After the departure of the church team our travels led us to Lusaka where we happily discovered that Alyssa’s work permit has been granted! Thank you for all of your prayers. Unfortunately they were out of the work permit books so for the time being all she has is a stamped receipt saying “granted” but at least they say we can check up on them (when they arrive) in Livingstone instead of traveling all the way to Lusaka again. We hope that is the case but for right now we just say Thank you Lord!
Meanwhile back at home
When we returned back to Mukamba the main task at hand was the roof for Alyssa’s flat. Jako, Alyssa and several of the locals worked hard and made pretty good progress but unfortunately were not able to complete it before it was time to leave to South Africa.
Visits from local missionary friends, inventorying the orphanage food and toiletries supplies and then buying additional supplies for the time that we were gone also occupied some of our time.“Sew” many blessings
One special visit that we had was from a dear friend of ours Corrie who although she had many difficulties on her journey from South Africa, still persevered to pay us a visit and deliver to us the gift of 3 hand sewing machines for the mom’s to use and to teach the children with. We are so excited about the possibilities that this allows, not only in allowing the mothers to make many of the things that we need for the orphanage (ie. school uniforms, and then cushion covers for the benches in the house) but also in teaching the children a practical trade skill. Needless to say mothers and children alike were both very happy!
Praise God for his continued abundant provision for us all.
Sanford – age 3
Just a few days before we left for South Africa we took our 15th child into the orphanage house, a precious 3 year old boy named Sanford. He was staying with his grandfather, step grandmother,
and many other kids but in very impoverished conditions. From what we were told, his mother got pregnant in high school and passed away from a heart condition a few years later. As is common in these situations his father is unknown. Due to lack of family resources (they stay in just a stick hut without even mud between) Sanford developed stomach TB from malnutrition (note the orange hair) but has been in treatment for it for a few months and is beginning to improve. To aide in the transition to the orphanage home, his sister (technically aunt) stayed the day and night with him and he was feeling a lot more comfortable with his
new surroundings when she left. It was really sweet to see the other orphanage kids gather around him and give him extra love and support in his first few days there – I am sure they all remember how hard it was for them. Please pray for this sweet young boy as he has to adjust to new surroundings and for his health to continue improving. It will take at least another 4 months of treatment to cure his TB if not longer but I am sure that we will begin to see improvement in him sooner just from the better nutrition and food that he will have access to now.South Africa Visit
August 18th, with orphanage supplies fully stocked we left for a short visit to South Africa. While there our plan is to get a good prenatal check up for Amber (now 24 weeks pregnant), make arrangements for the delivery in December, visit supporting churches, and pick up necessary goods and items for the orphanage and ministry. We are enjoying our time here and especially visiting with friends, family, and supporters since the last time that we saw many of them was almost a year ago. Please pray for the rest of our time here, safe traveling mercies for the way back, and for safe, wise, running of the orphanage and the children while we are gone.
Orphanage Update
Thanks for your prayers for Otervia.
She is doing much better now and seems to get stronger every day. Since our time here in South Africa, Charles called to let us know that the clinic just referred to them a 12 day old baby girl. From what we understand the mother is very sick in the clinic and the father is unwilling to take responsibility for any of them. For right now we have agreed to take care of her temporarily until we get back and further assess the situation . At the time being the orphanage now has 16 kids 6 of which are under 2. Charles also informed us that Social Welfare came by to visit today and that they were very happy to see how smoothly things were running there, especially with us being gone. Praise God for his continued favor and grace on us. We’ll update the blog again upon our return. Until then thank you for all your prayers, love, support, and encouragement.
Jako, Amber and Jakob John Joubert
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