Waldvogel News

Waldvogelnews

2011-12-25T06:26:00.000-08:00

"Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men

on whom his favor rests."

Lk 2:14

Dear friends, this is what the birth of our saviour has brought for us!!! Glory to God, His excellency and power is shown in "helpless babe" that has become our only salvation!!!

Hallelujah, what a God and what a saviour!!!! What grace & blessing that we can be such on whom His favor rests, we can be those men of goodwill, of His favor.

This is Christ mas!

May you have a great one this year & a blessed 2012!!!!

We are well and regaining strength, we have a sabbatical until the end of Jan and will start with deputation work in february. So good to be at the mission base here, have power and water 24/7 and a functioning country for a change. Walks and joggs in the forests and time with the Lord and together. So important to have this "base time" just to be and have fellowship. Just miss our friends at the other end of the world.

We've seen some family and it has been challenging but good. Early Jan we will be with friends in switzerland. Middle of Jan we will go on a 10 day retreat. Thanks for your prayer & support.

Again may Jesus' peace guide you through this christ mas season and the New year,

your Martin & Silke + David (very happy playing in the snow :-) We had some snow before christ mas

Waldvogelupdate

2011-11-22T01:21:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

how are you?

We are well and on our countdown for take off this friday.

We are going to Germany for a year of home assignement & sabatical.

We have served here now for 9 years and praise God for it! Though these years were not easy ones. So this home assignement will have a bigger part of time for recuperation & prayer as the other ones.

We are also asking the Lord for how long we are to return to Zimbabwe, we do need his wisdom and do not want to rely on our own "wisdom". Prov 3:7

We have been priviledged to speak at our location and our house church + the Retirement village chaple in the last couple of weeks. Saying good bye and God bless to all our friends and church family here. We've taken the kids from the orphanage out several times and they all make us heavy hearts about going for a year. We praise God for all of them and again ask for his guidance.

We are looking forward to come to GB in march.

We have applied for a permanent residence visa here- please pray for God's leading with that too.

Thanks for all you do for us,

loads of love & blessings with Psalm 150,

your Martin & Silke + David

Day with kids today please pray :-)

2011-09-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

how are you?

We are fine.

Thanks for your continued prayer support!!!

Today (sat) we are going with 103 kids from the orphanage to a game park.

Please pray for safety ( no there aren't any lions.. :-), and that the Lord will give us a good day. Also that the message will find their hearts.

Thanks to for praying for our visa application that we did this week.

With loads of love & Prov 3,

your Martin & Silke + David

Ps. David used the potty today for the first time :-)

News from the Waldvogels

2011-08-24T02:55:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

how are you?

Thank you so much for praying for us out in Africa!

We are so aware of your prayers!

We've had a full term and it's good to have some more breathing space at the moment to be able to do some thing that normally there is no time for & get a rest to.

Our short term mission team from the Baptist Church in Johannesburg/SA was a great encouragement for us & they were a great blessing to us and the churches, schools & orphanage here!

At the moment we have a team from Harare here for a teaching session day & sleep over. It's great to share some of our experience & methods with them.

The last couple of months have been busy with finishing up teaching, holding lessons in the orphanage and been involved with our churches. Last Sunday Silke shared in our house church on Prov 3:5+6 & I preached on Joel 3_32. God is such a great saviour-what grace to belong to Him!!!! We had good responses in both times & about 10 people coming for prayer afterwards. God is building his kingdom!!!

David continues to grow well, he's a delight to us. Of course almost 2,5 years old now he's also testing his limits :-)

We are planning to go to Germany at the end of Nov. for a year of home assignment/Sabbatical/orientation. About march time we'll come over to UK to. We are praying for God's direction, please do to. At the moment we are applying for the permanent residency. The outcome of this (please pray :-), we will also count in into how long the Lord wants us in Zimbabwe to. But also other ways that the Lord speaks to us.

We really want to be in the centre of God's will, nowhere else will we have peace.

Thank you again for being behind us & God bless you richly,

your Martin & Silke + David

PS. Tomorrow we're off to celebrate our 11th year wedding aniversary-Praise the Lord!!! We'll be at our african "Black Forest" for two days

Love, prayer for Mission Team & Guidance

2011-06-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

how are you doing?

Finally another update, sorry for not writing earlier.

We did have a good break in South-Africa and returned in May from it.

Great friends gave us their cottage down there in Fish Hoeck again and we really praise God for them and it! :-)

Back in Zim we are busy again with the schools, churches, ladies bible study and the orphanage.

We are very excited about a group of 9 people from Eden Vale Baptist Church (Johannesburg SA) that are coming up this week for 7days to visit us here (25.06-02.07). Do pray for God's blessings in this time as we take them around and as we share God's word together with all the kids and people here. They'll be coming into the schools & churches with us, old people home & the orphanage. Pray for their travels & a real anointing + harvest of souls.

David is growing well & also starting to test his limits. He's a sunshine for us!

Do pray for us as a couple and family as things are a bit up and down sometimes.

Do please continue to pray for God's guidance as we seek his will regarding the future. We really want to know what God has for us. Life here is not easy, but we want to be in the centre of God's will. Not being led by circumstances but by our Father God!

Thank you for your prayer and support in so many ways!

In His love & holiness,

your Martin & Silke + David

Greetings from the Waldvogels/ Please pray for Tinashe, Takundwa & Mercy & Direction for us.

2011-03-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

how are you?

Thanks to our German PC Specialist at DMG our Outlook Express is sending out again-Praise God!!!

Thank you for your prayer and sorry for that rather long pause in our updates, we hope the bites are sending out well now for a while!

David continues to grow strong and he is a real delight to us, apart from the little boarder limit excursions that he's setting out on frequently.

From our recent newsletter you finally got some information, so you know about the ups and downs that we are having.

The work in the schools is going well, the two guys mentioned above and one girl have given their lives to the Lord and it is a great joy to us! I see them from time to time and have told the Christian teacher at their school to look out for them. Please pray that we will be able to encourage them to walk on with the Lord.

We also had the mission week at the Peter House School where I was marginally involved. Out of 800 Kids about 600 raised their hands to commit or recommit to the Lord. Please pray that after emotional ups at the great night, real life with the Lord will follow.

The kids at the orphanage are such treasures, even though they have gone though terrible hardships. It a privilege to see them every Wednesday afternoon to spend time together and share God love and word with them. Also to have little outings to the dam with the crew.

Do pray for direction for us, since there are some open questions regarding the future. We've had some nasty robberies in the direct neighbourhood and quite a few things are not so easy to stomach here.

Thanks for all your help and that you are behind us,

God bless you, your Martin & Silke +David

Love from South-Africa

2010-11-23T02:23:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

how are you?

We are well, but sorry :our lines having been very quite, our outlook express was jammed, we only managed to get it fixed yesterday.

At the moment we are in Johannesburg. We've been down to the southern most tip of the african continent for a holiday. Some friends gave us the use of their sea side cottage and we had three great weeks of sun & seas. Yes seas, we were on the indian&atlantic oceans :-)

Near the cape of good hope , a place called fish hoeck. The Lord gave us a great time there. With Him and one another. It was good to reflect and wait on the Lord. The situation in Zim is still difficult but we got some more hope for it now, and know that this is God's place for us at the moment. Thanks for praying on for God's guidance and strength.

The doors for ministry is still wide open in Zim and we know that God uses us there.

This monday we will return, at the moment Silke is getting busy getting new supplies and arranging the flowers and deco at the wedding from our Southern-Africa mission leaders son.

God bless you with Revelation 21,

your Martin&Silke +David

PS.As you can see on the picture David is growing tall& strong

one of Silkes creations

2010-07-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here's "the volcano" with Silke & Tracy

Waldvogel Update

2010-07-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

how are you?

We are doing well and just about weathering the cold :-), seems you in Europe are having the very opposite problem at the moment!

Apart from various cold we are well. David is keeping us busy :-) He decided suddenly to start walking three days ago and is very determined to bring to light everything out of the depths of our cub boards :-)

He's a delight and we praise God so much for this precious live that the Lord has entrusted into our hands for a while... He continued to be a very active & jolly chap-please pray that he will find the Lord early on in his life! We went to the Wenimbi Dam about 5 k's from here the other day with some children from the orphanage and David bonded very well with them as you can see on the attached picture.

Apart from looking after David, Silke has done & achieved very well at the Kwekwe Flower Show. With her friend Tracy she received three 1st Prices and one 3rd price!!! She did come back rather exhausted but very satisfied. Making new friends and also witnessing to the Ladies.

This week sees 4 church activities hosted at (our) the Lord's house : today we have the moms & tots, this Sunday we have our house church service here, Monday the Ladies Bible Study and Wednesday the Men's fellowship. We also have the pleasure of having our sole(non-retired)colleague staying with us and are involved with a Scripture Union Camp. So this weekend should not get to boring again :-)

Do please pray for strength and God's guidance through our lives & ministries here.

Continue please to pray for the N. family. The mother and one son will be moved by the end of the month. The other son and the grandmother have vacated the place already. Please pray for them as they now have to start again looking for jobs, places to live etc.

Please pray for the Scripture Union camp this weekend, our house church here has made it possible for 27 kids from the orphanage to attend it. Pray for the kids to have a great time & learn loads of valuable wisdom from our Lord! Martin will go out Sat. afternoon to teach a lesson and show a video.

God bless you all with John 15:13 our memory very from the last couple of lessons,

your Martin & Silke + David

Waldvogel Update

2010-06-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

Hi our friends,

how are you?

Finally we're sending another update-sorry for our long pause!

David is doing very well, he will soon be walking. Once a week he goes with mum to mums & kiddies & generally brings a lot of joy :-).

We are quite booked out with our ministry here & looking after David.

But it is a good balance of Ministry & family life. Just Wednesday it's pushing the limits a bit for me Martin. 3-4lessons in the primary school, one lesson in the orphanage and our (about 4 months old) men's fellowship in the evening.

Silke is leading the ladies bible study for this term & is a blessing through that ( and many other things:-). Some woman are opening up to the Lord more. - Praise the Lord,

- please pray for all of the above.

Last weekend Silke went with Tracy a goof neighbour & friend to Kwekwe for a flower arranging competition and polished off 4 prices !!!She did a course for it in Harare and did very well with it. I'm so glad she found a hobby that she likes doing here in Africa!!!

For David and me it was beans on toast & a glorious mess for two days :-) (Just kidding- at least a bit :-):-) In any case we're so glad to have Silke back!!!

In our "Springvale" house church we've conducted a 4 part series entitled "Coping with difficult circumstances". In that we passed on what we learned ourselves in our debriefing time in France last furlough. It was an very important time here with themes like "forgiveness", "bringing our pain to Jesus" & "Receiving deliverance by Him" (Isaiah 35+61). It's so important to forgive one another and others, no matter what happened. Not brushing it of as if nothing happened but rather saying "yes , it was bad but I choose to forgive..." Only this sets free!!! In the Lord's prayer Jesus makes it clear that forgiveness is not an option but a prerequisite for receiving forgiveness ourselves.

The teaching at the schools continues, it's such a way into society here! At the first and last weekend in July there will be Scripture Union camps here near Marondera with which I Martin will be involved on a day basis.

Thank you for praying for our ministry and us and that the Lord will glorify Himself in us through His Holy Spirit & so bring others to Himself

Please pray for friends of us family N. who are going though difficulties at the moment.

Please continue to pray for Zimbabwe, that forgiveness will become a reality, even there were people think they can not do it, the war here is only 30 years ago...

Please pray for the many people who need help here that God can carry us using us for them in His love.

With Mat 6:12,

God bless you,

Your 3 Waldvogels,

Martin & Silke + David

Rhino & Impala herd Kruger National Park April 10 019.jpg

2010-04-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

Back after a loong drive with Krüger boys picture

2010-04-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

how are you doing?

Thank you for all your prayers!

We've managed the long journey- though David is not quite a safari man yet...it gets a bit boring after several hours :-)

It was good to be in Johannesburg, do all the shopping and taste a life without daily power and water cuts again.

We had good fellowship with our mission folks down there and also Martin down at the mighty man conference with about half a million guys. It was amazing, how great is our God!!!

Border crossing was OK going down but coming back they made as wait 3.5 hours since we refused to pay some "extra" money on the side...

We praise God that the car made it. When we arrived back the starter motor died on our drive way (inside the gate) -thank you Lord that is was not somewhere on the way!!

Martin had to preach at the pensioners chaple straight after coming back (20min) which was cut short by the non starting starter motor...obviously the Lord's will...!

Do pray for us settling in again, in the last two days we had 3 power and two water cuts already...things here are still not very stable. Do pray for strength.

David ate some flowers in the garden today and we had to take him to hospital for observation for an hour just in case. The flowers didn't agree with him too much and he (thankfully) decided to part with them again...Also his monster molars are breaking through...

Other wise he's a very happy chappy :-)

God bless you with Psalm 99,

your 3 waldvogels

Orphanage, Church, men's fellowship & conference

2010-04-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

how are you?

We trust you had a good Easter celebration! Christ has conquered death – Hallelujah!!!

It's time for an update again!!!

Thank you for your continuing support in prayer & kind!!!

We've been busy finishing off the term. The Mission week in Peterhouse school was amazing with lots of kids committing & recommitting to our Lord Jesus Christ

Term came to a busy end, I was able to continue teaching the life of Jesus , featuring the raising of Jairus' daughter and many other miracles of Jesus.

Attached 5 of the great children from our orphanage who we've taken to the dam several times, what a privilege!!

Our little house church that meets at Springvale school is very encouraging, we've also started a men's fellowship group and are going though the book "wild at heart".

Today we're leaving to South-Africa. Shopping, meeting our missions folks & the mighty men conference is on the program. On the way back we'll drive 300k's through Krüger National Park.

Please pray for protection there are about 2000 Lions there for instance...pray also that the trip and the conference will be a blessed time, where God leads us.

With Psalm 37 V 4-5

your Martin & Silke + David

Waldvogel Update

2010-03-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

this week Martin will be involved with the mission week at Peter House. Please pray for his chapel messages & lessons thereafter on Tuesday & Thursday. Wednesday 3 lessons at the location primary school and a life skill lesson at the orphanage is on the books. Also David will have his first birthday party on Friday:-) On Sunday we'll continue with our series "coping with difficult circumstances" with "Coping with Stress" Silke will share about it. Water & Power is still being "rationed" but at least we can go online via our mobile phone now.

God bless you!! Your 3 Busch birds

Testing email updates ...

2010-03-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

Testing this way of updating M&S blog!

With a picture here

Hallelujah! Arrived in Zim.

2010-02-08T07:37:00.001-08:00

Dear friends,

How are you? We have arrived well on Saturday. Thank you for praying!!!

No water in the pipes (but in our well), no power from the Electricity company (but in our battery & solar panel) , no phone (we're sending this from our neighbors) but the power of the Lord in abundance :-)

The Lord really protected David in Johannesburg, we found a scorpion half a meter away from where he was playing ... Here in Zim he's just caught a bug. Please pray for recovery, it's not too bad but not really enjoyable either :-)

We got our car fixed today- Hallelujah!!!

It was good to see our friends at church yesterday again, they had filled our fridge & left flowers on our tables- what a blessing to have them. Many have gone & are going through hardships again, but still moving on with the Lord-what a testimony to His goodness & faithfulness!!! Martin will preach at our church in two weeks on "coping with post traumatic syndrome & forgiveness".

Also in two weeks the main school here "Peterhouse" will have their annual mission week where we will be involved , thanks for praying for a rich harvest with both.

Our phone has been cut off again, they now want $600 instead of $900 for our phone bill, please pray that they will further lower it, since the figure is badly worked out (or made up to be exact! :-)

Thank you that your are with us in all this, the Lord is supreme over all difficulties & challenges. His plan is good we hold on to that, we are so grateful to have our visa for the next two years & that the Lord is smoothing our path here. He's the boss, he knows our assignment & how to do it, please pray that we will be close to His heart. Pray that we will hear and obey His voice.

In His love & wisdom with Psalm 23,

Your 3 bush birds

Arrived well in SA - Hallelujah

2010-01-31T02:41:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

We've arrived in SA well thanks for your prayer!

When we got rid of our co-passenger (politely asked him to leave :-)
David had 2 seats & slept well.

Here we are shopping already & will have early night!
Here until the 5th of Feb to do palette shopping.

God bless,

Your 3 Woodbirds

Africa is only 7 days away

2010-01-22T03:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayer!

Our journey to France & Switzerland went well. The time of debriefing was very meaningful, especially the bringing our hurts to the cross time in the end. Stuff we don't understand violations etc.

The family visits went well to.

Our return date to Africa is only 7 days away, on the 29th Jan 2010

Thanks for praying for another transition once again. That God will equip & guide us in everything.

Do continue to pray for Martins sister "Kirsten" who prayed with us but needs Jesus' personal encounter.

Thank you, until soon,

Your Martin & Silke + David