Term 3 Update

The term has started well at the After School Program with 140 children already registered and high average daily attendances of 71 children in September and 77 children in October. The highest daily attendance so far has been 85 children – now that was a busy day!

New Faces
Rahel Widmer, a volunteer from SIM Switzerland, joins the ASP team from Term 3 2008 until mid-2009. She has training and experience in children’s ministry and loves working with young children.

A new activity the children can try this term is creative dance, run on Thursday afternoons by Ujandja Veii. Ujandja is a talented young lady from the church who especially enjoys hip-hop and creative dancing.

Ujandja puts the children through their paces

Life Stories
This year one of the activities for the children in Grades 6 to 12 has been a Life Skills group. Through this they have learned that everyone is special; the importance of accepting and respecting each other; how to make good decisions; and facts about HIV and AIDS.

While we were talking about the pressures that young people face, many of the children shared about the pressure to have sex that they experience. One girl told us about her sister in Grade 10, who constantly gets approached by older, often married, men who are interested in a ‘relationship’ with her. Others talked about peer pressure and boyfriends or girlfriends who demand sex.

These are issues that our children face regularly and we want to equip them with the skills to make the right choices for their lives.

Home Based Care

Meet Edler, Jogbeth and Aline (above, from left to right), the Carers in our newly-started Home Based Care (HBC) Program.

Between them they are currently visiting eight clients, all of whom are HIV-positive and taking anti-retrovirals (medication used when HIV has reached an advanced stage).

Apart from assistance when a client is sick, the HBC provides support and counselling, as well as help and education to the clients’ families. Often the households have practical needs such as for food or medicine; sometimes the clients may just need the encouragement of someone caring enough to listen to, and pray with, them.

HOW DO YOU…?
One of Jogbeth’s clients is Susanna (not her real name), a nine-year-old girl whose family did not know how to tell her that she is HIV-positive. Shortly after starting to visit the home, Jogbeth saw that Susanna didn’t understand why she needs to take medicine every day. After speaking with the parents, everyone agreed that Susanna needed to know the truth. So Jogbeth explained the disease to her and the fact that taking the medicine properly will help her stay healthy. Susanna had many questions but was able to accept this. Jogbeth now needs to talk with Susanna’s brothers and sisters so that they can also understand and help Susanna.

This is just an example of the many challenging situations our Carers encounter, please pray for them!

Term 2 in Retrospect!

188 children attended the After School Program in Term 2 and the average daily attendance was 61 children.

International Flavour
Two international teams assisted at the ASP during the Term.

Pip, Cherith, David and Richard from the Scottish Team running games for the children

The first was from the Gilcomston South Church of Scotland in Aberdeen, the home church of SIM missionaries Paul and Hilary Gunning. They were here for two weeks at the end of June and did a fantastic job running a Bible Club program for the children each afternoon.

The second was through Africa Inland Mission Canada and came for six weeks in
July/August. Tim, Becky, Justin, Amanda, Cecilly and Katie worked hard tutoring the children, especially those in Grades 1 to 4, helping with the sports, Bible Club and craft activities and running a special Bible program during the last week of the Term. The water fight on the last day was very memorable!

The AIM Team with ASP volunteers (L to R) Hauta, Absalom, Lazarus and Martin

In addition to the teams, three nursing students (Melanie, Carly and Danelle) who were also in Namibia through AIM Canada helped out two afternoons a week.

Donations
One of these students, Danelle LeBlanc, donated some money for sports equipment. The children were very excited to see new soccer balls, rugby balls, a cricket set, darts and cones. The AIM Team also brought some sports gear, so now we have a good variety of sports to offer the children.

A big thank you also goes to Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN) Namibia, who donated six bicycles to the ASP volunteers. This makes their transport to and from the Program much easier.

Lazarus, Martin and Absalom with their bikes

...More Canadians

The Scottish team successfully completed their time here with the last day of their Bible program on the Monday, and then some activities first up on the Tuesday before they had to leave for the airport. The kids played some games in their teams, and then there was a little prize-giving for the kids who had gotten 5 or more stars during the week, followed by all the kids getting some chips and sweets to eat. Then we had to settle the kids down to do their homework…needless to say, that wasn’t easy!

Fun & games on the Team's last day

But even for a short time, our friends from Aberdeen have made an impact on the lives of these kids. They still remember the memory verses they were taught and wonder how is Richard, or Pippa, or Cherith, or…

Hiking
The Canadian nurses who have been helping were really keen to get a closer look at Namibian nature, and with two of them – Melanie and Carly – leaving this week, we decided that last Friday was the only opportunity we had. So along with them and Danelle went myself, Hauta, Lazarus, Steven and Kauna to do the 9km hike at Daan Viljoen, a game park just outside Windhoek.

Hauta, Carly, Steven, Melanie, Danelle - before we started

Although it was still chilly on our way there (we had a week of sub-zero temperatures at night), the walking quickly warmed us up. We didn’t see a lot of game close-up, but the scenery is absolutely breathtaking and we all had a great time.

But Hauta still found time to hang around

Hauta and Lazarus decided to take Melanie and Carly on a more adventurous route and so for the last third of the hike blazed their own trail, while the rest of us stuck to the one that was marked. Well, the adventurous group found a wildebeest skull (horns still intact) and a zebra skeleton and the girls decided to try and take both skulls home. (I don’t yet know whether they were allowed to or not!) But our group saw the baboons, which the girls had been really keen to see.

Lazarus, Melanie, Danelle, Kauna, me, Carly

It was a great way of getting to know each other better, especially helpful for Danelle seeing she’s staying until the end of August. And we’re thrilled that Steven came along and really enjoyed himself…we’re still praying that he will come to know the Lord. (I can’t help boasting here that Steven and I – while waiting for the ‘adventurous group’, whose trail took rather longer than ours to complete – had a “who can dropkick the most Coke cans into the bin” competition and I beat him 4 to 1, including scoring on my very first kick!)

Steven watches my kicking style - in awe?

Rugby
The following day the Canadians met up with us again to watch Hauta’s club rugby game. Hauta and Wacca play for the same club, Western Suburbs, and were really looking for a win after being beaten the week before and knocked off the top of the table. After an exciting and very close match, they lost by 1 point! After which we went out to eat with a couple more friends, to the steak restaurant Lazarus works at, and had a fabulous time. Believe it or not Hauta managed to finish a 1kg steak!

Hauta (green & white #1) lifts Wacca in a lineout

There are also two internationals coming up next weekend and the one after – a friendly against a South African universities side and the World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe. Hauta and Wacca are both still in the squad, although Wacca’s currently struggling with a lower back injury.

…More Canadians
Friday was also the day when the AIM team from Canada arrived to help out at the After School Program for about 5 weeks, until the end of Term 2. After settling in and some orientation, they started with us on Wednesday. They’re enjoying themselves so far and we’re grateful for the additional help that Tim, Becky, Justin, Katie, Amanda and Cecilly are willing to give.

Volunteer update
Lazarus is working again, but still manages one or two afternoons a week. Hauta has had to reduce the time he’s at After School, due to looming exams and the urgency of study. Kauna’s course kicks off for Semester 2 next week, so she did her last day with us yesterday. Mercia has been very busy with her church duties (she’s also the church secretary) and will also be on leave next week. But Absalom is able to stay on and has committed himself to come every day. And then there’s Steven, Martin, me and Danelle, who is now coming 3 days a week. There’s also a British student nurse (due to arrive today) coming to work with Danelle at the hospital, who is interested in coming along.

All the kids & volunteers on the Scottish Team's last day

Kids update
After all that ‘social’ news, some of you might be wondering what’s actually happening at the Program! We’re consistently getting 65 to 70 kids each day – for some reason the attendance is always highest in Term 2. The activities have been going well, with the kids enjoying Bible Club, and we’ve also had a good discussion about HIV and AIDS in the Life Skills group over the last two weeks. Arts and Crafts has suffered a bit as it’s so labour-intensive that some weeks we just can’t face it! But the kids – even the girls – are enjoying doing rugby as a sport. The boys play touch rugby under Hauta and/or Steven’s guidance, and I work with the girls, teaching them the basic skills. Please pray for the kids, especially the older ones, as exams for most of them will start next week.

Hoots, mon!

We’ve had the Scottish team with us for just about a week now. Last Friday we had lunch together to meet each other and talk about the After School Program (which is also why I didn’t get around to blogging last week).

Introducing the team to the kids: Zara, Carol, Pip, J-W, Richard, Kathleen, Cherith (& Kauna)

In total 13 people have come as part of the team, but only 7 or 8 of them come to After School (the others are busy with different projects). They have been helping the kids during the normal homework/study time, and then running a program for the kids in place of the usual daily activities.

Zara & Richard learning one of "our" songs

And it has been going really well! The kids hear a story from the Bible, learn a memory verse, have a daily quiz on what’s been covered on previous days, and then either do some craft or play games. The theme is what it’s like to be on Jesus’ team and is sports-oriented.

J-W entertains the kids with Joseph, the puppet

The kids have been split up into 4 teams: the Lions (Grades 1 and 2), the Springboks (Grades 3 and 4), the Wildcats (Grades 5 and 6) and the Angels (Grade 7s and high school). Yes, the kids chose the names themselves, but I suspect the leaders came up with the Lions’ team chant which goes, “What do LIONS eat? Springbok!”. The kids do craft and play games in their teams. For learning the memory verses and answering questions they get a sticker on their name badges.

"We're Springboks!" (Grade 3 kids)

So the Scots will run the program one last day (on Monday) and will then have a party for the kids on Tuesday, their last day here. They’ve done excellently, getting to know the kids, helping us out and running their program. We’ll be sad to see them go!

Carol & Cherith helping the Grade 1s and 2s to "do the hokey-pokey"

United Nations
After School has had quite an International flavour lately as last week 3 young ladies from Canada also started helping. Danelle, Melanie and Carly are all nursing students and are here through AIM (Africa Inland Mission) doing a short-term nursing practical at the State Hospital. They’re learning a lot about medical practice in Africa! Their nursing prac is only in the mornings, so on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons they just walk “down the street” (okay, it is down the main street – Independence Ave – but it’s at least a kilometre and a half!) to the church. They love working with the kids, especially the smaller ones. Melanie and Carly will only be here for a few more weeks, but Danelle is staying until the end of August.

Familiar faces
And seeing it’s mid-year break for the tertiary students, Kauna and Absalom are both back at After School, helping out until school starts again for them towards the end of July.

Updates…
Still have to get the final editing done for the DVD presentation, so I’ll be glad when that’s finished and I can send it off to my dad.

Yes, the rugby team did return victorious from Senegal…just! They won a close encounter 9-5. According to Hauta, the home ground advantage was used to its fullest and the Namibians were intimidated into quite a few mistakes. But all’s well that ends well. The next qualifier will be in August.

Progress

I’ve been busy working on a DVD presentation about EBCAIDS, which is why I’ve been a bit quiet lately. It’s mainly to send to my dad in Australia so he can talk about our work. But if anyone’s interested let me know!

After School is still going well – we passed the attendance high of 67 kids from the other week: on Monday we had 70.

We’ve done the Life Skills group with the kids from Grade 6 to Grade 10 for the last two weeks and it’s gone really well. Hauta wasn’t there the first Monday, but helped out last week and did a great job. The kids are all eager to discuss the questions and give their opinions. The first lesson was on what it means to be unique vs copying other people. And last week was on sexual pressure. That sure generated a lot of discussion, and so we didn’t get through the whole lesson. Seeing tomorrow is a school holiday (in celebration of the Day of the African Child), we’ve decided to do life skills on Wednesday in place of Bible Club. Sutuu, Lazarus and Mercia will do a similar program (but age-appropriate) for the younger kids.

The main reason for finishing the lesson this week is that for the following two weeks we’ll have a team from the Gilcomston South Church of Scotland working with the After School Program. They’ll be running a VBS (Vacation Bible School)–style program in place of all our normal activities, so if we don’t finish the life skills this week that one lesson will be done over 4 weeks!

Sutuu was in charge of Bible Club last week and did an excellent job teaching the kids that knowing what God says in His Word is important to help us grow. It’s so great to see these guys taking on responsibility and handling it well.

We said goodbye to Hauta on Tuesday – as he WAS selected for the national team and headed off on Wednesday to Senegal to play a qualifier for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He was definitely looking forward to the experience. Unfortunately we still don’t know what happened…news seems to be a bit slow coming out of West Africa! He’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully with good news of a win.

Well that’s all for now – please keep us in your prayers, especially as we finish up the DVD, and for the Scottish team arriving at the end of this week.

Olympic Champions

Last term we got the After School Program kids to enter an Olympic Games competition that was being run by the Chinese Embassy here. It was a quiz with general knowledge questions about the Olympic Games, as well as ones more specific to the Beijing Olympics later this year. I found all the information on the internet and printed it out, then the kids worked in groups to find the answers to the questions.

Only five girls persevered to the end and we submitted their entries. During the school holidays I got a call to say that all of them had won prizes! We could only contact Susanna, as the others were out of town.

Susanna receiving her prize from the Chinese Ambassador

So I went along to what I thought was just the prize-giving ceremony, and met Susanna there. In fact it was the official launch of the Beijing Olympics in Namibia, as that day marked exactly 100 days until the start of the Games! So all sorts of VIPs were present, including the former President of Namibia, Dr Sam Nujoma (who is the patron of the National Olympic Committee), the Chinese ambassador, some other government officials and athletes. It was quite a nice event with brief speeches, some cultural performances and more-than-life-size Beijing Olympics mascots, in addition to the prize-giving for the competition. We were all given badges and t-shirts, as well as something to eat and drink afterwards.

A cultural performance with the mascots in the background

The Embassy sent the prizes for the other girls to me and I collected them this week. So on Wednesday we had our own little ‘prize-giving ceremony’, handing out the prizes to Bernadette, Christhelda and Kaekuhu, as well as acknowledging Susanna. Unfortunately Otja, the fifth girl, has not yet started back at After School, so we’ll have to keep her prize for when she does come back.

The proud recipients: Susanna & Christhelda (standing), Bernadette & Kaekuhu (in front)

This week went well and it was a bit shorter as Monday was a public holiday. The number of kids coming jumped up to 67 for Tuesday and Wednesday, then we had 59 on Thursday. Steven (a regular helper in the past) turned up and is again able to help out from 3pm every day. He’s agreed to work with the older kids (Grade 5 and up) who need to pull up their marks in English, Maths and Afrikaans; as well as the high school kids who need help with Accounting and Business Management. We also had Kakazona and Martin offer to help, they should both be able to come at least a couple of days a week.

So we’re very thankful for the number of helpers we have at present, but please pray for us too, as handling almost-70 kids requires a lot of energy and wisdom!

Another start

Wow! What a great start to After School Program for the Term. Thanks to all of you who must have been praying!!

School and ASP were supposed to start last week, but the Government did something that’s becoming increasingly regular…changed the starting date at the last minute! So some schools started on Thursday last week, and some only on Monday this week. Yes, don’t worry – everyone was confused.

Monday we kicked off with 39 kids, then 45 on Tuesday, then 55 on both Wednesday and Thursday! To say that we were exhausted by the end of the week is putting it mildly, I think. Apart from the regular homework/study time, the kids played Frisbee on Monday and kickball on Thursday. On Tuesday the craft was making paper chains, to illustrate the Bible lesson on Wednesday about Paul and Silas in prison. Sutuu did a great job with the Bible lesson, emphasizing that God sets us free from the chains of sin and also protects us.

Another terrific thing is the dedicated team of volunteers we have for this term. Mercia and Hauta you already know from previous terms, and joining them are Sutuu and Lazarus. Sutuu used to help with ASP a couple of years ago before going to study in South Africa, while Lazarus is completely new. There are another couple of people from the church who also may be able to help on a less-regular basis.

LEFT: Mercia & Sutuu work with the Grade 1 - 4 kids

RIGHT: Peter & Lazarus with the Grade 5 - 10 kids

BELOW: Hauta

Peter and Caitie Gunning, two MKs (missionary kids), are still helping once a week as the community service requirement of the International Youth Award that they’re both doing through their school.

Then we also had some visitors. Daryl, Sabrina and Shelley, new AIM short-term missionaries, came to check out the Program on Wednesday; and Helen, Joseph (right, helping the Grade 1s & 2s learn their pronouns) and Zeca (left, helping the older kids with their homework), first year students at NETS (Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary) came to help out on Thursday as part of their practical ministry assignment.

So keep praying. We’re having some space issues and so will have to move the work spaces around a bit next week, but other than that we’re going full steam ahead. There’s a public holiday on Monday, so we’ll have a bit of a breather over this long weekend. Then the following week Hauta and I will start a Life Skills Program for the older kids (Grade 6 and up). Pray for us as we prepare for that – it will give the kids Biblical teaching on relationships, sexuality and HIV/AIDS issues.

Kind of crowded in the Gr 5 - 10 work room...

Catch-up

I know that I've been really slack with my posts this year...please let me apologize and do a 'general' post to bring you up-to-date with what's been happening.



After School Program

This was a real struggle during Term 1 (which ended on 18 April). Kauna (who, as you'll remember, coordinated the Program for us last year) was accepted to study Science at the university, and so after helping kick off the Program for the year, had to withdraw due to a busy class schedule. There wasn't anyone available to take over, so I tried to oversee it as much as possible. Due to my other work I couldn't come every day and Mercia (another volunteer and also the church secretary) was a big help on the days I couldn't make it. We also had trouble finding enough volunteers for each day, and this meant that the kids were less enthusiastic about coming. School will start for Term 2 on May 12, so I'm starting to look for volunteers now - please pray! We'll have two Teams coming to help out during this term - one from a Scottish church (mid-June to the beginning of July) and one through AIM Canada (mid-July to the end of term in August), as well as (possibly) two other short-term AIM missionaries.



Family

All's well on the family front. Jimmy's travelling a bit less for work this year, about one & a half weeks out of every month. Samara had a great first term back at Pre-school and Caietta certainly keeps busy at home.



Sports

Rachel and I still diligently play squash weekly whenever possible and the last outcome was that she beat me 2 games to 1 last week, while I beat her by the same margin two weeks previous. Rachel and her family will move back to the U.S. in June (they are missionaries with AIM and will be doing home assignment and then looking at other possible ministries), so I have to convince our some-time squash opponent, Hilary, to become a bit more regular so we can play every week!

And as for rugby, Hauta (who's still volunteering at the After School Program when his studies allow) has just been selected in the training squad for the national team! He's very pleased about that and just wants to make it to play for the team. Meanwhile our friend, Wacca, has just arrived back from 6 months playing for an English club. He'll soon be back wearing his national jersey, as they wanted him at training the same day he arrived from England!

HBC

Last week we held another Home Based Care (HBC) & Counselling training, and 7 more church members (five women and two men) were successfully trained! Once again our friends at AIDS Care Trust did the training, assisted by Jogbeth (our HBC Coordinator), Naf (another EBCAIDS member) and myself.

This brings the total number of church members trained to 17. We don’t have a HBC Program operating yet, but Jogbeth has started attended support group meetings for people living with HIV/AIDS (these are run by AIDS Care Trust). AIDS Care Trust has also started a regular meeting between organizations interested in HBC, with the aim of networking (knowing what each organization is doing, discussing common problems, etc). Jogbeth attended the first of these last month and the next will be held in June.

Most of the new trainees expressed interest in attending the support group meetings, and one, Edler, wants to start providing care to some Bushmen people living near her husband’s farm. It was agreed that the group would help her to start visiting these people to give information about HIV/AIDS, as well as any necessary basic health care and counselling.

The course participants will receive their HBC kits (provided by AIDS Care Trust, with basic medical and health supplies) and their certificates on 16 May.

Broken Glass

Shortly after the New Year, we went and stayed with our friend, Ivondia, who recently moved to a little town called Arandis, which is in the middle of the desert about 50 kms from the coast.

While there we spent a day at Swakopmund, the main coastal tourist destination. We bumped into some other friends who took us to a marvelous tidal rock pool, just right for the kids to swim and splash around.
While walking along the beach, I noticed some really pretty, translucent, unusual-looking green pebbles. I picked some up and took them along to show our friends. “You know what they are?” asked one. “Bits of broken glass that the sea has smoothed down.”

We hunted around and came up with a couple of handfuls of green, brown, white and even yellow ‘pebbles’. Put all together, they were even more beautiful.

What a parable! Imagine glass broken in anger or drunkenness, through neglect or indifference, no good to anyone, only able to cause pain and hurt. Left on the beach. Then the sea takes it, pummels it against the sand and rocks…and creates something of beauty.
Isn’t this what God does with our lives? Takes seemingly impossible situations that have caused hurt, or pain, or ugliness, or anger, and works it all for “His good” (Romans 8:28) to create something beautiful.

And I guess that’s the aim of our AIDS work as well – to show that even with the tragedy of becoming infected with HIV, or suffering from AIDS, that God gives the hope that this will not be a wasted life, but one that can bring glory to Him.