July 2014
We are so grateful for so many precious people that help us to pass on what’s really important to our kids. Teenagers listen more to others than their parents, as you know J, although we can’t complain about them being tough on us in this regard. We are also grateful for our good friends Wolfram and Monica Jauss and their 3 teenagers Mareike (18), Marco (16) and Matthias (14). We are indeed blessed.
Tabitha’s beloved ballet teacher, Jenny Schuster, has started handing over her ballet school to a younger teacher, Zelrine Verdoes. We appreciate the gradual transition.
Tabitha (and her mother J) enjoy the horse riding lessons and the time together with the horses. Tabitha loves her horse-riding teacher, Michelle Leuschner, and progresses well. In March she was to ride at her first show jumping tournament with Shira, a mare that we borrowed. On the first day Shira was lame, so Tabitha couldn’t ride and was really disappointed. But soon we knew why: the next morning Shira had given birth to a foal! Nobody had noticed anything all these months, not even the 2 vets that looked at her lame leg. She just looked well fed. J
The foal was named “Surpresa”, Portuguese for “surprise”. Tabitha enjoys the little one sooo much! What a privilege to experience this.
We have bought Flicka, a 4-year old mare – former racehorse. Flicka is to be prepared this year for Tabitha, as Tabitha is expected to outgrow Shira within a year or so. Our old mare Nyoka is now serving as a therapy horse for riding therapy.
Birgit is very well. We eventually found the right anti-depressant that works well. The only apparent side effect that is challenging her tremendously is weight gain... She is on medical treatment for low thyroid function and the doctor suspects possible insulin-resistance, which will be tested beginning of November.
Birgit loves being at home on Finkenstein. The Afrikaners say it well: “sy is ’n regte ou huishoender".
She loves being busy in the house and garden. It is so “bad” that Hellmut almost could not entice her to join him and the kids to travel overseas. She loves her family and our beautiful house, the garden, nature, the tranquillity and her animals! She really is most happy at home.
This year (2014) we actually made it all the way to Germany and Switzerland! We spent about 4 weeks as a family there and enjoyed it very much. Friends and family showed us a lot of beautiful and fun places, and spoiled us. We had a lot of wonderful experiences – we are so grateful!
We are well and review 2013 with much gratitude.
The greatest gift for us parents is that our boys have joined the youth group of Emmanuel Church (charismatic). Both Andriko and Danilo have – at different times, independently and out of conviction – asked to be baptized. What a blessing, if teenagers consciously choose to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and to be led by Him. We are grateful for the passionate and dedicated youth pastor, Jens Delport. Jens meets with a group of boys once a week for a cell group, in addition to the larger Wednesday youth meeting, to which all are invited. They also do outreaches a few times a year.
As parents we wanted to support our kids on this road, therefore we asked our church, His People, to release us for a season. We remain members of His People but attend Emmanuel together with our children. This enables us to discuss the services and share everything we learn, experience and enjoy together. We have also completed a “new life course” together, covering all the basics (foundations of the faith), and concluded it with a weekend of teaching and delivery. After having been in church leadership for most of our married life, we really enjoy not being “responsible”, for a change. Currently our only “ministry” (other than discipling our children) is pre-marital counselling.
We celebrated Andriko’s Bar Barakah (son of the blessing) with friends and family in October 2013. This is a Christian version of the Jewish bar mitzvah (son of the law). Andriko was blessed by the invited guests and us as parents and released into manhood. He utilised the opportunity to publicly promise to live a life of sexual purity, i.e. abstaining from sex until marriage and being faithful to his future wife. As a reminder he wears a purity ring, which he can exchange for a wedding ring on his wedding day. It was a very special day with lots of wonderful contributions.
Our family has expanded!
We have invited Melanie to become part of our family. An adoption is not possible beyond the age of 21, and she is 24. Her mom was from Zambia and her dad Ovambo. When Melanie was 6 years old she witnessed how her mom’s boyfriend beat her mom to death. After that she lived with her dad, but since she committed her life to Jesus at the age of 11 her dad completely rejects her. She started taking drugs as a teenager, looked for help and found it at His People Church in 2008. We have known Melanie since that time.
Melanie has experienced a lot of inner healing through Christ-centred counselling, and she still makes use of this opportunity occasionally. Sometimes, however, broken people just plainly need other human beings to love on them in order to be restored. “Being God’s hands and feet” to one another is what we are called to be. Heidi Baker said: “it’s my job to love, it’s God’s job to heal.”
Melanie has helped for many years in the His People children’s ministry. Since the beginning of this year she is employed as an assistant teacher at Community Hope School in Katutura, a project of YWAM. Melanie really loves kids, and after we let her do a CareerDirect assessment, she started classes at Philippi Trust (an organisation that offers Christian counselling and training in Christian counselling), with the aim of eventually becoming a qualified children’s counsellor. She also started taking German classes!
Hellmut had a very tough but successful year at work. He is the company secretary of Capricorn Investment Holdings and its subsidiary Bank Windhoek Holdings (BWH), and recently received his 10-year service award. Bank Windhoek is the second largest bank in Namibia and is owned by BWH. BWH was listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange in June 2013. This was a huge project. The pre-listing public offer was 3½ times oversubscribed. Before and after the listing there was a lot of extra work, and the listing rules and the media interest require a high standard of corporate governance.
Andriko (16) has grown up to be a tall young man (1.90m). He is still the most adventurous member of the family. He loves riding his BMX bike and performing all kinds of jumps, especially if he can do it together with his friends. Experiencing some minor or even major injuries is part and parcel of the excitement, but he seems to take that in his stride.
He was the inline hockey goalkeeper for the national 14-and-under team, which toured to Canada in July 2013. The team actually won their league, and Andriko was crowned best goalie!
In May 2013 Andriko’s grade 9 class rode with bicycles from Windhoek to Swakopmund (on the gravel road, through the desert - more than 300km). You could choose to ride in teams and take turns or ride the whole trip yourself. He chose the latter and managed well.
In 2012 Andriko has started taking guitar lessons. His amazing teacher, Ashley Zolkov, has managed to create a passion for guitar in Andriko that we never thought possible. We never have to encourage him to practice – he just does it.
Danilo (14) has completed his primary school with excellence – both as head boy and academically. In the ACE-programme each child works according to his own pace. While Danilo was in grade 7 he had already completed the grade 8 work and was well into grade 9. This was a first in the history of the school. No, he was not allowed to jump a class now, as we should take emotional maturity into account as well. We enrolled him in grade 8 at St George’s College (where Andriko also is), so that he can have same-aged peers.
Danilo loves inline hockey and shows steady improvement. He really hopes that he can also represent Namibia
internationally one day. We are very excited about the coach of our club, Nadia Schmidt. We can see again and again that her job as coach is her calling. We are grateful for her positive influence on our boys.
After our piano teacher had to take a 6-month break in 2013 Danilo and Tabitha could start lessons again in January. Danilo might gradually transition from the piano to the keyboard, since he considers joining the worship team at church.
Since Tabitha (almost 12) has also worked ahead quite a bit, she is now privileged to be in the class of Melanie Campbell. Melanie has also taught Andriko and Danilo in their last two years of primary school. She clearly has a gift for working with this age group and to really connect with them. She is more than a teacher, laying values and principles into each child in a way that is attractive to the kids.
Despite all the beauty in Europe, we immediately knew where we belong when we returned safe and sound. Birgit knew that the Europeans loved the Africa-decorations that she bought as gifts, and realised that we European Africans here don’t really appreciate these wonderful pieces of art of the black Africans. So she went to the street market, bought some more decorations and decorated our living room along the theme “celebrate Africa”.
Friends from His People got married last year, after we spent one evening a week together for six months, working through the His People premarital preparation manual. It was great fun to accompany them on the journey, and was also beneficial to our own marriage. This year we again have the privilege to accompany a couple on its way to their wedding day (and beyond).
Given the circumstances, Birgit’s parents are doing well. The large house and all the responsibilities on the farm are getting a bit much for Mutti. Pappa would like to stay on the farm for as long as possible, which is also understandable. All children and grandchildren are always glad when they can visit them on the farm. Parallel with us, Mutti spent two weeks in Germany, returning with us. She also enjoyed it very much.
Following their fifth pregnancy (see our 2010 circular) Helmut and Christine (Birgit’s second youngest brother and his wife) were blessed with their fourth son, Manuel.
Knowing that our Lord is always present with us gives us hope, peace, courage and confidence. Our decision regarding Melanie was partly taken in this realisation: It is not by our own strength, which is so limited, but in and through Him, holding tightly on to His hand, that we can do more than humanly possible. That is so encouraging.
With love and regards
Hellmut, Birgit, Andriko, Danilo, Tabitha and Melanie
