A Cold day in July

 Hey Friends!

Greetings from cold Jeffrey's Bay. Many of you in the States are probably on vacation, as the 4th is right around the corner. It is literally 10 degrees colder in our little townhouse than it is outside and I am freezing! And as true as that is, I can't imagine how cold it must feel in the little shacks that are less than a mile from me here. It's all in degrees of cold I think.  I'm a bit under the weather AGAIN and am battling a really bad sinus infection. I'm not sure what the "thorn in the flesh" was for Paul, but sinus infections are certainly mine. Please pray for me to get well. 

I wanted to send you a few recent photos of what is happening here with us. I will introduce you to two more of the new pre-schools receiving vitamins from the Emi's Closet Project. The first one is "New Beginnings" run by Ricardo and Nipheline in their tiny little house. 27 kiddos. They're doing a great job taking care of these little ones.

Another new creche for Emi's Closet is a pre-school run in a little shack by Ouma Dinah and Ouma Suzanne. There are 26 kids who attend this place, and it was in rough shape. I almost gasped out loud when we walked in. Half of the kids weren't fully clothed (and remember it is cold here) and the Pre-school consisted of a very dirty mattress on the floor and a tv blaring soap operas. It was pretty sad, but they're doing the best they can. I saw lots of open sores on these kids, so I'm praying that the vitamins will be especially helpful here. Pray for those little munchkins! I'm hoping there are are more ways we can get involved and help here as Emi's Closet someday grows into helping in more ways than vitamins....

I mentioned last time that I am trying to generate income in a more "sustainable" way than continuing to sell used kid's clothing .  Here is a sample of some of the new art I've been creating with a local pastor's wife -Mich.  The wood is off-cuts from a friend with a wood-working business and the hearts are made of recycled aluminum cans. Pretty cool huh? The second one is just fabric scraps and this African continent will be mounted on a frame I'm making from recycled pallets - also free. There are lots more - made of bottle caps, corks, yarn, and other recycled materials, but I just wanted to give you a glimpse of what we're working on. The hope is that when we have an inventory of items (all with the love Africa theme), we can market them to tourists at the different Parks here-Kruger National Park, Ado Elephant Park, and other prime tourist spots. I also hope to be able to sell some in the States whenever I'm home again. We really hope if this takes off and there is a demand for our recycled art in the tourist market then we can create jobs for more people in this community (many of which are in need of jobs). Mostly free materials, very teachable skills, and beautiful end product. I love this idea! What do you think?

This is holiday time again for school kids here. A three week school holiday now. South Africans really believe in holidays! Emi is attending Vacation Bible School this week at a local Baptist church. They call it Holiday Bible Club. Today when I pick Em's up we are baking chocolate chip cookies for the VBS snack tomorrow. 120 cookies! (what was I thinking?) Emi said she would love to be my "helper and taster". I think she will be mostly my taster.

The Christian coffee shop where Marius is working continues to grow. We have employed a new waitress - isn't she cute?

I think we worked her a little too hard last week though.....

For those of you who asked me recently how the income from the coffee shop is helping our support, I just want to explain again that we don't make ANY money now. We borrowed ALOT of money of which we are slowly making payments towards. The income for us will come much later - hopefully in year 3 we will be able to pull some income but definitely not yet. For now it is solely debt repayment one step at a time. That place is genuinely a blessing to so many. Aside from day trade, every Sunday evening we host "celebration service" where all of the Global Challenge guys gather for worship, a time of prayer and fellowship, and of course good coffee! This was last week's service. I helped lead worship which was nice.

Ok, well there is lots more to tell about, but I have 120 cookies calling "bake me!", so I  must be off. Please know that we love you and appreciate you and couldn't do what we do without you! We're eternally grateful!
Much love from Marius, Jodi and Emi in South Africa! Happy 4th of July to our friends in the States and never ever forget what a blessing it is to be born in such a safe, free, generous nation!

with much love,
jodi

"Dark Side of the Moon" - a story to honor my dad for Father's Day

To honor my dad, John Stancil, for Father’s Day, I want to tell you a little story about the dark side of the moon. The dark side or “far side” of the moon is literally the part of the moon that always faces away from the Earth. It’s the place where astronauts go radio silent, where their technology fails them, and because of their location on the far side -for a time- they can no longer reach Mission Control.

During my high school years, and when I came home from college, my dad and I used to rise early in the mornings to go running together. We used to joke that we had a “dog ministry” because often we would have a small trail of various mutts lagging along behind us as we finished up our 3-mile loop. We always finished up the same way. We ran until we reached the beginning of our road - Frontier Road - and then we walked to the end of the road for our “cool down.” - which most of the time was already quite cool on those pre-dawn Georgia mornings. Our house was the last one on Frontier Road, at the end of the cul-de-sac. When we reached the end of the road, just like clockwork, we would lie down on the cold concrete and stare up at the moon and sky full of stars. The payoff for me for the physical torture of running was always this time -when we would then pray together. We prayed out loud, eyes wide open, staring at God’s majestic landscape above us. We prayed for each other.  We prayed for the day that lay just ahead of us. We prayed for sick people. We prayed for the lost. We prayed with grateful, thankful, and sometimes heavy hearts to our Father above  -always gazing up at the moon as we prayed.

As special as it had always been to start my days like this with dad, these particular days it felt like pure treasure. There was something unsaid between us that summer, but we both knew the truth - that these precious moments together were few, and we were holding onto them for dear life. We knew with certainty that my formerly predictable life was about to drastically change, as I was about to embark off to missionary training school, and I knew that God had a calling on my life that would take me to God only knew where in the world, and for God only knew how long. 

One morning as we neared the end of that special summer, I couldn’t hold it in any longer, and I asked dad, “How in the world am I gonna start my mornings without you?” With quiet wisdom and compassion, as always, he said, “You’re not. You are going to look up at that big yellow moon and pray, and you’re gonna know that your dad is looking at the dark side of that same moon, praying too. It will be like our relay station. Whether we have access to real communication or not”. (And turns out it was not, as my first missions assignment would end up being the rural highlands of Papua New Guinea which was pretty much a “radio-silent” zone).  “Jodi” dad said, “We’ll always have the moon.”

And we have. 21 years later. 28 countries later. A husband and daughter of my own later, and my dad and I still pray, looking up at that same awesome yellow beacon in the sky. He is 62 now, still more fit than most of the “twenty-somethings” he works with. He ran a half-marathon just a few years ago, and he’s still praying faithfully to his Maker early every morning.

I know that one day, inevitably, dad will make his way across that thin veil into eternity and from his vantage point then, it will be me who is on the “dark” side of the moon. But we will still have our yellow relay station in the sky- it’s just that then- I will still be praying to my heavenly Father, and my dad will be standing right next to His.

For you, dad- the kindest, meekest, most compassionate and generous dad I know.

I am SO blessed that YOU are my dad! Happy Father’s Day!

with all my love,

jodi