More Cute Photos

God's gifts to Brian & Lois...right there under the tree, yep, all 3, look closely.

Tumi comparing Charlie's shoes to his own before the RHV Christmas dinner.

 Liam getting ready to eat Santa marshmallow!  Yum!

Charlie with "Nana."  Not sure who is the better looking one!  Nana is Trish Darby...great friends of everyone in the world!  She has never met a stranger.

Happy New Year

Cute Pictures

If it's cute you are looking for, it is here!

 Two friends (Liam & Drake O'Tool) taking a break on the jumping castle.  No snow here.  No cold either!

 May I present to you the cutest 2 year old girl on the African Continent!

 Motosodishi doing her share by peeling butternut squash.  She prepares a lot of the meals for her house.

Mama Maleena with her Christmas gifts.  Maleena the boys' house mother here.

"Pops" with Komohalo.  Pops is actually a great friend of everyone at The Village, Lawrence Dargie.

More Christmas Fun

Ok, we need to make one thing clear.  It may appear from these photos that the guys have all the fun and the gals have all the work.  Well, it's true!

The completed bus carport (or busport) made the perfect place to hold Christmas for The Village.

Yep, you got it, our friend (or, um, son!) Siya and Grandma Susie.

 Charlie makes the blog again...one day we will get a flattering photo of him!

 Big boy on Liam's dirt bike.  You should see Liam ride it!

 Grandpa Bob giving the neighborhood children rides on the "quad."  By neighborhood, we mean neighborhood.  The neighbor children love to come and play at The Village.

 Here is your flattering photo of Charlie...this time with Grandpa.  He really enjoyed his ride on the quad but the sun was a bit much for his tender skin so we had to cut the ride short!

Learning and Work

Grandma Susie teaches the 1st graders their alphabet.  These two, Komohalo and Monica are eager to learn and are very good helpers around The Village.  Komohalo is anxious to discover and this often gets him into situations he would rather avoid!

Paulina and Dieketseng help clean out the "shed."  They don't know it but it is to make room for the new bikes they are about to receive for Christmas.

The teen girls Bible study ending in prayer around dusk.

The Village Christmas, Wow!

 It was not easy posing 12 kids for a photo when they were anxious to open their gifts, but Amber made it happen!  Brian rented a jumping castle for Christmas and needless to say, all of the children slept very well for a few nights.  The children received gifts from RHI Village as well as from their sponsors.  They made out very well and fun was had by everyone.  This is a really mild explanation of the activities as you can only imagine the yelling and happiness expressed by these little ones!

Sunday Church

So, Bob made a new buddy on Christmas Sunday.  As we all got off the RHV bus this little guy, Siya (Seeya) put his arms up in the air saying he wanted to be picked up.  Bob obliged and Siya was his buddy through the entire service, sitting on his lap and refusing to get down or go anywhere.  Often he would look up at "PaPa" and just stare in amazement.  Once he tried to rub the white color off his skin, even going to the point of wetting his finger with his saliva and trying to clean.  He must have been sure there was dark skin under that light stuff!  At one point he put a huge grin on his face and turned to look at the pew behind us and said "MaMa!" as if to make sure she saw.  Monday morning he headed to the garden where "grandpa" was working and when he found himself ingnored, hollered "PaPa" at which Bob was obligated to go pick him up and talk to him!  We are both in love with this little guy...if we can get him home, he will arrive at the DM airport with us!  Oh, and you are wondering if Bob knows what the service was about...

Christmas Morning Church
We have enjoyed feeling right at home in the local Baptist church.  Joshua is our pastor here.  Not a hard name to remember since Amy & Joe's first-born is Joshua and has the makings of a pastor, too!  He is a Nigerian and became pastor of the "Baptist Church"(yep, that's the name of the church!) in Welkom several months ago.  His message on Christmas morning was from Luke 1:26 & on.  Essentially, it is incredible how God decided the method of revealing Himself on Earth in the form of Baby Jesus.  If we had planned the coming of God to Earth we would have done it much differently, BUT Isaiah 55:8-9 make clear that "...My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts."  Stop and think about that for a minute...you will have chills running up your spine because it is incredible!  To close the service we sang a centuries old hymn "And Can it Be?"  One of the greatest hymns of all time...take a moment to consider some of the lyrics:

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:

I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Think of it, "Claim the crown through Christ" and "Bold I approach the eternal throne."  Wow!  Ok, so I spared you all 6 wonderful verses but we did sing them all and you get the idea.  Next time you are looking for a devotional, check it out: "And Can it Be"

Not for the faint-of-heart

Don't look, Abby

Ok, this is the size of a large cottage cheese carton.  Lois found this Red Roman spider in Charlie's room!  This thing is big enough to carry Charlie off...good thing she got it.  (Just kidding about carrying Charlie off...and this friendly little guy is relatively harmless, he just wants human hair!  There have never been any missionaries harmed by insects or creatures here.

Working with Children

 One of the joys of our trip is to work with the children.   The garden is huge and requires a lot of hours to plant, weed, water and harvest.   Every day we have the opportunity to teach gardening skills.  A couple of the kids love to learn how to grow their own food.  Here Lerato and Paulina are transplanting cabbage plants.  So far they have all survived!

Motshidisi is learning to sew.  Susie is teaching while making curtains for the homes at Restoring Hope Village.  Notice the nice outside work shop.

No rich black dirt here.  Cow manure is a real asset to this soil!

Church Christmas Program

A Christmas program is a special treat at any church, but when it is a multi-racial service in a very prejudiced society, it is really neat thing.  The Baptist church in Welkom has come a long way since they called a Nigerian pastor earlier this year.  We have been attending the Baptist church for 3 weeks and have enjoyed worshipping with local believers!

The hymnal here is a book of songs.  It looks like The Psalms of the Bible.  Pretty neat.  No music, just words in a Psalm format.  

Every week the church ladies have "tea" and cookies after church.  A really neat time of fellowship.

Come check it out!

Full Speed Ahead

This week begins our busiest schedule of our time here.  School is out and there are plenty of opportunities to teach the RHV children.  Some of the things we are going to be working on:

• Flash Cards.  Math facts are as important here as they are at home.  Most of the children need help in this area.
• Sewing.  Susie is planning on teaching the older girls how to sew, beginning with curtains for the next children's house.
• Bible.  The one essential skill that makes all other knowledge valuable is an understanding of Biblical principles.  Wisdom from the Bible.  There are on-going Bible studies and just simple reflections of God's Word as we teach and answer routine questions.
• Work.  One cultural hurtle here can be summed up with the outstretched hand asking for "help."  Help without obligation.   The Niehoffs and O'Tools have been teaching personal responsibility here but the thread runs deep.  We will help out by continuing the task.  
• Money.  Counting money and knowing the denominations is key to survival in the economic world.  We hope to teach this skill to the older children.  Hopefully we can go further than simple knowledge of money.

Obviously we have no idea how all of this is going to go so we ask your help in prayer!  We start today and are excited about the opportunity to spend time with the children of Restoring Hope Village!

Happy Birthday!!

 Today we celebrated Motshidisi(18) and Dieketseng's(16) birthdays at The Village.  Tomorrow Dieketseng goes to High School camp by Johannesburg.  What a fund afternoon.

Today IS Lois' birthday so we did more celebrating.  No cake today...but watch out Tuesday.  Terry Walterdorf's German Chocolate Layer Cake!

The Beautiful Coast

Brian and Lois invited us to go on their annual vacation to the coast!  We spent a wonderful 5 days relaxing and seeing the sights.  The ocean always makes a fund get a way for land locked midwesterners! 

 Portrait time "on the rocks."

 A rugged section of the Indian Ocean coast.  The surf was absolutely beautiful.  Those waves were 10' high.

Brian found some monkeys.  A loaf of bread brought all the excitement we needed.  Baby monkeys hang on for dear life as their mothers haul them from tree to tree and even on top of slippery car hoods.

What a country!

What is wrong with a country where you can buy Prime Rib for $3.12 per pound and hamburger costs $4.00 a pound??? Pork chops are the real bargain at $2.21 a pound. Needless to say chops get grilled often and we do not eat hamburgers unless we go out...then they are the least expensive meal. Make sense? Sure, it is South Africa!

RAIN! Last night we got a real rain storm! Unfortunately the "US" rain gauge was full before the rain. Bob was watering the plants where the rain gauge is located and Lindie (sweet little Lindie) picked up the hose and filled the rain gauge. He thought it so cute that he just left it. So, we have the super exaggerated cone shaped rain gauge to go by.

Construction is moving along. The ceiling is complete in Louis and Amber's house and the interior walls have been started.

Reality Check and more

This morning we had a reality check. Two women appeared at the gate with a baby they said was found in Thabong. Not unusual but it sure got our attention as a visual example of what goes on here. Lois, mother of a 4 day old newborn, had to take them to town to find help for them. That means everyone had to shift responsibilities to cover for Lois. Fortunately, Charlie did not need to be nursed while she was gone!

Impromptu Staff Meeting today

As we observed last year, missionary life here is anything but boring. I bet they wish it was sometimes. Pray for wisdom for Louis, Amber, Brian & Lois. They never know when the next event will happen that places homeless and orphaned children at their gate, literally. For them it happens a couple times a week. For us, it is a reality check. For them, it is routine that they stop what they are doing and help whoever it is that comes knocking! We are amazed at the ability of these couples to cover for each other and show God's love to the people here. IF there were more missionaries and more houses they could be filled quickly. IF they had "baby" houses, they could fill one a month, easily. Pray for wisdom. There is so much opportunity it is overwhelming to us.

A major ministry of ours is mentoring the teens as you probably know. Pray for God's wisdom as we tackle this job. Helping them with homework, the Bible study and the garden has already given us great relationships with these girls. They both have birthdays while we are here so we will help make that special...we plan to take them out for their birthdays. They have rarely been to town in their lives so it will be a real treat. It is so easy to be special in their minds. Pray that we would show God's love and not our own selfish desire to be special! This work is very rewarding. May the praise go to the Lord!

December is a holiday here with no school for over a month. We have been asked to use much of our time with the children. Please pray that we would have wisdom in planning activities, work, fun and games so these kids will grow spiritually as well as emotionally, mentally and physically. There is plenty of growth opportunity in all of these areas of their lives.

Thanks for praying and supporting us while we are here!

To be added to the RHI email list, just shoot us an email.

Find RHI on FB: "Restoring Hope International"

Bob & Susan

Responsibility and Growing Up

We all experience growing pains and it is

no different for the teens here. One of our goals while we are here is to help the two teens by spending time with them, having Bible studies and providing jobs. Jobs are very scarce here.

On the way home from church on Sunday I asked one of the house mothers if the girls behaved well. She said "Yes, but they are very lazy." That seems to be the consent of the staff here, too. You can pray that we would be able to instill some work ethic into these girls while teaching them it is not what we want but what God wants for them!

Work in the garden is plentiful and they seem to enjoy it when there is an adult present.

Dieketseng has taken on the responsibility of watering newly planted areas of the garden. She does this before school and in the afternoon (Top photo). Yesterday we did some investigating and found a corn kernel that had sent a root into the ground with the sprout ready to surface.

Grandma Susie has been tutoring the girls and helping with homework. Some of them are very far behind in school.

Look Down V V V

Lindie and Liam are doing a wonderful job training Baby Charlie in the skills he needs to be a part of their family. They are both thrilled to have him here and can't wait for him to be able to eat and play with them! The fish is Charlie's birthday gift from them.

Misc happenings, life as normal

Life in Africa is anything but normal and we are learning what "normal" is. One goal of our blogging is to attempt to portray life here for our friends in "America." America is an absolutely fabulous place to most South Africans. They think we Americans are rich and very well off. In a sense we are...even the very poor in the US are better off than most South Africans.

Pictured here are the two Restoring Hope Village houses for children. The girls house is on the left and the boys is on the right. We have visited the houses and they are kept very clean and neat.

Dust storms have been frequent here recently. The right photo begins to tell what it was like last night. A strong wind storm came up and the sky was very dark with dust. Going outside to take this photo resulted in dust in the eyes, behind the ears and a quick trip back inside. Dust blew into everything, even with the doors and windows closed. Finally the welcome rain came. The rain gauges here measure the rain in millimeters! We brought a rain gauge with us and it didn't even register the rain we had last night. The SA rain gauge showed 2 mm. I think they use a cone shaped rain gauge so we can feel good about the tiny bit of rain that we have. In spite of the minimum rain and hot, hot sun, the garden is progressing well.

No doubt by now you know the big news of the weekend! Brian & Lois (mostly Lois) had their latest family addition. "Baby Charlie" has come home to live with the family and we are so glad to have him here. He will need some orientation because the other 2 make all the noise and you would hardly know Baby Charlie was here. Eating breakfast this morning Charlie was left alone in his chair and was making sweet kitty cat sounds! I have a feeling Liam and Lindie will train him well to become a part of the Niehoff family!

More info can be found at Charlies website:

http://web.me.com/bniehoff/Charlie_Levi_Niehoff

More later...stay tuned! Thanks for reading!

Bob & Susie

Life at RHI Village

We had an awesome trip from the US to South Africa Saturday and Sunday. Yep, long a tiring but God chose to give us 3 seats each so we could lay down and sleep during the 11 hour flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg. That was awesome.

We arrive in Welkom on Monday afternoon to a very warm welcome by the children and staff here! The garden is doubled in size from last year and already has a great start thanks to the work of Brian and the children here.

Today we had a SA staff meeting and we were assigned the task of working with the teenagers here, teaching Bible studies and practical life skills. We are excited about this and actually started today. One of the teens was suspended from school so we have 2 days of one-on-one time with her. Today it was casual visiting and work in the garden. We see great potential in this girl's life. Would you pray with us for her?

Will try to get some photos up soon!

Bob & Susan

Off to South Africa for Two Months

Here we go again. 2 more months in South Africa. Last year it was work, work, work on the building project at The Village. This year will be different...work, work, work and then help the kids with school work, play with the kids, teach the kids and then crash! Bob & Susan are very excited about the opportunity to be involved in the lives of the 11 children at The Village as well as being a help to the field staff there in any way that we can help.

We will be posting photos and will do our best to keep the blog up to date at least weekly. Please check back weekly to see what we are up to. Thanks for reading our blog, thanks for remembering us in prayer!

Bob & Susan

Week After Christmas

Christmas day...a wonderful day. In South Africa a strong tradition is to attend church Christmas morning, so we did! We had a great worship service centered around the birth of our Savior. Then we went home and opened gifts...much fun when grandkids are involved! Next matter of business...lunch at some friends house. Very nice Christmas dinner that Val and Donnie put on for us. Lamb, turkey and a few fund South African traditions like "poppers." A popper is a rolled up piece of cardboard that goes "pop" when you pull it apart with your neighbor. Inside is a toy and a Christmas hat that you wear during dinner. Sorry, no photos, use your imagination.

The week was a normal week. Work at the village...the kitchen is in and the trim is almost done. Coming along very nicely.

This week was a normal work week ending with New Years. New years eve we found some "roman candles" that have 100 shots. The instructions say "do not hold in your hand" but how else can you have fun with them. Check out my facebook page for a short video of something that would NEVER happen in the US--fireworks mania in a city park.

Church every Sunday is always an interesting event. Sure we worship like millions around the world, we just never know the condition of our "Church" before we arrive. It is great meeting with believers in Tabong, a real treat. Susie taught Sunday School for the children and Okuthle interpreted for the younger ones.

Christmas Eve Sensational Day

Christmas eve is a wonderful day, full of great things for most of us. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could "do" Christmas ever every day...the kind thoughts and actions. Check out our SA Christmas eve.

It started by getting the children (Liam and Lindie) ready for the day. No work today (Yeah) so we have the entire day to enjoy different stuff. Liam loves to play as is shown here...he would rather wear a pillow case than his clothes...of course grandpa introduced the idea!

The first matter of business was to take Lerato and Monica to the RHI attorney's office. No, not legal stuff. The office staff decided they would shower the two girls with gifts as their Christmas project. The smiles could not adequately express the joy in the room as the girls opened their gift bags. Clothing, jewlery, school supplies and more came out of the bags. These two parentless girls haven't been this happy for some time.

Tears of joy filled the office waiting room. Two girls who had little being showered on by very generous people! Wow!

The office staff COULD NOT let the girls just leave...they had to take them into a "dressing" room and put on their new clothes and play jewlery.

Another first for these two...an elevator ride. Yes, only one floor and would have been faster by stairs, but a very new experience. You should have seen their faces when the "floor" of the elevator started going up!

Flat Stanley joined the team in SA for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately a "little person" was a bit rough with the guy and he had to have a bandaid to keep himself together. Sorry Kalynn.

All of this before breakfast! After lunch a bit more sobering task. Taking gifts and candy to the children at the hospital. Words again cannot describe this place. Very few of the children had any medical equipment and No toys, NO TOYS or anything for the children to play with. We met quiet, sad-looking children who were away from their families. The rooms appeared to be clean at least. I tried not to look too closely. Our group (RHI Staff) gave a coloring sheet and crayons to each child old enough to color as well as candy and balloons. They soon were batting the balloons all over the rooms and hallways making joyful noises and having fun like normal children!

Thanks for reading and for keeping the ministry of Brian & Lois and Louis & Amber in your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to all of us here to know the support we have from home!

I know I am running about a week behind on blogging, BUT we have to work in our computer time when the internet is working and when we have time...usually early in the morning or after the grandkids have gone to bed...we do have priorities, you know!