Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Thank you







It's a pleasure. That's the usual response to "Thank you" in Namibia. Where do we start? How can we possibly thank everyone who is making this Cafe a huge success? Let us just feature one friend - our artist, musician, buddy - Julius. Thanks to him - we have signage. Really cool, artsy signs. The original picture came from our Dutch daughter, Annelies's camera, and Julius put it to paint and board. Voila!

Meet the Students


Pamela is 20 years old and speaks Afrikaans, Damara and English. She was born in Windoek, Namibia and lives with her mother and two year old daughter.

Her goal: “I want to become a best server at the restaurant to be a successful server.”

On November 10, 2010 Pamela entered the YDM program and after hearing the gospel message - made a decision to follow Christ and become a Christian. In her own words, “I see how He helped me. He opened my eyes to let me know that He will be there always.”
When asked how her life is different now, she replied, “Oh yes, now I know how to pray and talk to him. I learn more when I go to Church.”

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Meet the Students


We are putting a little bio together for each of the students in the Youth Discipleship and Mentoring Program. Here is the first one. This young man has shown exceptional effort and determination to succeed in spite of physical disabilities and harsh family circumstances. Several years ago he was in a severe car accident and spent months in rehabilitation, lost several fingers in his left hand and walks with a limp. But, we are impressed with his heart to serve.

Meet Ulrich.
Ulrich speaks Damara Nama, English, and Afrikaans.
He was born in the city of Gobabis in the eastern region of Namibia.
There are 5 children in His family from ages seven to twenty-five years old.
He lives with his mother and siblings. Ulrich has completed grade 12 with good marks, and has held several jobs locally during the past few years.
His goals in his own words, “I would love to be able to support my family and go to university and one day become a successful business man. Just be a better me.
His hobbies: I enjoy drawing pictures, writing poetry and songs, writing short stories, and swimming, working crosswords and reading.

When asked what he has learned in the first 5 weeks of the YDM program, he gave this answer: “I have learned to put faith in what I yet haven’t seen. I learned to be patient and how to thank the Lord for everything he is doing in my life but most importantly I started having more and more confidence in myself. simply put – I learned to live again.”

Friday, December 10, 2010

The place is hopping!







Garden cafe is a novelty in town and the word is spreading. With this hot weather, a frappe or smoothie sounds very refreshing and so the story goes..... people are coming to get refreshed.






Our students in this picture are pausing for a little breakfast.






The Trotters came for a short but sweet visit and brought precious words of encouragement from our church family. We cherish those friendships!






We thank the Lord for his provision for supplies and funds to continue the plans for the cafe. We are more equipped and business is growing as well as the workers improving their skills. God is good!