February 2005 Update

Greetings to you all in the great name of Jesus! We want to apologize for being out of touch for the last couple of months. January and February flew by and we hardly realized that it had been two months since we sent an update. The Canipes are doing great. All the children started the new school year the third week of January. Camille is now in third grade and Natalie is in second grade. Wesley started full-time pre-school. He is in what they call grade 00. This is the year prior to starting full kindergarten. He is doing great in school and really enjoys it. He celebrated his 5th birthday on February 8th and had a big party with the "guys."He also recently lost his first tooth. This surprised Stephanie the most with her realization that her baby boy is growing up! Cliff was recently appointed as the chairman of the board at the school so this has increased our involvement at the school to some degree this year. We really believe that this is an open door of opportunity for the Lord to use Cliff to impact the future and direction of the school. Please pray for Cliff in this regard as the Lord puts it on your heart. Stephanie is also volunteering a few hours on Fridays to teach music at the kids school. This has been a fun thing for her and an opportunity for her to use her gifts in this area. Then she volunteers twice a week at an Afrikaans preschool to help her learn the language. She's hopes to have more understanding and speak conversationally by the end of the year.

In February we had Lister Chatendeuka come to stay with us for two weeks. Lister is the wife of Jonathan, one of the pastors in Zimbabwe that Cliff works with, and she came to get some much needed medical attention. She was not able to get the treatment she needed in Zimbabwe because of the bad state of affairs there. She had been hospitalized last year and was in a coma for 3 days but she didn't know what was making her sick or what she needed to do. When she arrived here she was immediately diagnosed with extremely high blood sugar. We were able to get her stabilized through monitoring and proper medication and send her home with normal blood sugar levels and hope for living a normal life in the future. It was an answer to prayer for them for her healing and it was a real blessing to have her in our home. She and Stephanie quickly became close friends and the children loved her. Pray for her as the Lord puts her on your heart.

We have continued to be involved in the ministry to the street boys here in Worcester. After the December camp we held for the boys we have successfully seen 16 of the boys enroll in school. This is a huge step for them and they all really enjoy learning. The team is also working closely with these 16 boys in the area of personal discipleship. The team meets with them every Thursday afternoon for a time of ministry and bible study. This week the boys took food that was donated to their relatives in Roodewal to bless them through giving. This was a positive learning experience for them to give and we pray it will improve their relationships with their families. Cliff is also teaching several of the boys golf on Friday afternoons. These boys need lots of love and prayers. It is exciting to see the advances they are making in their walk with the Lord. They still face many challenges but we know that with God's help they will grow and be used mightily for His glory.

Cliff was involved again at the YWAM base here in Worcester teaching the Discipleship Training School for a week in February. It is always a big blessing to be involved in the DTS's. The students are young and excited about Jesus. It is also fun to be around people from so many different parts of the world.

The Lord has really given us wonderful opportunities to build relationships with lost people here in the city. Many of these are couples who also have children at the same school our children attend. We are very humbled to see how the Lord has put us in these people's lives at this time to make a difference. We have had many opportunities to speak the truth and walk with some couples through some very difficult situations in life. We are grateful for these friendships and to have the chance to impact the world with the light and love of Jesus.

Cliff will continue his outreaches into Africa this year. There are several opportunities for trips for Cliff to take and we are praying through all the possibilities right now. A few of the areas that Cliff will be visiting are Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi & Mozambique in July; and Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Congo, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda are probable countries for this year's ministry schedule. We will keep you posted as the Lord gives us direction on these trips.

As usual, we want to thank you all for your continued love and support. One of our biggest prayer requests right now is that God would open up the door for us to make a visit to America this year. It is really in our heart to return to have a chance to re-connect with many of you and to have a quick visit with family. Right now we are trusting God for the financial provision for this to take place. Please pray with us in this regard.

We pray that God's presence will be more real to you in these days than ever before.

Love,

Cliff, Stephanie, Camille, Natalie & Wesley