Missions Momma

The Gatesby

The Life Skill Educators loved it and I enjoyed the fact that mom got to meet them all and oh yes I had to take some group photos of this occasion.  Another memory I will keep is the fact that I had mom sit in on Holiday Club training with the Life Skill Educators so she could see what happens day to day. 

Being able to personally take mom to every children’s club and show her what the Life Skill Educators do and how they have grown over the past three years was such a neat experience.  I enjoyed mom being here and sharing life with her and I know it will be something that we will both treasure for the rest of our lives. 

The Red Hill Team

The Masi Team

The Ocean View Team

The Capricorn/Overcome Heights Team

My Everyday Co-Workers

WOW it is weird to think that my mom is here in South Africa.  She has been here for a week and it just feels surreal!  The one awesome thing about her being here is she gets to see my world.  Already she has had the chance to get to know some of my friends, do a little bit of sightseeing, and of course get a tour of Living Hope and the ministry that we do.  One of mom’s favorite things so far has been having the chance to eat tons of seafood.  She also is not a big fan of riding on the other side of the road and driving over the mountain to go anywhere.  I believe she has worn a hole in her knees from holding on so tight. 

Today started out a little stressful for me with my first day of seminary class but how awesome as soon as I got into class I was told we were getting out a little early.  One of the reasons I had been a little stressed was I wanted mom to see the afternoon children’s clubs and of course I wanted her to get to see ALL of them.  Well, I am in class Monday-Wednesday this week and Thursday it is a public holiday so that took care of this week……and then all we would have is Monday of next week.  Well, God is good because I was able to get home from class today and we could go to Red Hill for her first afternoon children’s club. 

I am looking forward to the rest of this week and getting to spend some more time with mom!  We are making some amazing memories and here are a couple of highlights.

Having lunch with the Team House staff!

Mom enjoying all the wonderful seafood of South Africa!

Mom and I on safari enjoying some apple juice and checking out the animals!

A Women's Event at my church so mom got to meet a lot of new friends!

Mom listening to Mzo tell the Bible story as the kids are learning about RESPECT this week.

I can’t believe it has been three years.  I know it is a cliché to say but time really does go by so fast!  I had a friend ask me a question and I thought it was so good I would blog about it….she asked me, “What have been some of the highlights over the past three years? “  I had to stop for a second and really spend a couple of minutes thinking because I feel like now ministry has basically just turned into life.  There have been a couple of things that have stood out and I thought I would share them now in reflecting back on THREE YEARS. 

1. Seeing the growth in the Life Skill Educators and how the afternoon children’s clubs have strengthened as well as the Holiday Club programmes.  I am so proud of the amazing job they are doing and love seeing them grow!!
2. Getting to be a part of a ministry that is every growing and changing and showing me apart from God I can’t do anything but with Him guiding me, anything is possible!
3. Having the opportunity to do a little bit of travelling on this continent and see Kenya and Zambia.  I pray that God would give me other opportunities as well.  It is amazing to see the vast difference in each of these countries.  The one thing with each of them is how beautiful they all are…though South Africa does have my HEART!
4. Moving to the Team House and getting to be a part of the amazing work they do in hosting teams.  I am so blessed to be able to live here and help the staff out!  Also the view is not too bad either! (Ocean and Mountains)
5. Since I have been in South Africa, God has been moving in the life of my mother and she has become a Christ follower.  AMAZING!  THANK YOU LORD

So that is a quick top 5 things that come to my mind.  In the past almost year one of the things that has begun to be something that I have seen that is so important is the idea of COMMUNITY.  I feel blessed to have that in two ways.  I feel like I have my Living Hope family of Life Skill Educators and people I see associated with Living Hope that have become family.  Also I have more family of other long term missionaries/volunteers that are here as well. 

 Here is some of my family!  These are the people I do life with.  I am blessed that some of them are from the same home town (even though we didn’t know each other until arriving in South Africa).  I am excited to say I am a Auntie here to some of the most precious African as well as American children. 

Tim, Natasha, Amy, and me! Part of my South Africa family.

Thank you Lord for the Lankfords. It is so great to be Auntie Danielle (or DD) to the family.

Last I have finally found a church that I am having the opportunity to serve in children’s ministry and see what the Lord is going to do next.  It has been an amazing five months of finding a church and getting plugged in and serving. 

THREE YEARS of living life in Africa…..I am reminded of a saying from someone as I think about my time here.  “I need Africa more than Africa needs me!!”

Welcome to the new WEBSITE!  This is so exciting…I wanted to be able to let you all see more of the ministry here in South Africa.  If you look to the right there are pictures and if you click on them there are multiple pictures as well as captions that let you know what is going on.  I hope you enjoy this new look.  I am so looking foward to being able to share lots of photos and videos of how God is moving and what life is like over here.  Please sign up to receive emails as I post new things!!  If you look to your right you can see it…………….

Just recently we had a missions team of 26 people at the Team House and working with Living Hope.  This team was different from any team that Living Hope has hosted before.  15 of the 26 members were children ranging in age from 4-13 and they were also from Australia.  They spent two weeks with us and I have to say there was never a dull moment.  Most of the team was made up of families which was such a cool thing to see a family on a mission trip together.  Over the two weeks they were here I enjoyed getting to know them and hear their stories and was so touched as they were all interested in hearing my story of how I arrived in Cape Town.

One of the days I volunteered to go as a chaperone with all of the kids to the Aquarium and The Scratch Patch.  We spent the morning picking out lots of cool rocks and then got to see some real neat looking fish and of course some sharks and penguins as well.  For a moment I felt like I was back in the classroom teaching! 

It was a great experience to watch these families minister together and get to know people who live “down under!”   I even tried one of their favorite foods which is called Vegemite.  It is a spread that you put on buttered toast and well it was actually a little tasty.   Who knows maybe some time in the future a trip to Australia is in order.

At the aquarium with my new Australian friends!

Where do I even begin of what this past two weeks has been like…..yes the wonderful kidney stones raised their face to be heard on Wednesday!  I was in the office at Living Hope when I had this pain and I knew what it was when I had it.  Thus began a two hour tour of trying to make a plan of what to do, packing a bag for the hospital, and the fun adventure of finding the hospital.&
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Yesterday I spent the morning at a Women’s Retreat at the team house.  There is a team here from Shades Mountain Baptist Church and they had a retreat for the women of Capricorn church and I was invited as well.  It was such a wonderful time.  The whole theme was centered on our HEART!  They shared some encouraging scripture with the ladies and gave them life verse journals
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I finally feel like things are official with seminary! Because of the nature of this program and the fact that you do not go to classes things are a little different.   I went today and met with my professor because until now all I had was the syllabus and some articles and things copied and put in a book and that is known as our "reader" for class.  So I made an appointment
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Revelation 7:9

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands

I read this verse this morning and it really stood out to me.  I guess the biggest factor
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Well I have been back in Cape Town for a little over 24 hours and have hit the ground running!!  After arriving yesterday at like noon, I went straight to get my car and then went to Masi to check on club and ending up going with some to the store to help get supplies they were going to need to do a hygenine day on Friday!  i then actually went into the office to just visit people and
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