New Years!

Happy New Years!! Today is very symbolic for the two of us as we close an incredible chapter in our lives and look to opening a promising new one this 2011! 2010 was filled with so many different adventures, challenges and experiences that have shaped us anew and that we will remember all of our lives. May 2011 be blessed and even more amazing than 2010! 

Goodbye Al!

We sadly say goodbye to Al today – on Christmas day of all days! Al has been here with Living Hope as a long-term volunteer for the past 18 months and was so welcoming to us as new missionaries. He worked in Red Hill as a Life Skills Educator and played a very integral part in the partnership between Red Hill and our church partner from South Carolina, US and the community development in that community. Furthermore, Al is the volunteer who wrote the Living Hope Coffee Table Book called “Faces of Hope” that will be released later this year (so watch this space). Al, we will seriously miss you here!

A Hot Christmas

I can’t believe it’s here already – Christmas Day! Natasha and I drove up to Paarl to spend the day and night with Natasha’s father and family. We were treated to a DELICIOUS home-cooked family dinner with stuffed pork, corned beef, and roast chicken. It was a very relaxing day. We are so grateful for this time off from work to celebrate the very reason we do what we came here to do: Jesus!

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve! We early on realized that there are a few volunteers that will be around for Christmas this year and not going home. So even though we had plans with my family for Christmas day, we still wanted to give the volunteers something to do for Christmas this year. 13 of us got together as “family” at ours for fingerfoods, drinks, white elephant and other games! Good times! Living Hope will be closed for the holidays over the next week, so we all get some time off to relax and recharge!

A Surprise Visit

We were totally surprised on the 11^th when my little sister let us know that she was coming down for a visit with us here in Cape Town in a few days! To be honest, at first we were a bit worried about the timing of her visit as we had so many things on the big to-do-list to accomplish in our time off. But God is so amazing and knows just what we needed. She arrived on the 14^th and with her here for a week we were forced to take time out and have a little vacation for ourselves – or from ourselves! She wanted to see so much of Cape Town that we got to see and visit many of Cape Town’s major sights with her – as tourists! Ha ha ha! But how great that was as we don’t really get many opportunities to visit them with the crazy busy life we live here. Besides taking in all the beautiful sights and scenery, we decided to bake Christmas gifts this year – since it’s cheaper! LOL So we found a recipe online and baked around a 100 cookies, decorated and then wrapped it in cellophane! Fun fun fun! My sister and I very seldom get to spend alone time together, so t was completely a God-sent. Sadly, the time flew by as she headed back to Pretoria this morning and we have to wait till the next time we get spend such good time together!

Carols By Candlelight

Tonight we got together with several new friends and volunteers to enjoy the beautiful sights and sounds of Christmas at Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. We came early and brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed the garden views in beautiful, sunny weather with the backdrop of Table Mountain. About 1,500 people attended. What an amazing sight it was incredible to see all the flickers of candlelight across the outdoor amphitheater-like area! It was great to sing all the familiar Christmas carols in between re-enacted scenes of the Christmas story, narrated with the words of the gospels. Many people who attend are not Christian, so to hear them sharing the gospel so openly is really such a realization of the freedom we have.

Fundraising Committee

As the new Special Events Coordinator for Living Hope, I’ve been asked to join the Living Hope Fundraising committee. The committee is set-up to discuss different ways in which we can raise funds for Living Hope. With all the funding cuts over the past 2 years, Living Hope is left to find ways to be self-sustainable and to be creative about the ways in which we can fund the current ministries of Living Hope. Although Living Hope experienced tremendous growth over the past 10 years of its existence, the funding cuts have forced us to relook what we have going on right now and how to accomplish our mission more effectively. The main goal is to reach people for Christ – so if we can accomplish that then we would have done what Living Hope set out to do. The projects are the way we accomplish that goal. So the funding is needed to do the community projects to ultimately reach people for Christ. That being said, the fundraising committee comprises of the Living Hope Trust Chair and Living Hope founder (John Thomas), the general managers, a few board members, Marketing Department… and me! LOL I felt a little out of my league, but also know that God has me on this committee for a reason. Its funny how God brings us full-circle… when I felt the calling to go into full-time HIV/AIDS ministry I gave up my career path and dream of Events Coordination - now I find myself in and HIV/AIDS NGO as the Events Coordinator. All you can do is smile.  We will be organizing a Golf Day, a Gala Dinner and an Open Day. The Golf Day and Gala Dinner are both to raise awareness and funds among local businessmen and women. The Open Day on the other hand is to raise awareness among the local pastors and general communities – it seems that most of them don’t really know what Living Hope is about or what Living Hope does. What currently happens is that people come to Christ through Living Hope’s programs in the communities in which we serve. But since Living Hope is not a church, partnering with the local churches is absolutely crucial for these individuals growth beyond salvation.  Tim and I are finding that a large part of our ministry here is in building relationships with these local pastors and their wives. That all being said, we realize that 2011 is going to be an incredibly busy and amazingly exciting year for us!