Alright… here’s the long awaited update. ;) Today there were 56 kids at the Sunday School at Braamfischerville Baptist Church!! Wow… it continues to grow each week. I don’t know what we’re going to do when we have even more kids – we’re running out of space in the classroom they gave us to use! (The church meets in a primary school.) Today two women from the church sat in and helped with the Sunday school, which was SO nice! One lady looked like she’s gonna need a little practice with kids, but she has a willing attitude and that is all we need! The other lady was great – she got right in there amongst the children and was singing and dancing right along with them! Now THAT is what we like to see!! :) I hoping that eventually we can split the kids into two groups by age. There are a lot of 10-12 year old kids coming, and they’re totally different than a 5 year old. Once the new ladies have a grasp for what’s going on we hope to split and then I’ll kind of go between classes and make sure we’re all on the same page. I really like this role as a missionary… being more of a trainer or facilitator. This way I know that when I leave I am not leaving an empty space. Instead I hope to be leaving a strong, flourishing ministry!!! We did have a bit of a mess this morning though… there’s another church that also meets at the school and today one of the ladies very rudely confronted Nurse and said that our kids are not disciplined and that she needed to do something about that. Now mind you, most of the kids coming have never been in church and have no idea what they’re “supposed” to act like. Does anyone besides me hear a familiar bell ringing of our Saviour saying that we should come to Him like these little children? No rules, no presuppositions, no ‘proper’ dress… just a love of Jesus! Oh to be like these little ones!! Anyway… most of the kids get to the school before Nurse and I can get there, so they just play outside. Imagine that… kids playing… what a concept. ;) We did tell the kids today to play on the other side of the classrooms until we get there from now on so they don’t disturb the other church. I wouldn’t have been so upset by this lady’s actions if she’d been kind about it. But she was so rude. It makes me sad to see they way Christians are letting Satan get a foothold. How are we (Christians) ever going to make it if we bicker with each other about petty matters. One would think that the other church would be happy that someone is reaching out to the kids in the neighbourhood, but I guess that’s too much to ask of them. Sad, isn’t it? I absolutely hate this type of division among so-called Christians. I have such a vision to see people working together for a common goal. Call me optimistic… We could just do so much more is we’d just put aside the dumb things that divide us. *sigh*

That brings me to a different topic, and one with a little more hope and happiness. :) Like I said, I have a vision to see Christians working together. Lately I’ve randomly met other missionaries (mostly American but a couple others), and it seems most of us are going in totally different directions. I asked my team tonight if there had ever been anything planned for the different missionaries in our area to get together and meet each other. They said no, but that someone should organize something! Well… I may be just one person, but I am going to try my hardest to get something going! I just think that if we all met each other and shared about our different ministries, we may see some areas where we can help each other. Or in the very least, we will meet other people with common goals and desires and we’ll be able to pray for and support one another in our efforts. My first step is just to ask around to the people I know and see if the others are even interested in this… Please be praying for this endeavour! It seems pretty daunting to me at this point, but I must remember… “one step at a time.” I’m pretty excited about it!!

Alright folks… I’m exhausted! (That seems to be a common thing in these blog updates…) I must go get my beauty sleep. ;)

in Him,
Bonnie
Link to pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bonnieb81