It is of immeasurable value for believers to know that our God is sovereign. In times like these when the world is poised on the brink of war and there is so much uncertainty, we should take courage and comfort from God’s sovereign control. We need to actively trust in Him and His Word.

In Daniel 2, God revealed a mystery to a pagan king and in His infinite wisdom, He gave the interpretation of that dream to Daniel, a young Jewish man who had been exiled to Babylon.

When God showed Daniel the dream and its interpretation, Daniel praised God and said, ”Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to Whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding” (Daniel 2 vs 20b – 21)
That same God is still on His throne today even in the midst of difficult and confusing times. We who are His children can take comfort that He still changes the times and seasons, and He still removes kings and sets up kings.

As you read the rest of our update, consider God’s sovereignty in light of our ministry here in South Africa, as well as your own ministry. Kingdoms come and go but our God is still the King of kings and all glory goes to Him.

 

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!

We are excited to announce that 5 new children have joined the Bethesda family. They are siblings to one of our boys who has been in our care for many years.
As one of our boys was visiting his biological family over Christmas, it came to light that the situation was not very suitable and as a result, all the rest of his siblings ended up joining us. Due to space, we had to split them between two homes so all the girls went to the Mooki home and the boys are all together at the Phiri’s.
When the 3 girls and 2 boys arrived, our moms took them shopping for school, formal and play clothing along with some of the basics. The girls especially enjoyed this and love to wear their new clothing. The girls also like the food that their mom is preparing and enjoy helping in the kitchen and doing chores. They do, however, need extra help with school work since they are behind in school.

The two boys are staying in the Phiri home with their brother who is happy to have his siblings with him at Bethesda. The boys are adjusting but it seems as if they are struggling a bit more since they are younger. One of the boys is now in Grade R (Kindergarten) and the youngest will start Gr R next year.

We are praying that someday all the kids will come to know and understand the Gospel and their perfect heavenly Father. We also hope that eventually they can be reunited with their biological family.

CLASSROOM PROJECT – COMPLETED!

In the final days before school started in January, we were blessed with a few local church people who helped us finish all up the new classroom building as well as putting the final touches on the Temporary Safe Care home for babies. They came to help because there was no way our maintenance team could have finished this before the start of school. There were two teams that came on two different days.
The 6-person team on Thursday was Brent and Brandon from Central Baptist Church in Pretoria as well as 4 people from a nearby home church. Brent, Brandon and Colin worked at the school installing (many!) shelves in the storerooms. The three ladies from the home church put the baby home together. Our Bethesda maintenance team was finished, so they set to work putting up curtains, making the beds, setting up baby cots (cribs), washing blinds, cleaning and mopping the entire kitchen and packing everything into the cupboards.
The Saturday team was 6 guys from Waterkloof Baptist church, and Robert from Emmaus Baptist church. They worked in the classrooms by finishing the shelf installations, installing all of the curtain rails, paper towel dispensers, toilet roll holders, hand soap dispensers and door hooks.

Joining the local church guys were Jack, one of our houseparents and Shane, one of our Bethesda graduates. We are praising the Lord for the labour of love from these guys and the work that He has used them to accomplish!

ACADEMIC ACHIEVERS

In an effort to help motivate our Bethesda children to improve their academics and excel, our child care staff proposed a contest last year. The young man on the left achieved the highest overall academic average over everyone so he has earned the “Bethesda Brainiac” award for 2021. Congratulations L!

Others earned awards for achieving high averages in various subjects or for being the most improved in their academic scores. We are grateful to see some of our kids working hard. We also hope that this will motivate a few others to work and study even harder.