Rain!

Continue to pray for rain, yesterday we had the first real storm of the season!

Staff Conference

We started off the year with the YWAM staff conference. Youth With a Mission staff from across the country came together for a two day time of prayer and encouragement. The speaker was supposed to be a teacher from South Africa, but the day before the conference it turned out they would not be able to make it. So at the last moment the whole thing was changed to an interactive time filled with prayer and everyone had an opportunity to share. We were also given an overview of the history of YWAM in Namibia, it was interesting, but more than that it was great for David and I to hear about the small beginnings of all the ministries. We look forward to being able to look back at our own ministry one day. Right now we have people from several nations working together in Namibia to see the nation changed and saved.

At one year!

Reese is a year old!
At one year he loves to take baths, desperately wants to be outside at all times, and babbles non stop. He loves to eat, and if one of us tries to eat anything without Reese getting some he gets very upset, he also loves to drink whatever we are drinking and wants to drink from a glass like a big boy. He usually fills his mouth with water and then spits it all out. He is super cute though and loudly goes MMMMMM! whenever we have food or water.
He is in 18 month clothes and size 5 diapers, he is a big boy! He still goes around bare foot as his foot his too chubby for baby shoes. Lengthwise he can wear a 3 or four but chub wise he needs a 5.
His vocabulary includes: Mama, dada, dad, daddy, look there, bath, hi, bye, hellllllooo, ball, bath, and no. His first sentence was “no no dada, no no dada” when David tries to get him to go to sleep at night.
His favorite book is Dr Seuss’ “Mr Brown Can Moo,” he is obsessed with balls, and will play with anything round including apples, oranges and potatoes.
His favorite meal is spaghetti bolognaise, and he loves Greek yoghurt.
 He is just a funny, happy, sociable little guy. He loves to talk with his hands, giggles a lot, and has learned how to pour water on David during bath time.
He stands up and takes a few steps every now and then, but he prefers to monkey crawl. This is when he moves his butt forward by leaning on one hand and bending one leg then scooting. He looks just like a gorilla.
Reese is till nursing, and spends most of the night in our bed, we are starting to wean him.

He is an absolute joy, and we are beyond blessed to have this little ball of energy in our lives. The last year has been filled with so much laughter but it has gone much faster than I ever imagined it would.

Now forgive me as I dump a  hundred pictures of Reese!

Day of prayer!

Our first day of prayer for this year was a great success! Thank you to everyone who prayed for us and with us, for the little messages and all the encouragement. We started the day with some prayer on the base, Suzanne came over and prayed with us. She has a lot of wisdom, they have been on the mission field for many years. Her input was priceless. Somedays we feel a little discouraged when it seems like it is taking forever for 3 Measures to get started. But Suzanne reminded us that CHS was a dream for many years before they started, and that in their first year they only had 10 students.
I think it is going to be great to look back at this time once three measures is making an impact in the community!
After praying at the base for few hours we headed to the city park where we read from the Bible and talked about how far we had come and what we are dreaming about for the future. We then went to the mall where we could walk and pray for the people of the city.
Then we rushed to the office to skype with Mark, where he gave us an answer to one of our prayer points by telling us that the church is going to raise their monthly support to us!
Finally we ended the day with praise and worship songs at the official opening of the Discipleship Training School on the YWAM base.

We finished the day refreshed and encouraged. David read from Proverbs 20:21 which says:

 Reminding us again to remain faithful, and not be impatient!

We also felt like we have spent too much time this last year being negative and allowing ourselves to worry about things. So a scripture that we are going to focus on this year is Philippians 4:4-9:

Prayer for the new year.

We will get back to the office on Monday, but before that we are spending Saturday as a day of prayer for the new year. Take some time to pray with us for the following things:

We have three categories with some points under each:

1. Ministry
 a. Pray for the students we will be discipling in this year. David and I will continue with the kids who were baptized last year, and we will both be taking on new groups. We will meet with them each once a week.
 b. Hope Club is an outreach/discipleship group that Beautiful Kidz (a sister ministry) has been running for young adults. We have been asked to take over this group. This could be a great opportunity for us to begin with our target group in the community. Pray that we make the right decision about this.
 c. Teams: we will be receiving two teams from the USA this year.
 d. Relationships within the community.
 e. The right steps and the right community development classes.
 f. As always pray for the hearts of the people in Katutura to be softened and ready to hear the message.
 g. For God to clear the path for us, to make a way for Three Measures to be established in Katutura in 2013.

2. Planning
 a.  Wisdom!
 b. Church partnerships. In starting out our new  ministry we were cautioned that some of the existing churches in the area may feel threatened if we start a ministry without involving them. So after prayer and some counsel from the senior YWAM staff, we have decided to partner up with the churches in Katutura and offer discipleship/development classes to them.
c. Target area: we know we’ll be working in Katutura, but we’re still trying to narrow our target area down.
d. Opportunity to go to the North. We hope to be able to travel to the North of Namibia in June this year, the issue is that without any more team members the work of Three Measures will grind to a halt in the community if we leave for any kind of extended period of time. Pray for local leaders to step up!
e. Pray for our ears and eyes to be open to opportunities around us.

3. Development
a. Team team team! We need people, local or foreign, to catch the vision and join us!
b. Visas. Our work permit expired in October, we reapplied in August, right now they are saying it  may be eight more months of waiting before we know anything. Right now no news is good news, but it also feel like we are working with a weight hanging over our heads. Pray for peace of mind for us, and for some positive outcomes.
c. Communication. We live out in the sticks, we feel like we are isolated and our communication is suffering because of it. Internet is unreliable at best, but is usually completely unavailable at our house. So pray for some kind of resolution.
d. Schedule. We are working on a schedule right now that gets me (Sandy) in the office at least twice a week. Reese is older now, but a very busy toddler. Pray that we may find a nanny.
e. Finances, we are still operating on a minimum budget.
f. Our car. It needs new tires and a new windshield. And it has started to make some weird sounds…
g. Health and well being for the three of us, and for Reese to continue growing and learning.

We may add some more through out the day, feel free to email, facebook or comment to let us know that you are standing with us on Saturday. God is good, He has brought us so far and we are excited to see what will be accomplished in this year.