Dear Friends,
Greetings to you all from South Africa. We are moving slowly into winter here as most of you are beginning to enjoy the warm air of spring and summer there in America. Fortunately, winter in South Africa is not so bad. We will have about 2-3 months of cooler weather with quite a bit of rain and strong winds. Worcester is in a valley that is famous in the region for serious winds. This is the time of year that we get really heavy rain that is necessary for the remainder of the year. The temperatures will range anywhere between 70°-40° F. On the cold days we wear heavy clothes around the house because we don't have central heat! The houses here are built to stay cool rather than warm. We use lots of blankets at night. It usually warms up outside during the day if the sun is out. Overall, the weather is great and we love it.

May has been a very busy month. Sorry that we don't have more pictures to show you this month. We have gotten lazy with the picture taking. As you settle in you take less and less pictures because you feel more and more at home. We often forget to get pictures of different things so we can pass photos on to all of you. We will try to do better. Sometimes you feel like an obnoxious tourist if you're snapping pictures everywhere. I think you probably get the picture! (Pun intended.:)

God has been giving us more and more direction during the month of May as we have stepped out in what we believe He is calling us to do here. We are working closely with the fellowship of Last Days Family Church as well as with believers all across the city. We have seen the Lord working in the hearts of people in such an encouraging way. There is an obvious witness of the Spirit in the lives of the people here in the body that God is doing something big. It is as though He is restoring the church back to its foundations. We are excited about this because we know that as the church returns to the biblical principles and values that we find in the New Testament God will do great and powerful things through His people here in Worcester. We believe also that God is busy doing this same work all around the world. During the last two weeks of May we have met with believers in five different homes. The meetings have been very exciting and people have a real hunger for the Lord. They have really received us with open hearts. In these meetings, we have been imparting vision for what we see the Lord doing in the church in Worcester. As we have been sharing with the people the word of God and what He is doing, they have expressed an overwhelming agreement in their hearts that this is the season that God is bringing change. This comes as a huge encouragement to us. On Sunday night the 25th we met together corporately. Many of the people who were in the meetings in the homes were there as well as others from across the body in the city. We had a wonderful meeting and the presence of the Lord was really strong. We spent this time imparting more corporate vision for the church in the city. We also had a time of testimony and many people gave very encouraging comments about what they sensed God is doing during this season.

We have added a new link on the website that gives information regarding the content of some of the teaching the Lord is bringing forth to the body during this season. Some of you may be interested in taking a look at this link to get a better understanding of what God is doing.

Cliff also had an unexpected opportunity this month to see a bit of the country that he has not seen up to this point. Jan, Cliff's friend from Wellington, has friends in Port Nolloth, which is about 6 hours up the west coast in the Northern Cape. These friends have a outreach to street kids, orphans and widows. They suffered the loss of their 12 year old daughter two weeks ago and were experiencing some difficulties in their ministry as well. Jan made an emergency trip to Port Nolloth and asked if Cliff would accompany him on the trip. The Lord confirmed Cliff's going and they left early Thursday morning and returned late Saturday night. Cliff and Jan were so encouraged to watch God working in the lives of these precious people in such a powerful way. So many times we feel like God is calling us into situations to bring our support and help, when in the end all we can do is sit back at the wonder of watching God work through our utter weakness. He is so faithful! It was a very challenging three days, but at the same time very rewarding.

This month also marked the return of Jennifer to America. As many of you know, Jennifer was the young lady who traveled with us to South Africa and lived in our home for four months. She was an absolute blessing to our family. We were so humbled and blessed that God gave us this time together with Jennifer. She served our family in so many ways. The children fell in love with Jennifer and have missed her greatly. Wesley still walks around the house calling for "Juh-Juh." It was as if we were saying goodbye to our daughter as we put her on the plane to return home. God worked in Jennifer's life in so many powerful ways while she was here with us, but we know that the blessing was truly ours. Again, God's grace has been so abundant on our lives as we have made the transition this month to not having Jennifer around. We are glad to report that we are doing great as a family and all is well in the Canipe home!

Stephanie has continued to meet with the group at the Kibbutz El-Shammah as they develop their strategy to provide more specific social ministry to the families there in the community. Stephanie is learning a lot as well as bringing a lot of wisdom and experience from her own days as a social worker back in the states. Continue to pray for wisdom and direction for Stephanie as she works in this area. There are huge needs and we just want the Lord to show us clearly how Stephanie is to be involved.

We are looking forward to July as we will be hosting dear friends and ministry partners from America. Rodney and Trina Kirkpatrick will be coming for 3 1/2 weeks. They are bringing Bridget, their 6 year old daughter, and Della, a good friend also from Fort Worth. Rodney and Cliff will be involved in ministry here in South Africa as well has traveling into Zimbabwe for five days to conduct a leaders conference there. They are expecting leaders from 3-4 surrounding countries to attend this conference. Please pray for this time of ministry as the Lord prompts you.

We continue to thank God for His faithfulness to bring us here to South Africa. We know more and more each day that we are in the center of His will. This is a very good feeling and one we can only pray that each and every one of you experience in your own personal lives. Thank you all for your love and support.

May God richly bless you all today.

Cliff, Stephanie, Camille, Natalie, and Wesley

1. Pray for continued favor and wisdom as we meet with the body in different homes in Worcester.

2. Pray for the establishment of several new relationships we have developed with various leaders in the city.

3. Pray for direction as Cliff plans for ministry time in other parts of Africa in November with Rene Brown.

4. Pray for conferences that Cliff and Rodney Kirkpatrick will be conducting in Zimbabwe July 18-23.

5. Pray that God will continue to open doors of opportunities as well as direct us to more God-ordained relationships.

6. Pray that the Lord will continue to do a unifying work in the church in Worcester.