Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Please Pray

This prayer request post is for friends of mine.


Please pray Faith and her 3-month-old daughter, Charlotte, who goes in for open heart surgery today.  Charlotte was diagnosed with Down Syndrome after her birth and was born with holes in her heart that need to be repaired.


Faith and her family were previously missionaries to Mexico.  Faith contacted me shortly after we moved to South Africa in 2006 and has been huge support and encouragement to me since.


You can find updates on Faith's blog http://www.sixzoomembers.blogspot.com/


While on you knees, will you please also lift up 2 other friends of mine.


Tammy is in the hospital with a blood clot in her brain that was found last night. The doctors think they found it early enough that there won't be permanent damage, please pray as the doctors move forward with treatment.


Melanie is currently in emergency surgery (going on 6 hours now) with a possibly cancerous tumor found yesterday.  The doctors have said that everything is going fine with the surgery so far.


I will update with any new information as I can.  Thank you for your prayers!


~Jenny

Wordless Wednesday

Merry Christmas

We wish you a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

From the Smith Family

Lincoln, Jenny, Madison, Kyler, Kendi and Isabel

Wordless Wednesday

Day of Reconciliation

Today is a public holiday in South Africa called the Day of Reconciliation. Two historical events took place on this date. The first was The Day of the Vow, where the Voortrekkers vowed to God that the day would be celebrated in thanksgiving if they were victorious in their battle against the Zulus. The second event was when the military wing of the African National Convention was formed to fight against apartheid.

After the fall of apartheid, the first democratic government, tasked with promoting reconciliation and national unity, acknowledged the significance of December 16th in both the Afrikaner (the Voortrekkers) and liberation struggles. Day of Reconciliation was first celebrated as a national holiday in 1995.

Sources:

http://www.info.gov.za/aboutsa/holidays.htm#16december

http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/day-reconciliation-celebrated-public-holiday-sa-first-time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voortrekkers

The Orphan Art Project Has Returned!

Several years ago we started the Orphan Art Project as a way to raise awareness and financial support for the orphans and vulnerable children we work with here in South Africa.  For more information about how and why the project was started, please read our Orphan Art Project blog.


Recently, the Orphan Art Project has kicked off in Ft. Worth, TX.  Check out the website and facebook page for more information and details.

Mama Agnes

Mama Agnes is a woman that we work with in the community.  She is an incredible woman, a true hero.  The sacrifices that she makes for the orphans and vulnerable children in her community are truly inspiring.  I recently asked her to share her heart with us so that we could make a short video and introduce her to you.

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday Party for Kyler and Isabel

Last week Kyler turned nine and Isabel turned two.  Kyler had two friends over for a sleepover, then the next day we had a joint party for Kyler and Isabel.

Watching a movie at the sleepover

Isabel at the sleepover

Isabel and "Aunt" Bri

(Bri is a YWAM missionary who helps us with our kids)

The grown-ups at the party

The kid (and Bri) table

Isabel wore her party hat for about 1.4 seconds

 Time for presents!

A Dora babydoll for Bel

Lots of Legos for Kyler!

Pretty pink cake for our sweet two year old

She blew out her candles in one breath

Kyler wanted a dirt and worm cake

Make a wish!

 Beautiful princess Kendi

Kyler continues to be a sweet, quiet little guy.  He is very loving and compassionate.  It is fun to see him grow and mature!  He is turning into a young man before our eyes!

Isabel is developing such a fun personality.  She is goofy and keeps us laughing with her silly faces and antics.  She can be a pretty stubborn and frustrating at times, but isn't that what a two year old is supposed to do?

~Jenny

Wordless Wednesday

(Oops, jumped the gun and posted this a day early!)

National Women's Day

Photo Source K. Kendall

Today is National Women's Day here in South Africa.  In 1956 on this day, 20,000 women marched to government offices in Pretoria to protest the "Pass Law."  This law required black people to carry a pass proving that they were allowed to enter all-white areas.  These women delivered petitions signed by over 100,000 women.

At the end of the march, the women sang freedom songs.  The song "Wathint' abafazi, Strijdom!" has become known as the anthem of the march.  It includes the line "When you strike the women, you strike the rock."

Women's Day celebrates all women who have fought for women's rights and equality in South Africa.

For more information on National Women's Day, please check out the following links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Women's_Day

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheid/a/SAHolidays.htm

http://www.sa-venues.com/events/southafrica/national-womens-day/

Twitter Followers, Read This!

Photo Source Travelin' Librarian

Several people have asked if we are still tweeting, and the answer is yes and no.  The internet connection at our house is so slow that I can't log onto twitter from our house, so posting on twitter has been pretty difficult.  So, I've connected our blog to twitter, and when we post to our blog it shows up on twitter.  But recently, our internet speed has gotten even slower*, and we're having a hard time posting to our blog from home now also.


We are praying for a faster internet speed to become available to us at home, but for now we will post to our blog when we can!  If you would like to follow us on twitter, my name there is @JennyinSA.


~Jenny


*To give you an idea of just how slow our internet speed is - dial up runs at around 52 kilobytes per second, our speed averages about 5-10 kilobytes a second.  What that means is that our speed is 5-10 times slower than dial up.  Fun stuff!