First Farming Training - Katse

We kicked off the new farming season with a serious road trip!
(For those of you who don’t know, we teach a farming method different to conventional agriculture called Farming God’s Way or Foundations For Farming. To find information on our method, Foundations For Farming please click here)

7 of us left Rehobothe on the morning of the 3rd of June to meet up with Johan (a contact from Bloemfontein SA who is working into the Katse region of Lesotho) in a small town in Lesotho called Hlotse.

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Let’s all remember that we are in the middle of winter and that 2 of us had to go in the back of the Land rover. The temperature was well below freezing, but felt much colder with the wind chill. We don’t have any pictures as it was too early and too dark!

View From Mafika Lisiu Pass 

Once we met up at Hlotse we jumped into Johan’s vehicle and made our way up the pass to the lovely Bokong Nature Reserve Visitors’ Centre, where we had a break to stretch our legs and warm ourselves up with a very welcome cup of coffee.

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We even had a chance to get in touch with nature!

 

An hour later, at 10am, we arrive in the outskirts of Katse village at a Baptist Church where we were to do the training.

 

 

 

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The training got under way and the people enjoyed all 5 hours of the training, with loads of questions right the way through. What legends! Don’t know if I could do that!

 

On the whole the training went really well with over 20 people receiving training and we have built some great relationships for the future.

We eventually got home at 8pm to a wonderful meal that Jo had cooked and were able to look back on a very successful day. We look forward to seeing what God is going to do all the way up there in Katse.

Ha Leboya – Glorious time on a mission together

A year ago one of our founding members of Maloseng Church, Mme Mamathabella, came to John and I and told us how a daughter of hers lived in a village very far away and how there were no Churches like ours near where she lived. Her plea was for us to go and start something up in the mountains in a little village called Ha Leboya.

On Wednesday the 5th of May we eventually headed off for Ha Leboya which is on towards the Maluti mountains from Maloseng.

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We were amazed at the response of people to ‘GO’ and ended up having to take two vehicles as there were so many people wanting to join us from Rehobothe and Maloseng Churches to take the good news of Jesus to this village.

The journey was great and boy was the mud fun (probably the worst (= most fun) I’ve ever driven through.

 

It took us about 2 hours to get there and when we arrived the chief declared he had already sent out a message for the people to gather and that we would be allowed to say our bit as part of his meeting. He did a dangerous thing and said that the people were there all day so we could be as long as we wanted, now most of you know how I can talk!!!!

We played net ball while we waited for the villagers to gather, which was great fun for us all.

 

Once all were gathered we then chatted to the crowd and I shared the gospel. It was wonderful to see the response from 15 people to the gospel and we really feel God has opened a door for us to go back there in the future and see great things come out of this first meeting, God is good!!

What a Celebration

Rehobothe hosted our Family service again yesterday and what a cracker. We had some great time in God’s presence with a significant prophetic word about people feeling at the end of themselves. Almost as if we were in Winter and everything around us is dry, God is pruning and making ready for fruit and then leading us into a new season. I really felt that this word went so well with the message I was to preach which was on where the church is now and where we are going in the next few months and years. 
We heard testimonies from our people in Mokotjela and also from our Makhlako a Pholiso (MAP) team who minister to people in need of medical attention. These built such faith in the group gathered, God is good!!

The Bull is out for the count!

It is with great sadness that we announce that our trusty Landy is temporarily out of action.

We recently found out that we need to replace our injectors at a cost of R5300 an injector and R1600 rand for labour (5 injectors need to be done - ouch!!!).

The Bull sits waiting while we continue holding onto God for an answer as to what to do with it.

Anyway, as a friend once said to us of the work here “never a dull moment – there is always something happening!!”

Phamong Outreach

Today has been a long one and has definitely had its ups and downs.

(Please have a look at the Map with the various places highlighted)

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John and I started off in different directions, He went off to Libono with mike and a few guys to do some farming training with government extension staff and I went off, with a full Landrover, in the direction of Clarens to join Dihlabeng Church as they prayed for our wider region as part of their week long prayer and fasting.

We all had a great time and were excited to tell our stories of the day as we regrouped at lunch time in Mokotjela ready for our outreach in the afternoon.

We had heard about a fire that had damaged a lot of property close to Mokotjela in a village called Phamong. One of our members from the congregation in Mokotjela lives in Phamong and so we decided to visit the families affected by the fire seeing where we could help.

When we arrive we realised how devastating the fire had been.
7 families lost everything. 4 people were hospitalised including the lady in the photo who is recovering very well.

It was wonderful being able to pray for the families and see them enjoy the hope we find in Jesus.

This is a picture of just 2 of the houses that were burnt to the ground.

This lady is recovering well from her burns but shared with us a long list of things her family lost because of the fire

John and Mike praying for a lady who lost everything

We were able to take a fair amount of clothes, blankets and food given by our members to the people of Phamong but we are only just scratching the surface of the need.

Emergency funding has been applied for from the government but there has been no response and it has nearly been 3 weeks.

We are feeling it right to step in and help in every way we can so we are taking an inventory of all that has been lost to see if we can help replace any of the property.

Please pray for us as we continue to stand with these desperate people.

Has it almost been a year!!