Alun & Debbie Burt

3^rd July 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

The vuvuzelas continue to blow loudly this evening, though this time not for Bafana Bafana, England or sadly, not even for Ghana.  This last month has been a lot of fun as South Africa hosts the World Cup.  Our kids have loved waving flags, singing the SA football songs, dancing over goals and borrowing a TV for the month from our friends.  We are really pleased to report that three weeks in, the country has really proved the cynics wrong in holding a safe and slick event.  Many of our friends have been to games at the new Cape Town stadium and have reported that they felt like they were in a different city so well organized were the matches and the transport to them.  We pray that it continues. 

Reports on the number of child victims over this time are not yet out – fears were great that abuse and child prostitution would rocket over the last month.  We pray that the fears in this area would also not have been realised. 

The world cup has meant that both St. Thomas and Arise have been busy putting on holiday programmes for the school children who are on school holidays for the duration of the tournament.  Alun led a two-day discipleship training school for his youth – teaching them the bible and looking at the areas of music in the church services and at children’s ministry.  The teens enjoyed the opportunity to play musical instruments and learn a couple of new songs. 

The following week these teens acted as junior leaders for Arise’s soccer clinic.  Building on the success of last years programme, Arise along with another Christian organization ‘Upward Sports’, put on a weeks activities combining daily bible teaching and small group discipleship with soccer skills and competitions.  Despite it being a tiring week for the leaders and not the best weather, Arise’s outreach team were delighted by both the turn out and the running of the event.  Over 60 children participated – a highlight was the kids beating the leaders on the last morning.  The noise was so loud for that hour that half of the staff team gave up typing at their desks and rather came to watch and take photos! 

The following week Alun took his youth away for a camp in Fish Hook.  Thank you for your prayers – it truly was a wonderful camp, and great to see the beginnings of the fruit of the gospel in these children’s lives. Not only did they get along with each other (mostly) but they were also keen to hear the Bible taught and applied to their lives, and to spend time in prayer. Not a natural thing for teenagers to be interested in you may say, but it is not a natural thing for anyone of us really. It is a sign of God softening hearts and minds and renewing people in his image. Please continue to pray for these young people, for their ongoing discipleship, and that they may in turn become teenagers who lead their peers to Christ. 

The opening celebration and thanksgiving service for the Arise Family Centre was a wonderful occasion with over 200 people packing out St. Thomas’.  A great mixture of local community members, staff from the local school and supporters from churches across Cape Town came to thank God for his provision.  We had tea, eats and conducted tours through the building afterwards.  At the moment of writing Arise has raised R660.000 leaving us to raise approximately R800.000 (75 thousand pounds sterling) to pay off the bond.  The Church of England in South Africa kindly offered Arise a long-term loan so the project could be fast tracked.  However, Arise is now praying that it can clear this debt as soon as possible in order to allow us to focus on fundraising for operational costs.  Please pray for this money to come in. 

Alun’s brother Paul was able to stay with us for a month which we thoroughly enjoyed.  Paul volunteered to make two short films for Arise which we hope to share with you all in September.  Over ten hours of video were shot which capture Heideveld and some of the families Arise is working with.  The local children loved being on video as indeed did their families.  Pray for Paul as he works hard back in England to edit the films – it is our prayer that they will help us as we seek to share the Arise vision and encourage more families to consider fostering and adoption. 

Family wise we all loved having Uncle Paul to stay for four weeks.  We were able to enjoy several day trips around the Cape and many evenings spent chatting and catching up on each others lives.  Family visits are so special – both children are greatly anticipating our month home in September and almost daily make some mention of their ‘England’ family.  Likhona has learnt to ride a two-wheeler bike this past week and has suddenly shown a great interest in learning to write letters.  Our little girl moved into a big bed two nights ago and is delighted to be sleeping underneath her brother – thanks to bunk beds that we were recently given.  We’d like to share with you a conversation that has warmed our hearts as we observe Likhona starting to take on some of the lessons we try to teach him day-to-day.  On the day Alun left for camp, Likhona with beaming face turned to Debbie and said – ‘I am the daddy now’!  In reply Debbie asked, ‘so what must a daddy do?’  Thoughtfully he replied ‘protect you mommy…and eat BIG!’   Smiling, Debbie asked ‘and what is the most important thing a daddy must do?’   He responded without hesitation, ‘listen to God’.  Mommy smiled again and said ‘that’s right’ and ‘teach their children to follow Jesus’.  Likhona interrupted quickly ‘I was just getting to that mommy’!   Pray for us that we will continue to parent these precious ones in the fear and love of God.

We value your prayers for their adoptions immensely – we heard that Ilana’s foster order was finally granted on 21^st June, though we are still to receive the paper work in our hands.  One slow step forwards….

Well, it is bed time and we are running out of space.  Love and greetings to you all and thank you for your continued support of the Burts in Heideveld, South Africa.

Alun, Debbie, Likhona and Ilana xxxx