How far does $8 go? What can $15 or $20 buy?

It doesn't buy more than a movie ticket or a cheap dinner or a couple of lattes. The small amounts of money that disappear every day could be used to make an eternal difference and a great impact in the life of a child or family.

Think about this:

• $8 can buy a much needed medicine that can make a big impact on a child’s health and life

• $15 would buy a 10 lb bag of sugar beans, providing many meals

• $20 would buy a 100 lb bag of mealie meal, a staple in the Swazi diet

• • $20 can also buy soap for a lot of families, which would help with preventable diseases and illnesses that are spread through bad hygiene

• • $ 150/month would buy enough bread to feed 40 children a sandwich breakfast during the school week

Thankfully, our monthly needs are being met through God’s gracious provision and your generosity. At this time we are serving 200-300 children in the areas surrounding Vulvulane and would like to be able to minister to all of them in the best way possible. It’s through meeting their physical needs for food, medicine and treatments, and education that we can then share the life-changing love of Jesus with them.

In addition to this list, we would like to be able to use the land at our new house to grow vegetables and raise hens. Another thing that we would like to do if funds were provided is to start several micro-industry projects including: making floor polish and Vaseline. All of these ideas would provide food, generate income and employment, and teach vocational skills to the Swazi people ravished by poverty.

As you can see these are amounts of money that we treat as insignificant. We are asking our supporters to look at small practical ways they could join us in being Jesus’ hands and feet to these precious children by giving of their resources. Would you be willing to get your family involved and commit to giving up one or two small things each month and instead sending the money to help these children?

Here are a couple of ideas of small things you can do as a family that would make a huge difference in this ministry to the children of Swaziland. If you have other ideas, please post them as a comment. We would love to hear about your ideas and how you can help! Thanks for your prayers and your very practical support.

1. Saving your loose change and sending it in at the end of the month

2. Giving up one treat (coffee, going out to eat, or a movie etc) once a week/month

3. Having a yard sale

Please send all contributions to:

TEAM
PO Box 969
Wheaton, IL 60187-0969
Memo line of check: Stephens Orphan Care Swaziland

Contribute on-line: www.teamworld.org account #01398

Our new home is almost ready!

We did get the approval for our new house and have completed the paperwork. Now we are just waiting on the necessary repairs to be made. The completion date that we have been told is April 20, which would allow us to move in towards the end of the month. We are anxious to be there permanently.

• Please pray that all the repairs will go smoothly and that there will be no further delays
• Another prayer request: We are trying to get a young woman with HIV/TB and cancer into chemo treatment, but she's too sick to go. Pray that she is well enough to get treatment.

In the meantime, during the week we drive to Tshaneni and stay with Pastor La Salette. From here we make several day trips to care points and squatter camps that are in the area and do children's programs. Then on the weekends we drive back to Mbabane where we are able to catch up on emails and other business.

This past week we visited Marenjane Mercy Care Point. This care point has a preschool for 30 kids and also feeds 200-300 people Monday through Friday. There will be some long term plans to build a sister church, orphanage, and vocational tech center here at this care point. We had a great time teaching the children praise songs and watching them praising God.