Prayer Update

We're so excited about what the new year has in store!  The local churches have kicked off their club year, and it's been great to see more churches beginning to use the Word of Life materials.

There are three "new" (to us) churches.  Just last Saturday we did an orientation with Honeyridge Baptist Church.  They are starting the Olympian (children's) program.  We were thrilled to see that they had 13 leaders in attendance, and 4 more that will be working with them, as well.  What an awesome opportunity for discipleship!

Please pray with us as we have been having some problems with printing our materials.  There have been several delays that we have no control over, and we're hoping to get the materials to the churches as soon as possible.  Please pray that they will be available this Friday for delivery.

Due to the visa that the Page family is here on they could only be in the country for 90 days at a time.  They left today for a short trip to Swaziland to scope out the country for a possible S.M.A.S.H. (Students Ministering And Serving Him) camp later this year.  This is a short term missions trip that we provide for South African teens, and we are excited about the possibility of taking them out of the country this year.

Thanks for your prayers and support!  We're excited to be online again so we can keep in touch better.

Brad, Mary, Brandon & Marissa Hawkins
Word of Life South Africa

Busy Day

We are doing well. This morning we had 4 homeschool families over to play and join us for music class. It was Brandon's first day for cricket at school (our church runs a school and is allowing the kids to join in for extra-curricular activities). We came home, Brandon tried riding his bike for the first time with no training wheels, and then we went swimming. Needless to say it was an early night for the kids! Brandon went to bed 15 minutes ago and is FAST asleep. Marissa has a harder time falling asleep when she is overtired.
Tonight I am heading off to work on the flat. One of the people we have been discipling, Genevieve, is moving in this weekend! Thank you to those of you who have been praying with us that we would find a renter.
This all comes after a busy weekend - Friday night Chae & CJ stayed the night and most of the day with us on Saturday. Brad, John & Christy ran an Olympian Club Orientation on Saturday. Marissa had a birthday party to attend and had to dress up like a mommy and take a baby doll with her. Brandon, CJ, Chae & I went to a church picnic.  The kids and I joined Brad & the Pages at Honeyridge Baptist Church after the orientation for a braii and arrived home long after the kids' bedtime. Then yesterday was the first day of Sunday School for the year. The kids have had a few full days, to say the least!

The Silence Has Broken!

We are thrilled to say that we have a working home phone again!  We're baaaack....

We have moved into our house and are settling in nicely.  We started homeschool last Monday and the kids are enjoying it most of the time.   Some days playing sounds much better than school!

Marissa, now 4 1/2 as she'll inform you, is learning to read and add by 2.  Her last book that she conquered goes something like this: "Dot has a cat.  The cat is Mit.  Dot did nap...."

Brandon is refreshing how to figure area and perimeter and reviewing all his skip counting and addition/subtraction facts.  He remembers everything we learned, so now it's time to move on!  He's also reading like a pro and writing with less and less of a hassle. He loves to dictate stories, though!

I will try to get some pictures posted in the next couple of days!

Mary, for the fam
Brad, Mary, Brandon & Marissa Hawkins

January Prayer Letter

Here is a copy of our most recent prayer letter. If you prefer this
method of reading our prayer letter and would like to be removed from
our email list, please let us know!

You will need Adobe Reader to open the file. Click here to download free.

Attachment: Jan 2007.pdf

Still quiet....

We are still without a home phone and Mary has little connection with the internet.  Please be patient!  The updates will come again soon. 

Our "Silence"

I'm sure you have noticed that things suddenly got very quiet on our blog!  We apologize....  We went to camp, and then we moved back into our house the week before Christmas, and our internet will not be connected for another week to a week and a half.

We hope that you had a great Christmas!  We had a wonderful time at the Page's on Christmas Eve and our friends, Dion and Marianne on Christmas Day.  It was a great time celebrating Christ's birth and all that He's done for us.

We'll update you more once we get our internet connected and I'll post some pictures from Camp & Christmas.

Love,
Mary, for the fam!
Brad, Mary, Brandon & Marissa Hawkins

Prayer Update

Thank you so much for your prayers! The kids are thrilled that daddy comes home after 5 more sleeps!  I am, too.   We've really missed him.

I had a wonderful birthday as my church family here rallied around with support as Brad was in the US.  I received a number of phone calls, and some of the ladies arranged for me to leave my kids with one of their husbands and took me out for dinner.  I received some great gifts, like chocolates, roses & books, but the best part was an evening out with some wonderful friends!  It is a special memory.

We have been busy preparing our house to move back in.  There are a lot of little details to go over, as the renters just moved out last week, but everything seems to be falling into line.  Christy Page and I have spent many hours over the last couple of days painting the kids' bedrooms and it's nice to see things coming together. There's still quite a bit more work to do in the next few days so that we can move in right after camp.  Brad says we don't have to have all the boxes unpacked right away, but he'll set the Christmas tree ones aside so that I can have our Christmas tree up before Christmas.  He knows me too well!

Tomorrow we are having a staff braai (cookout) and I am excited to see Rachael Schuster & the kids.  I've seen Alan a couple of times since they returned 11/14, but the kids were a bit under the weather and this is the first time we'll be all together. Also, the Applegates, a couple visiting from Word of Life Schroon Lake, will also be joining us.

Please continue to pray about camp.  It starts on Monday late afternoon and will run through Friday, 12/11-15.  Pray that many lives are changed, whether it be a decision for salvation or a decision to be sold out for God. Please also pray for our staff as they finish preparations.

Thank you for your prayers!  They have an impact on our family and our ministry.  We appreciate you!
Brad, Mary, Brandon & Marissa Hawkins
Word of Life South Africa