More love for a loving, caring creator and Lord. (April 2013)

It's always a beautiful day in the Lord's presence. I heard some very disturbing news today that I was letting steal my joy. One of the Lord's precious ones is going to be sent back to his home where he was removed from so long ago because it was a vulnerable and terribly unsafe environment for him - one in which he would most likely end up diseased or dead....BUT GOD!  We spent a lot of time praying for this young boy - motivating many people from NH to pray and there have been some positive breakthrough in this boys life. Praise Him! Praise Him and lift Him up. Exalt His name forever.

A few more weeks in the USA!

The flight home was amazingly comfortable and quick. I was thrown into wedding preparations the minute I returned home and the Gdanian family sailed smoothly through a beautiful wedding day of celebration on 20 April 2013. Chelsea and Josiah Gdanian are now a newly formed family and God will do amazing things through their hearts that are devoted to serving Him.

After the wedding I took a deep breath and was able to connect with friends from my church family at Chestnut Hill Chapel and Light of the World Christian Church. In sharing pictures and telling stories about the first term of the 2013 school year and what God has done in the families and all the lives of the children of COPM and Talitha Kumi Christian - despite my changing teaching posistion and hectic schedule - I was energized, excited and motivated for a few more months of service in the great nation of Namibia.

I enjoyed my stay at home and was ready to return last week but by God's perfect plan I was delayed and now have a few more weeks at home with my family. I was graciously offered a few hours at Curves of Amherst - a place of previous employment as a Fitness Trainer and some generous friends and family contributed to help me raise money to take the kids on some community service trips when I return. I've been blessed beyond belief by many...Thanks to Jeff, two Diane's, Mom and Dad Gdanian, Emily, Faye, Josiah, Lorraine and Alden, Laurie and many others who are faithfully contributing to my life and needs in Arandis. Our children are on the receiving end of a lot of blessings and it would be neat for them to do something to serve the people who help them.

One of my goals in serving in Namibia was - yes to help out - but most importantly to connect other people and resources to meet the needs of these people in Namibia and to let God do a work in me to "Make Me His Servant" to make me "Humble and Meek." and my prayer is always "That Lord I may lift up those who are weak." A huge answer to prayer this year is that a friend of mine Kayla who is an experienced, talented, creative teacher and woman of God will be heading over to arrive before me in June and teach for one month for her first time in Namibia. There's also team of all young Men from YWAM Youth with a Mission, Pittsburgh - the school I attended in 2005 heading over there in a few weeks for just over two months. I'm so excited for these connections and for our young boys to have Godly examples to follow.

New!!! Pictures in Album from December Holiday. If you have a problem viewing them, please email me: anna.gdanian@gmail.com

What a blessing it was today to walk to and from church (in 75 degrees Fahrenheit and 50% humidity) and come across at least three different father's walking with or holding their daughters. It's not that common here, so it was very noticeable. Father/daughter relationships are very powerful. As we know father's are very influential weather negatively or positively. There are countless times every day during my time here where things my father has taught, spoken, shown me have come up in conversations, lessons, thoughts mini sermons during worship, prayer, or just my own thoughts. My prayer is for every child, and young adult to be just as blessed as I am to have an amazing father who daily sacrifices everything he can for the benefit of his family. Not only at present but throughout the (um...27 years of my life :)

In January, the Lord sent an amazingly talented, Christian Counselor who is serving with us for a couple of months from Johannesburg, to minister specifically to our children and mommies. The bible says there are those who plant and those who water and those who yield the Harvest. Well so many people, tears and so much time and energy have all been poured into the children and mommies in Children of Promise Ministries, Namibia. The Lord is blessing each conversation she has with His presence and is producing a lot of fruit through the time, experiences and words she is giving them. Pray for continued fruit!

Mr B is coaching/disciplining the soccer team and doing an excellent job chasing our kids around the field until we learn to play by the rules and respect the sport! My roles at TKCA have changed in the past couple of weeks. Praise the Lord, they found an excellent, Namibian, grade 3 teacher (though I really miss them) and I am now doing individual training for the children with special needs along with teaching 2 upper primary classes. The challenge now is fitting everyone from the different grades into my day and coordinating with classroom teachers so that I am reinforcing the classroom work as well as meeting their individual needs. God's grace and mercy and patience has been extended to me and others during this time, but only through your prayers for peace and flexibility. Thank you!

Guitar classes are every Wednesday and they come for supervised practice on two seperate days. Please pray for ideas and guidance as far as keeping the children interested and helping them to see they can do it and become successful with practice. Commitment is very important - weather it's to school work, a hobby, family, church, anything however it's very difficult to teach them. Pray that the Lord will build the confidence in themselves. There is so much desire, but only two come on a regular basis. 
 
Speaking of church ministry, I am so privileged that the Lord has been using me daily at Eagle Christian Center, Arandis. I have seen the desperation for our heavenly father in this place and it's amazing during a Sunday service to see people so intent on loving Jesus and drawing closer to Him through the songs they sing. He gives me words to teach, motivate and encourage - nothing I "plan" to say can ever come close to the clarity and power of His message. I know the peace and success in their life is coming as they invest in God's word. Pray for the young people as members of the worship, youth group and choir to listen to the Lord and be open to commitment to Him. I know they will be blessed if they reach beyond themselves to a loving, Father.

Birthdays are a tremendous blessing in Arandis! We celebrated Cyprian and his wife Rejoice (an elder at Eagle Christian Center) on a beautiful afternoon of some more of Ms Nan, Hospitality. Christmas Eve (attached) was another example when we had more than 30 people at the house to eat! Her gift is so evident and it's great to see. Pray that the Lord will bless her even more as she consistently gives generously. While on the topic, I am humbled and amazed daily at God's provision for my life and the Lord is using her to willingly provide for my living here. If and when I hear about birthday's I try to give words of encouragement and some chocolate to each child, but since it's been more than a year - they are all coming back for round two, YIKES!

There are 7 weeks to wrap up before I will be reunited with my family on the other side of the coast, to return and finish out the year. No matter how strong you are, 10 months is a long time to be away from family :) Pray that these last few weeks, I will give all that I can to help establish leaders here in Arandis.

As you open you're eyes, may you see God and experience that peace that, Lord knows, we all need.

Running Start - Day 7 of the School Year!!

It was a great Holiday, filled with many perfect gifts from our heavenly Father of whom all light and peace comes from. One was His tremendous presence throughout each moment of every day. Another was my one and only mother of whom I am honored to be a daughter of and hope to be one day an image of. Mom was here in Arandis till one lovely day after Christmas. As many of you know, she was a gift to each one she met. Between her endless love, tremendous physical packages of joy, gentle but healing massages, valuable time, wise words, beautiful voice, spirit-filled presence at church, home and much much more. The children, mother's of the ministry families and church friends are still asking about "Ms Ms Ms Mauuureeen" Another gift was the safe arrival of all the ministry children back from the their "families" over holiday. Three of the children will now stay possibly permanently in Rehabooth at new families homes for various reasons. These precious ones are still in my prayers and most importantly cradled within the loving hands of our capable heavenly Father. Still another gift was the meeting of some precious folks from Swakopmund (a nearby town) who Mom and I quickly became very good friends with. Their generosity and hospitality and friendship has been a true example of Christ to us. We are still connected, though not in close proximity at this time. In addition, the Lord has opened up opportunities for Christ-fearing Namibians and South Africans to become aware of Arandis and Children of Promise Ministries, strike an interest in the Children and pray for and some visit on a regular basis. There are some gentleman from the worship team that aided in a great time of worship around the camp fire in Arandis to close out the holiday. We hope to do some more of that! There is a team of young people from Shofar Church in Swakopmund coming this Saturday to teach the children to make recycled shopping bags to sell at their church and continue on their own. They have also played soccer with the kids, worshiped with them, spoiled them with Christmas gifts, and ministered to the mothers. It has been a tremendous honor to sit back and observe God's hands reaching out through Namibians to these families in need. My hope is for them to turn around and then see how they can also be valuable and enhance the lives of people that they meet. Still another gift was two new wonderful full-time teachers and two aids by the start of 2013. This is a great headstart! We always can use more help and Ms Nan would still like one more full-time teacher as the year progresses, but we are doing wonderfully with what we have gotten.

As for myself, at TKCA, the Lord is gracing me with flexibility and willingness to do whatever task is at hand. I am now teaching grade three full-time, all the subjects (except for Afrikaans). We have finished two weeks and now I can say that I am doing well and loving it. I have one reading student, and guitar students apart from the eleven in third grade. We'll be starting an "academic/social counseling" session (of sort) one on one with the upper primary children next week in the afternoons. We have some people coming in to help with afternoon classes and the third grade aid is taking care of after school for our class! God has brought help and it's really neat to see things working well this year. Of course their are gaps, but with His help there is also tremendous success.

I am enjoying playing guitar again with the kids and leading at church. One of my students is now playing with us on Sundays which is really amazing! As soon as I can figure out how to get my pictures from my memory card to my computer, I promise I will post them to the blog so you can see what we've been doing. Until then, be blessed in His presence and continue to be open to conversations and random acts of kindness to people that will bring change in their lives.

Greetings church family from Maureen in Arandis

Greetings Church Family,

It is comforting to think about you all back home. I am thankful for the prayers that are sent here from home. They are the absolute best Christmas gift I could ever hope for. I see how God applies the prayers of his saints where ever he needs them. I see how they are used to prevent peril, provide for needs, to soften hard hearts, and increasing his kingdom in every imaginable ,way. THANK YOU!!!
The children are done with school now and are preparing for break, "holiday" as they call it. It is summer vacation and Christmas all wrapped together. They will return to school January 15 to begin a new year.
Most of the children will be traveling. They go to the "farm". The farm is a general term which could mean a farm with animals and produce or just where they have "family". Family could be the people they grew up with or that lived in their household, not necessarily blood related. So if they say my brother, Aunty, or cousin it is, for sure, an important relationship of some sort.
The farm, however, isn't always a safe place for them. It represents the dangers, negligence that fostered their coming to Arandis. Many were removed by the government for their safety.
I had the privilege of assisting Anna in planning a Friday Fun Day full of events for about 35 of the children. The main desire was to send them off with prayer as we do in our church when someone is going off somewhere. First we had a field play where they played soccer, elimination, and other fun activities with water balloons. There were lots of smiles and joyful sounds as they all interacted. We then prepared snacks for the movie we showed at the end of the activities. The most important time was the prayer and sharing we had with them. We asked pastor Banda and another brother involved in youth ministry to join us. It was reassuring for us as well as the children to have encouraged and prayed for them before they all leave. God will protect them!
I will leave you with some verses I've been meditating on.
" Praise to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. He did this by predestinating us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dear Son. In Christ, we too have been claimed as God's own possession, since we were predestined according to one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will.
"in this new life, it does Not matter if we are Jew or gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. CHRIST IS ALL THAT MATTERS AND HE LIVES IN ALL OF US!!". Ephesians 1:3-6,11.
Colossians 3:11
Yes, Father, we were all created by you and in your image and likeness as part of your family. Some come from such places of devastation yet we all are rich in your glorious nature through Jesus Christ, our brother of redemption. So from Every nation, tribe and tongue we call you, Abba,Father. Praise to your most Holy Name!

We love you, church!
Grace and peace be to you all,
Anna and Maureen

Just imagine what life would be like for students if the following were true?

IF teachers' and staffs' main focus in their work was the students THAN there would be a much higher passing rate in Namibia and across the world!
IF precious children felt safe, valued and respected - the state of mind in which they are most naturally capable of learning - THAN they would be able to retain content.
 IF teachers assigned authority to students and not gave them tasks THAN we would develop leaders not followers.

Imagine if...
every moment of these precious ones' days were absent of all threats, confusion and strife.

"For God is not the author of confusion, but of PEACE!"

they knew what to expect when coming to class
the directions were clear and there was never miscommunication between teacher and student.

"Mean what you say, and say what you mean!"

teachers cared about their students' personal and academic goals.
teachers actually believed that every student can learn, although each brain is unique?!
teachers believed that they can influence and inspire students?
Imagine if...
students were were consistently taught (7% of the time with words 93% by adult-modelling) to respect teachers, peers and themselves.
there was a secure classroom whose activities were purposed to intentionally reach "all learners." If
students could trust and therefore respect the authorities in their lives

IF we engaged students in their learning since that's 90% effective and lecturing is only 5% THAN we would have at least 90% success in the classroom, at home and at assessment time.
IF we ministered to their emotional needs THAN "A heart at Peace gives life to the body!"
IF we exemplified true love for them to follow since that is the only thing that can truly transform a person THAN they would actually love thier peers and themselves.
In the same way, if students felt valued by the adults in their lives; they could in turn value themselves, their peers and their work.

 "But Jesus looked at them and said to them, 'With Men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible!'" (Matthew 19:26

Teacher, parent or not - we all have children in our lives, can we commit to loving them like this so the above items can turn from imaginary to reality and our "proofs" can come to pass?

They are worth it!

Those Who Trust in the Lord are like MT Zion

Those who Trust in the Lord are [verb "to be" just is, no ??] like [simile: comparison] Mount Zion, Which cannot be Moved, but abides forever [unlimited]. As the mountains surround Jerusalem: so the Lord surrounds his people [analogy aids in deeper meaning] from this very time [Now! Now!] forth and forever [Alliteration] [forward, no turning back]

From a few of my kids when analyzing simile's in preparation from their exam
Student: The "God worshipers" are being compared to a mountain. The mountain is strong, it can not be shaken or move. It just sits there.
Ms Anna: Ok, and what about those people? Why are they being compared to this mountain?
Student: Well, when they trust God, they also can not move. Their trustness in God so strong that they don't think about moving.

There are many things that one could be anxious about during this time. For example: children whom you've been entrusted with passing their exams and moving onto the next grade, wondering if you've prepared them enough; an important City in the USA and myriads of families loosing their livelihood from a natural disaster; ones precious country electing it's new president while your watching with the rest of the world from afar..and the list goes on.

I've been gripped with fear and concern from the beginning of the day. Not because of the man that will be in office after this day finishes, but because of a lack of Trust in the Mighty, powerful God that we serve. What happens to those who do not trust in the Lord? We are not a country who trusts in the Lord or relies on His complete and utter control. Will we fall? Will we be shaken? We will certainly not stand like Mt Zion or be surrounded by the loving arms of the Lord. I awoke this morning after having dreamed about the declaration of independence with such a sense of honor for my own country and a burden to pray for us that we may remember Christ.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." (Declaration of Independence)

Do you know though that, despite what happens, God is in control?

This is literally where I read as I was praying tonight: I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever, nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it, God does it, that men should fear before Him. That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been; and God requires an account of what is past. Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

Let's pray more, trust God and live to the fullness that he wants us to. Ek het jou lief! Lekker aand!