Life is busy!

We have been very busy around our house...completing renovations on our current house to put it up for sale, preparing for our annual Summer Training Camp, continuing our relationships with students, fighting the beginnings of the summer heat with our fans, helping to prepare new staff to come to the campus in Pretoria next year, etc. Below are some pictures of what has been going on lately...


Pictured on the left: Haley with some girls in Jasmyn on the night of their first year dinee (pronounced din- ier). The the guys' and girls' residence halls have a dinee for every year in university (first, second, third, and fourth). The dinee involves dinner and dancing at a formal venue. Everyone looked stunning in their dresses! L to R: Christine, Heleen, Haley, Corali, Retha, Lauren

Pictured on the right: This is a picture of our new staff team for 2008. Cory and Leslie Thompson will be moving back at the end of the year to pursue other things. They will be dearly missed by us all in South Africa! But we do get 3 new South African additions to our team...Sammy, One, and Stephan. We are very thankful that the Lord has moved them in this direction. Now Paul won't be the only staff guy in Pretoria! L to R: Sammy, Cory, One, Leslie, Raquel, Jackie, Charity, Paul, and Haley (Stephan not pictured, he was taking a test!)



Haley has also started to lead 2 girls in a Bible Study. Amby and Zinzi just became Christians this year and they are eager to grow in their walk with God. And Haley has been encouraged by their hunger for God and to share that with others! Please pray for them as they just begin their journey with the Lord. (Pictures to come soon!)

Famous Dog

Snickers has recently been in the spotlight! One night Paul and I were being crazy and put Snickers in Paul's TUKS gym T-shirts. We took pictures to document the whole event. We mentioned these pictures to the guys that work at the gym and they told us to bring in the photos. So I brought them in and a week later, Snickers appeared on the TUKS gym official website! And ever since, we have been telling her that she is a famous pooch! You can see Snicker's brush with fame by clicking on this website: http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=4662&sub=1&parentid=856&subid=4628&ipklookid=9

We are very proud of our dog...if you couldn't tell!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We have been really busy with life, ministry, logistics with the new house, etc. We consider this a blessing, but it's hard to see it like this sometimes!

We recently had a "Sugar High" night at our house, where we made pancakes (the really thin and flat kind) and had students bring their own toppings. We had a contest to see which pancake tasted the best and had the most sugar! Students brought chocolate chips, ice cream, jelly candies, chocolate candies, banannas, peanut butter, even a cheeseburger from McDonald's! We played games and watched movies after everyone felt sick from eating so many sweets! This was an informal ministry event, where we invited students we have been spending time with to come to a different environment to be around us and other students on campus. L to R: Haley, Lauren, Anita, and Masala.


South Africans love the outdoors...running races, hiking, playing sports, having a braai (a cook out or barbeque). This weekend we got to experience what South Africans enjoy, with staff and a few students Paul disciples and spends time with. Paul, Haley, Raquel, Pieter, and Uli participated in a 5 and 10k race on Thursday morning for Women's Day (a national holiday). Raquel did a 2k, Haley ran a 5k, and Paul, Pieter, and Uli ran a 10k (pictured to the left). We all had a lot of fun, despite being a little tired from getting 5 hours of sleep the night before because Pieter and Uli spent the night with us! Afterwards, we came back to our house and had a braai. Michael joined us for the braai because he said he couldn't run, but he could eat! (pictured on the right) Braai's usually consist of grilling meat and eating it on bread. South Africans rarely have sides at a braai. But this time, Haley ate some green beans with her turkey burger because she needed some veggies!

These are just a few of the ministry opportunities we have had over the last several weeks. It's just us living our lives, inviting others into that, and building relationships in order that we might share Christ with them. It's not hard, but requires a lot of patience and trust in the Lord. Please pray for us as we go and share our lives with these students...that we wouldn't lose hope or strength. And we pray that you would do the same with your lives!

Back from Holiday

The second semester has finally started! Students are back from their winter holiday and flocking back to Res halls, classrooms, and dining halls. We are looking forward to this semester...reconnecting with students, following up with those who came to the Joint Winter Conference, getting back into Res life, etc.

Haley recently invited girls she has been spending time with to the house for a chili and cornbread supper. This may not be significant to you, but chili isn't served anywhere in South Africa, so these girls have never tasted it before. They have only seen movie stars eat it in the movies! So they were really excited that they were going to try this 'famous' dish. Maggie even went home and told her mom that she had chili at an American's house! To the right is a picture of Haley, Cat, Maggie (back row), Claire, Lindi, and Ashley (front row). Maggie, Lindi, and Claire are South African students living in Jasmyn on the 3rd and 4th floors. Cat and Ashley are on the CCP and have greatly enhanced Haley's ministry. Haley has spent a lot of time with them. Haley and Claire are currently training for a 5k race in August and hope that Maggie and Lindi, as well as Zoe and Ternercia (not pictured) will run as well. The girls have also wanted to have a dessert night at our house where they will teach Haley how to make Afrikaans desserts they grew up eating, if she makes them homemade brownies. Of course Paul isn't complaining about taste testing! Haley plans to have a craft night with these girls as well. Please pray for Haley as she uses these times of training, cooking, and crafts to deepen her relationships with these girls and to share the gospel with them.

Paul is also busy with ministry in res and director responsibilities for the TUKS campus. He is continuing to disciple Philip, Pieter, and Tiisetso. It has been really exciting as these men are truly giving their lives away other men, whether on their res halls or in their classes. The men leaders recently had a poker night where they invited guys they have been ministering to and about 35 guys participated. Paul actually ended up winning the entire event! We now wish they had played for money and we could have cashed in big time!

We are trusting God that He will really move and shake things up this semester for His name and glory! We will keep you posted!

Finally!

Welcome to our new blog! We have been meaning to set this up for a while, but haven't had much time lately. We hope to keep everyone updated on our life and ministry here in Pretoria through this site.

We just got back from the JWC and we had a great time! Many new students came and at least 25 students from all 4 campuses said they came to Christ for the first time! There were about 80 students that came from TUKS and we enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. We are trusting that the intimate, spiritual conversations we had at the JWC will impact the kingdom and the campus. We got to give a seminar on dating, which we really enjoyed! We talked about the 'culture around us' and what it has to say about dating, then compared it to the 'new culture' that the Bible teaches. It is a radical difference and many students had questions about how to date in this new culture. We really enjoyed working together on this, which has brought us closer to the Lord and to each other. We also got to experience the Lord using us in men and women's lives, prayerfully impacting their dating relationships and ultimately their future marriages. To the right is a picture of the TUKS staff, students, and CCP at the Joint Winter Conference.

As for us, this month has been really busy! Now, we are enjoying a short, but much needed holiday. The entire UP staff team had the privledge of getting away for the night at resort in Pretoria North. We were excited when the rooms had heaters and cable TV! We head off to Johannesburg on Sunday to begin our staff training and fellowship time (about a week) before the students return from their winter break. The speaker will be Clint Watson, Director of CO Atlanta and was the speaker at the JWC. He will be speaking on health in all areas of life, physical, mental, spiritual, in ministry, etc. We are really looking forward to this time of teaching and fellowship!