South Africa Visit part 2

 Leizelle

Vashti and one of 'her girls'

Vashti just giving Yvonne a donated pram and bag of baby items for her little boy

Our feet had hardly touched the ground after the beach cleaning, we collected the boys from their new school, all three have been given full bursaries at a lovely school. Their parents have been homeschooling them for a few years because schooling is so expensive in SA. But being given these bursaries has meant that they boys can fully enter into school life and our daughter and husband have more time to be ministering together. 

After dinner Vashti told me we were heading out with the other two girls from the team to drop off some donations at the homeless shelter and then hit the sea front to minister to the sex workers. 

I had been told about the homeless shelters and seen photos, but nothing prepared me for what I saw. Leizelle, in the top photo above, was my tour guide, one of the team came with me. Beds were lined up along the room, mostly 3 beds high, some with people sleeping on them, some not. All filthy, the smell was pungent, Lizelle proudly showed me her bed and then headed off down through the beds to show me the shower block, I sort of wished we had skipped that part of the tour. Lizelle was pretty drunk and I could fully understand why people who have to live in these places drank themselves to oblivion. 

Next stop after the shelter was the sea front to find the sex workers, we had a car full of lovely canvas bags which had been donated by a perfume company. Each bag contained a perfume sample, an item of clothing, toiletries, condoms and any other nice items that the team had been donated. Some of the sex workers are already known by the team, others are new to the strip and the team make a point of introducing themselves and getting to know the girls. 

The team collect bags from individuals too, who want to help support the work. People love to fill a bag with things which they think will be helpful for the girls. If the team know a girl has already had a bag they will give them toiletries, protection etc.

They drive up and down for about an hour, stopping when they see a girls and calling her over to the car if they cant pull up alongside. If they know the girl they will check on how she is, if she has any needs etc. The team purposely dont take money but they often take food and will invite the girls to come along to the feeding point the following Wednesday lunchtime. 

If they dont know the girl, they will ask her name, age, where she lives etc. They will let her know about the feeding point and that they will be down on the sea from the following Thursday to check how they are and if they can help them in any way. 

That first night I was struck by how young some of these girls are, some barely out of puberty. The team always offer prayer for the girls and more often than not the girls take up the offer. It was a privilege to spend time with these girls, to pray for them and to hug them. As I was doing so I wondered how long it had been since someone just hugged them for who they were and not for what they were. 

I came home from that evening feeling completely shell shocked and so grateful for One Future Foundation and the team of girls who go out every week to catch up on 'their girls'.

If you would like to help support our family as they carry out their love and work with the homeless, you can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/kingsroadchurch 

South Africa Trip

I havent blogged in ages. I am taking a City & Guilds online course in patchwork and quilting ( www.lindseytomsquilts.wordpress.com )  and that, together with my church work and travelling into London to look after Eugene on Mondays, just takes up my days.

But we have just returned from visiting our eldest daughter and family in South Africa and I would love to share our trip with you.

We hadnt seen our daughter for three years nor our son in law and grandsons for over five years and we hadnt met the youngest so a visit was well over due. 

They work as missionaries and have adopted their boys. They work with the homeless and sex workers in Durban. 

Our trip was amazing, so lovely to see them all and to get involved with the ministry that they are part of.

We arrived on the Wednesday afternoon and went straight into ministry work the following morning at 8.30am. The team meet on the sea front to rake and clean the beach. The purpose of this is to eventually employ homeless people to do this work and therefore help them out of the never ending circle of begging, receiving just enough for a night in the homeless shelter, or not, if they dont raise enough money and then begging again the following day.

Although our family have been in SA and working with orphans and homeless for nearly thirteen years, this ministry is in its early days. This work of cleaning the beach is attracting lots of attention and people are really encouraged with what the team are doing. The weather was hot, about 30 degrees and a number of homeless join the team a few mornings a week to carry this out.I will post more soon :)

Easter Break

I hope you all had a lovely Easter, our son, daughter in law and grandson Eugene came to stay Thursday to Saturday.  The sun shone and we sat in the garden, it's been a while since we did that!  I can't believe that Eugene will be one year old later this month. 

Our daughter in South Africa sent Eugene a voice message telling him how much she loves him, he loved hearing his name. I look forward to the time they all meet for real. 

As my husband is the church pastor we waited till after lunch on Easter Sunday before we headed over to Dove Cottage in Wales. We had planned on doing some work in the cottage and taking some trips out. 

We woke on the Monday to snow on the field and mountains opposite but had decided to head to the coast where the sun shone and we managed a picnic. I will post about that trip another time. 

We had taken a trailer with us of items for the cottage, we have oak and glass doors for when hubby builds his studio down the garden and new windows for the front of the cottage. These jobs will be done at a later date but we managed to lay new oak flooring in the kitchen and upstairs landing which is looking great. 

Molly loves to sit on the bedroom window sill looking out at the sheep and new born lambs :) 

Mothers Day UK

Mothers Day is  a time of mixed feelings for me, I miss my mother and MIL so much and am so thankful for all that they were to us and our family. I also miss seeing my daughters but know that they are celebrating their own mothers day with their children, those in SA celebrate the day on the same date as those in USA. On Saturday we took a trip into London to meet up with our sons and DIL and enjoyed a lovely brunch together. 

1976

I was sent this photo for Mothers Day all the way from SA (thank goodness for 'whatsapp')

Joe and Jesse are i the centre, our adopted grandsons, baby Hudson has been with our daughter and SIL for over twelve months now, we are praying that there will be an adoption in the near future. The two girls are living in a children's home at the moment and sped time with our daughters family, they would love to adopt them too at some time.

I received beautiful hand drawn cards from the munchkins below :)

Gilby Skipp

Primrose & Maggie

They look different in this photo but they really arent!

What is God doing?

I think it was around March 1998 that our eldest daughter flew off to Brooklyn New York to take part on an internship program with www.metroworldchild.co.uk She stayed for the 4-5 month program and then returned home for a few months before being offered a place on staff at Metro Ministries as it was then called. She worked there for seven years, we visited on a number of occasions and could tell that this was the calling that God had on her life. A calling to work with the vulnerable and needy.

Metro is 'Based on the principle that it is better to build boys and girls today than to repair men and women tomorrow, Metro World Child reaches nearly 100,000 inner-city children and their families every week in New York and around the world.'

It was at Metro that Vashti met her husband, a fellow Brit, they returned at the end of the seven years to be married and then follow their call to work with orphans in South Africa. The main part of their three month honeymoon was sent working with Metro on the rubbish dumps in the Philippines and Thailand. They have spent the past 10-11 years working in the rural and urban areas of Durban and Kwa Zulu Natal. During this time they have also adopted two little boys and have been caring for a third baby who they also hope to adopt. They have also cared for a number of older children during their time in SA. They began a charity supporting orphans and mainly their grandmothers who are caring for them. This charity was put on hold a couple of years back, they knew at the time that they didnt have the financial support to run the charity as they felt God wanted them to. Vashti now works part time for their church as children's pastor and Martin has been home schooling their boys as well as keeping up contacts with those who live in the area where they carried out their ministry. Vashti has also worked into the homeless shelter in Durban supporting the girls who work the streets and their children. 
Before Christmas they had come to the place where they wondered if God still wanted them in SA, each month was a struggle to meet their bills and care for their family, they gave God an ultimatum, either He shows them what they are to be doing in SA or they begin to set about moving back to the UK. 
Well God spoke and just last week they took a trip to visit some friends who they met on their arrival in SA over ten years ago, God had been speaking to them too and if you would like to read more of what they believe God is saying, please visit my daughters blog
www.sheltermeblog.wordpress.com

Im always a little reluctant to step out and say this is what God is saying, maybe its not? But I do believe that if we don't act on what we believe we may miss out big time. I know their testimony is that they haven't always acted on what He has said and at times they have acted on things He definitely HASNT said. But what I also know is that He is their loving Father and will carry them through any mistakes they may make and I can never say they haven't taken huge steps of faith throughout their adult lives and that their hearts have always been to serve their Heavenly Father in loving those living in devastating circumstances.

Below is Vashti's IG post from last night

In 1991 a prophetic word was spoken over Vashti, it was a long word so I will just take a very small portion of what God said 

"....Dont lose anything that God has given into your hands for the Lord has blessed you and the Lord has called you and the Lord says 'I will use you if you give yourself seriously to Me, that joy will spring out more and more to everlasting life and you will be a blessing to all around you, for I have called you and I have put My name in your heart and I have put My name on your tongue....'"

Grandchildren

The twins and their brother are on holiday in Berlin at the moment so I have taken the top three photos from my daughters IG account. The girls are wearing the skirts I blogged about in my previous post and the bottom photo is taken from my other daughters IG account of Lilhle wearing the outfit I made for him and lying on his quilt that I made a while back. 

There is still no news on his future, my daughter and her husband would love to adopt him and are praying for a way forward with this. I'm just hanging in there thinking I would love for him to be my grandson but at the same time praying for Gods will to be done.

If you have a minute check out my daughter new blog where she writes about her shelter work 

www.sheltermeblog.wordpress.com 

                      

                       

       

                                 

I've spent a lot of this week making clothes for etsy, for my grandchildren and for my new great nephew.  I do enjoy making small clothes :)

But I really need to get back to my quilts, my Liberty quilt needs handquilting and my eldest son has asked for a  new quilt and so I plan on getting it done by his birthday at the end of August...that's the plan!

                         

                         

The twins love to wear skirts but can be fussy with their fabric choice. The right hand skirt below is made of vintage Laura Ashley fabric, it looks red in the photo but is actually deep pink. My daughter reminded me that I made her a skirt with wide elastic at the waist from the same fabric (I've had it years) and would I make the same for the girls. I only had enough for one skirt and so used a Liberty fabric for the other one. I had some denim and made the bottom two skirts from that...let's see if they are happy with them ;)

My daughter in SA still has baby Lilhe living with them...they are really hoping to adopt him. She asked if I would make some trousers for him, I lined these with some lovely soft vintage winsiette that I had in my stash. The weather is chilly over there at the moment. I also knitted hi. His little jacket and hat and can't wait to see him wearing them all :)

Lihle

I'm just posting a quick one as I don't have much to blog about at the moment other than this little chap...he is still being cared for by my daughter and her husband. She thinks he will soon be going to his bio family but for now he is with them.

He received the quilt I made him and looks beautiful lying on it don't you think? 

                       

          

baby quilt

I have just finished the quilt for baby Lihle, the little boy that my daughter is caring for in South Africa. She continues to take him to visit his birth mother but at the moment she is not in a position to make decisions for her own life or his.

I made this quilt from fabric I have left over from other baby quilts I have made. I used part of a vintage quilt I had been given, for the backing. It is soft and snugly and I can't wait to see him all wrapped up in it. 

                                

                                

                                 

Care for the helpless

As you will know if you read my blog regularly, that my eldest daughter and her husband are missionaries in South Africa.they have their own two little boys whom they adopted as babies and my daughter, as well as working part time as children's pastor and alongside her husband homeschool their boys, also visits the homeless shelter and helps out wherever she can. 

This shelter is not like those we find in the UK, they are grim places with hundreds of people living in them including families with young children. Many if the tenants are addicts and th women often work the streets to support their habits and/or their families. 

Some tenants are young street children who the older tenants will prey on and sell drugs to. 

My daughter gets to know the women and children who live there and is often the port of call to get people to hospital when need be as ambulances will refuse to go there.

Recently one of the young ladies went into labour, my daughter managed to get her to the hospital where her son was born addicted to the same drugs as his mother uses. She struggled to take care of him as both she and her baby went through withdrawals. My daughter inferred to take him for a couple of nights to give her a break and to give him the love and are he needed. 

She took him back to the shelter last week but was unable to leave him, his mother was in no state to take care of him. She has taken him back for further visits but his mother is now saying that she wishes for him to be adopted. Only she can make that move and talk to social services which at the moment she is in no fit state to do. So my daughter and her husband continue to care for this sweet little baby.

 If you would like to visit her blog www.littlefingersandfrosting.blogspot.co.uk you will get a better story from her. Those of you who pray, please pray for this baby and his mother, for healing for them both. Also please pray for my daughter and her family, the longer they have this baby in their care the more attached they will become and the harder it will be to hand him on to either his mother or an adoptive family. But we know that at his time the place for him to be is with a loving family who know how to care for him and to help him through the withdrawals for his addiction. Thank you.

                       

With my daughter

                        

With his mother

                       

I have started a quilt for him that will hopefully stay with him wherever he goes.

Home again

We returned from our two week break in Cyprus early Saturday morning. We had a great time, the weather was good, the house which we were loaned by friends was wonderful and the loan of their car also, gave us the opportunity to explore the island a little each day.

Below are some sea photos and I will post some other photos over the next few days.

Tomorrow our daughter will arrive from South Africa to renew her visa, we will pick her up from the airport and drive her to Devon so spend a few days with our other daughter and her family.

 Hubby and I will travel on down to Cornwall to celebrate our 38th !!!! Wedding anniversary on Friday. 

It's been lovely catching up with all your wonderful blog posts since I got back :)

                  Mm 

                          

                           

Grandchildren

I haven't made anything this week so I will just post some photos of my Grandchildren, the top four are of the boys in South Africa, we haven't seen them in the flesh (only rarely on Skype) for two and a half years, we miss them terribly. These photos were taken today while they were all out on a hike with some friends, they walked to a wonderful water fall where the children played in the river, the weather is very hot and humid there at the moment. We know they will enjoy a happy Christmas, spending the day with friends from church. I should add, if you are wondering what Jesse is doing in the pink tub.....they don't have running hot water and so on hot days he takes the tub and sits in it under the overflowing water tanks which collect rain water :)

The rest of the family will be with us for Christmas, below are some of the photos their Mum has taken this week. I am so grateful for technology which meanswe can see photos of the regularly and keep up with activities that they are doing.

                        

                       

cake

I am so proud of my daughter......I am of course proud of all my kids...my eldest daughter lives in South Africa doing missionary work.  Their house is basic to say the least, she does have an oven now thankfully, she was cooking on an open fire outside for some time, they don't have running hot water and they don't have a washing machine. BUT she does make amazing cakes.

I posted about Jesse's birthday, well today is her husband Martins birthday, next month is Joseph's birthday....I'm looking forward to seeing the cakes that she makes for him.

Jesse's cupcakes

Martin's Chocolate Mud Cake

Jesse

This is our grandson Jesse and today he is 7... I can hardly believe his has been in our family for nearly 7 years.

You may wonder why Jesse is holding a sign saying 'happy birthday Miles'? Well Miles is the son of their friends who are missionaries in Burundi. They did live in SA and when Miles was first born they used to visit the orphanage where Jesse had been placed when he was first found abandoned on the day of his birth. Miles' parents and older brother used to go to the orphanage and spend time with the babies, because Jesse had been born on the same day as Miles they took a special interest I him and prayed each visit that Jesse would be adopted by Christian parents. 

Well skip a couple of years and our daughter and son in law, Vashti & Martin, began to attend a new church in Durban where they met Miles and his family. It wasn't until a while later that they discovered that link and that Miles' parents had already met Jesse before he had been adopted by Vashti & Martin. 

This is a story of Gods faithfulness and also how He places a bond between His people which cannot be broken even when they move miles away. 

We are so thankful to God for placing Joseph and Jesse in our family.....He is good indeed!

This is the first picture that we saw of Jesse, Vashti is on the phone telling me that they have brought him home while Martin took and emailed this photo to us

Jesse and his big brother Joseph