Kindergarten Project Progress

In the picture you can see the progress that's
been made since the last blog posting.

The construction will be as you see, with the
height of the wall at the level you see. Above
that there will eventually be a thick chicken
type wire. It will go from the top of the wall to
the roof rafters. Also, a metal door will be
installed for security.

The reason that the wall will only go to that
level is to allow light to come in during the
morning sessions.

But for now this is about as far as we can
go as we are waiting for a few donations
that will give us the chance to buy the wire
material we need to close up the classroom.

For now, we will finish the paint along the wall.

We hope that our work will give us the chance
to make an impact on more young kids
within our village.

We have had reports from the 1st grade
teacher at the Omega Combined School
that by the time the children from our kinder
arrive at her class that they already have
a 1st grade level competency.

Our goal is to give the children who attend
our kinder, the best possible preparation we
can give.

We hope that the Lord will look on our work
in a favorable way and give us the strength
and perseverance to continue.

New kindergarten project

The kindergarten is finished for this year
as we mentioned in a earlier blog posting.
The area that we used was actually very
small and one of our goals was to get or
make an area that was at least a little bit
bigger.
The original kinder had space for 20 kids
and the new building will be able to handle
30.
It isn't actually a new build but really a rebuild.
The mission that we are in was actually a
kinder during the time where the South African
Defense Force built and occupied Omega.
We are really building back up the area that
was used as the kinder area at that time.
It was destroyed as people salvaged roofing
materials and anything they could. But now
we are rebuilding it with whatever we can
find. We are looking for any materials we can
get our hands on.
In the picture you can see the beginning of
our project. We found some old zinc roofing
sheets and also you can see some reclaimed
bricks that we will use for the walls.
We think that it is worth all the effort we can
do to increase the number of kids that will
have the chance to attend and receive a good
foundation for the beginning steps in their
education.
The name of our kinder is Emmanuel Kindergarten
but after rebuilding the old kindergarten we
may have to consider naming it the Lazarus
Kindergarten. It is coming back from the dead.
We do hope that the Lord will bless us in our
work and give us the strength to finish our
project and allow us the chance to help more
of the very young people in our community.

Small Progress

Sometimes it takes time to build and develop
things in life. In our case, out here at the Omega
SDA mission, that is exactly how it is.

In the picture you can see the inside of our
Church. It is a small church and it has a full
capacity of about 80 people.

We opened the Church in September 2009.
At the beginning there were 10 members and
they were all baptized. Now we have 30 baptized
and 40 total members.

In the picture you can see the dark green chairs.
They are our newest addition to the Church.
Also you can see the benches that we made when
we first arrived. Our goal is to eventually replace
those benches with chairs like the green ones.

The benches are ok but we would like it to be a
little more comfortable for our members when
they worship on Saturdays.

As progress comes slowly we thank God for giving
us the strength to continue his work. Again, it
may be slow progress and even one chair at a
time, but it began the first day we opened the
Church and with the Lord's help, we will reach
our goal.

San (Bushman) Song

Omega has a majority San (Khwe) population.

There a cultural group consisting of young Khwe
ages 9 to 16.

Here is a link to one of their songs which is the
harvest song.

Here is the link ...

Mara Ku Se (Harvest Song)

The language is Khwedam.

I hope you will enjoy it.

Update

The kindergarten is still having daily classes
from Monday through Friday and that will
continue until the third week of this month.
At that time the kinder will be on holiday
until the middle of January.
The normal practice is to have our schedule
match that of the school system of Namibia.
As the schools go on holiday, so do the
kindergartens.

We had a visit this last week from the pioneer
(Daniel). He was with us for three months
a while back doing his work for the church
within our village. He arrived on Thursday and
was able to worship with us on Saturday.

The S.D.A. Church of Omega is still going
strong with many members of our Church
coming regularly (some from 4 km away
on foot). Every Saturday as we have our
service we have our members, old and new,
come to hear the word of God.

Here in our region of Namibia it is the time
when the rains are beginning to come. We
have two seasons here and they are best
described as the dry and rainy seasons.
With the coming of the rainy season it gives
us a chance to expand our mission's garden.

As you can see in the picture above, we have
new plants that we've just put in a few weeks
ago. At the moment our garden consists of
tomatoes, egg plant, onions, swiss chard
and cabbage. The garden's size is limited by
the amount of water we have to water it. But
with the rainy season on the way, we will be
able to fill up our garden area with plants.

We are planning and beginning to organize a
new area for the kindergarten. The existing
kinder is a little small and we have an area
on our mission property that we can develop
to make the kinder area a little bit bigger. It
will make a more comfortable environment
for the kids.

We can say at the moment that it is going along
well here at our S.D.A. Omega Mission. There
is of course more to do and we are continuing
to do the work of God to the best of our abilities.

Camp Report

In the last blog article I mentioned that
we would give a report of the activities
that the group experienced at the camp

Well ... here it is ...

The group arrived on Monday and stayed
till the following Sunday.

The theme for the year 2011 was discussed
and it is called 'The year of Revival and Reformation'.
The theme for the camp was '777' revive us again.
The triple 7 means ... the first 7 is Seventh Day
Adventist. The second 7 signifies praying at 7 in
the morning and 7 in the evening. The third 7 means
to pray 7 days in the week.

The Daily program went like this ...

People who were leaders woke up at 5:30
every morning and they called it 'morning
power'. It was a half hour of instruction..

Then morning 'mana' for all campers and that was
to share a short sermon.
Then at 8:45 a.m. there were different lessons for
different groups such as family life, leadership
and lessons for kids.
At 12 there was Divine service with a guest speaker,
Pastor Brian Mundia.
Then off to lunch and after at 3 p.m. it was an open
question session to Pastors or anyone.
At 5 p.m it was supper and then at 7 to 8 p.m.
was song service then from 8 to 9 p.m it was
Divine service.
Then after the full day it was off to sleep.

The members of our Church enjoyed the week and
they were able to meet other SDA members from
other Churches. Also, there 18 people Baptized.
In total about 1,000 people attended and three Pastors
gave sermons and even a group from Angola
arrived.

So it was a great camp and it was very productive
and our members received a lot of instruction.
They are looking forward to going again next year.

Going to camp

When we arrived to begin our mission
here the village (Omega) had between
8 to 10 members coming to our church.
But the Lord has blessed us and we have
grown and now we have 30 members.
In the picture is several of our members
whom are waiting for transport to go to
a camp sponsored by the Seventh Day
Adventist Church conference based in
the capital Windhoek.
The camp is a week long event and it
brings members together from the SDA
churches in the region.
We are very happy that two thirds of our
members went to this camp.
The SDA Church in Omega is making a
revival and with these activities we feel it
will make our members closer to the Lord
and stronger to do His work.
When the members return we will report
about what they experienced and share
some of their thoughts about the camp.