I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth . . . the Lord will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and coming in from this time on and forever more! Psalm 121 The sun was coming over the hills as I was reading this from my morning devotional. Since I had arrived in the rain, this first view of the valley below was pretty spectacular. What a spectacular place to be. Beauty all around, beauty in all the faces of the children, beauty in the all the faces of the adults. Sunday morning was gloriously sunny, warm and full of activity. Worship is celebrated at the local Full Gospel-Pentecostal church. The church, Resurrection Life Fellowship has a very simple service that begins with recognizing and praying for all visitors. This is followed by a short testimony from a member including scripture reading, then the offering with a prayer, and then 30 minutes of singing and hand waving. (Music was only American Contemporary Christian Music, words projected up on reader board, with prerecorded accompaniment controlled by a rather impressive sound and light board) This is followed by two more testimonies, a prayer for the New Year and all the people, then 40 minutes of scripture and sermon, then communion, prayer, blessing and then anointing with the oil of healing. As a part of the Full Gospel movement it is charismatic and there is speaking in tongues. INTERESTING! Also in this village there is a Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist, and Catholic Church. The sermon concentrated on - Psalm 36:7, “how precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings,” and Psalm 92, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” I was reminded of all the beautiful faces of children experiencing the steadfast love of God and the love and care they are getting at Open Arms. The church is small so the littlest ones stay home for story time, and now it appears they will be splitting up the rest of the children and take half at time each Sunday. It must be every church’s dream to have two full vans of children and youth pull up to your door unload on a Sunday morning. Food is good - Sunday lunch was chicken and rice, with garden fresh carrots and peppers, and bean salad. In South Africa the school years begins with the calendar year. This Wednesday is the first day of school. Activity is going full stream getting everyone and everything ready. New this school term, the three oldest children will to go to high school, about an hour away. They will stay in the hostel (boarding school) Monday through Friday and come home on the weekends. 19 will go to Junior school which is grades K – 7, 3 will go to an off sight preschool, six will participate in open Arm’s on site preschool, and 13 will stay here to be home schooled. The home school program is new this year. Several children are behind, and several children have been pulled out of another area school needing to get caught up. These thirteen children are spread out through 6 grades. So along with everything else, converting some spaces into class rooms is happening. All children need backpacks with a change of clothes, plus book bags. All the schools require uniforms so there is the sprucing up of hand-me-downs, sewing on missing buttons, patching up holes, coordinating cool weather, warm weather, and sports clothes for 31 children to get out the door to first day of class on Wednesday, plus all the school supplies. Last night was the assigning and filling of all the cubicles – IT LOOKED LIKED CHRISTMAs. The children were so excited. Tomorrow, Wednesday is a big day. Our volunteer duties will begin to take more shape after school starts. Vitamins and toothbrushes were a big hit. Pictures are of the valley taken early in the A.M. on my first morning there, helping to supervise 26 children swimming, and my daily dose of loving in the babies room. Life is full and blessed. Yes there will be more to come. In Peace, Pastor Stephen