

It is always a privilege to bring the Word of God to this school. With the challenge of an age range from 5 to 17

(all coming out of Christian homes and even some PK's - Pastors Kids); it is on these days that I need to be very real and humourous. Animated stories really get their attention.

The schools own worship team lead us in some cool praise and worship. My story revolved around the question "So who is my neighbor?" expanding from the Good Samaritan. Using parallel animated video clips, I concluded
with analogies relevent to their context and understanding.

Ending with prayer, I prayed for them as indivduals, as a body of students and for all staff and leadership. Both the teachers and principal conveyed their gratitude.

Probably one of my favourite schools: I think it is so because they are an easy audience even though there is a vast age spectrum.

Love Nathan

p.s. only 6 days left till you are with me in South Africa (Praise be to God!)

Parenting with

ASSURANCE...

(Nathan still busy

while I have 6 days

left in Spokane)

18 parents from Hornlee, Concordia, and Neckies communities (these are generally considered sub economic areas where crime,violence, gangs and substance abuse is surnonomous with these Knysna districts) joined 6 facilitators from YFC Options for "Parenting with ASSURANCE"

Camp was held once again at Ingwe in Plettenberg Bay nestled in some beautiful Forest hills. Only 2 fathers were present, the rest were mothers, so there is definitely a challenge that needs to be addressed (Please pray for wisdom to attract participation from more dads!).

Once again Child welfare Knysna sponsored the entire camp with YFC Options facilitating the process. Nathan was seconded for numerous tasks, from taxi driver to camp facilitator. His sessions were well received; "U" unconditional love and "R" responsibility, in addition to TEAM building activities.

A very interactive weekend including: group discussions, group feed back, interactive ice breakers, letter writing to their children using an array of multi media, music, dvd clips, white board, courses notes where applicable were distributed or made available. The Team building was much fun and ultimately gave the parents some creative ideas to pull the whole family together. And not attempt to tackle tasks on their own.

The camp cook was outstanding and the food was a definate highlight.

2 devotional times catered for spiritual upliftment, not all the parent participant were believers but they all participated! On the Sunday morning Shahieda led and The Holy Spirit moved in our midst as we saw some deep inner healing

happen. To God be the glory!!

The evaluation session at the end was a resounding thumbs up and a call for more similar type camps maybe even to bring kids along and have joint sessions from time to time.

Please pray for our next camp in February!

In the US, I am busy sorting through stuff in my parent's basement. Ciara and Kirsten joined me Sat night, and helped divide up 3 boxes of pictures... below is a note we found that Ciara wrote about age 9. I hope you enjoy it, we laughed till we cried!

I'm running away, but If you

catch find me before I'm gone

I leave, I'll stay only if you

still want me to stay.

(there is more writing on the back)

Dear Mom, dad,

Tiffany and Kirsten

I'm not here

any more I

left to go

somewhere, I don't

know exactly

where (i'm going) but before

I leave I'm going to go

(turn page)

in a couple

places in the house,

the places are the

closet by the front

door next I'll

go in the dirty

cloths closet where

we keep our dirty

cloths then I'll go

to my room and

if my bedroom window

is open I'm not here!

(as you can see Nathan is BUSY without me!)

Dear darling

Our recruitement process for BSSM has yielded 36 1st year students for the School, for 2010. My portfolio is to administer and facilitate the school for the next 2 years. A daunting task but the process has been extremely successful. Representing a cross section of students from the Hornley and Concordia Communities (non white segment of South Africans) as well as cross denominational presence (i.e. Vineyard Church, NG Church-Dutch Reform, Pentecostal Charismatic Apostolic, Presbyterian etc). It was stressful yet exciting to collate all the manuals and Pastor
Brian Long and myself accomplished the task timeously. Colin Rouse also assisted the process by ordering our first reader "When Heaven Invades Earth " by Bill Johnson. A deep hunger and anticipation for the course by the students is the prevailing atmosphere and we are officially out of the starting blocks. In addition the Revival Groups were well attended and very vibrant. Lois Gardner is running a Tuesday Morning sessions from her home at a slightly slower pace but already experiencing an intense ministry time.

God bless Nathan