Fourth Day: Wednesday, June 29th

Larry- We finished the priming of the house and completed the second coat on the onside of the house. We sprayed all the shelves for all the cabinets. Paint, paint & more paint. Matt, Tim, Casey, Kinzie and Casey prepped the space where the brick was going to be placed, by plowing and digging up the dirt. We almost had a near disaster when Kinzie hit one of the wires but thankfully she only dug into the coating of the wires. Rosina, Vicki & Kinzie carried bricks to home and brick was placed between the houses and we have started placing bricks behind the home also.


Kinzie- Today was a day full of work. Other than the obvious, work with the home, me, my mom, Taylor, Louie, Rosina, Lerato & Monika went to the girl's Christian school to watch Dieketsang and Motshidis', two orphans at RHI, recital and be honored for making the honor roll at their school. Both made "supevisors honor roll" which means they both recieved a 80% or higher on their books they have to fill out for school work. Also in their ceremony they honored a girl for being the first girl at their school to go to college. Sadly, here in Africa even students with astounding grades still do not make it to college because they either can't afford it or they aren't accepted. Because many people here do not have an education, they have to settle for factory jobs or jobs were you get paid very little, they may even only get paid $10 a day. In these past few days we have all really learned to be happy with everything we have, because some of the people here have nothing.

Rosina, Dieketsang & Lerato

Third Day: Tuesday, June 28th

Kinzie: We woke up bright and early to a great day full of suprises and new experiances. We were informed by Lois that today we would be going to the Thabong Hospice Daycare in which the childreen who attend this day care have parents who are currently dying of TB, Aids or HIV.

On the drive there we watched the scenery change from Welkom's standard nice neighborhoods to Thabongs poverty stricken neighborhoods. While driving we all noticed the strange "auto parts stores" on the sides of the roads in which seemingly unusable auto parts were being sold to customers. We also noticed many small cars with at least six passangers in them. We came to realize that here in Welkom/Tahbong 70% of the people dont have cars, so in order to get somewhere they were forced to hitchhike. As we passed the run down neighborhoods we began to truly understand the enormity of the problem here in Africa. we arrived at the daycare and cautiously walked in, not knowing what to expect.

We walked into a bare white room with six children in it. We were informed that four of the kids decided to stay home with their parents for the day. We got down to buisness right away. Amber and Rosina, two people who co-founded RHI, soon began playing games with the children. Even though the children there spoke little English, if any, they all ignored this barrier and smiled and seemed to really soak in all the love that Amber and Rosina gave them.

I have come to realize, through the orphans at RHI and all the children i have interacted
with, that Love is all they need. All these children knew well what was happening to their
parents, or what has happened, and they really cherish all the love they recieve from someone. I am already greatly changed by these children here.

Children @ RHI: Lerato & Tumi

The children in daycare & Rosina     

   Meredith, Me & Monika

And if you were wondering about the progress of the home...

Jeff: We started off the day fixing doors. We had to plane the doors to make them fit. Westarted priming our inside. The paint sprayer sprayed...then clogged.. Then sprayed again. It was around lunch when we got the sprayer fixed. We were able to prime around 75% of the interior. While we were spraying, others worked on. Louie O'Tool, another perskn who works constantly with RHI and came to Africa to work at The Pines in 2008, built closet cubes then painted them. We primed all the doors. Brian bought a tub to set up soon!

Kinzie paints the trim

                                       

Cassie & Matt prep for bricks

I paint cabinet

Second day: Monday, June 27th

Don -
We filled the trenches in, put the water pipes in then filled it in. I hung 3 doors. We did a little bit of mudding (plastering) on the walls. Then they moved the roofing joints back to put the soffits on. The boys (Matt (20) , a brother of the team members who has been here for a month, Taylor (20), Matt's college friend who came to Africa with him, Jeff and Larry) painted the entire house with primer and then with the top coat, which is a grey-ish brown color. We got a lot done in one day, especially for the small amount of people we had working on it. We enjoyed getting to know the kids and the girls played with Monika (6) during the day while the others attended private school.

Liam & Monika, an orphan @ RHI

Tim, Louie & Taylor



Cassey, Monika, & Kinzie

Our First Day: Sunday, June 26th

Cassie -

Today was our first 'real' day here in Welkom, South Africa. We started out our day with a much appreciated later wake up time. However, and maybe much to our surprise, the morning also greeted us with 40 degree temperatures. Because of this, I am 100% certain that God has an awesome sense of humor- He created a place now called South Africa a couple hundred miles away from the hottest desert in the world that actually shows a seasonal change in winter, which include temps we Iowans consider COLD.
Fortunately, we all fared well on our trip into church. Our small service was led by Louis O'Tool, a member of another missionary family here in SA. We sang songs and on our first Sunday here, we were also very fortunate to learn many of the children's names that attended church, lived at RHI, or were the Niehoff's neighbors. From the church, Brian Niehoff gave us a tour of Thabong. In Thabong, we went to many various places, but the one's that stuck out the most in our minds were the small children's cemetery, the 'landfill', and the goldmine. The cemetery exhibited hundreds of graves marked by bottles, stuffed animals, or other things of seemingly questionable significance- it was explained that many couldn't afford headstones for their small children, so their graves were marked by things they could remember their children by.
After the tour, we were welcomed back to the Niehoff's by Louis's absolutely phenomenal lunch. When I knew I was going to South Africa, I didn't expect to eat much more than meager meals full of native foods. You can imagine my surprise when I walked into a warm home, greeted by the scent of garlic bread! Spaghetti casserole, salad, garlic bread and a fantastic dessert- peanut butter bars! It was too wonderful to describe accurately using only words.
Following lunch, we lounged in the Niehoff's living room (the six of us plus Brain, Lois, their two children Liam (3) and Lindie (1) and then Matthew Donahue and Taylor Hircock, two more med students living with the Niehoffs). We took advantage of the downtime and got to know each other a little bit better. A game of 'Settlers of Catan' concluded the evening, and some of our competitive sides were exposed (cough cough... Brian... Matthew... cough).
Overall, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we went to bed with a heart of gratitude for everything we had, excitement for everything we were going to do, and amazement by what we were doing.

                                                                                                                                

The Childrens' Cemetary in Thabong

A typical home in Thabong.

Thabong fruit market

Traveling to Africa: Friday, June 24th- Saturday, June 25th

Vicki -
I had heard about the poverty, the crime, and the orphaned children of South Africa, but soon our Point of Grace Church missionary team would have an opportunity to see this first hand. Me and my daughter, Kinzie left home at 4:05 am for the Des Moines Airport for a 1 1/2 hour flight to Atlanta, Georgia. There would be an 11 hour layover in Atlanta. To pass the time, we took the Atlanta airport MARTA train to the downtown area to explore. We returned to the airport at 5 pm and by 8 pm, our airplane departed. We arrived in Johannesburg the evening of the following day.  As we entered Welkom, we saw barren streets with few vehicles venturing out into the night. There were no large intersections, stores and restaurants were closed, and only one gas station appeared open as we drove through town at only 10 pm. The homes had barred windows, and gates and fences surrounded each home. Being the winter time for Africa, the temperature ranges from 40-60 degrees. Our layered pajamas and blankets kept us warm throughout the night.

Introductions

You are invited to follow our Point of Grace's missionary team to follow our groups adventure as we witness the joy & heartbreak of working with and for the people of Welkom, South Africa. Now here are some sneak peaks into the six members of our team, who will be in Africa for two weeks.

Cassie: a 18 year old Army soldier and was ADM Homecoming Queen. She went to Army basic combat training in January, and then went to complete training in Civil Affairs. While at ADM she participated in just about every sport/activity offered at one time or another. She will attend college in the fall.

Don: a retired 73 year old father of 3 and grandfather of 5. During the winter time he migrates to Phoenix, Arizona and comes back to Iowa in the summer. He enjoys woodworking and building anything from wood.

Jeff: a 43 year old father of 2 who are 26 and 18. He lives in Urbandale, Iowa and works for a national trucking company and does sales in 5 states around the Midwest. In his free time he rides motorcycles, jetskies and skeet shoots.

Kinzie: a 16 year old junior at Waukee High School. She has participated in activities including Speech Team, dance, choir, newspaper and yearbook during this past year. She lives in Urbandale and enjoys writing, swimming and volunteering for various charities.

Larry: a 50 plus father of Cassie and clinic manager for Mercy Clinics. He has done different forms of construction all his life members in various forms of construction trades, and designed and built current home and cabin. He loves living on a small farm; baling hay, driving tractors-skid-loaders, & making 4 wheeler trails through our timber.

 Vicki: a fifty plus wife, mother of 2 and grandmother of 1. She has a son who is in the Air National Guard and is the mother of Kinzie. She has been a member of POG for 7 years. She enjoys spending time with family, boating and camping in the family RV.