Our Day With World Vision

Today was the day we were eagerly waiting for.  This was day we were to meet our sponsored children from World Vision.  Pictured here are each of us with our sponsored child or children.

The Vander Tuigs sponsor 6 children but we don't have a picture of all of them.

We were presented with the native blankets.  The chief now told us we were officially Basotho!

Quiddler, Sudoku, Skype, Journaling & Blogs

Now those are words you don't hear everyday!  Only in Lesotho!  These are some of the things that we do with our extra time together.  With technology we are able to talk to our loved ones from across the ocean.  It's been fun!

 

The River Runs Through Beautiful Gate

 It started to rain last night and continued all day. The ground was saturated - kind of like it has been in So Cal.  Check out the pictures!

Praise & Worship & Prayer

 Today we had the privilege of joining the staff from Beautiful Gate in their praise and worship time.  We sang songs together, read scripture and prayed.  There were specific areas that we prayed for regarding Beautiful Gate.

We prayed for the Management Team and the Administration Team.  We prayed for the House Mothers and the children.  They are coming up on their winter, which can be very cold and the houses here are not the warmest.  We prayed for warm clothes and good health for the children.  We just discovered that three of the children have got the Mumps and their is no immunization here in Lesotho for mumps.  So please pray that no other children get this illness especially any adult males.

We also prayed for the preschool here at Beautiful Gate.  Pray for God's provision and guidance during some changes and transitions in the preschool program.

We also prayed for God's wisdom for the nurse, Tiea (pictured below) as he cares for all these children.  I'm sure what he faces everyday is overwhelming and needs constant prayer.

Please keep these concerns in your prayers.  This worship time was a time I will never forget.  It was such a blessing to worship with people who live half way across the world, speak a different language and love the same faithful God.

Thanks for visiting!

Rain & Shopping - Two of our favorite things!

"LUMELA" (Hello)

It's Whitney and Lindsey here to tell you about our day of shopping in the city, and the rain!

After lunch, the rain clouds moved in and we got to experience our 2nd African storm, but this didn't stop us from shopping! :)

 Our first stop was a local coffee shop to visit one of Pastor Bill and Harriet's good friend Solomon.

We got our U.S. dollars exchanged to rand, which is the local currency. The exchange rate is currently about 7 to 1, but the prices are pretty comparable to ours in the United States.

 In downtown Maseru there are many street vendors selling things like
vegetables, fruits, clothing and other things. 

Downtown is very busy, filled with many shops, tons of honking taxis,
and many people strolling around.

From Lesotho to YOU! <3

Makwanya

 Do these look familiar? Laury ordered these from a little store near the school up the street. We had makwanya at our tea time. They are similar to Ollie Bollen, but without the raisins.

Gift of Blankets

Glenda here!  This morning we were able to present to 'M'e Matsukulu all the blankets that were made by Eileen Vander Linde and the mother of Mary Gendron, both of the River, and Betty Meerdink of Iowa.  It was an awesome experience and they accepted the gifts with much joy and gratitude.  During this time a new baby arrived, the sad news is the baby's mother passed away the day before.

 The hats were fashionably modeled by two of the house mothers, and they were having a great time posing for pictures.

Because of confidentially, we cannot post any pictures of the babies wrapped the blankets but believe me they were adorable!