July News

Back in South Africa

One of the children who has been orphaned is standing where her new home is hopefully going to be in a few months. She is so sweet and attends our creche. :-)

The boys church and community soccer team!

Storytime at the Creche. The children learn all about the Bible and God's love for them.

On March 8th Shara and I flew back to South Africa to work in Ntshongweni Village. We have been greeted by many old friends and it feels very nice to be back in a place that is now my second home.

Since we have been gone a lot has happened. Our creche, Ntshongweni Creche, is now open with 80 registered children ages 2 to 6. The three teachers we have have done a great job so far and we are looking forward to supporting them in their work!

Our church is also growing. It was great to go to church on Sunday and see lots of new faces. There were about 70 people there and it was nice to sing and worship in Zulu.

The church has also started a community soccer team. This is a great way to do outreach with the young men, and they are very talented! We are going to watch them in a tournament this weekend and we hear they are very hard to beat! Thank you people back in the U.S. who donated for the uniforms and gear. They are getting put to good use!

We are hard at work with Pastor Thwala too to address new needs in the community. One of the hard parts of this work is seeing the children who no longer have their parents struggle while they wait for housing and other basic needs. We will continue to do some building this year, and hope to bring some of the tears from sorrow into tears of relief and hope.

Shara and I have also gotten to meet with the social workers and we are getting the support groups running again soon. We are excited to hopefully add some sewing and gardening activities for the ladies this year!

Planning for the short term teams coming this year is also going strong! If you are interested in coming for 10 days or so in Shongweni to help send me an e-mail! Julia.Wehrenberg@gmail.com

There is much more happening here as we adjust and catch up on the work going on, and I fill you in soon!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support and encouragement! You are all awesome brothers and sisters in Christ, and a very important part of this mission team!

Love and Blessings in Christ,

Julia