Mission Update from South Africa
February 7, 2008
Dear Family & Friends,
My first update for this brand new 2008 year, so I must just say I wish you all a healthy & happy & wonderful new year. One filled to the brim with the knowledge of how much God loves all of you.
I received a Christmas card from a friend that had an innocent enough short note...it simply said, 'haven't heard from you in awhile, tell me how God has been using you'. This one phrase "HOW HAS GOD BEEN USING YOU?" Really just stayed with me.
The end of the year often makes a lot of us ponder, what has happened this past year, what can I do to change things in the new year? Sometimes these thoughts conjure up regrets, or longings to have done things differently and yes, even sometimes we think, 'you know it really has been a good year'.
I thought of what was written by my friend & I thought of my work here at Beautiful Gate. I have now started my 5th year here in South Africa working at Beautiful Gate Ministries. THIS makes me just stop, and marvel at how fast time really does pass by. When I first left the United States I came with my heart full of expectations of making a difference in some child's life. I came because I wanted to rock babies and cuddle them and sing to them and to be a loving presence because their own mama couldn't or didn't want to be with them. I wanted to sing the love of Jesus over them, to speak hope into their future, to give them a face that wouldn't leave them, but watch over them. I often hear people say about me.."oh, Valerie, she is with the babies of South Africa ". That WAS true for a time, but now things have changed.
Changed in a good way, but not in the way I expected. The babies I rocked and sang to and cuddled are now growing up. Where once we here at Beautiful Gate wondered if they would even live due to the complications from them being HIV+, these same children are on the medications needed to help keep them healthy. What a joy it is for me to tell visitors that we have NOT had to go to our local cemetery since October of 2003. No small white boxes for us, no tears of grieving, no wondering if we could have done something else to prolong their lives.
Now, we buy backpacks to hold school supplies, we help with homework club, we have reunification parties because the children are being returned to healthy, whole & secure homes again.
So I don't rock babies any longer, so now I have to face the question, "HOW HAS GOD BEEN USING YOU?" My connection with the children is as strong as ever, especially in my work as Sponsor a Child Coordinator. I am blessed to brag on these children to others that have agreed to financially support and keep these children in prayer. The children are growing up, no longer babies. Now the challenge is RAISING these very same children.
We get the TV show Oprah here, albeit often 4 months or more behind, but it does come here to South Africa . I see how much she loves Africa and how she and others in the celebrity world have done what they could to help the children of Africa . The question that comes to my mind over & over is just this. "OK, you have sent the money for the Anti Retro Viral (ARV's) medicine to keep these children alive but NOW what?" What we have here in South Africa , and most every country on this continent are children that have no one to RAISE them. Their mamas & tatas, aunties & uncles have all passed away, often leaving just their gogos' (elderly grandmothers) to raise them. And raise them they do, the best way they know how.
Why am I bringing this up? Quite frankly just to get others thinking about others. I certainly don't have any answers, but maybe some of you do. Maybe God will place in you something that can be done, some way you can help. Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone could think of a viable way to help raise this generation of children, the future of this continent in a God fearing upstanding way?
As I said the statement made me wonder, well, Valerie Gail, exactly how IS God using you? A time of reflection for me for sure. Sometimes we think we have to have huge results in front of us to feel our worth in Christ, and sometimes in his kindness he just shows us. This is what has happened to me. Are there monumental things happening with me? Not only monumental but eternal things as well. Oh, probably not to the passer by, but to a few children here at Beautiful Gate I matter.
To the children who come to my work area to take me excitedly to see that the seeds we planted not long ago are now green beans. Green beans that they water, not often enough, but God in his mercy kept alive. These children are growing not only green beans but growing in responsibility and finding joy in keeping to the task until it is completed. They are learning patience and gentleness, in treating the young plants tenderly and watching over the tiny flowers that will become beans. They, like their green beans, are growing up, not just planted and surviving but growing up. They are learning that they have to watch out for snails that will sneak in and eat the leaves of their precious plants. Kind of like when we might allow the little indiscretions to come into our lives to try to eat the fruit of our labors.
We all do what we can here to keep our God given ministry running smoothly. So for a little part of my day, I get to go and pick up the children from school, and hear about their day, and laugh with them, and make them laugh when I go over a speed bump (a little) fast to make them jump like popcorn.
I am busy helping to raise these children; this is how God is using me for this wonderful season of my life. And for this I could just melt with joy. Is it always easy? Absolutely not, but it is here with these children that brings me so much joy. I cannot do what I do without YOU!! Without your financial support, without your prayers, without your encouragement via e-mails, post or phone calls.
I tell all of you this for one reason, so IF you EVER ponder upon the question, "How is God using YOU?" you can answer with a resounding answer that YOU are a part of what I do here at Beautiful Gate, YOU are making a difference, YOU matter!!
If you would like more information about our Sponsor a Child program just e-mail me at sponsorachild@beautifulgate.org and I will be happy to give you information to consider and pray about.
If you would like to give financially to help me keep doing what I do you can give through YWAM, PO Box 3000 , Garden Valley , TX 75771-3000. Attach a note to your check with my name Valerie Gail Markowski; do not write on the check to be able to get tax benefit for your giving. Giving can be done automatically through your bank account or credit card contact Matthew Harke at mharke@ywamtyler.org or via phone 903-882-5591 for the easiest way to set this up.
I just want to end this update with a wonderful praise report. Many of you prayed for me especially in regards to finding a new place to live. God has blessed me with a wonderful flat (apartment), it is in a renovated hotel, so the ceilings are nice and high, it came furnished, so all I had to bring with me were my own personal belongings. To have a unit that comes with a refrigerator and a stove and built in shelves and wardrobe is such a God thing. In the hunt for a new place, I came to realize that "furnished' meant different things to different people, some considered a place furnished if there were curtains & a chair. God went before me and opened doors that I could not have believed could have been opened. If you would like to see the photos of my new place drop me an e-mail and I will be happy for you to see the results of your prayers.
Prayer requests:
· Moving deposits & set up as well as large repair bill for 'Grace' my car has put a strain on finances.
· For our ministry as we go through our own 'growing/changing pains'.
· For our local countries of Kenya & Zimbabwe that God will have his way with the leaders & bring peace to these countries peoples, especially with the women & children in these areas.
· For two dear families that have had to say good-bye to two wonderful women of God much too early for those of us left behind, sweet Myra & Nancy . May God's grace continue to comfort them all!
Be blessed, Valerie Gail
My work day number: 027-021-370-2500 work # Mon-Fri 8a-4:30 pm
My cell number: 027-072-381-5493 (also accepts text messages, really, try it!)
Mailing: Valerie Markowski, c/o Beautiful Gate, PO Box 144 , Mitchells Plain 7789, South Africa
Financial Donations for me: YWAM, PO Box 3000, Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000 (Do not write my name on check/only on outside envelope or attached note to obtain tax credits). For additional info or help setting up automatic giving via draft/credit card contact Matthew Harke directly either at mharke@ywamtyler.org or via phone 903-882-5591.
More information about Beautiful Gate Ministries: http://www.beautifulgate-rsa.org/
