Hello all,
It’s taken awhile to gather my thoughts but wanted to give an update of our recent back to Tsumkwe.
Anastasia and I were able to spend 3 weeks in the village. We connected with old friends, sat by the fire and talked about life and God. Just our presence and willingness to come back says and means alot. Alot of “white people” have come and gone in the name of doing good and have splashed cash in the forms of food, clothes and material items. But we are all humans and what we desire the most is interaction. I once said in a sermon “In God’s Economy people are the currency”. We can focus on the material needs but if we neglect the human need for interaction then were missing out on the whole picture. On numerous occasions some locals said “daqm” it’s so good to see you and thank you for not forgetting about us. I didn’t give them anything they just appreciated the fact we were there and were willing to sit and talk about life. Anastasia took a few days to get going but she was off and playing with old friends, and learning how to do things with the local momma’s. We plan on going back as family in 2 or 3 years for another trip depending on the farm growth and us finding someone to manage it. I would love to bring others along and visit the villages and do bible studies with all the stories we have created. But more on that in a later date. We would condense the trip to 3 weeks total time.
Below is a summary of what we were able to “do” despite just being. All of this is because of your continued support and we appreciate it.
- Jeremy met and worked with the Namibia Bible Society as they have a team in Tsumkwe helping to translate the bible. I was able to help correct and encourage the team to move forward in a more efficient manner. The Bible Society was very grateful for my time and willingness to help as everyone on the team I had a relationship with.
- We were able to create, record and distribute 8 New Bible Stories. (These first two items took the majority of our time) The OT stories were familiar to us westerners like Daniel, Ruth, Esther but needed to fill in the gaps we left.
- We visited 2 villages to distribute the stories and met with numerous people in Tsumkwe who very visiting the villages and able to give them SD cards with the stories on them to take back out.
- Spent a whole day fixing all the stories and sorting them and getting them formatted to put on a SD card for those that have phones……We believe this is a far more effective way to distribute the stories as the solar players have worn out. Time will tell and we will be able to implement the best method next time we return.
I continue to talk to various people via what’s app but being there in person and hugging their neck and sharing a cup of tea on a cold winter day beats what’s app anyday.
Pray for us as a family as we are working very very hard building the farm so that we have the freedom to return and support these wonderful people. You can follow our journey just google hazelnutpastures.
The Ha3els
Ha3els in Africa 