A way for you to be involved....

Micro F1 is an evangelistic tool that uses Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars to reach many children for Christ. Three youth groups have already scheduled this event at their churches! We know God is going to reach many for Him using this fun outreach! Just as in NASCAR, we are looking for “car sponsors.” Each child is to have their own “race car” and many children in the townships cannot afford a Hot Wheel or Matchbox car (they cost more here due to being imported). You can sponsor a car by either mailing one to Word of Life South Africa, PO Box 600, Schroon Lake, NY 12870, or by donating money towards one. We will allow the child to keep his or her car as a reminder that God loves them!

Prayer Update

Dear Friends,

    It has been a great few weeks of the New Year for us here in SA.  We just finished our Leaders Conference and we are now looking at contacting the churches who were not able to make the Conference.  Many of the churches are going through some changes in leadership which is exciting and challenging at the same time. We will begin working with the new leaders to get them up to speed with how everything works in the Word of Life youth ministry over the next few weeks.  This will be a great challenge for us all as there are many to get around to. 

            John and I will be leaving for Polikwane on Friday afternoon.  It is about 3 hours from Jo’berg and is northeast of Pretoria.  We will be doing an Olympian Orientation with them on Saturday.  Friday night we will be visiting the Student Ministry and getting to know some of the leaders.  We are really excited about this time we will have with them and look forward to working with them in the years to come. 

            We had one of those scary moments over the weekend with my computer.  On Saturday it gave us a critical error message and just shut off.  If you don’t know that is a VERY bad sign!  We thought the hard drive crashed and I lost everything on it.  However, I played around with it and found that one of the Ram chips went bad.  This is the second one to go in the last few months.  We had a few left from an upgrade before and were able to replace it.  This is not encouraging for the computer.  We recently put out a request for a new one, we were hoping to wait for furlough but now it may need to be done sooner.  Be praying for the funds needed to replace the computer. If you want to help with this project, there are a few ways to do so.  You can visit Word of Life's online donation center and put Brad Hawkins, South Africa, Laptop Project in the additional comments area.  Another option would be to send the donation to Word of Life.  You can contact us for details!

 Prayer Request:

1.      Traveling safety over the weekend

2.      My (Brad’s) laptop needs replaced ($1200)

3.      Orientation at Christ Baptist Church in Polokwane

4.      Meeting with new Youth Leaders

 Praise Items:

1.      Great Leaders Conference last week

2.      New Churches starting with the New Year

3.      Family and the time we had over the holidays

In His Service,

Brad Hawkins

Prayer Update

Dear Friends,

    It has been a great few weeks of the New Year for us here in SA.  We just finished our Leaders Conference and we are now looking at contacting the churches who were not able to make the Conference.  Many of the churches are going through some changes in leadership which is exciting and challenging at the same time. We will begin working with the new leaders to get them up to speed with how everything works in the Word of Life youth ministry over the next few weeks.  This will be a great challenge for us all as there are many to get around to. 

            John and I will be leaving for Polikwane on Friday afternoon.  It is about 3 hours from Jo’berg and is northeast of Pretoria.  We will be doing an Olympian Orientation with them on Saturday.  Friday night we will be visiting the Student Ministry and getting to know some of the leaders.  We are really excited about this time we will have with them and look forward to working with them in the years to come. 

            We had one of those scary moments over the weekend with my computer.  On Saturday it gave us a critical error message and just shut off.  If you don’t know that is a VERY bad sign!  We thought the hard drive crashed and I lost everything on it.  However, I played around with it and found that one of the Ram chips went bad.  This is the second one to go in the last few months.  We had a few left from an upgrade before and were able to replace it.  This is not encouraging for the computer.  We recently put out a request for a new one, we were hoping to wait for furlough but now it may need to be done sooner.  Be praying for the funds needed to replace the computer. If you want to help with this project, there are a few ways to do so.  You can visit Word of Life's online donation center and put Brad Hawkins, South Africa, Laptop Project in the additional comments area.  Another option would be to send the donation to Word of Life.  You can contact us for details!

 Prayer Request:

1.      Traveling safety over the weekend

2.      My (Brad’s) laptop needs replaced ($1200)

3.      Orientation at Christ Baptist Church in Polokwane

4.      Meeting with new Youth Leaders

 Praise Items:

1.      Great Leaders Conference last week

2.      New Churches starting with the New Year

3.      Family and the time we had over the holidays

In His Service,

Brad Hawkins

Praise Update!

Thank you for your prayers regarding our temporary residence applications!  We were approved to stay in South Africa until January, 2010!  We are excited, as we were given the full length allowable, and will not have to reapply for 2 more years. :)

Please join us in praising God for this answer to prayer.

January Prayer Letter

Here is a copy of our most recent prayer letter.
You will need Adobe Reader to open the file. Click here to download free.

Attachment: Jan 2008.pdf

Prayer Update

Hello, again!  Just wanted to drop a quick note to say we're home and we're leaving again!

Camp was great!!!  We had 76 teens at Student Camp, and 44 children at kidz camp!  What an exciting, fun filled week of blessings....  Unfortunately I won't have time to post pictures before heading off to Cape Town, so check back next week for more updates. 

Brad and I will be flying out tomorrow for Cape Town, and our little lambs will be staying with John & Christy Page.  Please pray for us all, as 5 days is a long time to be separated! I'm sure the children will have a blast, as they will have each other and the Page kids, CJ, 10, and Chae, 8, who have been declared Brandon & Marissa's best friends!  It will probably be hardest on Mom (me) to be away so long, but I'm thrilled  to be going, as I've never been to the Cape and have only heard the best.  We'll take lots of pictures!

The main reason for our trip is to attend the wedding of friends - Deon Janse van Rensburg and Michelle Blackwell.  We also will be meeting up with the pastors from the 7 churches in the area that use Word of Life, as well as conducting a meeting with a Pastor from a church that is interested in starting a Word of Life Club.

Thanks for your prayers as we travel!  We'll post another update soon after we return.

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

Prayer Update

Sorry for the delay in communication - life is very interesting for us right now!

We are currently helping out the Pages by taking care of CJ and Chae while they are in Argentina, and a sudden growth of our family from 5 to 7 makes life interesting to say the least. :)  Extra laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning.  It's a good thing we're enjoying them!  And they are great helpers around the house, as well.

Survivor Camp starts today!  We are excited at the ministry opportunities that lie ahead of us in the next week, and ask that you join us in praying for each of the souls that will attend the teen camp, starting today, and the children's camp, starting on Friday. 

Please pray for safety in travel as campers will be traveling to and from camp today, Friday and Sunday.

Please pray that God will make their hearts malleable, willing to learn what He is ready to teach them!

Pray, also, for strength of our counselors and staff.  Camp can be tiring as you invest of yourself both physically and emotionally!

The children and I will join Brad and the rest of the campers on Wednesday.  Please pray safety as we travel.

Please pray, also, for John & Christy Page, as they are in Argentina sharing the ministry of Word of Life South Africa!  They will be flying home Thursday and Friday.

Thank you for your prayers!  We will post an update and pictures as soon as possible after camp.

Mary, for the fam
Brad, Mary, Brandon, Marissa & Mya
Word of Life South Africa