Winter semester for the kinder

School has re-started after about a month vacation
and as our kindergarten follows the same schedule
as the Namibian school system, we also have re-opened.
In the picture you can see the children on their first
day back to our kinder.
Namibia is in the southern hemisphere and we 
are entering our winter time and it is becoming cold.
We are blessed to be able to continue to work for the 
future of the children in our village.

March 2012 update

Our kindergarten is still going well with our 27 kids.
They are learning daily and will be well prepared
when they move on to attend school.

Our church members are coming every Saturday and
they are also learning more about the Word of God.
They have made progress during our time here and we
thank the Lord for continuing to give us the strength to
do his work.

Today we made a change in our Church by adding a
platform where we will put the pulpit.

Lukas and one of our Church's Elders putting down bricks
for our platform

We are slowly working to make our church the best it
can be. It has been  a slow process up to now but it has
also been a steady one.We will continue to develop our
church, both the building and more importantly, it's
members.

Completed platform. A coat of paint will the added
to the edge.

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.