Yesterday, July 17th @ 3:44 p.m., we touched down in Orlando and were home after almost 33 hours of traveling.

It is impossible to sum up our entire trip on this blog, so I’m not even going to try. I hope that you will seek out one of the team members to find out how the trip went over all.

Thank you to our families for supporting us, thank you to Northland for allowing us to go, thank you to everyone who prayed for us while we were gone!

The Namibian Team

This is our first opportunity to write since arriving in Walvis Bay on Thursday. It has been an extremely busy weekend.

The Lord blessed us with FREE accomodations here in Walvis Bay so our team has been able to stay together in the same home the last 3 nights.

Friday morning we were at the local High School and Jennie spoke to a couple of classes. Both Alisha and Cathy shared their testimonies that morning. The teachers were so excited and have asked us to come back and share to the whole assembly Monday a.m.

Friday night we were at the Walvis Bay Community Church where Jennie spoke to the youth. Vashti shared her testimony during this talk.

Saturday was the Planned Purity Conference at the church. We were cold and tired but energized by the people who attended. THe numbers were small but the message came in loud and clear! Even with the small numbers, several churchs were represented.

This morning we were back at Walvis Bay CC and Jennie brought the message. Tonight we are at another church in neighboring Swakopmund where Jennie will again speak about purity of heart and the teenager about living a lifestyle of purity.

We are all getting tired. Tired of the cold, missing our families and yet dreading the trip home. Please pray for our stamina. We are reaching the end of this trip, but we can’t quit - not on each other, not on the folks we are ministering to and not on God either. We must finish this race strong and give HIM all the glory!

Serving Him with perserverence,
The Namibian Team

PS we are also privileged to celebrate a very special birthday while here - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIE! Too bad she can’t rest on her special day

We are still at Lon and Val’s so we are taking advantage of the computer to write again. This morning was spent at 5 Rand. While Jennie and Mary Beth worked with Val and the “Work Of Our Hands” ladies, the 3 girls and myself (Dawn) played with the preschool children. We taught the children our most famous and treasured childhood games such as Duck,Duck, Goose!, Follow the Leader, Hide and Seek (my favorite (dawn)), Red Rover, Red Rover, Simon Says and the ultimate HOKEY POKEY! The kids were more than willing to participate and just laughed through it all. We were touched by the love they so freely gave and desparately needed in return. They were intrigued by our hair, our hands, our eyes, our whole selves. They are in such need of loving care and touch that they couldn’t get enough hugs from us.

Jennie was able to present the ladies from “Work Of Our Hands” with Purity necklaces and travel size bottles of lotion, soap and shampoo. She shared the story of “The Princess and the Kiss” with these ladies and what the necklaces mean. The ladies were so excited to receive such a precious gift and all of them immediately put the necklaces on.

AIDS prevention training is so difficult in this country. Lon was sharing just this morning that these people are in denial about what is killing them. They believe they are dying from other diseases like TB instead of AIDS. They have a belief that AIDS is contracted from a curse. They understand that it is sexually transmitted but they believe they can only get it if they are cursed! WOW! And that’s all I can say about that……

God continues to work in the hearts of this team. Lon and Val are in such need for help and encouragement that we wish we could stay 2 more weeks here and help them. I expect that some (if not all of us) will at some time or another in the future be returning to Okahandja and 5 Rand. There is much to do and few to do it.

We are spoiled here at the Garber’s, so if you don’t hear from us again for a few days it is because we had no access to a computer.

Serving Him Humbly,
The Namibian Team

We arrived today in Okahandja (which is about 90 km north of Windhoek). The purpose of this trip was 2 fold. First we stopped at Christ’s Hope International to see the work that they are doing. We visited a school in the a.m. where the curriculum “Choose to Wait” is presented and then it was lunch with the team there to learn about the program and how it is working in Namibia. “Choose to Wait” is similar in it’s approach to purity as Planned Purity is at PurityWorks. We had the opportunity to lunch with several students that are living at the headquarters being trained to teach “Choose to Wait” back in their own villages/towns. God is doing a great work with these folks.

After lunch, we were dropped off at Lon and Val Garber’s beautiful home. Lon and Val are Northland missionaries living and serving in Okahandja. This afternoon was spent having the grand tour of 5 Rand Camp. This is where the poorest of the poor live in conditions you can’t even comprehend! I was speechless. As we drove through the camp, the children came alive. We weren’t able to get out the car, but the kids didn’t care - they wanted to be touched! And so all we could do was just reach out our hands and hold theirs. They loved having their picture taken - they posed and laughed and begged to be touched again. I am having a hard time finding the words…..you have to see their faces yourself to fully understand.

Tomorrow we will accompany Val to the “Work of our Hands” shop and watch the ladies make the jewelry that they sell to make a living for themselves.

The most interesting thing we did today was shop at the Wood Carver’s Outdoor market. Thank goodness we had Lon with us. The shop keepers descend upon you at your car like vultures hoping you will come to their shop. The funny thing is…all the shops are the same!
FEAR FACTOR NAMIBIA was hosted in Val’s kitchen this evening. All 3 of the teen girls sampled a Namibian mopani worm. They said the worms tasted like dirt and offended a local girl. Much apologies had to be made, which the girls did on their own! Go girls!

Again, and I apologize, it is not possible to post pictures at this time. I do have to say that we enjoy getting comments from family and friends. It has been such an encouragement to all of us to hear from you.

Continue to pray for our stamina and health. So far, we all are well. We’ve been served traditional Namibian food on several occasions and for the most part, our systems have handled it o.k.

We miss you all and pray for you daily.
Serving Him courageously,
The Namibian Team

As I type this post, I am sitting in Pastor Britz office and Sunday worship has just ended. Adaquate words are hard to express as to what was heard, felt and experienced this morning. It is enough to say that the presence of God was among us! Not only were we there, but a team from the Vredelust church in Cape Town led in worship. We can see a partnership developing there between them and PurityWorks!!

Our team of 6 is divided into 3 groups and each group is in a different host home. Each group has expressed that God in His infinite wisdom placed us with the exact family we need! They have opened their hearts and their homes to us in amazing and giving ways and we are BLESSED!

It is COLD here. We knew we were coming in the winter but were unprepared for how cold it can get. There has already been a stop at the “mall” for turtlenecks and coats! Please pray for us that none would catch a cold - cold showers, wet hair, colder air. That can be a recipe for sickness. So far everyone is well and adjusting to different eating customs.

Very quickly I will update on the conferences. Friday night there was a Youth Meeting at Khomas CC. Alisha was able to share her testimony with the kids. She spoke about overcoming peer pressure. The kids were challenged to live a lifestyle of purity and made a committment before God and others for do just that. Purity bracelets were handed out to be a reminder of that committment.

Saturday was the full day Planned Purity Conference. The team served this group by preparing all the food (while Jennie spoke) so that the ladies could sit and listen. Each team member had a spot in the conference where we shared a testimony about purity and it’s affect on our lives. The folks were so blessed by what Jennie shared - their only complaint was that the time was TOO SHORT. So unlike Americans!

Last night we attended a traditional Namibian braai (translation: traditional American BBQ) It was amazing - the food was unbelievable and the fellowship even better! There were about 80 people there - us, the worship team from Cape Town, the other SF team serving at Five Rand with Lon and Val and church leadership. The generosity of these people is unlike anything we have seen.

When we have more time, I will post pictures. For now, we are off to have lunch with all these folks again. They don’t do anything small here in Namibia!

Continue to pray for our stamina. The cold has taken it’s toll on us all (except Alisha).
Serving Him joyfully in Namibia,
The Namibian Team

Greetings Praying Family and Friends,

In little less than 24 hours, our team will be making it’s way across the great Atlantic ocean to the African country of Namibia. We are more than excited about this journey that God has put us on and we are looking foward to serving Him among these people of a different culture. You may find yourself asking a couple of questions about this team, where we are going and why we are going. That’s what I’m here for!
Your first question may be, “Who are you people?” For starters, we are 6 ladies who heard and heeded the call of our God to serve Him in Namibia this summer. We come from all different walks of life, but we have one purpose for this trip - to share the love of God with others. MaryBeth is on staff at Northland and works directly with the youth. Jennie is a best selling children’s author and founder of the NFP PurityWorks, me (Dawn) is a mom of 2 great boys. Alisha, Cathy and Vashti are all teenagers with their own unique gifts that God is using to complete this team.

Your next question may be, “Where in the world is Namibia?” Don’t feel bad as I had to get on the world wide web to find it myself. Hint: Find South Africa, look at the country directly Northwest of South Africa on the coast. You have found Namibia!

Some of you may be asking, “Why are you going to Namibia?” The obvious answer is “Because God said so”. But the main purpose for our trip is to train the folks there in purity. Namibia has the 5th highest occurance of AIDS in the world! A big task we know! So we will be presenting habits of purity in this country where people are dying of AIDS. This is not just abstinance training, it goes so much deeper than that. God wants us to have purity of heart, not just purity of body. We will be presenting 2 Planned Purity conferences (facilitated by Jennie) where we will talking with parents on how to raise children to embrace a lifestyle of purity. During the conferences, each team member will have the opporunity to give a personal testimony that relates to purity. There will be additional church services and youth services where we will also be given the opportunity to talk about purity and share our testimonies.

In addition to the speaking engagements, we will be visiting and working with Northland missionaries Lon & Val Garbar and ministering to some AIDS orphanages through Christs Hope International.

Lastly we hope you will ask, “How can I pray?”. More than anything, we need your prayers. I have a list here that may help you as you seek to take this team and our purpose before the Lord:
1. Transportation- smooth transitions through security & customs, making all our connections (which is going to be a miracle in New York), safe in-country travels by air & car.
2. Health - Spiritual / Emotional / Physical
3. Our team - that we will be bonded together in Christ’s love, living and working together in unity. And that we would accomplish all that God wants us to learn and accomplish.
4. The Namibian people - all the people’s lives that we will touch
5. Easy transition into a new time zone

Thank you for your time. THis is just the first of many installments detailing our service in Namibia. I trust that you will check back with us often to read about and see what God is doing while we are there. God bless,

The Namibia Team