Hallo Everyone!

We trust that you are all doing well, it is nice and cool in Malawi for a change. Here is some news from Grace Farm:

Orphanage: The orphans are doing well, most of our children did well In the school exams and are happy to have holiday. Next term starts middle August, it will be our oldest boy Lazaro’s last school term, he finishes in October. Then he is going to start work on the farm, to earn some pocket money, because he is going to join YWAM’s discipleship training in April next year. The training is held in Mzuzu in the North of Malawi. The course is going to be for 5 months, 3 months theory and 2 months outreach - when they do a short term outreach somewhere, last year they went to Likoma Island on the lake and this year’s team is going to Zambia. It is a very good training; we have hosted a team from Mozambique in the past, and are there for familiar with the teaching. He is very excited to go. After that we trust that he’ll be able to join an institution for formal studies. Lazaro is the best student in his class and we are very proud of him.

On week-ends they do material painting, making jewelry with local beads and smoothing curios for their own curio shop. We often get visitors that wants to buy memento’s from Malawi, so now they can do their shopping right here. The money goes to the children’s study fund.

Colleagues: Thank you for praying for good relationships with our new colleague Rob from South Africa. He is very helpful and reliable. He is very busy with maintenance of all the broken down machinery or servicing vehicles.

We thank God that after a few years of praying for the nurse from Holland she is now able to come. At last Alide found an organization that can support her financially. She will be a double blessing by doing medical work and will be doing an extension training programme for them here on Grace. We hope that she’ll arrive here in January 2009.

We have also moved Paster Raphael Njiro and his family from the extension church at Kasinje to Grace. He is one of the Bible School students and is working here for a few months and then we hope to send him and his family out to plant another church. Please pray for them as they are from a different people group, getting acquainted with the language and people of our area.

Day Care: This programme has tested our perseverance a LOT this past couple of months. Our neighbor village where the orphans come from whom we support to attend school, has a new Sheik at their Mosque. He does not want any Muslim child to attend our programme. So they consulted with Headmaster and school committee numerous times trying to shut down the programme, by God’s grace they have been unsuccessful. Unfortunately he forbid the families to send their children there, so the number of village orphans has shrunk considerably. At the moment the programme only support 95 children, but we are thankful that some are still able to hear His message every day. Please pray for the protection of the programme and good relationships.

Farm: The food crises have reached Malawi too. Prices of commodities have raised sky high – can easily say that most prices have doubled since last year this time. We are predicting another hunger year, even though last agricultural season was relatively good.

Gerrit is making changes on the farm. Land has always been scarce around here, so we’ve decided to devide our workers and interested villagers into clubs to grow maize and soya beans for us for the next season. Last season we’ve experimented with the club system, as we could not be here to plant ourselves. Gerrit saw what needed to be changed and has worked out thorough contracts for the clubs and are signed by the Chief of the village, Police of Namwera and District Commissioner, stating that the land stays ours, etc.

Kleynhans family: On the 15th a team of 9 from America and 3 from South Africa arrived here. Some are lecturers for the Bible school and the rest are doing numerous things: eye clinic, ministry, material painting, etc. Please pray for the good news seeds that’s been sown, that they’l l continue to grow. They are all flying out on the 1st , please pray with us for travel mercies.

Gerrit also joined the Bible School again. He only has an associate degree, and is going to finish his full Theology degree now, hopefully it will only take another 2 and half years. Pray for him as his days are already so full, that he will find time to study and do assignments also.

Hendre’ has joined Gerrit with school now and is doing well, we continue to trust the Lord for a missionary teacher to join us to help Hannelize with teaching. It is such a big challenge having children in different levels of school, both not reading yet.

We have so much that must still fall into place before we can take some time off, and have decided to postpone our furlough until January next year. We are planning to take a break in September when it is our 10 year wedding anniversary. That will hopefully help us to be able to endure until January.

We hope that this will help you to pray with us for our specific prayer needs. Thank you for taking hands with us in our Ministry to the Yao. We appreciate your continuous support!

Many blessings

Gerrit, Hannelize, Gerrit and Hendre