Group E-Mail

Hi everyone,

After a long silence the one and only, the official group e-mail has
once again found its voice!

We had a really nice Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed time with our
families both in Colorado and Kansas. My parents live at 9,000 ft in
the mountains of Colorado so we enjoyed several beautiful snow storms
while we were there. We also had a white Christmas in KS. Of course
the best part of Christmas (besides celebrating Jesus' birthday) was
being with family. I also enjoyed a helicopter flight with my brother,
and Steph enjoyed a couple days of shopping with her sisters-in-law.
Kaitlyn has had a great time playing with her cousins, but she hasn't
mastered the fine art of sharing toys yet!

Yesterday we started back into deputation. We had services in SE
Kansas. Next Sunday we'll be in northern Illinois and then move east
until we go down to FL for Sea Breeze Camp in February.

Home again, home again jiggity jig

Hi! Sorry it's been so long since we updated our blog. Hopefully we'll find some kind of a routine in this busy place called America!Most of you know that I (Glenn) was at Hobe Sound, FL for a missions convention at Hobe Sound Bible Church and meetings at HIM the end of November. From there I drove to Ohio to spend a little time with my grandmother and family. Granny passed away Saturday after Thanksgiving, and the funeral was on the 27th. From OH I drove to Ottawa, KS to Steph's parents. Steph and Kaitlyn flew into Kansas City on the 6th. We are SO glad to be back together after 3 1/2 weeks! We'll be driving to Colorado next week to be with my family.

These pictures are a little old, but I thought you might like to see Kaitlyn's 2nd birthday celebration.

Steph made a bunny cake. Micah helped blow out the candles.Kaitlyn and her friends.Our Basotho friends sang a Sesotho version of Happy Birthday.Birthday Girl

Lesotho Update

Dear Praying Friends,

Here's a little prayer update.  Thank you so much for your faithfulness! 

Praise:

• Sunday the 4th of Nov. I visited the new congregation at Popenyane.  The service was very encouraging!  There are several new converts!

Prayer:

• This Popenyane congregation is planning to hold a weekend tent revival the last week of November.  Please pray as the church prepares for this evangelistic effort.  Pray that the Holy Spirit will work in the village in a special way between now and then, too!
• Keep praying for Stephanie and her work at Hope Christian Academy.  Pray for all of the teachers and students as they finish up the last few weeks of the school year.  (Here the school year ends on the 30th of November.)
  
• Pray for me as I finish last minute preparations and packing to leave for America next Monday.  Pray especially for Stephanie and Kaitlyn while we are apart!  (She comes on the 5th of December.)
  

God bless!

Glenn, Stephanie, & Kaitlyn Gault
Hope International Missions

From Lesotho

Dear Everyone,

Things are going faster and faster here as my departure gets closer.  There have been several mission projects that I've tried to finish up before I leave, so that has put on extra pressure.  Some of the TEE projects won't get done, but others look like they'll be completed.  It doesn't seem like there's that much news in our lives in spite of the business, but let me see if I can think of a few things.

Friday Philip came out to our house for the evening to relax and visit a bit.  His stay was short because he had to attend a funeral in Ladybrand Saturday morning, and I also had to go to meetings.  We really enjoyed having him again.  He used to visit about every other week when we were starting the weekend Bible School together.  I guess there's no use wishing  the clock back, but hopefully there will be a time when were all not so busy and we can see more of him again!

Saturday morning I agreed to pick up a sick man at Ha Teko and bring him to the clinic.  They knew he needed to be transfered to the hospital, but they told me if I could get him to the clinic they could make a plan to get him on to the hospital because I had to go to a meeting.  When I got to his house, to be honest, I was shocked at his condition.  I'm not a squeamish sort of person, and I've seen a fair bit of sickness and gore since I came to Lesotho, but this was right at the limit of what I can stand.  In mercy I will spare you the details, but he had an open wound on his foot that had not been properly cared for.  I decided that meeting or no meeting, he needed special transport to the hospital, so I took him.

As a result I arrived at the meeting late.  I found that they hadn't really started yet, but were waiting for me.  The meeting was with the financial committee and representatives from all the congregations.  We were to discuss projects to benefit orphans.  Originally we asked each congregation to submit plans for a small income generating project that would benefit the orphans that come to their church.  Eventually most of the congregation submitted plans, but they came late, some weren't good at all, etc.  So we decided that it would be better to start one big project and put these plans off until next year to give us more time to revise them.  I think we were all nervous about how the congregations would respond especially because we would have to tell them or show them that some of their plans wouldn't work.  God really helped in the meeting.  We discussed all the projects one by one allowing people to offer advice, ask questions etc.  God providentially arranged that there would be someone with expertise or knowledge about each of the projects.  At the end, all of the "bad" projects were voluntarily withdrawn, every one was encouraged, and we plan to go ahead with implementing them in January. 

The big project that we're already working on is raising pigs.  Over the last 2+ weeks we've built a nice pig pen at Matukeng.  Yesterday we were supposed to pour the floor, but the weather didn't look good for cement work, so we didn't get that done.  We're planning to buy two females and one male pig and raise piglets for sale.  Several of the congregations had already planned
 to raise piglets as their orphan project, so will will probably supply them with piglets in the future.  The only thing left to do now is pour the floor, put a partial roof on, and buy the piglets.  I've already bought some of the food.

Sunday I visited the new congregation at Popenyane.  The Roma church is starting this "daughter" congregation.  They have been given a house in the village, and some of the youth go there every Sunday.  Either the assistant pastor or Nt. Matsaba preaches there most every Sunday, but if they can't make it, a young lady holds a Bible study.  There were several visitors, and some new converts who got saved the week before were there.  Though the congregation is mostly young people, I was very encouraged.  After the service we spent an hour and a half counseling some of the youth.  It is very rewarding to explain the Christian life to brand new converts that are hearing these things for the first time!  After the service one of the ladies asked us to come to her house and haul her tithe down to Roma to the church there.  She tithed approximately 200lbs of corn.  I didn't get home until after 5, and we didn't leave for Ladybrand until about 8.

The week has been fairly normal here in Ladybrand.  Monday I ran a lot of errands.  Tuesday Kaitlyn stayed at the Geises while I went to Lesotho to take care of business there.  Tuesday night Sis. Carol fixed a delicious meal and invited Geises and us!  She is really an amazing cook!  Today I have a few errands to do while Steph is at school, and lots of typing to do on the computer.

Hope you all of a good rest of the week.

Love,
Glenn, Steph, & Kaitlyn

Group Email

 

Hi everyone,
We're in Ladybrand again this week.  Steph's at school.  I've been
running Daddy's Daycare, writing a newsletter, working on a prayer card, etc.  For the moment Kaitlyn is happily playing on the floor, so I'll try to write you a few lines (oops! she just took her diaper off.)  Ok, try again.

Last week Steph only helped at the school Monday and Tuesday because I had a TEE meeting in Lesotho Wednesday morning.  The TEE project is going well, but needs funding.  We have all of the books translated now, five are ready to be published as soon as money is available, and another seven or eight are within a few weeks of being ready to publish.  If you think of it, please pray for God to provide money for this important project!  Our weekend Bible School students are ready for another book!

Wednesday morning before the meeting I helped Nt. Kali's father-in-law start digging the foundation for a pig pen down at the bottom of the property.  We are going to start raising pigs to help orphans in the church.  The plan is to make this a pilot project to learn the twists of the trade and then help each congregation or maybe individual orphans start similar projects.  Thursday we poured the foundation, and Friday started building the low block walls.  We got rained out by lunch time on Friday, but Nt. Kali and his father-in-law worked again on Monday and yesterday while we were here in Ladybrand.  I'll see to night how far they got, but I'm guessing they probably finished the walls.  We need to level and pour the floor and build some gates, and put a roof on that covers the back half of the pen still.  Nt. Pheko has located someone with some nice Landrance piglets for sale.  I think we'll start with these.  We still haven't decided whether to raise them for meat or for breeding.  Eventually we want to get to good quality females and one good male, but raising pigs for breeding takes longer to turn a profit and is probably a more risky investment.

I can't remember which day, but Steph got out the suitcases sometime during the week and started helping me sort and pack a few things. She's also been doing some baking and extra cooking to use up things out of the freezer since we'll be turning it off while we're gone.  She made some awesome brownies with macadamia nuts.

Kaitlyn is finally down for her nap, so I'll try to finish this up.
Friday night was the Bible School.  Me Mapheko led a very interesting discussion about prophecy.  (She is starting to lecture through the O.T. books of prophecy.)  God has given her a lot of wisdom and the ability to work well with youth, and help them learn to think for themselves. As usual we got home late.  Nt. Pheko and Me Mapheko stayed all night for the monthly ladies' prayer meeting.

Saturday I had to go back to Ha Matala to hold a meeting with the Sunday School teachers of all the congregations.  I was the only pastor there. All the others had either gone to funerals or to a wedding of a friend of the church.  The meeting went fairly well.  The purpose was to choose a committee that will promote the interests of child evangelism and children's ministry in the church as a whole.  The committee has been asked to plan a children's conference that will be during the same time as the youth conference over the Christmas holidays.  Saturday night we made a quick trip to Ladybrand.  We had been invited to the choir concert of the Ladybird Music Academy.  I kept Kaitlyn, but Steph went and REALLY enjoyed it.

This past Sunday was the most relaxing Lord's Day we've had in a long time.  Nt. Pheko preached at Matukeng.  He arrived just in time for the service, and left immediately afterwards.  Steph had prepared a meal for him, but he couldn't stay because he had to preach again at Mazenod at 3:00 in the afternoon.  The chief of the village had asked him to preach at a village meeting.  He is very well respected in his village and throughout Lesotho because of his ministry and preaching on the radio. After a quick lunch, we packed up and came to Ladybrand.

Since we've been here in Ladybrand, Steph has been wanting to have some of the other missionaries over for supper, so Monday night Philip, Steve, Gwen, & family, and Sis. Carol Witter came for supper.  Steph made yummy peanut curry.  We really enjoyed the evening visiting.

 

Tuesday morning I planned to leave soon after breakfast to go to Lesotho to try to get Steph's residence permit transfered to her new passport. On the way out of Ladybrand I stopped to put air in one of the car tires.  I noticed that the car was leaking oil, so I checked it out. The oil pressure sending unit had gone bad and was leaking pretty bad. I drove to the nearest parts store and fortunately they had one in stock.  I put it in quickly and headed out of town again.  At the edge of town the oil pressure light came on and a buzzer sounded.  I switched off the engine immediately and coasted into a gas station at the bottom of the hill.  I added a pint of oil, which seemed to solve the problem. I started off again, but almost immediately the buzzer and light came on again.  I coasted off the road and checked the oil again.  The oil was fine, and eventually I determined that the problem was the sending
unit.  I bought the wrong one.  For some reason only a German could explain, VWs have to sending units that work together.  I finally got to Maseru, got the residence permit put in the new passport after a long wait.

Well, that's the news of our lives.  Hope you all have a good week!