We need demographics... ;-)

Hi All

As you know we're planning on launching the Paper in Cape Town!
BUT in order to effectively approach corporate sponsors with a reason to advertise in HIA we need a demographic of our online readership and we need it to be BIG ;-)

Please can we ask you to tell ALL your online friends about HIA and ask them to sign up for our monthly VIRTUAL online newspaper.

Let's punch through the next level and start infecting the business community of Africa with hope.

We're relying on You to bring Hope in Africa. ;-)

Oh BTW the July issue is now online...

Until next month.

Leon and Amanda Laubscher
Together building the Kingdom and bringing Hope in Africa.

How BIG can we go?

I really want to encourage you guys over the BIG lake to really think about how you can be more actively involved in "Stories of Hope in Africa" newspaper. We're spreading our wings to Cape Town and need a distribution of 200 000 in order to be noticed here :-*
For that we need partners who believe in Africa! If you have missionaries and networks this side who are doing great things then PLEASE let us have their stories. And if you know of people who are wanting to invest financially in Africa without giving a handout - i.e. teaching Africans to fish as opposed to just giving them the fish, then give them Hope in Africa as an option. Together we can bring Hope in Africa.

BTW the latest publication has been out since the beginning of the month ;-)
to have a read go to: http://www.hopeinafrica.co.za

If you haven't joined the cause, why not?
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/228474/49359528

Till next month.

Leon, Amanda and the girls
Together building the Kingdom and brining Hope in Africa.

New paper published

We'll it's here.. hasn't been easy but we're toughing this one through ;-)
The new publication for Hope in Africa.
We've upped our distribution to 6000 copies covering Nelspruit, White River, Johannesburg and Mutare in Zimbabwe.
To have a glimpse of what we're doing head on over to the website and see the new e-Newspaper. If you'd like some posted to your part of the world please let us know.
OOPS the URL is http://www.hopeinafrica.co.za

Blessings

Leon, Amanda and the gilrz

Off to Zimbabwe

Now that the paper is up and running, we're off to collect even more stories of Hope from Zimbabwe and Mozambique - including a dramatic one of Martyrdom and perseverance... So look out for next month's issue... http://www.hopeinafrica.co.za

Not only are we collecting stories, but we'll be delivering supplies to a local church in Mutare and food and shoes to Moz, thanks to CARE Africa.

Please keep us in your prayers as the border crossings are quite hair raising even in good conditions ;-) Remember to keep spreading the word as we build God's Kingdom and bring Hope in Africa.

We'll post pictures and maybe even a video when we get back.

Bless you guys.
Lotsaluv

Leon and Amanda

P.S.
If you want to go on similar trips and feel that you'd like to get involved in grass roots christian journalism sign up with us as an intern and let's get the story out there.

NEWSPAPER now E-nabled

This is just a quickie!

Head on over to http://www.hopeinafrica.co.za and click the link to the first Hope in Africa e-newspaper. (It's an electronic version on the one we printed on the first)
If you want to receive the printed version pl erase let us know and we'll see what we can arrange.

Bless you and miss you all.

Lotsaluv
Leon, Amanda and the girls.

It's Finally Here!!!!! Yeee haaaaa!!

The weeks of silence can now be broken for a couple of days as we rear our heads out of the swamp of admin involved in releasing a newspaper for the first time!!

"Stories of Hope in Africa Newspaper" hits the streets today!
We'll be making this available online for any of you Ex-pats and crazy fans out there.

Thank you SOOO much for EVERYONE who contributed be it via donations, stories or advertising. I truly believe that this is not mearly a newspaper but a voice of hope which will be breaking MANY strongholds in the enemies camp.

Head on over to the website in a day or two and check it out.

Bless you guys.

Ho0pe in Africa Launched our new look website!!

Yeeehaaa!!
After hours of torment, agony and sweat I have finally released our NEW LOOK website. The theme is to go hand in hand with our flagship ministry, "Stories of Hope in Africa Newspaper".
We'll be keeping the main story pretty current but will still be letting you know what's happening in our lives via the blog and facebook.

Please encourage EVERYONE who has stories of hope from Africa to send them to us: news@hopeinafrica.co.za

We appreciate your prayers and support.

How can you get involved?
1) Send us stories!
2) Advertise your business in the newspaper.
3) Send us Stories!
4) Pledge support for running costs of the paper.
5) Send us Stories!
6) Volunteer as a distribution point - help get the NEWS of hope out there.
7) Send us Stories!

Bless you Big time!

Together building the Kingdom and bringing Hope in Africa.

Hope spelled "I.T."

Man Oh man!!
Africa... the land of ingenuity...
It has to be with the infrastructure we have ;-)

All kidding aside, we launched the English language training project for the second time this week after having a failed attempt last month with the Telkom ADSL (DATA Line) being too far away from the centre and causing a degradation in bit communication... i.e. it went on and off intermittently.
So Telkom, to my amazement, moved the ADSL in record time and we were able to start again on Monday!!
It was amazing. The excitement on the kids faces was priceless. Even when ALL 19 logged in at the same time and brought the 10 MB network to a virtual halt the anticipation of being given a step up in life was not quenched.
So we carry on being creative and coming up with ways of crossing each teething issue as they arise.

We would like to offer all of you, and anyone whom you think would like to get involved, the opportunity to partner with these kids as they take the step into the great wide world of English speakers.
By helping us buy the licences for the program.
What we will do is put you in contact with that kid via an email address of Hope in Africa.
As you communicate with them and they with you, you will see first hand how their English improves and will at the same time develop a friendship with someone in Africa... who knows where that will lead? You might be corresponding with the future president of an extremely exciting land of opportunities.
To those of you who have already contributed, we would like to say a huge THANK YOU. We will be putting you in contact with the kid that you have personally helped and you can start building that friendship as soon as Africanly possible...













We appreciate you prayers and letters of encouragement.

Bless you guys.

Together building the Kingdom and bringing Hope in Africa.

Is 52:7 How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of them that bring good news

I have a very soft spot for Zimbabwe (could be cause I was born there!). God has placed this beautiful country and beautiful people on my heart, when I am there I am refreshed by my brothers and sisters and their absolute faith in God. I love the way this precious young Zimbabwean man, Frank, puts it in this video interview, "we are prisoners of hope". It was a privilege for us at Hope in Africa to go on this outreach arranged by the Nelspruit New Covenant Church, 9 tons of food was taken from Nelspruit to Mutare to assist fellow believers. This was an opportunity to simply be an answer to prayers for food - works of service Eph 4:12. We were 17 people in a convoy of 8 vehicles on this outreach. The boarder crossing took hours and we had to dig deep for patience and a loving attitude towards officials seeking a bribe in order to process our documents. I took some hair braids with to bless some of the Zimbabwean women with something "girlie", these are a people who have known a good life and have been forced to economic ruin by an unwise government, they were so blessed to have something beautiful and gave me such big hugs - its amazing how the simple pleasures in life can cause so much joy. We are assisting a wonderful Zimbabwean family in their vision to look after orphans and school them and on our previous trip we prayed for their brother who was dying and two months later we were informed that he was completely healed, up and about and serving God. When I saw him on this trip I embraced him and thanked God for this incredible healing and the testimony that he is.

Amanda off to Zimbabwe

Hi guys
This is just a short note to ask that you please pray for Amanda, Lynne (My Mom) and Lucia (My sister-in-law) as they left today on a four day food drop into Zimbabwe.

Their final destination is Mutare up in the North East of the country. They'll be taking up a couple hundred pounds of food to support a bunch of churches in the area.

Zimbabwe itself needs a lot of prayer as you all know.
But we take heart in knowing that we do not belong to the kingdoms of this world but are indeed citizens of a heavenly kingdom whose laws of love and life in Christ Jesus elevate us to a place of hope even when all around us appears hopeless.

Heb 12:28 says, "Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe:" 1Co 4:20 "For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power."

When we go there and see a church alive in faith, hope and love we are extremely humbled and at the same time blessed out of our socks knowing that "... God [chose] them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to them that love him?"(Jas 2:5)
One can only but walk away from such a trip deeply moved...
We will update you with pictures and stories of hope in Africa when Amanda and the crew get back. So watch this space --> " ***** "

Together we build His Kingdom and bring Hope in Africa.

This is pastor Brian and his family. We met them on our trip to Zim in 2007. He has subsequently gone and planted a church in Harare.

LEARNING CENTRE SECURED FOR OUR 2010 ENGLISH LEARNING PROJECT

Hi Guys, so good to be back home in SA.

Our 3 month Hope In Africa Tour was amazing and we praise God for the new friendships made in England, Scotland & America. Thank you to all our new friends abroad for your kindness shown to us as a family and for your prayer support and words of encouragement.

We are very excited to have secured a Computer Learning Centre at Kings School in White River, from which we will operate our English Learning Project and TEFL Training.












When we were in the USA we sourced an amazing language learning program from Rosetta Stone which we will be using in our English Learning Project, the program covers two areas of need i.e. accelerated language learning and computer skills.
With SA hosting the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2010 a lot of job opportunities are being created especially in the hospitality industry BUT our local people can only take advantage of these job opportunities if they can speak English. Using Rosetta Stone we will be able to offer an accelerated language learning opportunity and computer skills and provide many of our local people with the opportunity to be employed.
Our English Learning Project will benefit both adults seeking employment and the children at Kings School who cannot speak English.
The cost of the Rosetta Stone Internet subscription license (valid for 12 months) is $95 per license per year, we need to acquire 25 licenses which will cost us a total of $2375. Please pray with us for this amount as we are trusting for 25 donors who can contribute a once off amount of $95 each to cover these costs.
We would like to start our English Learning Project in mid February and should you know of anyone who would like to donate any finances towards our nation building initiative, please put us in contact with them.









Our goal for this year is to train 100 people in our English Learning Project.

In South Africa 1 employed local person supports a family of 7!
Join with us as we trust God to impact 700 lives this year by training 100 people in our English Learning Project.

USA Christmas to a UK New year!

Christmas = White in USA.
New Year = Jetlagged in the UK.

We had an awesome Christmas day with Scot & Rene @ their place. The next week we played low ball just saying good-bye to our friends and wrapping up any unfinished business we had.

We were able to sign a contract as an affiliate with a TEFL school here which is an awesome value-add for HIA. As well as Present HIA's dream to a large church in Arvada.

Well we had an uneventful flight back to the UK where we're planning on heading on to Scotland for a couple of days to spend time with some old friends, Simon and Julia, who we met through my folks about three years ago. I'll DEFINATELY be looking for some nice landscape pics there ;-)

It feel like it's all kinda like downhill from here... it feels strange to be at the end of something you've been waiting for for close on 20 years. But we're determined to suck this trip dry of every morsel of marrow (called life) that God intends for us to take from this bone.
Below is a couple of pics saying the words which I fail to say as I don't have space for a thousand words a pic :-D

Thanksgiving Dinner with the Crows in Montana.
The first ever thanksgiving was with the American Indians... So was ours ;-)




Amanda with One of the orphans from the crow reserve.








Leon "whowearsabuffalo" Laubscher











Kids made gingerbread houses with Rene.



















The Amphitheatre: Everyone whose anyone in the music world has played here including people like Jimmy Henrix, The Beatles, Sting... Actually if you can name them and they're from the USA the chances of them having played here are very high. ;-)












Look we too can walk on water!! only catch is that this waters not moving.. anywhere for a looong time.







The Christmas Carolers in Downtown Denver.















We were blessed with a FREE carriage ride to see the Christmas lights of denver... it turns out it was the last ride of the season!





Christmas Lights in Denver

















Ronnie and Marcella under the lights.









Christmas with friends.








mmm.... And we call ourselves "chirstians" ? :-)











My Christmas gift!! Yay!!

Merry Christmas!

We'd love to wish all our Friends and family an absolutely fabulous Christmas.

As the war on Christmas rages in the east and is washed down in the west may you receive a "magnet in your hearts and a compass in your heads."

May that magnet pull you closer to God and, contrary to popular wisdom, may your head follow your heart.

We love you all.

Leon, Amanda, Alythia and Talitha.

Allow us to introduce some of our American Friends.

Some of you might have recieved this as an email earlier but as we said at the bottom, we would republish as soon as we received better pics of Jude & Cindy... So here they are.

****

Lately we've been wrestling with what it is that God has in store for us and why it is we feel He sent us to the USA and for so long, BUT as the first sentence of our last blog put it, we know that "In all these things we are more than conquerors!!"

We have had some of the most amazing encounters with the most interesting people and God has knit our hearts with awesome Kingdom minded people.

True, the experience has not been everything we expected but I truly believe that it's been EVERYTHING God planned.

When one plants a seed, the seed disappears and it would appear as though NOTHING is happening to the naked eye. There is no movement in the ground there is no evidence of growth to be seen.

When growth appears everyone is excited and jumps around and rejoices BUT growth is not the ultimate goal, fruit is!

So the plant grows and then at the right time it is pruned in order to yield much fruit. The fruit has to be quality fruit that contains quality seed so that the cycle can start again. And that is what we're after. Kingdom advancing fruit that will continue to grow once it's out of our hands.

I believe we're in the pruning stage as well as the planting stage. That's the funny thing about the spiritual realm. Many things can happen simultaneously and then again it could take years for just one stage to complete. :-)

That said, allow us to introduce you to a couple of the amazing families that have been involved in God's farming in our lives during our faith adventure:

This is the Ingram family, their contribution to helping us on our Road trip to Anaheim and back was enormous! Thanks Andy for lending us your GPS it saved a lot of headaches and frustration... not to mention petrol. We love you guys.






Our Wyoming family. Mister Dave and Miss Molly, your hospitality was enormous and your hand of friendship both warm and welcome in a VERY cold state ;-)









Bee and Pat. What amazing peeps. we spent one of our most memorable outings with them in Atlanta.











One thing we overlooked in planning from this trip was... transport! Ronnie and Marcella have not only become some of our closest friends here in Colorado but they also lent us their mini van for the entire duration of our stay.
Guys, we could NEVER repay you. Your generosity has caused us to glorify God.






South Africa will find you wherever you go!
It was so refreshing meeting up with Scott & Rene who planted in Lakewood Colorado. We spent a week at their place and then spent Christmas with them as well. Thanks guys your hospitality was refreshing.
















Jude and Cindy. As I was writing this I realized we didn't have a good shot of them. They have been responsible for putting us in touch with organizations that we could share the vision of HIA with. Thanks guys we appreciate it.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Rom 8:37).
Dear believer, after experiencing the terrible valley of suffering, did you depart with the spoils? When you were struck with an injury and you thought you had lost everything, did you trust in God to the point that you came out richer than you were before? Being "more than a conqueror" means taking the spoils from the enemy and appropriating them in your favour in order that you might advance the kingdom of God. - selected
This will result in your being witnesses to them (Lk 21:13)
Life is a steep climb, and its always encouraging to have those ahead "call back" and cheerfully summon us to higher ground. We all climb together, so we should help each other.
"If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back -
It will cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perhaps, Faith's light is dim, because oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you when the forest's roots were torn;
That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill, He bore you and held you where the lofty air was still.

O friend, call back, tell me for I cannot see your face;
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet sprint in the race;
But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

But if you'll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you'll say He saw you through the night's sin darkened sky-
If you have gone a little way ahead, O friend, call back-
It will cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track. (selected)

Thank you to those of you who have given us a "call back", your encouragement has meant so much to us. We too have a "call back" and that is:
When we decided to pursue this faith adventure we did not have every detail perfectly planned as we were reliant on people, we did not have all the finances that we had hoped to have, we did not have all the accomodation set out for the three months that we were going to be away from our lovely home, we did not have all the speaking arrangements for three months scheduled in detail, we did not even have an existing ministry but a new vision that God had placed in our hearts but in spite of all the things we did not have we did have FAITH in a Father who had put something in our hearts and an OBEDIENCE to act upon that faith, so with faith and obedience we were armed for our trip and we are calling back to say we serve a faithful God!
Job answered God "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
I once lived by rumours of you; now I have it all firsthand - from my own eyes and own ears. I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumour." (Job 42: 1-6 selected, Message ver.)
We love you all dearly.