After the team left on May 25th, it was just us, Nate and Melanie again. (Well and many short term guests that happened our way : ) During this time Nate was instrumental in helping Jako build a generator room, build and plaster a septic tank, assemble furniture, fix broken vehicles, do plumbing, construction and various other odd jobs around our house and the orphanage. On top of that he also helped Melanie teach English and Bible Stories to the children and aided us in hosting the
Melanie, on the other hand, having never been to Africa before, jumped right in like she was a pro. From the first few days she helped wherever she could and went to great efforts to learn how to do anything that might need doing whether that might mean washing
She also helped organize the library, worked in the orchard, sorted through donations for the orphanage and tackled the task of leading weekly children’s church at the local village church so not only did the orphanage kids come to love her but most of the village kids as well. Her biggest help however came when we got our first little newborn into the orphanage. Baby Genesis.
Genesis
June 21st was a memorable day for us here at Mission of Love. One that we will not forget for a long time. That was the day that Genesis Matalikilo, our newest little addition, arrived on our doorsteps. With the mom being severely mentally ill and an unknown father, we had been
Later we found out that the mom was HIV positive and about 2 weeks after delivering little Genesis mother passed away. I believe that God in His goodness knew exactly how long she needed to be inside her mom and when she needed to be out; hence the name Genesis – God knowing her, caring for her, and providing her from the beginning. He even lead Amber to pump and store some of her own breast milk for her arrival and a provided a donation of baby girl clothes to show up not long before she arrived. God definitely knew what we (and she) needed in advance, long before we ever did and His faithfulness and provision never ceases to amaze us.
Erin
On June 29th – we had the added blessing of adding another member to our team for a month and a half. Erin, a young college student from Florida, proved to be a trooper and a definite added blessing to us and the ministry. Arriving only a week or so a
fter we received little Genesis, Melanie taught her the ropes of what needed to be done and she quickly stepped up to the plate, doing whatever was necessary and giving Melanie a bit of respite pitching in with the night feedings and giving her time to plan and teach the kids during the day. Erin was a joy to have around and especially loved spending time with the housemothers, speaking into their lives, encouraging them, and playing with and teaching the children. After Nate and Melanie left she was able to keep the teaching going for a while and help keep the progress going of the library as well. She was a great at doing any of the odd and end jobs that needed doing, helping direct and lead things when the team was here, and even blessed us by watching Jakob at times so that Amber could tend to other ministry needs.
But I think the biggest help that Melanie and Erin gave was in car
ing for baby Genesis.Due to her small size and constant tending to we kept Genesis here at our house for the first two weeks and then slowly began transitioning her to the Orphanage house bit by bit. Although the house mothers were good with children, Rachel (who we decided would care for Genesis) had never had a child of her own before and none of the mothers there were experienced with bottle feeding, formula feeding, or the needs of such a premature baby. Melanie and Erin were great at supervising feeding after feeding, teaching them how to interpret her cries, how to tell when she was full, how to burp her and bathe her, and just making sure that they were comfortable with her and knowledgeable about how to care for her. They were also great at sorting through the baby donations to make sure that they had all they needed for her. So thank you Melanie and Erin – this precious little baby is doing well because of your watch care, love and sleepless nights.
Other Winter Visitors (May – August)
Apart from the three wonderful longer term volunteers that God blessed us with this year, we were also blessed by many other visitors.
Early May we were unexpectedly blessed to have an expedition team from Overland Mission literally show up in our driveway. While they were originally planning on doing ministry in another part of the chieftainship, God had other plans for this team to do some ministering, village to village evangelism and teaching to the orphanage children. In fact, the day that they arrived Amber had heard from the house mothers that the children were refusing to sleep in their bed at night afraid of some spirit or ghost that the kids had been seeing (a lady dressed in white). Instead they were all sleeping huddled together in fear in the main room. After explaining the situation to the visiting team they went up to the house to tell the children an encouraging Bible story about the power of God and pray for them. After they did, the kids have been sleeping in their own room without fear ever since : )
June also saw us receive a team from Dutch Reformed Church of Wonderpark , South Africa for a few days. While their original intent was only to spend a day or so with us God intervened (once again) to extend their stay a bit longer allowing them to help us with shoveling manure from our goat and cattle pen to use for the orchard. It was especially nice for me to be able to have some people from my home culture to speak Afrikaans with, braai with, and just fellowship with.
Fellow missionary friends of ours, Rob and Christa Murphy not only came out to visit and do some First Aide training for our house mothers in June but also lent us some of their summer/African winter Interns. Gretchen and Sharon came out to lend a hand in June and then Gretchen returned with Tori, Shannon, Katrina, and Kat for a week in July. Tori also made a repeat appearance in August.
Last but not least, Griet and Braam LeRoux made a visit out to us in Mid August so that Griet could begin to teach our housemothers how to sew. Griet is a wonderful seamstress and teacher and we were impressed to see all that the housemothers could make after only two days of teaching. A shirt, bag, and Bible cover! Our hope is that the mothers can eventually make the children’s school uniforms and teach the children a trade as well. Tailoring is Zambia is a skill that is highly prized for both men and women alike.
Thanks to all our winter helpers, both long and short term but thanks be to God the most, for providing the means to make all of it happen. May God bless all of you for the efforts here. Thanks for making a difference in this part of the world.
P.S. If anybody is wondering there is still TONS of things that need doing, help, or maintenance around here so if God is calling you to come and serve, just drop us a line so we can be in communication : )
Thank you for your support and love.
God’s blessings
Jako, Amber and Jakob Joubert
Mission of Love Community Orphanage
Zambia
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