Red Rocks Team Helping Out at The Lighthouse Shelter

The team members spent some time helping out at the Lighthouse Shelter.  Many of them spent time holding and loving on the babies in the shelter.

 Kathy and Jon pulled weeds in the Shelter flower beds .

Janelle and Deb (in the background) painted the shelter's toy boxes to match the newly redecorated interior of the shelter.

Sean and Jeremy installed deep sinks for bathing the babies in the shelter bathroom. 

One day at the shelter, Dave worked on setting up computers for the Orphan and Vulnerable Children program in Freedom Park.  He installed new hard drives and updated the operating systems.  The computers had been donated to the OVC program several months ago but they haven't been able to use them before now.

~Jenny

Lion Park with the Red Rocks Team

We had a great time at the Lion Park in Johannesburg with the RRC team.

We got up close and personal with this giraffe.

Johannes, the head groundskeeper at the Lighthouse Children's Shelter, and his son, Refilwe joined us for the day.  Refilwe didn't know what to think of the giraffe at first, but later he finally worked up the courage to reach out and touch it.

 Madison petting the giraffe

 Lincoln said his tongue felt like wet sandpaper.

 We got to pet baby lions.  They were a little sleepy.

 At the Lion Park there are several lion camps you drive through.  This lion was just outside of our car window.

 I unrolled Kyler's window and leaned over him to take this picture.  Kyler was a little nervous to be this close to the lions!  You can see the unrolled window at the bottom of the picture.

 Two lions climbed up on the back of our car and were playing with the spare tire.  We're not sure why they were attracted to the tire, but it was an amazing (and a little scary) experience!

Take a look at those claws!!

 As we drove off, the lions followed our car.

 Here is some of the damage to our bumper.  If you have to have damage to your car, lion damage is definitely one of the coolest ways to get it!

~Jenny

Red Rocks Team in Phokeng

During the Red Rocks Team's 2nd week here they spent the afternoons in Phokeng at the orphan after school care program.

They did a photo shoot for all of the kids, did arts and crafts, played soccer and had a tea party for the girls while the boys played with Legos the team had brought with them from the US.  Most of the kids have never seen anything like Legos and had a great time building.

Madison brought some nail polish and painted the girls' nails.

The kids come to Martha's House after school and receive a hot meal.  For many of them, this is their only meal each day.

The Red Rocks team and some of the Phokeng kids in front of the playground Lincoln helped build.

Limited Internet Connection

We will have limited internet connection until Monday, August 16th.  We're not sure if we will be able to even check email, but we can check our facebook pages from Lincoln's phone, so if you need to contact us, try facebook.

Wordless Wednesday

Kyler's 8th Birthday!

I asked Kyler how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, either throwing a big party or having a friend over for a sleepover.  He chose to invite his friend Malachi (son of our friends Derek and Rebecca) over for a sleepover last Friday night.  

While eating his cake Kyler started feeling very sick to his stomach.

Lincoln rented a movie for the kids to watch.  Above, Kendi and Malachi are wearing 3D glasses, even thought the movie was not in 3D.  Kyler was feeling yucky and sitting by himself on the couch.

Shortly after this picture was taken Kyler vomited twice.  I told Kyler that Malachi was going to have to go home and Kyler was so disappointed.  He assured me that if Malachi could stay he would go nowhere near him and they could sleep in separate bedrooms.  Derek came to pick up Malachi at about 8 pm and Kyler went right to sleep.  I told them both that we can do the entire thing again soon, including birthday cake and ice cream!

The next day Malachi and Kyler were supposed to go with the Red Rocks team on a game drive at Pilanesberg and Kyler had to miss out on that as well.

One of the members of the team had given the kids some plastic animals and Madison set up "Pilanesberg" for Kyler in his bedroom so that he wouldn't miss out.  Lincoln had the camera with him at the real Pilanesberg, so I didn't get a picture, but it was so cute!  She had make a watering hole out of blue construction paper and there were several animals drinking out of it, she had a monkey up on a green chair (which was a tree),  there was a Polly Pocket car with a monkey trying to get in the sun roof, and a dead animal with a few other animals eating it.  It was very sweet of her to do.

Yesterday, on his real birthday, Jenny M. (with the Red Rocks team) took Madison, Kyler and Kendi for the morning and did crafts and a scavenger hunt with them.  They made a huge mess and had a blast!

Kyler requested pancakes and eggs for his birthday dinner, and I actually remembered to use our special "Celebrate" plate!

A few weeks ago we went shopping at a large mall in Pretoria and let Kyler pick out what he wanted for his birthday from us and Gee Gee (Jenny's mom who is here visiting.)  He chose a Build A Bear and some Star Wars Legos.

Lincoln's parents sent some money for Kyler's birthday and asked me to pick something out for him.  I got him another Lego Star Wars set, he was beyond thrilled!  He loves Legos and Star Wars!

Madison is growing up so fast!

Cute Kendi

Isabel

We are so happy to have Gee Gee here right now!

I made malva pudding for Kyler's birthday cake.

I made an extra malva pudding for the Red Rocks team.  They sang happy birthday to Kyler and gave him a set of Indiana Jones Legos.

Kyler had a great birthday.

~Jenny

More Updates - Saturday through Wednesday

Trying to catch up here!

On Saturday the team went to Pilanesberg for a game drive.  We saw quite a few different animals and at one point we were completely surrounded by a herd of elephants.

On Sunday we went to a very lively (and very long!) African church service.  It was an incredible service and the worship was amazing, complete with dancing and a conga line.  I didn't get any pictures of the service, I'll have to ask if any one else took any.  Here is a short video of the worship service.  The quality isn't great, but it shows the enthusiasm! 

Sunday afternoon we all went over to Derek and Rebecca's house for lunch.  (Derek and Rebecca are the directors of YWAM Rustenburg.)  After lunch some of the group played games while others just hung out and talked.  It was a very nice and relaxing time, a much needed break for everyone!  Thanks for having us all over Derek and Rebecca, we love you!!

Sunday evening we gathered under the lapa (an outdoor area covered by a thatch roof) around a fire and had a great time of worship and prayer. 

Monday and Tuesday mornings were spent finishing up the community garden and shacks in Freedom Park and the afternoons were spent in Phokeng working with the orphans in the after school program.

The Freedom Park garden is now ready for planting after we've loosened the soil and mixed in manure and quality top soil.  

We've made contact with a local farmer that is a professional agronomist.  (Jenny here - For those of you, like me, who have no idea what "agronomist" means, here is a definition.)  He is willing to supply seedlings which will have a better chance of survival than our seeds, and he can also advise the garden workers on the best plants to grow in that specific location.  I'm excited to see the fruits of this labor over the next several months.

This morning in Freedom Park we handed over the shacks to the families we built them for.  The families had been living in deplorable conditions and these new shacks will provide for them much safer, cleaner and healthier living conditions.  (Freedom Park in an illegal squatter settlement, so we aren't able to build proper houses there.)

We were accompanied by the workers that oversee the orphans in Freedom Park.  We were so honored to have them be part of us.  As we walked between the three shacks that we built the ladies sang worship songs in their native language (videos below).  It was a beautiful expression of thanks to God, I think it moved the whole team greatly.

We were also honored to have Mr. Khumalo, a local South African pastor, with us.  Mr. Khumalo was able to pray in both English and Tswana so everyone could understand.  It was very moving.  The families were so very thankful to have a new home and it was an incredible experience for us to be able to serve them in this way.


~Lincoln and Jenny

Red Rocks Team Updates

We have been so busy that we haven't had a spare minute to post here.  I'm hoping to have a little time later today to post updates and pictures, but until then I wanted to direct you again to Taylor's blog.  I believe she is the only person on the team posting regularly.  Others will be posting when they get back to the US and we will give links to their blogs as well.