Half-way

Hello again,

This has been a most interesting week. On Monday 50 people from Grace Church, a local church, and a group of people from Canada came to the farm to help. They moved rocks, since the landscape is covered in rocks and mixed concrete for the floor of the cottage. They only stayed until 12:30 but the amount of work they did would have taken us a month to do. The last thing the group did was to place a cross on the top of hill overlooking Killarney Valley.

On Tuesday, Andrew Wartnaby and Ben traveled about an hour up the North coast to fetch a huge donation of food for Thembisa. A food distributor donated over one and a half metric tons of soup mix and corn meal, enough to feed an enormous amount of grannies. The Pajero, the equivalent of a Mitsubishi Montero, was literally filled to the roof with soup mix, and so was the trailer that we towed. The donation was definitely an awesome gift, but unfortunately we literally crushed Andrew’s left index finger in the trailer hitch. (Not Andrew Fletcher) Later that night, the family circled up and prayed for Andrew’s injury. We were sure that it was broken, but the next day the finger was found in much better condition! Praise God!

We finally got started on the roof on Wednesday but it is not exactly level so we have added a luxurious rooftop swimming pool. We only have to add one more roof sheet and make the roof level in order to be finished with the cottage.

Thursday and Friday we finished the stone wall in the front yard. We don’t mean to sound proud but we must say it rivals the Great Wall of China.

Cheers!
Andrew and Ben

P.S. We are having trouble dealing with the fact that we are so removed from American Sports. All we’ve heard is that Tiger won the U.S. open with a busted knee, but we are very grateful that our tar heel trio will be returning to us next year.

Prayer Requests:
1. Continued prayers for Andrew and Rae. That they will follow God’s will for the Farm and Thembisa and that God provides them with regular financial support.
2. The area where we are building the cottage is called Legacy of Love and Andrew and Rae hope to have four more structures built for other grannies, volunteers like us and for Pastors to take a Sabbatical. The soon to be village is called Legacy of Love because Andrew and Rae have had people love them throughout their lives and they would like to continue that legacy of love to those who come to Hope Farm.
3. Josh. He is a 15 year old boy who was staying here on the farm. From what we know, Josh came from a very broken home which ultimately threw him out on the streets. Andrew and Rae heard about his past and offered him a place to stay and to provide for his education while he stayed with them. Unfortunately he had been causing problems since he came here and became much worse the past couple of weeks. He told Andrew and Rae that he was uncomfortable staying here and would like to leave. Against all of our efforts to convince him to stay because he had no where to go he still wanted to leave. Because his family would not take him back Andrew and Rae had to take him to the welfare office which didn’t want to take him either. We are unsure where he is now, either a Children’s Home, on the streets again or at A Place of Safety (which in reality it is not because it houses teenage criminals). We hope that he is safe and that God’s hope and love have reached him while staying here.

Greetings from the other side of the ocean

Hello to all,

I hope everyone is staying cool back home, its rather chilly here. Earlier in the week the temperature was in the 40's in the afternoon and at night, but it is very nice during the day. We have finished the walls of the cottage we are building, and on monday 50 people from a local church are coming to work for a day. They will be pouring the concrete slab for the floor (thankfully) and doing other jobs around the farm. Orginally we were expecting 20 people, so these 30 extra are definitely a blessing.

We have begun building a wall in the front yard, and we would encourage everyone to read Nehemiah 4 and Isaiah 58. Hopefully we will be building more walls in the future.

The driving here is fun! Adjusting to driving on the wrong side of the road didn't take as long as we thought it would and we actually kind of like the left side of the road.

Tomorrow the comrades marathon will be run from Pietermariztburg to Durban which is like 80 or 90 kilometers. Cato Ridge is the midway point and we will be able to go see some 11,000 people running.

Next week the plan is to finish the roof on the cottage but God changes our plans here very often.

Thanks for your prayers.

Andrew & Ben

Prayer Requests:
1. Andrew and Rae: God has blessed the ministry of Thembisa and the things that Andrew and Rae are doing for the people around them in huge ways, but they need more financial support to help feed the children that they have taken in. Pray for Support.
2. The country of South Africa: Much like the issues with Mexican Immigrants in the U.S., Zimbabwean people in South Africa are becoming the victims of discrimination and Xenophobic attacks in this country. Pray for Peace.
3. The Children: 3 Million orphans live in South Africa, and the country's infrastructure is unable to place all of these children in the care of stable families or orphanages. We live with 8 of the three million. Pray that the 8 that we live with here on the farm will find comfort and safety here. Many of them are extremely broken and are facing giants. Pray for Care and Comfort.

P.S.
Andrew is feeling much better today so we think his blood is back to normal.

We're Here!

How's it everyone?

We're here in the luxurious Cato Ridge Internet Cafe, and needless to say it is not equipped with DSL Broadband Internet.
Haha we're sorry we haven't kept you guys up to date, but the internet is hard to catch in South Africa.

We've been having an amazing time here these past two weeks. Andrew and Rae are amazing people, and so far these past two weeks we've been at work building a cottage in a village that is on the farm property. The vision for village is that soon we will be able to bring a grannie and her grandchildren from the Valley of 1000 Hills to live on the farm and teach them how to cook, clean, keep up personal hygiene, and improve their quality of living while their house is being built in the Valley.
We're really excited about what God is doing here, and it's really awesome to be a part of it.
South Africa is a beautiful country but is the Devil is very visible here as well.

We're living here on the farm with Andrew and Rae's family of 7, plus 8 orphans.
Dinner time is a lot more exciting here with 17 mouths to feed at one table!

It's really amazing to see the way that God provides for Andrew and Rae on a daily basis. Their entire lives are focused on this ministry, and we have come to learn that the luxuries of missionary life are very different from the luxuries of our home.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed and supported us! Every dollar that we have brought is either put to construction projects, or it goes to feed the 17 people here on the farm. It's great to see your donations going directly to the people who need it most.

If you would like to donate, please go to the Hope Farm web address. The link is located at the bottom of this blog.

Cheers!

Andrew and Ben

P.S. Andrew is doing much better after his bout with blood poisoning last week. Thanks for the prayers!