Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World (Weeks 14 & 15)

“ Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them; for such is the kingdom of heaven” -Matthew 19:14

The last 2 weeks have been super busy, so I am combining them into one post.

Week 14 ended my time at Kwakwas. It was bittersweet; in this short time I had come to love my students, but my duties there were exhausting when placed on top of all my other ministry commitments. On my last day of teaching, I was blessed to have Josh accompany me to the school (the class created the message behind me for him):

We had a great time playing with and taking pictures of the kids:

Leading my little ducklings. These were taken down at the dry riverbed:



I let them do sidewalk chalk, and they really got into it- just look at their clothes!

If you look closely at the writing, you can see where I wrote “Nicky [heart]s Josh,” and then they copied it all over the cement, often with letters backwards or transposed.

Week 15 began in Rundu, and was a blur once we returned on Wednesday. As soon as we came back, we found this visitor outside our front door. His wingspan is around 3 inches or so:

This was Steve’s last week, and we went with him to the preschool, which is always tons of fun. Amathila Happy Kids preschool is located in Block E, and serves mostly orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). One of the saddest things about Namibia thus far is that, anywhere you go, you can say those three letters and everyone knows exactly what you are referring to. It is that common.


I thought this was just precious.

Since it was his last week, Steve brought apples, which were a huge treat for the kids.

Doing emergency surgery on a paper chain. No worries; crisis was averted.

I am telling you, this kid got air.

The Josh fan club.

The kids here are amazing, and they are teaching me so much. Take a look through the all the pictures that have been posted of kids here. More often than not, their expression is that of pure joy. And they have nothing. Many of them only have the clothes they are wearing, which are often hand-me-downs. But they don’t seem to care; they don’t seem to have any idea of how little they have. Although we are often asked for food, money, or “sweets,” I have never seen one child pout when we say no. How many kids can you say that about in the U.S.?

One of the reasons we are grateful to have come here at this point in our life stems from this contentedness. Before we have had the chance to make much money or accumulate many possessions, we have been given the opportunity to think carefully about how Jesus wants us to live. We feel called to a life of greater simplicity than many of those around us. Don’t get me wrong- we are not trying to push our agenda on anyone. How you live is between you and God. We just find it difficult to justify using our resources to have all sorts of unnecessary stuff when many kids here don’t even have shoes or enough to eat. These children have just opened our eyes to how He wants us to live. It is something we are working on, because we want to find the balance God has for us. Luckily, we have several more months to think about it!

Well, that’s our last two weeks in a nutshell; we hope yours were terrific. God is faithful as always, and is caring for us even in the difficult times. We are both learning so much here in Namibia. Thanks for visiting!

Prayer Requests:

1. Guidance and peace- lots of readjustments going on in our ministry schedules!
2. Family and friends back home
3. Power against the enemy’s strongholds
4. That the Truth would be revealed in Rehoboth
5. Steve’s travel and transition back to the states
6. Community involvement in the youth center