Month: December 2013

Christmas in Orlando

13 12 Flag for Mandela
Flag Half Mast for Nelson Mandela at our Office

We are missing South Africa! It has been very real this past week with the passing of Tata Nelson Mandela and as we watch our friends on Facebook start their well deserved December holidays.

This Christmas season will be different for us. The school holiday is 20 December – 6 January but currently we are in the midst of tests, assignments and Christmas parties. We are looking forward to hosting dear friends from South Africa for five days over Christmas.

This year brought many changes for the Dell family. Some were hard and some were wonderful. We want to thank you for your support, prayers and encouragement as we followed God’s call. We are blessed to be in His service with you as our partners.

May you have a merry Christ-filled Christmas and may 2014 be a year of growth, grace and good health!

Your “missing you” friends,

Stefan, Marié, Kenneth & Monica

P.S. Click here to see how Christmas is celebrated in our neighbourhood!

Showing JESUS at School

Monica Class

Eighteen third grade faces watched me intently as I walked the tightrope of Chrisitianity in a public school. Once a year, parents have the opportunity to tell their child’s class about their job or hobby.

Monica’s teacher invited me to speak about South Africa, but I had another idea. I could speak about my work, and being a foreigner, I had an excuse to “not know all the rules.” I prayed for wisdom to use this unique opportunity.

Over the past 20 years we have been involved with the Jesus Film, and the most fascinating part is the translation of the film into other languages. The Jesus Film is available in 1,191 languages, and holds a world record for being the most translated film in history.

I titled my presentation “How film translations are made” and had a fun drama with a part for every child. I showed them a short clip from the “Jesus film for children” and then offered everyone a copy.

There were a few stressful moments because I sensed the teachers didn’t quite know how to handle the situation. But both Kenneth and Monica’s class loved it. Each child took a DVD afterwards and I specifically chose one that had 20 different languages on so that all the students with other home languages could enjoy it with their families.

Praise and Prayer

  • Praise the Lord for the opportunity to speak at the school and for Monica’s teacher who privately indicated to me that she is a Christian.
  • Pray that the 36 DVDs that were taken will be watched by many people.
  • Pray for Kenneth and Monica to be shining lights for Jesus. They were encouraged that some class mates also identified themselves as Christians after my presentation.
  • Christmas time can naturally lead to spiritual conversations. Pray for boldness to use these opportunities.

Missionary

Marié