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Recently, a horrible thunderstorm wrecked our current place of worship for the PIH/Iris Africa church in Backdoor (our home church). The old, weathered tent was torn in several places, so it was declared unusable that Sunday morning. Quick thinking Pastor Surprise had the idea of moving the service over to the shelter at Village of Hope (the community outreach center). Although small, it could accommodate the services until the new church building was finished. For many years, the Backdoor church has wanted to build a proper building, so the death of the tent served as another confirmation that now is indeed the time to build!

About a week after the tent came down, Pastor Surprise got a random phone call asking him to meet a gentleman at a local bank. Pastor Surprise had just attended an all night prayer meeting/funeral, so he was very tired when he got the call. Gloriously, the Holy Spirit gave him renewed strength and told him he must meet the man at the bank. Pastor Surprise arrived and greeted the man. The gentleman would not give his name or any other information. The man heard that the church tent was destroyed and that plans were being made to build a new church, so he wanted to bless Pastor Surprise with R32,000 ($5500US) for the new church building! Breathlessly, Pastor Surprise watched the bank teller hand him this huge offering for the church. Again Pastor Surprise questioned the man about his name, but he just smiled and left….We think he was maybe an angel…and this angel had a South African bank account! Therefore, the Backdoor church is excitedly moving forward in building plans….

Just as this is all happening, the Lord speaks to Pastor Surprise about planting a church in Nelspruit! This is the large urban center about 30 minutes from MCV and the city which Pastor Surprise has his home. Years ago, Pastor Surprise had a powerful vision about the city of Nelspruit being surrounded with a wall of fire. And during special prayer for the new year, God confirmed that this was the year for lighting that fire in Nelspruit. Pastor Surprise’s wife also had a vision years before that she would be ‘home’ in a church with a red carpet. Dear friends of the Sitholes offered a church building that to the delight of Surprise and Tryphina has beautiful red carpet!

Yesterday was the first celebration service of the new church plant! People came from hundreds of km away to bless this new birth. Even though there was a disturbing attack from the enemy regarding the church building, nothing stopped this amazing birth. Everyone simply piled into cars and we met at another location in Nelspruit. After a time of incredible worship, Pastor Surprise preached from Lev. 6:12-13. The fire of God fell and burned our hearts for His harvest in this precious city. Pray with us for this new church plant which is so dear to God’s and the Sitholes’ hearts!

What a day of Christ’s unfailing love at MCV! The faces of our children say it all, but one of our visitors, Myrinda wrote the following account of the day! Clink on link to photo gallery:

Michael’s Children’s Village had a wonderful Christmas here in Africa! Late at night on Christmas Eve, the visitors went to all the houses to decorate the tables so that the children would wake up to fun decorations—there were crackers (little Christmas gifts that pop or “crack” open when you twist them) as well as a balloon at each place setting. We also put colorful napkins in each glass and a shiny garland down the middle of each table.

On Christmas morning, the children awoke to a decorated table and a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, and juice prepared by their parents—what a treat! When they came over to the visitor house later in the morning, they were all happily playing with their own personal balloon :). Teisa, Jean, Grace (the wonderful cook from the Pastors’ Christmas lunch) and her daughter, and all of the visitors enjoyed a nice Christmas breakfast as well.

About an hour later, we gathered a bunch of chairs under a big shade tree to commence the opening of gifts (God gave us a warm, sunny, and breezy Christmas morning 🙂 Pastor Surprise and Teisa spoke to the children about the true meaning of Christmas; how every good and perfect gift comes from our Father in heaven who gave us Jesus! After it was clear where the gifts came from, they called up the first household to receive their gifts. After all the children were given their packages, everyone laid hands on the family to pray for them, and then they began excitedly opening their gifts. Some had never experienced a Christmas celebration before, so they were a bit bewildered about all the excitement; however, after they understood that these toys and clothes were for them, they began to happily play. The children that came to MCV last year were a bit more animated about their gifts because they understood what was happening 🙂 After each family was called forward, they all returned to their houses to enjoy their new toys until our afternoon Christmas braai began.

Late in the afternoon, we began preparing food for the meal—hamburgers and hotdogs went on the grill (these foods are a real treat for the children—not often served here!) and pap (boiled maize meal) and gravy were cooked up. The kids continued playing all the while. We handed out a plate of food with a Coke to everyone; it was interesting to see how the kids ate their burgers—some ate the hamburger and bun separately, dipping everything in the ketchup, and some put their hamburger and ketchup on their bun. No matter how they did it, they all enjoyed the meal! Halfway through, it began to rain on us, but the kids just took cover wherever they could find it and kept happily eating :).

Another amazing day of Christ’s unfailing love MCV! The faces of our children say it all- so please check out our new galley of Christmas pictures!

We want to thank all of those who made all the Christmas gifts possible—All Nations Fellowship in New Orleans, USA; Westside Community Church in Toronto, Canada; and Mercy Happens in Netherlands. What a blessing you all have been to our family here in South Africa!

In December, we put on a Christmas outreach in the community of Back Door (up the “mountain” as they call it, from the children’s village). Iris Ministries has a Preschool and a Feeding Program there, and we prepared 400 bags of goodies for the children as well as some gift baskets for the mamas who cook for the feeding program each day. Teisa, one of our directors, gave a message about how Christmas is not just about receiving gifts, having parties, and eating good food, but about God giving us life through the birth of His Son Jesus. There was a puppet show, and our visitors presented a special song and skit for the children. It was such a delight to see all their faces lit up, intently listening to the songs and the puppets. Many of these kids come with old, tattered clothes and not much to eat at home, but they were happy to be in this place where the security and love of Jesus surrounds them.

After the program, the cooks served a meal to more than 400 people. We had a pretty good system of feeding the little ones (5 and younger) first, then the older kids, and then the adults. It began to pour down rain as we were lining the children up in lines of 20 or so at a time. We stood in the rain with them, trying to keep the order (and keep the older kids from sneaking in before the younger ones :). As it started to rain harder, our visitors decided that since they were completely soaked anyway, they might as well have a bit of fun 🙂 They started dancing in the rain as they controlled the line, and the children smiled and laughed, making the fact that they too were getting soaked not so bad. Water was dripping from all our eyebrows, into our eyes, and down our noses :).

We eventually got everyone fed and under a roof to eat. There was a team of 10-12 from Atlanta, GA, helping us keep the peace (praise God for their help!), but right before we were about to hand out the goodies to the kids, they had to leave as they were going to help out at a revival in another town. That was a bit nerve-racking because we had just lost half of our workers with 350 kids to serve. It was still raining, and it got a little crazy, but with the help of the Lord, we managed to send each child out with their gift in a somewhat orderly fashion. We came home drenched and happy that we were able to show the love of Jesus to so many people in one day! Praise Him!