Sewing Machines & the Blog un-Clog

So, in hopes of doing a little un-clogging, and hopefully get myself into a more regular blog habit (although we’ve heard that aspiration before), let me try to give you a brief update of what’s been happening the last several months since I posted a blog….in ummmmm…OCTOBER. yikes.

(if you don’t have time to read this whole thing, you should skip to the last paragraph and read about our sewing machine project happening NOW!)

In October we had our annual camp for the Timbali women. HIGHLIGHT!! More than ever before we had Swazis up front doing the teaching and training, and while I didn’t understand a lot of it, the feedback we got was GREAT. I love seeing the freedom that comes over these ladies when they’re away from home and being poured into. God was good. Still is. (Always will be.)

Right after the camp, Ellie and I moved into a new house. Look a couple blog posts back to see why this is news that still makes me SO HAPPY AND THANKFUL.

A month later we left (with much of our stuff still in boxes) for 2 months in the US for the holidays. Time with family is always precious when it comes in these concentrated chunks every year and a half!

While in the U.S. I fell and broke my foot. It’s still not quite back to normal, but getting there.

When we returned to the African summer in January Ellie said, “Mom, you can stay here and be hot. I’m going back to America.” (We’re both still in Swaziland…but southern hemisphere fall just made it’s official appearance last week and it is WONDERFUL and refreshing!!)

Ellie is now a SIX YEAR OLD (as of Jan 18) and a pretty cute little kindergartener (grade ‘0’ here). I am so thankful to be Ellie’s mom. God teaches me a lot through her. I need to write some blogs about that!

While we were in the U.S, Lucy, one of the Timbali women, passed away. I’ve missed her since being back. I always say she spoke just enough English and had just enough teeth to be one the cutest little African grannies that you’ve ever seen. She was always thankful, always encouraging. One of my first memories of Lucy was shortly after Timbali was started. At one of our weekly meetings she shared with me that she’d had pain in one of her feet for a long time. She asked if I could pray for her. Like a good missionary I said yes, even though I didn’t necessarily “feel” like it. Even so, the next time I saw Lucy she said that her ankle was better, and for the years following that she reminded me that God healed her foot. When Lucy was to sick and weak to walk to the care point my friend Marcia and I went to visit her a few times, and even then she would go out of her way to make us feel welcome. Lucy is missed!

Since being back there have been a few projects consuming a lot of my time. One is SEWING MACHINES!! We’ve been trying to raise money to buy sewing machines for the Timbali women. We’ve negotiated a GREAT deal with the Singer factory in Johannesburg. We’ll be purchasing the machines up front for the ladies and then they will pay us back little by little for the machines. We’re excited that the ladies wanted to make this investment and that so many of them have ordered machines. About 75 of the 90 women ordered machines. We were finally able to place an order for the first 50 (and are working on getting them across the border). The rest will come after we’ve raised a bit more money. (The first 50 that we’re ordering are the most basic model and are costing right around $100/ea. The next 25 we’re hoping to order soon are a bit more advanced model and will cost around $200/ea.) If you’d like to give to our sewing machine fund you can donate at:

I’ll stop for now. The ‘blog-clog’ is no more.