November – December 2015

We arrived back at Chandame on the 1st of November 2015.  We were gone for a long time so the entire camp site was covered in dust and leaves.  We started cleaning the campsite and Jannie also started helping the local farmers by transporting potatoes and corn. The clinic was re-opened after a long hiatus and we had many cases of malaria, and infants (between 1 and 5 months old), having respiratory problems.  These usual tasks were really tiring since prior to our arrival, we were on the road for 8 days with the newly acquired tow truck.  For those who don’t know, driving long distances in a tow truck can hardly be called humane!  Thus, we worked half days and rested in the afternoon to regain our strength.   On the 25th of November I woke up early and started doing the washing.  By 9:30, I started feeling really sick.  Some of my symptoms included a fever and cold fever.  Since we live in a high risk malaria zone, my first self diagnosis was malaria.  The next day, Jannie and I crossed the border to Malawi to visit a hospital in Nkhoma.  I ended up staying in hospital for 6 days.  The doctor diagnosed me with a kidney infection and malaria.  However, thanks to everyone’s prayers and the friendly staff at Nkhoma hospital, I recovered.   We would not have gone back to South Africa in December since we did not have enough funds.  To make matters even worse, […]

July 2015 – October 2015

Hi Everyone! We had to spend 4 months in South Africa to fix the 1972 International Recovery Truck. On the 22nd of October we started to drive back to Chandame.  Our first stop was Meyerton! We spent the weekend with our family.  On Monday the 26th of October we hit the road again to continue on our way back to Mozambique. Our first stop for the day was Baberton and we decided to spend the night. The next day it was off to the border at Komatiepoort.  At Komatiepoort we had trouble with the truck’s wheels and Jacques a very friendly mechanic helped us to fix the problem! We spent 4 hours at the Komatipoort border. On the South African side we had no problem with the truck and bakkie on the A-frame, but on the Mozambique side it was another story. We had to take the bakkie off the A-frame and drive the bakkie through the border and then we had to load the bakkie back on the a-frame. Done and dusted we drove onwards to Maputo!!! In Maputo one of the A-frame mounts came loose!! Thank the Lord that nothing serious happened! Jannie had to fix the prop shaft and take the bakkie off the A-frame again. I then had to drive the Ford at night in the streets of Maputo. Finally, we found the yard where we could leave the recovery truck and we then had to find a place to sleep. That night, at 12:30am the […]

APRIL – JULY 2015

After a very long time, the mobile clinic (ACRIS) finally arrived on the 1st April with Helen Meyer, under whose guidance they had quite a fruitful day. A lot of people were able to receive very necessary medical attention, and we are very grateful to Helen and her team. Marie Smit from Villa Ullongwe also came in April to teach the women of Chandame more about knitting. Our women learned a lot, and always enjoy Marie’s lessons. Several of them have started knitting on their own, and we are very excited to see their new skills develop. A highlight in Chandame is the market we have every Thursday. Vendors from all over Mozambique come to sell their goods, and we have seen the market grow quite a lot. Here we are able to buy our food and some daily supplies, but medicines we still have to buy in Malawi. We crossed the border for more medicines, and had a talk with dr Renier about the clinic we are building in Chandame. He gave us positive input which helped a lot. My day-to-day clinic is still running and I ask for your constant prayers in this. We had a 13 year old girl who came to us with swollen glands, and referred her to Nkhoma hospital. They diagnosed her with cancer, and are busy treating her in Villa Ullongwe at this stage. I ask that you also pray for her. Our sermon of 19 April reminded me (John 17:3 and Psalm […]

OUR NEWS: JANUARY – MARCH 2015

We again had spent a special holiday with children, grandchildren, family and friends.  We always felt blessed and we left for Mozambique with great courage and joy to come and work for the Kingdom of God!  We were also blessed with another grandchild on 21 January 2015, when Alexander Daniel De Kock was born in South Korea. We now have 5 lovely grandchildren! Although we couldn’t be with our children when Alexander was born, we know that God was there and thank Him that all went well. On the 26th of January 2015, we attended the Mission Convention in Paarl, where we learned from the other missionaries. We praised and worshipped and we went home with the knowledge that you must go back to the basics – focus on God, He only wants the best for you! We arrived at Chandame on the 6th of February 2015, and were again welcomed with lots of flowers and lots of happy people!  Our garden looked wonderful – everthing was  green and the flowers were beautiful. You could also see that it was a rainy season during November, December, January up until end of April. We brought back some Sandveld potato seeds that we planted here on Chandame to multiply and use for  future planting (a special thank you to Henk van Zyl of Leipoldtville in South Africa for the gift).This will be our first attempt to produce seeds and the start of our dream to do all types of seeds which are […]

OUR NEWS: October – December 2014

We arrived back at Chandame on the 14th of October 2014 – a day before the elections. It was good to be back, but we were worried for our own safety as the elections did not go very peacefully. At one stage, even our Pastor let us know to evacuate and leave for the border, fearing for our safety. We were afraid and unsure of what to do, so we started praying.  Jannie received the vision of a burning candle in the dark. Where it stood, there was light. When you took the candle away, there was darkness.  So we decided to stay and all went well. Looking back, we are thankful to the Lord for keeping us safe in difficult times, and praise Him for showing us the way where we were uncertain. Life in our caravan became challenging, so we started to build a bedroom with a bathroom next to our current outdoor kitchen. We also modified the kitchen by putting in a concrete floor and replacing the wooden walls with brick walls and a proper door.  We are very excited about the new development, and can’t wait to move into our room. We have been sleeping in a caravan for 3 and half years! We also visited some prayer houses. On 2nd November 2014 we visited a prayer house called Chiputi 2.  Our scripture was John 5 v 1-15 and 1 Pete 1 v 5 (“…..who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation […]

JUNE – OCTOBER 2014

During June to September, we had a constant flow of visitors – Calla and Hetta Botha, Will and Elize Viljoen, Koos and Petro Ritter, Herman and Berdine Smit, Wilhelm Els, Cliff van Dyk and Beulah Greyvenstein all came to visit us. We enjoyed every one of our guests’ input in our daily routine here at Chandame. Early mornings started with devotion en praising the Lord before starting our day. We went to the farm we received from the government (900 hectares), where we would like to plant maize, soya, potatoes and other vegetables, but the land needs to be deforested before we can start any farming there. We noticed however that the locals here did not replant any trees to replace the trees they felled, and decided to plant 5 trees for every tree that we fell. If we do not do his, Mozambique may one day be without any trees. This shows again that sustainability is a major issue in Africa that needs to be addressed, and we feel privileged to be here to tackle this issue with the locals. We are also busy building the solar toilets at the clinic, and the ceiling and plumbing are next in line. All the men also helped Jannie with building our bedroom and modifying the kitchen, which will enable us to finally move out of the caravan. While the visitors were here, Elize and Petro started knitting classes with the women. They enjoyed it very much and I decided to go […]

NEEDS

We would once again like to thank every one who contributes to the cause of our missionary work in Chandame. We believe that we are in the End Times that the Bible tells us of in Revelations, and that the Gospel must be spread to every corner of the earth. We are however very dependant on the people supporting us, as well as our Heavenly Father, to make this a success. We believe that God uses us and also other people to spread His Gospel. We are in the field every day, and would like to communicate to you, our support system, the needs that we have picked up in our communities. We pray that you will consider this in your prayers: We are always in need of medical supplies or equipment for the mobile clinic. Bandages, plaster, medicines, anything can help Clothing for the people can always help, as well as warm blankets Any equipment that can help us in building churches or make roads to prayer houses and to the farm can help Vaaljan, our bakkie, has also become quite old and is past the 500,000km mark. Please pray for us here as we are quite dependant on the bakkie for transport of both ourselves and church members Tools and any loose equipment can help, as we are always trying to teach the people as much as we can, and there are usually something that needs to be fixed – either Pastor’s motorcycle, or the pipeline to the […]

VISITORS – MAY TO MID JUNE 2014

MAY TO MID JUNE 2014 The weekend of 17 May, we attended church in Chandame. The message was that the things of this world are not forever. We can also go to Jesus Christ with any problem. God must be the leader of your heart. God is our place of safety – Ps 62:8. For 3 days we had a soft mist rain – everything was wet and it was very cold. Looks like winter finally started in Chandame! We were in Tete from the 20th – 24th of May 2014 – Jannie did mechanic work and also drilled for water. All the income we receive from this, goes directly for the Kingdom of God. On the 24th of May, Calla and Hetta Botha arrived for a 2 week visit at Chandame (they are from our hometown Rawsonville). It was a very blessed 2 weeks, and we really enjoyed seeing them again! They joined us in our daily chores, and every morning we had devotion, which was so special for Jannie en me.  At the end of their visit they took us for 4 days to Cahorra Bassa – a wonderful ending to a wonderful visit! On 31st May – 1 June, we had an evangelism weekend in Madibi, one of our prayer houses. We took the people with the tractor and trailer to Madibi, and helped them install their props. We left them until the Sunday morning. Usually they praise and worship right through the night. All the locals […]

MOVING INTO WINTER – APRIL / MAY 2014

APRIL / MAY 2014 Be careful what you say. You can say something hurtful in ten seconds, but ten years later the wounds are still there – Joel Osteen.  This is the day which the Lord had made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Ps 118:24. In April, we were busy attending patients, teaching preschool, and making the road to the farm more accessible and driveable. The rain now falls every second day as winter is slowly coming. The days are sunny but not too hot and the evenings are colder. On the 24th of April, Jannie took the tractor and trailor to Malawi to fetch some wood for the roof of the clinic we are busy building. He left Chandame at 5 o’clock in the morning, driving on the off roads, going through a one horse border. He was on the tractor for 11 hours and arrived at Chandame only after 5 o’clock in the afternoon. All the roads were also heavy 4×4 roads. Just before reaching Chandame, Jannie drove into heavy rains, arriving home drenched but very satisfied. We drove to Tsangano on 28 April 2014 to fetch the beacons of the farm. The beacons were planted, so now the farm has borders, and we can start to make soil ready for planting our first potatoes! On the 4th of May we visited the Nkondedze prayer house. Pastor Isaiah from Chandame delivered a message from Mathew 15:21-28, explaining that Jesus can help you no matter what […]

OCTOBER 2013 – MARCH 2014

OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2013 On the 6th of October 2013, our newest grandchild was born – a baby girl named Gabriella, meaning “God is my strength”. I (Susan) flew in earlier to help with the newborn, and it was very special to be a part of my second daughter Amanda’s family for at least 6 weeks! Jannie however only arrived in South Africa on 9 December 2013, accompanied by his friend Willem de Villiers. Jannie had to finish last minute duties here at Chandame before driving down to South Africa. We had a wonderful holiday with our children, grandchildren, family and friends. Thank you Lord!! JANUARY – MARCH 2014 We were in SA for the whole of January up until the 10th of February 2014, preparing for our trip back to Chandame. We left on the 4th of February, but could only drive as far as Laingsburg before our bakkie’s gearbox broke down and we had to return to Rawsonville. With the help of fellow Christians, we arrived in Rawsonville at 14h00 in the afternoon. Jannie decided to attend to the gearbox himself, and the work began. Before nightfall, we had enough money to buy the parts of the gearbox! Thank you again to the Lord and to our friends who contributed to the cause! On 10 February 2014, we left Rawsonville for Chandame. The trip was trouble free. At the Mozambique boarder, we had to open the load, but after an hour the officials decided to accept Jannie’s itinerary […]