mariusdeetlefs - Homeless No More...

It is so nice to let you know that after 10 months of waiting – we are in our very own rental house! We feel so blessed to be here. The man who rented here before took good care of the place, and he even had the kitchen renovated before he left. Marius and I both really love cooking, so anyone who knows us well knows what a blessing a nice kitchen is. The house is spacious, with a room for the nursery and a guest room. There is a fenced-in yard, complete with a lemon tree, lime tree, mango tree and 2 banana trees. So no matter how tough the economy gets, we will always have fresh fruit to eat! We want to thank all of you who have prayed for us to get a home. We just moved in this week, and every morning we wake up SO grateful to be in our own place.

We've been very busy for the past few weeks. Marius coordinated the painting of the floor of a new medical clinic at Nsoko (an extremely poor part of Swaziland). The AIM Real Life college students were a great help getting the floor done for the grand opening of the clinic. There was even one girl on the team from Ball Ground, GA. (See photo above) Small world, huh?

Later that week Marius and I had the privilege of delivering some much-needed food and blankets to a lady named Make Zwane. She is doing an amazing job with widows and orphans out in a rural area near the border. She's a Swazi teacher and her husband is a pastor, and they are making a difference in their nation. They are not one of AIM/CHC's "sponsored" carepoints, but nevertheless some very generous people in the States (thank you Becca) raised $2,000 for her, and she decided to buy blankets for the elderly (believe it or not it gets quite cold here in the winter), as well as food to distribute amongst the people. They're going to have a big meal together next Sunday when they will distribute everything, and Make Zwane asked Marius to please buy several live chickens and deliver them to her for the feast. That is going to be an interesting journey, as the place we delivered the blankets and food to was about 2 hours away, including 33 kilometers of very bumpy dirt road that consumed an hour of the drive!

We also had the opportunity to visit with Pastor Sam, who is another wonderful Swazi man who's making such a difference. He and three other volunteer teachers are teaching at a school that AIM has partnered to help finish construction on. Marius got to take food (pap and beans) so that the kids will have a meal at school before they walk home. When asked what the teachers wanted, they said it would be so nice to have a teapot to start the morning out with a hot cup of tea. Marius and I bought some tea supplies for them, and now they'll be having tea. It's amazing the simple things that truly make life easier here for these super volunteers.

I am very excited that I get to come home in August for a short visit. I'm coming for my dear friend, Michelle Schramm's wedding in Montana. We promised one another long ago (when it felt like we were the last two single girls on earth!) that we would really make an effort no matter where we were in the world to make it to one another's weddings. She kept her promise almost four years ago when I got married, and now I get to be a part of her special day too! (Thank you Liz for helping me with my airfare!). It will be a short visit, and it will just be me as we can't really afford for Marius to come too, but it's gonna be great! I know I won't have a chance to connect with everyone I want to see, so I want to invite you to come see me if you can.

I will be speaking at Trinity Evangelical Church in Marble Hill, GA on Sunday, August 9th at 10:30 am (call 770-893-2682 for directions). For those of you in Montana, I'll also get to speak at Whitefish Foursquare Church on Sunday, August 16th at their 10:30 a.m. service (Call 406-862-1653 for directions). My heart would love to see every one of you precious people who help make it possible for us to be in Swaziland, but I know that my 6 month pregnant body probably won't have the stamina to individually visit everyone, so please come to one of these services if you can!

Next week we will have an anatomy baby scan in South Africa for my 22-week checkup. Please pray that everything with the baby is developing as it should, and that we would be able to see if it's a boy or a girl. We are so curious!!!

We love you and thank you for being a part of our Swazi journey with us.

Jodi & Marius