Update on Caleb

We have had little Caleb for almost a month now, and he is getting so much better. The jaundice has disappeared and the bruising on his face is almost gone. He only has some bruising around the eyes. Praise the Lord!

As for his mother, she signed over her rights and has about 60 days to change her mind, after the 60 days, if she does not change her mind, Caleb will be adopted to a family here is South Africa!

Please continue to pray for Caleb's situation.

Holiday in Durban

Here are a few pics of my holiday in Durban where I was able to spend some time with Tim, see the Indian Ocean, Valley of a Thousand Hills, watch some Zulu dancing, and eat lunch in a crocodile pen.

Our Newest Bush Baby

Meet Caleb, he is the newest addition to the Jackson's Ridge Shelter, and our second white baby to enter our doors. Caleb was born 8 weeks early to a mother who was only 15. Being as young as she was she wasn't very cooperative during the birth, which caused severe bruising to his face. Not only was he bruised, but he was also very jaundiced. The Dr. has suggested that we keep him under UV lighting until the yellowness goes away.

The mother does not want to keep Caleb, but the grandmother has shown some interest, however, according to the Dr., she was clearly intoxicated during the child's birth and isn't fit to take care of the child. We hope that this statement will have some standing in court and that Caleb will be able to be adopted.

Please keep Caleb in your prayers, as things progress I will keep you updated.

Cape Town - Puppet Regional

Part of the ministry here at Jackson's Ridge is to train children's workers to minister through puppetry. One of the ways we do this is through our Puppet Regionals where a church hosts the training and we travel to that area to train anyone who wants to become even more effective in ministry through the art of puppetry.

On June 26 we packed up all of our supplies and headed off for a 17 hour trip to Cape Town. The training started on the evening of the 27th and ended the evening of the 28th. We had over 115 delegates, which makes this our largest Puppet Regional yet! The people were so hungry and excited to learn. It was such a blessing to see people so passionate about ministering to children. Not only were they excited learn, but they were also eager to purchase supplies so they could get puppet ministries started in their own churches. I took down 4 trunks full of supplies and only came home with less than half a trunk! How amazing!

As I said, the conference ended on Saturday evening, then on Sunday morning we were back at the church to minister to their children in Children's Church. Tom and I lead the children in a couple of praise songs, then Charmaine ministered to the children. I was reminded of how much I love leading children into the presence of the Lord. What a great honor that is.

On Monday we needed to head home, but before we did we decide to drive down to the beach to see Table Mountain. Our first stop was Table View, and what a view it was. Tom and I were the only ones brave enough to put our feet into the ice cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Right as we put our feet in a wave came up and hit us both right behind or knees. Tom screamed like a little girl! After being in the water we needed a cup of hot coffee before heading down to the waterfront, for some shopping and walking around. After we finished at the waterfront we headed for home.

The drive is quite long that we stopped off at a B&B to stay the night then finished the rest of our trip on Tuesday. Or so we thought. On Tuesday afternoon we noticed that the car was acting a bit weird, so we stopped off in Bloemfontein (the only large city between Cape Town and home) to have the car looked at. We were then told that car could not make the trip home due to needing a new gear box. It was already 5pm and all other shops were closed, so we rented a room at a B&B that night and stayed in Bloemfontein. It wasn't until Wednesday morning that we found out that it would take 2 weeks to get the car fixed! So, we rented a car in order to make it back home. To this day the car is still in Bloemfontein waiting for us to come and retrieve it.

We finally arrived back home late Wednesday July 2. The trip home was very tiring, but all in all the Lord had his hand on us the entire way.

When God Writes Your Love Story

I have always been a huge advocate for girls guarding their hearts, and have always said that it is more important to give your heart to God and to let him define who are you are instead of trying to find self worth in dating some guy. It is truly amazing to see what all God can do when first you give HIM your heart.

In April I was introduced to the most amazing man I have ever met, Timothy Meek. We started off as friends, but things progressed very fast. I was cautious of this at first because I did not want to get involved with a man unless I first new that it was part of God's plan for my life. So, after much prayer we decided to take things slow and date. He is a very kind, humble, caring, compassionate, and Godly man. I am truly blessed to have him in my life.

Update

Dumela! Greetings from Africa! Time has sure flown. I can’t believe it is March already.I know it has been a while since I have updated this blog, and for that I apologize. I have however muscled up enough courage to drive and go out on my own now, so I will be updating this more often now.

Well, we had our first conference in February, and what a success. It was a children’s ministry basics seminar, and we had around 120 delegates. Most of them new to children’s ministry and new to Jackson’s Ridge. They were such a great group of people. We have another conference coming up in April, please pray that this one will also be a success.

As for the Baby Shelter, right now we have 3 babies in the shelter. Two have received the ok from Social Services to be adopted, YAY! And the other is still lost in the system. The Social Welfare System her has a lot of problems. Once they have placed the child in a place of safety they tend to forget about the child and not worry about filing the necessary paperwork for the child. So, poor baby Moses is lost in the system somewhere. Please pray for Moses, we really want to see him get adopted into a forever family.

Well, I hope all is well with you all. Thank you you so much for all your prayers and support. This would not have been possible without you all.

Love,
Amanda