Bulembu

A few pictures from our trip...

We have arrived! Navigating through the J0-burg airport... ready for showers and beds!

Touring Bulembu - abandoned homes from the mining days. Many are being renovated for homes that house up to 8 orphan children and an Auntie. Each of us were placed in one of these homes spent our afternoons there playing with the children.

The view from Bulembu Lodge (where we stayed all week). The picture hardly does it justice.

Breathtaking...

Hard work! Working at 'leveling' the road so that the next group can lay brink for easier travel. Many used a pick-axe for the first (and hopefully last!) time!

We got to love on LOTS of children!

Nicole, Rachel, Jessica, Jessi, Rachel, Monica... hiked up to a view point for the sunset

The Bulembu family - Iowa, Tennessee, Vermont, New Hampshire represented!

To hear and see much, much more, come to First Reformed on Sunday, August 15. We will be sharing at both services (9 and 11 am). Come to both to hear the whole story!

We're home!!

We made it back! We haven't slept in beds for 48+ hours so we're all ready to crash!

Everyone had an amazing trip - there will soon be stories and pictures posted.

The team will be sharing on Sunday, Aug 15 at both 9 am and 11 am services - different stories/sharers at each service so if you wanna hear the whole story come to both services!

Thanks soooo much for your prayers!

We made it safely to london! Final flight leaves in a few hrs... should be in pella late tonight!

We are off to our morning safari... Leaving at 5 am!! Our last day in africa. Plane leaves tonight @ 2:15 pm iowa time & lands in chi on tues @ 2:15 pm

Rainy day in africa. No mt climb but we will hike to a nearby village this afternoon. Packing up to go on safari sat and sun!!

Last work day 2morrow. Ate swazi meal tonight with orphans tonight complete with singing and dance. Very sore and tired. Going 2 bed @ 9:30!

5 e with AIDS.

5 Trip is going great! Working hard in the mornings, playing with kids in afternoon. Getting along great with other team members! Pray for sick baby her

We are in bulembu! Settling in, very excited, and kinda spoiled :) can't wait to tell all about it already... and it's only our first hr here!

We are in africa! Tired, in our hotel room, and ready for relaxing and sleep... Swaziland bound tomorrow!

burg 2:15 iowa time

we are in london!! some were able to see big ben and the london eye during our decent. our final flight leaves in 2ish hours...we land will in johannes

We're off to chicago! We will post updates when we land in Johannesburg and as we are able when we get to Swaziland. Keep praying!

A word from Wendy...

I've been helping with the high school youth group for a couple years now. When we started talking about a mission trip to Africa, I really felt called by God to go. I've never really had any desire to do international missions but at that moment, I really wanted nothing more than to go to Africa and care for the orphans.
In the meantime, God was leading my life in another way. My husband and I felt God was leading us to adopt a child. We knew the process could take several months and even years, so we didn't really think it would ever conflict with the trip to Africa.
God's perfect timing doesn't always make sense and I have found that to be extremely true now. Just a few short weeks after being approved to adopt a child, we found ourselves being selected by a mother to adopt her little guy. We were thrilled and then stopped long enough to realize that he would be born while I would be in Africa. After many, many prayers and thoughtful deliberaton, we decided that God brought the Africa trip into my life first for a reason and that I shouldn't ignore His call. It won't be easy to be so far away when he's born, but I know that he will be in good care. And a few short days without me won't begin to compare to the life of the orphans in Bulembu who have no parents at all.
So, while the team is counting down the days until we leave for Africa, I'm also counting down the days until I become a mom!

Donations!

We have a list of items we can bring to donate to the ministry in Bulembu. If you'd like to donate to this cause once again, let us know! There will be a suitcase in the lobby of First Reformed Church until we leave. Since we can all bring and extra suitcase, we thought we should load up :)

Girl's underwear age 4 to 18
Boy's underwear age 4 to 18
Ponchos for age 4 to 18
Warm winter jackets age 4 to 18
Black and white socks (long and short) for boys and girls
Towels
Face Cloths
Single bed sheets
Single duvet covers
pillowcases
Sweaters/sweatpants all sizes
Music CD's (appropriate)
DVD's (family, Christian)
Dressing up clothes
Games for 4yr olds to 12 yr olds
Games for teens
Christian reading material
Children's toothpaste
Children's toothbrushes
Deodorant

Most items need to be new - others can be used like CDs, DVDs, games. I assume clothing that is still in good condition can be used, also.

15 days!!

We had our final team meeting on Sunday - loaded with more & more information and more & more questions...

Since our last post, I have had email communication with our team members from Chicago and the Boston area. They had relatives go to Bulembu last summer and were able to give us lots of packing advice and many things to be excited about! Last year, it got so cold at night that one guy dressed in sweatpants, socks, multiple tshirts, sweatshirts, and a stocking hat to sleep at night! So we get to pack for 70 degree days and chilly evenings! BUT we get to enjoy unbelievable sunsets and even more unbelievable starry skies at night.

Our fundraising is basically done - with checks still coming in! We have been extremely grateful for the ease of our endeavors and not having to worry about where the money will come from. A friend of our had to come up with about $800 in 10 days in order to go on her mission trip to India last month! In our case and hers, God always proves himself faithful and provides :)

We will soon be posting a prayer calendar so that you can be praying for us while we're gone! We found out at our last meeting that we have a birthday, anniversary, and a baby being born while we're gone (more explanation on this later)! We appreciate and covet your prayers now and while we're gone.

Thanks for reading!

Fasting

Our team is doing either a 30 or 40 day fast in the days leading to our Africa departure. Yesterday was the 30 day mark so all 9 of us are doing a fast of some kind! Some are fasting from sugar, some from facebook(!), some fasting 1 day a week...

Here's an excerpt from the book "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster that we referenced when preparing for our fast. Most of us had never done one before so we wanted to be sure to do it right!

“God questioned the people in Zechariah’s day, “When ye fasted... did ye at all fast unto me, even me?” (Zech. 7:5, KJV). If our fasting is not unto God, we have failed. Physical benefits, success in prayer, the enduing with power, spiritual insights - these must never replace God as teh center of our fasting. John Wesley declares, “First, let it be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven...” That is the only way we will be saved from loving the blessing more than the Blesser.

“Once the primary purpose of fasting is firmly fixed in our hearts, we are at liberty to understand that there are also secondary purposes in fasting. More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things sruface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear - if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we will realize that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ.

“Fasting reminds us that we are sustained “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. In Christ, “All things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is Feasting!

“Fasting helps keep our balance in life. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crae things we do not need until we are elsaved by them. Our human cravings and desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks; fasting helps keep them in proper channels.”

It is our hope that the weeks and days leading to our trip will be God glorifying and that he will prepare us for our experiences! Fasting can be reveal some things about us that we may not like to deal with, so please be praying for us!

28 days to go!!

37 days to go!

We are preparing for our final team meetings, arranging transportation, getting last minute questions answered, and praying a lot!

This updated is a practice run from a cell phone - we hope to be able to post updates while away so no one will worry!

Update...

We are SO close to our fundraising goal! We are very thankful that our fundraising has gone so smoothly and we don't have any worries as we get closer and closer to leaving for Swaziland!

Our last fundraiser - "Sweets for Swazi" is going well! We made 130+ cupcakes and 8 cheesecakes for Memorial Day weekend and have more orders in the coming weeks in June and for the 4th of July weekend! If you would like to know what kinds are available or are interested in ordering anything, please email mjansen@frcpella.org. Cupcakes are $8/6 and Cheesecakes are $25.

We had a wonderful team dinner last Sunday where Cheryl & Keith Newendorp (team members) made us some delicious food common in Swaziland and/or South Africa! Some were nervous about eating unfamiliar food! Overall, we were quite surprised about how much we liked (almost) everything! We even got a chance to practice eating with our hands :)

If you wanna pray for us:

• Each team member will be doing a 30 or 40 day fast leading up to the trip. Please pray that we can focus on GOD alone during those days. Most have never done a fast before so this will be a challenging time! Pray that God is glorified and that through this we can become more like Him.
• Team unity - we have only a few meetings left as a team and are having a great time together! Pray for our team as we travel (1 student on a plane for the first time)!
• Excited, joyful, thankful hearts for the rest of the summer.

42 days left!!

A word from Nicole

Serving in Swaziland, Africa will not be my first mission trip. I’ve been to Mexico, New Orleans, and Chicago. Each time I go on a mission trip I come back with this sense of something bigger than myself. Sometimes I get so focused of myself, I forget there’s a whole world out there that still needs Jesus. Going on mission trips is like opening my eyes to God and his plans for me. I want to serve the people of Swaziland because I want to be the hands and feet of God. God’s heart breaks for the poor, and orphaned, and the widowed. My heart breaks for what God’s heart breaks for. I want to tell these people about my God and about Jesus, and more than that, I want to show them Jesus. I also hope to learn something from this trip. I am fascinated by different cultures, and I’m excited to learn about Swazilanders. This trip has already taught me something about faith. I need to raise $2,000 and I haven’t quite made it to $1,000, but God is teaching me to rely on him and trust that he will provide.

--Nicole Stafford

From Rachel Van Roekel

Rachel recently shared at Youth Sunday about why she was going on this trip. Here's what she had to say:

Going to Africa has been a lifelong dream for me. Ever since I was a little girl, I would give my mom a heart-attack saying I wanted to go there, as it is many miles away. As a young adult, I now find that going to Swaziland is a perfect mission trip for me.
Despite being an excellent opportunity to help those less fortunate than me, mission trips are so much more. Mission trips are where you find yourself. They also provide an immense amount of hope for the people in the area we will be working.
Hope has always been my favorite amongst hope, faith, and love. Hope makes me feel giddy and childlike inside. The Bible also states that with hope we will soar on wings like Eagles! That is a surreal feeling, one that I would like to experience metaphorically. I also want to spread that hope, as it is what fuels me. Spreading hope would mean that many more people are going to come to Christ. And every time someone meets Christ, a party is thrown in heaven! God has chosen me to spread his love, and it is not a task I take lightly.
On the contrary, God has also given ME hope. In the beginning of our fundraising, I thought reaching $2000 would be impossible. I was worried about the goal. Yet Christ surprised me and blew away my worries. The first donation I received was $160! That gave me hope and restored my trust in God. He provides!
My number one goal while in Africa is to spread God’s hope. I want to make everyone who I encounter smile with joy. I also want to come back changed. Christ’s hope will not only work in others, but also in me! The experience will be delightful and the stories to tell will be memorable.

God is GOOD!

And here are a few reasons why:

We got an EXCELLENT airfare price! I was planning on paying around $2000 per person and was surprised to find out we would just be paying $1662 per person! Which brings our total fundraised goal around $30,500! We will be flying out of Chicago so we will need some willing chauffeurs to drop us off and pick us up!!

In addition to getting a great price, we also have just a short layover in London. We were previously looking at about 12 hours in the airport... now we only have 2 1/2 hrs!!

Our current fundraised total is $17,500 which means we're already over HALF WAY THERE!!

Here's what you can look forward to in future blogs:

Our team will start posting more personal entries - from both students and adults. They'll be sharing fears, excitements, and how they've already seen God at work as we prepare!

Each team member will do a 30 or 40 day fast in preparation for the trip. This will be a BIG learning/growing/challenging experience for us all!

12 weeks to go!

Fundraising!

God is already proving himself faithful - just over a month into our fundraising process, we already have over $6,000!

Our total goal will be around $32,000 - the actual total will be known when we officially purchase our plane tickets.

We have some big fundraisers coming up in April and May...

Thanks for praying!

Coming soon... posts from a couple high school students about their process of preparing for this journey!

Here we go!

19 more weeks and we'll be on our way to Swaziland, Africa! First Reformed Church will be sending 5 high school students and 4 adults on this international adventure with Mission Discovery. The Swaziland team will be working with Bulembu Ministries and Abandoned Babies for Christ (ABC Children's Home) to renovate homes to house 2,000 orphans. The homes will each have a foster mom, dad, grandparents and aunt. We will also lead daily Children's Bible School with over 100 children and assist in caring for orphans at ABC Children's Home.

Letters have been sent out. Fundraisers are quickly approaching. Around $33,000 needs to be raised! Team meetings are scheduled. Prayers are being prayed. God is at work!

Our team will use this blog to keep you updated as we prepare for this trip! Team members will take turns posting their thoughts as they get closer to July 22. We'll also post occasional fundraising updates.

Only 133 days to go...

(To ready more about Mission Discovery, Swaziland, and Bulembu, see the links on the left)

Watch this video to learn more about Bulembu, Swaziland (where we will be working). The first half gives a good idea of the situation of this small country is in.