My four little helper Angels sent by God today!

Yesterday and today I have been cleaning the three buildings that are getting renovated. On Monday all day I was using a pressure washer that I had rented. There was old paint chipping, soap scum in the showers, and some mold, so I got all of that cleaned off. By the time the day was over I was soaked with water and had paint chips all over me!

Today I sprayed out the two dorm buildings and started taking up the old tile. I had started taking up the old tile in one of the rooms and then I went back to spraying the other rooms, when I was done with that I shut the machine off and I could hear something going on down in one of the other rooms. I went down and found the kids in the pictures above scrapping up the tile. They had the one room almost completely done! They then stayed with me and helped me scrape up and clean three more rooms! What great workers they are! The boys were putting all that they had into it. It really blessed me because I had been doing most of the work alone up until this point because everyone else on campus has been busy doing other things, so it was nice to have some company and speed things along. They asked if I would be working there tomorrow, they want to come and help again!

Here is a recent damage picture.

Here is some of the damage I did with the chainsaw on Saturday.

This picture is from on Sunday in Mafikeng at one of the churches that I visited with Bill and Susan. It is only 3 weeks old and the man standing in front is the pastor. It was really great on Sunday, I got to go to two different churches that Bill and Susan minister to. I also got to see where they run their pre-school and after school programs. Then we drove through a couple of villages and visited with some of the people that they minister to. It was great to get out of Rustenburg and do some driving in South Africa and see the beautiful scenery and get to spend the day with some friends.

Name of the School I have been working at.

I know I am starting to slip ... not posting everyday. So I thought that I should give you a quick update. The last day and half I have been a lumber jack. I had rented a chainsaw to trim up some of the trees around the buildings we are working on. After I was done with that I got to noticing that there were lots of trees that needed to be trimmed or cut down that were hanging on or over the buildings. It ended up being a campus wide tree cutting marathon since I had only rented the saw for 24 hours. When we were all done besides being exhausted, it looked like a big storm had come through because there were piles of branches and trees everywhere. I will try and get a couple of pictures of it all on Monday. There have been a few of the students that have been helping me out with different things around the campus. It has been great to get to know some of them and hear their stories and the impact that Jesus is making in their lives through this school! 

Today (Sonday) I am heading up North a couple of hours towards the Botswana border. This is were Bill and Susan are. I am going to go to church with them and see where they do their ministry. I will let you know how that all goes tomorrow! 

This is how much damage I can do in one day!

Today I took the metal roof on the restroom building off. A lot of the wood underneath the roofing just fell apart as I took the sheets off because they had rotted so much from the roof leaking for so long. When the team arrives we will put the new roof on!  

This is a picture of the front side of the restrooms building.

This is a picture of one of the dormitory buildings. There is another building of dorms that face this building on the other side. Today I worked on ripping off all of the old gutters and fascia. Then in the afternoon I started to trim back the trees that are around the buildings. There are several trees that have grown onto the roofs and next to the buildings. Today I got the ones that I could with a hand saw, tomorrow I will tackle the ones that need a chainsaw. 

It has turned cool here the last few days, this morning when I left for the school it was 42 degrees and it got up to about 70 degrees today. They are saying it should get warmer this next week, just a cold spell.

This is the family that I stayed with before and after my trip to Mozambique. They were so wonderful, I felt like I was right at home. This picture was taken this Sunday, we went to church in one of the townships. It was like a hour drive from their house. The church was spirit filled for sure, alive and well!! I was so glad to be able to go and worship there! The Pastor and his wife are on the left of the picture and their daughter is to the right of them in the picture. In the evening then on Sunday I headed back to Rustenburg. This morning I started working again on the Bible School project I was working on before leaving for Pemba. 

I made it back to South Africa! What a blessed time I had in Mozambique. I stayed last night with a missionary family in Pretoria. I am going to a church with them today in one of the villages. Then tonight I will drive back to Rustenburg. Monday I will start work back up at the bible school.

Today we got to hand out the rest of the 75 shirts to the village children! What an experience that all was. Then tonight I threw an ice cream party for all of the Iris kids (200) that live here at the base. The remaining money from my brothers elementary school helped to pay for the ice cream. You are able to buy ice cream in tubs, in town at a supermarket store. It costs about $18.00 for a gallon of ice cream! So you can see they don't get to have ice cream very often. Today I was getting pictures with all my buddies here so I can remember them, and they tell me to take the pictures back to America so I can show all of you the pictures and how they look! It is going to be tough saying goodbye to them tomorrow. My plane leaves tomorrow at 2 pm from Pemba. Please pray for travel safety!

I have just returned from the outreach we had tonight, it was amazing to see God work in many lives once again and for the Kingdom of God to be advanced! Today I was able to give out new shirts to 200 of the village children at the noon feeding! You should have heard them when they heard they were getting new shirts! I guess Jesus just wants more children to get new clothes because we actually had 275 children show up at noon, so we ended up 75 shirts short. I talked it over with several here and decided that we would write their names down and give them shirts tomorrow! So this afternoon before I left for outreach we went into the markets for the third time and bought 75 more shirts to give out tomorrow!!

This is some of the guys helping at noon serve the boiled cabbage and rice. 

This is the village children lined up to get their food at noon!

Here is four of the boys sporting their new shirts.

One of the girls and her new shirt!

So a quick update! It is Thursday morning here and I did not give out the shirts yesterday. There were so many more kids than what i had shirts for that I went back in the market and bought 57 more. So that makes 200 total! So I am giving them out today at noon.
Also please be in prayer I am leaving at 3 o'clock today to go out evangilising to a village out in the bush for the evening. We will be dancing, sharing, seeing miracles, and showing the Jesus film with the locals there, we could have anywhere from a few to several hundred people show up!.

Wow another day almost done here in Pemba. What a blessing that each day has been so far. This morning some of the boys and I worked on fixing the slide and putting the metal on it. As soon as we were done installing the metal, you should have seen the line-up for the kids to go down the slide! They are all so cute! They even got the idea to take some cardboard boxes they found and sit in those and slide down!

Today at noon I helped with the village feeding. It is where we open the base up at noon each day for any children from the surrounding villages to come and get a plate of beans and rice. While there I also counted all of the children because I decided to use some of the money from my Brother’s elementary school to buy them all new shirts. So this afternoon three boys and I that help with the feeding program went into a nearby market to buy shirts. We were able to buy around 145 shirts and pants to give away. The shirts of course are not brand, brand new but gently used, but much better than the shirts I see the kids wearing now. A lot of them I see wearing the same shirt everyday, it is dirt stained, ripped, and usually barely staying on the kid. So be praying that the handing out of the shirts tomorrow goes smoothly! What really touched me today was when we were all done buying all of the shirts and we were on our way out of the market. I gave each of the three boys that helped me a little money, basically enough that they each could go and buy a shirt for themselves or something else they needed, but instead they each went to the nearby bread store and bought some bread. I asked what that was for and they said that it was for their families back at home, that it would be enough to feed them for supper and breakfast. I just about started to cry, what sacrificial hearts these boys have that the first thing they think of when they get some money is to bring food home so their families can eat.

This evening I got to go running along the beach for the first time since being here, it was very refreshing.
Each day is just amazing at the things that I get to take part in here. God is so Good!

Today was mainly a day of going around and getting all of the things in order for what I will be doing the rest of the week.

1. Got engine parts organized and ready to be put together

2. Went into town and got Mozambican money

3. Talked with children's director as to what to do with the money donated from Elementary school

4. Looked for a place to buy some more chain for the swings, to fix the two that are broken. (Never did find a place)

5. Bought the metal to finish the slide on the swing-set

6.Talked with the crafts and art teacher about giving out the drawings that I brought with me from the Elementary school

7. Fixed some electrical things in one of the missionaries home

8. Had supper with a few of the missionaries here that I have become friends with!

9. Ready for bed

Blessed

This morning I started out by going to church, I sure was blessed. The picture above was taken during the service, you can see that the new church is being put to good use! Church was done in Portugese and Makua, all of the preaching and singing! But let me tell you that the spirit of the Lord was there and it was powerful, I like it that all the distractions are gone because in the natural I didn't understand anything that was going on, but in the spirit you can connect with the Holy Spirit 100% and worship the Father with everything that you got and know exactly what is going on! 

Then for lunch I got to have my favorite food here, beans and rice! and let me tell you they were amazing! After church they open up the kitchen to anyone from the village that wants to eat, it was great to see so many people getting food! 

Then for the rest of the day some friends (Arcenio, Benito, Louis, Antonio) and I went swimming across the road, at the beach in the Indian ocean! It was a beautiful sunny day and the water was just the right temperature. On Sunday's a lot of the local people come to the beach and swim also, so I was busy for different periods of time taking the kids and throwing them out into the water. 

Tonight some of the boys and I sent an email to a long term missionary that is back in the states now and later tonight we are going to "skype" one of the directors of the orphanage, who is back in the states taking a break now.  

This is a video of a couple of girls that sang during worship today.

I made it to Pemba! Hallelujah! and all of the luggage made it with me also. There was definitely favor of the Lord the whole trip at all of the airports! It is so good to be back here, there are lots of good memories coming back. I have all ready seen my three buddies ; Arcenio, Luis, and Mighty. I gave them all big hugs and we have been hanging out all evening! You should have seen their faces when they saw me. I have been busy running into everyone here and "catching up." Thank you for all of your prayers, I could tell! The missionaries are having a BBQ here at the base tonight and I'm invited! oh and yes Pemba is just as hot as when I was here last time! Haha It sounds like I can start helping put the engine back together on Tuesday. Tomorrow morning is church and it is in a new building so I am looking forward to that. 

Well I made it to Pretoria from Rustenburg in the bakkie (truck). I am spending the night with a missionary family. They have three cute kids from the age of 11 to 7. In the morning Peter is picking me up and dropping me off at the Joberg airport, then I have a 3 hour flight to Pemba. My flight leaves at 10:30 am. Talk to you later from Pemba!  

Police!

This morning I was on my way out to the Bible School and I got pulled over by the police! Here in SA they stand alongside the road and when they want you to pull over they step out into the road and motion for you to pull over to do routine checks. So I proceed to pull over, they check over the car registration and then ask for my drivers license. She looks confused and is like where is this from, I say that I am from America, Chicago. She then yells that over to another police officer who comes over and looks at my license. We then have a conversation about what America is like for the next 5 min or so, then they tell me to have a nice day! It was kind of fun!

I leave for Pemba this Saturday! Please be praying for safe travels, for the luggage, and for favor!  

Wow it is amazing how fast a week goes by! It is so good here. The weather continues to be beautiful here. When I got done working today out at the school I went for a run. It is interesting running here in Africa, not quite your typical Illinois roads to run on. God is so good. He continues to bless me here and pour His love out! The people here are so great; the Americans pouring their lives out here and also seeing the South Africans that are alive with His spirit in them!

For example about the Americans: I had the privalege of going out to a ministry that one of Steve's best friends runs out in the bush outside of Rustenburg. This ministry is for kids and also adults. They hold camps for up to 200 kids from all over Africa and they also teach and have seminars for the Adults of South Africa for them to go out and start thier own camps. They are on 50 acres and this place is like a theme park tucked away in the middle of no where. We drove on gravel/ dirt roads for about 40 minutes to get to the camp. All of the buildings are built African style, with thatch roofs and concrete walls, very cool! They have horses for the kids to ride, two swimming pools, and a huge indoor stage/ rec area/ dining hall. One of the couple's gift that runs this ministry is puppeting and theater, so they have a very nice setup for doing this. They produced and ran a kids tv program in Chicago for many years for a christian station, now called TLN (total living network). Very cool I will have to show you pictures of the place when I get home!

  

And the South Africans; I have/ and are getting to know a couple of guys that are going to be helping me with the work on the buildings. Thier names are Shadrack and Carlos. Shadrack is in his early 40's and just finished the three year Bible School program. This man just makes you put a smile on your face. You just look at him and you can what kind of a man he is! He has a wife and a daughter who is 7. Carlos I have just met in the last couple of days. He is a plumber by trade here in SA. He is probably in his mid to late 50's. He will be helping to do the installing of the plumbing and a nice thing about that is that when I leave here in a couple of days for Mozambique, I am going to get him setup so he can continue to work on the plumbing while I am gone! Yes the project at the school has grown! I thought it was going to just be the restrooms to be re-done but it is also the two buildings of bedrooms! So the more plumbing he can get done the more I can focus on some of the other projects! 

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and I would love to hear from you!  - Jarod

                   Sunday at Church, he was having fun seeing himself in the screen on the camera.

Written 4-6-08
This morning Bill and Susan Weibel picked me up at the place where I am staying. We then drove about an hour North to a church that their organization, Helping Hands, had helped to build. It was so nice to be there and take part in their service. During the service the choir sang a song for us in English. The church was built pretty similar to the churches that I was helping Charles build in Nelspruit last year. After service they took me and showed where the old church was that they used to meet in. It was in pretty bad shape, they might have been better off meeting out in the open on the grass (Dirt)! Then before we left we got some pictures with the congregation and pastors that were there.

On our way back to Rustenburg we stopped by a place called Predator World. They have lions, tigers, snakes, ostriches, and many other animals. We stopped there because Bill and Susan were checking it out to see if it would be good to bring the teams that are going to be coming from the States starting the middle of May. I thought it was pretty cool and I got some pictures of some of the animals there! We had supper together in Rustenburg and then Bill and Susan headed back home.

Written Friday April 4th:

Last night we slept at Steve’s house in Pretoria. We got up really early this morning to get to Rustenburg to the School because Steve was going to do the chapel service for the students. I followed Steve from his house in a bakie (truck.) When Steve leaves this next Wednesday, it will be what I drive to get around and also how I will get to the Joberg airport for me to fly out to Pemba.
We got to the school in good time. I started to meet everyone there and then it was time for the chapel service to start. It was really great; it involved prayer time, worship time, and then teaching time. It was really great worshipping with them; they sing all their songs accapella. After chapel was over Steve taught a couple of classes to the students. One of the students at the school is from Mozambique, so I was really blessed because he reminded me so much of all the people there. I have found that the Mozambique’s have a certain mannerism about them that I really enjoy. Shadrak (my new friend, former student from Joberg) and I went around the campus and he gave me the grand tour of the place. The official name of the school is South Africa School of Theology or SAST. This school has a lot to offer the students that come here but on the other hand I saw lots of need. The buildings are getting pretty old and need lots of work done on them.
In the afternoon then Steve and I went and checked-in to where we will be staying during our time here. It is called stop-and-stay. It is a very nice place to stay, the place where we are at used to be a house that they converted to be used as rooms to rent out. The rest of the day was spent familiarizing ourselves with the area and finding where we can buy the things that we will be needing. We both then went to bed early because we didn’t get much sleep the night before.

Written Saturday April 5th

Today involved going around to different stores and scouting out what prices are for material and availability. Steve left for a church dedication tomorrow, so I am here by myself now until he gets back on Monday morning. Tomorrow I am meeting up with Bill and Susan Weibel of Tentmaker Ministries and I am going to be going to church with them and then they have to make a few runs to some different ministries that they support. So it is a blessing to be able to hook-up with missionaries in Africa that are from the same town back in the states! The weather here has been really nice, today it was sunny and 87 degrees! 

In South Africa

I am back in South Africa! All of the flights went really well and also all of my luggage made it here safely! So we can praise the Lord for that! I am at Steve's house right now. He is a full time missionary with the Assemblies of God here in South Africa, he also does alot with Africa Oasis Projects. We are going to be leaving early in the morning to go over to Rustenburg to the Bible School. He has chapel to do in the morning and then after that I get to find out what exactly I will be doing there for work. It feels good to be back in Africa although it seems wierd because I just left not to long ago. I got some well needed sleep on the plane and now I need to take a shower and go to bed! 

What I will be doing

Hello,

Well I am on my way to Africa again. I am sitting in the Detroit Airport waiting for my flight to Amsterdam. All of the luggage made it through the screening process and onto the plane ok. Praise the Lord! Be praying that I don't have any problems going through customs there. I have posted below a little description of where I will be and what I will be doing. Please be in prayer with me for all of things that I will be doing! I plan on keeping this blog updated throughout this trip!

Where I will be
Rustenburg, South Africa - Bible School – April 2nd –April 11th & April 20th- May 15th
Pemba, Mozambique - Iris Ministries – April 12th – April 19th

South Africa
The first part of my trip is to South Africa to a Bible School. The School is where all the Pastor’s for the Assemblies of God Churches in South Africa receive their training. While at the School I will be first getting material ready and helping with the demolition of the interior of one of the dormitories. Once the demolition work is done I am going to be running new copper plumbing lines and fixtures in the bathrooms of the dorms. The last two weeks, there is a team of 30 coming in from California to help with the reconstruction of the interior of the dormitories, the laying of tile in the restrooms, and the construction of a new roof on the building, I will be helping with the leading and overseeing of these construction projects.

Mozambique
In Mozambique I am going to be going to Iris Ministries where there is an orphanage with 200 children. While there I plan on helping to overhaul a 200hp diesel engine on a boat that Iris owns in Pemba. Prayerfully a mechanic there and I will be able to get the engine fixed and put back in the water during the week that I am there. I am also going to get to see some of the children at the orphanage that I had built a relationship with, when I was there this past October – January.