Thankfulness

Make a joyful shout all you lands, Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing . Know that the Lord He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and unto His courts praise, Be thankful to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good ; and His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100, 1-5 NKJV As we approach another Thanksgiving we are reminded of God's goodness. How He has blessed us. And it is God that is the one that has made us and sustains us. Not only will we be celebrating another Thanksgiving it will also be Christmas, the time we remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and shortly a new year, oh where has this year gone? As we begin to look back on another year we are blessed to see what God has done, in our own lives as well as the ministry. He gave us the vision in February to start a pre-school with a feeding program and although there has been some challenges along the way it has been a success. We have 28 orphaned and vulnerable children being taught life skills, basic education, a nutritious daily meal but most importantly all through God's word. We can see the difference in the lives of these children. Thanks to all that helped make “The Kitchen” at the pre-school possible, it has been a blessing to the cooks and also the children. We will be finishing the cover and seating area in the next few weeks. The Kids clubs and adult bible studies are going well. We have recently began helping Nginamodovlo , feed about 30 orphans and vulnerable children, this is one of the communities in which we are doing a kids bible club and adult bible study. We have several to be baptized and will be conducting a baptismal service December 17th. In the Lesibovu community. Pray that those being baptized will continue to grow and walk with the Lord. We begin a new kids bible club and adult bible study January 2018 in this area. This will be a two hour drive from our home, the area is very rural please pray for safe travels as the roads are not in good condition. As we come to the end of the year some of you may be looking to give charitable to help with your taxes please consider donating to the feeding program at the pre school,you can give now to meet the deadline for giving. The cost per month to provide a daily nutritious meal for 28 orphans and vulnerable children is $ 200.00 USD, $ 2,400.00 per year. Also if you are looking for a life changing experience consider planning a short term mission trip to Swaziland in 2018. We would love to have you come and see what Second Mile is doing but most importantly see what God is doing! Diane and I wish you and your family a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. Blessings,Don & Diane

Christianity

2 Timothy 4:3,4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. NKJV How true are these words today. Many people do not want to hear the truth of the scriptures, what we would call sound doctrine (teaching). But rather want to seek those “ teachers” that will instruct to their wishes and feelings, and after their own desires. Many want preachers, missionaries to tell them what they want to hear rather than want God wants them to hear. This is particularly true in Swaziland today. The biggest, most attended churches seems to be those that are teaching what the people want to hear rather than teaching God’s word. We see advertisements regularly announcing; “ 30 Days of Prophetic Shift For Your Miracle Speed Up “ “ All Night Prayer For Prophetic Healing” “Come And Receive Creative Miracles” At the same time we read of “pastors” that force their congregation to drink gasoline, to eat live snakes and one pastor even made a personal cell phone call to God while preaching, some say “They “ have a special power and relationship with God. Others say, “There’s No Life After Death”. Of course we believe that God still performs miracles, heals people if it is His will. However prophecies in the bible foretold of the Messiah that would die to save His people from their sins. God is the only one that knows the future. The guys and women that call themselves “pastors” are promoting themselves rather than pointing people to God. Pray with us that those that do teach and preach the Word Of God stay strong and faithful. We have had a busy, good last couple of months. Brett (our Grandson) was again able to come over and spend his summer break helping us in the ministry. He has been such a blessing not only to us but to many of the Swazi people both children and adults. The people and we will miss him. We have had the pleasure of hosting a few mission teams; one was a small team of young adults that were such a blessing to us all. We invite all no matter how many, we ask to be over the age of 12 to plan a short-term mission trip with us. We know you will be a blessing as well as be blessed. Our pre-school continues to go well with just a bump or two. However God is working and the children and adults are learning. We were able to start and finish the Stove, soon we will continue with seating and a canopy over it all. Kids clubs and adult bible studies are continuing strong. We have partnered with a ministry that gives palliative care to children, helping them with providing the Hospice care buckets. If God continues to open doors of opportunity to minister, with possibly another pre-School and feeding site, we are trusting Him for the resources needed to begin these new ministries.

HIS will

“ Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” Ephesians 3:20 How this verse reminds me that we have a great and mighty God that is faithful abundantly to do more in us and through us than we ask. As Diane and I seek to do His will, and when God reveals his wil,l sometimes the task seems so high above our reach. The questions begin to flood in, When? How? Time? Strength? Ability? Finances? Yet with all these questions God reminds us of His Ability, that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all, with His power that works in us. When God reveled that we needed to open a Care Center, a place that would offer orphaned and vulnerable children a place of safety, love, and learning (through pre school) a daily meal but most importantly a place they will be taught that they are not forgotten and are very much loved by God and they can find hope in Jesus. We did not have all the answers on just how we would be able to do this but we knew this was God’s will. We have 28 orphans and vulnerable children coming to the Care Center Monday through Friday. They are being fed porridge for breakfast and beans and rice for lunch. The day consists of Prayer (learning to talk to God) Learning our ABC’s, our colors and shapes. We have Bible story time. We are trying to instill Godly principles into these young ones. We have two Volunteer teachers who are eager to help the children in their area. There are approximately 10 Bo-make’ (bow-maggie meaning older ladies) who cook on a rotation schedule daily. We are in need of a cooking stove and area for the cooks and the children. This we pray will come in HIS time. To God is the glory that we are able to care for these children. We would like to introduce you to one of the 28 orphans and vulnerable children that receive care at the Center. Siphesihle, is a three-year-old little girl living with HIV/Aids, she is quiet but very open when it comes to allowing others to show love. Siphesile is currently taking ARV’s to help combat her HIV however a daily balanced diet is essential to her well being, through the daily meal she receives at the center Siphesihle for now is getting that vital nutrition needed. Will you consider helping us help Siphesile and the other children continue to get this daily nutritious meal? For a monthly contribution of only Twenty-Five dollars we can continue to provide not only a daily meal but pre-school education, early childhood development skills but most importantly teach on their level the word of God and ultimately leading them to a life saving relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessings, Don and Diane

As we look back to 2016 it was a year of ups and downs, but as I think about it there were many more ups and many more blessed things. None of us knew what 2016 had in store for us as well as 2017; with that thought in mind this scripture came to me. “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; and his mercy (love) is everlasting; and his truth (faithfulness) endure to all generations. Psalm 100 Within these verses we are reminded that God is good and it was he that made us and we are his people, he cares for us as the Shepard cares for his sheep. In all things we are to praise him, give thanks, because the Lord is good and his love is always with us and his faithfulness never ends. So no matter what comes our way in 2017 we can be assured that God will be there through it. We want to express our gratitude for the prayers and monetary support for our surgeries, we are much better and continue improvement daily.

This New Year brings Diane and I, and the ministry to new challenges, as we continue our current ministries we are also opening our first Outreach Center February 7. The center is located in one of the communities we have a kid’s bible club and adult bible study. It is a rural area with many needs, of course the spiritual need is the greatest, and however there is a physical need as well. It makes it difficult to teach them that God loves and cares for them when they are hurting physically and are hungry. This area like others has many orphaned and vulnerable children due to the HIV/ Aids virus. These children face very difficult lives many are abused there is a lack of food, clean water and clothing; they also feel unloved and not valued. The Outreach Center will provide these children a safe place in which they will be loved and valued. We will provide a pre-school to better prepare them for school if they have a chance to go, they will also be taught basic hygiene, health and other developmental things. They will also have fun playing games. A daily nutritional meal will also be provided; we will also conduct wellness checks providing basic health care and referral if needed to a clinic or other medical centers. But most of all they will be taught God’s word. It is our desire that these children grow healthy physically, but also spiritually. Please pray as God has placed starting this Care Center on our hearts that He will also provide the resources we need to operate. With that said if anyone would like to sponsor this Center or an orphan please let us know, we would be thrilled to help you. Orphan sponsorship is $25.00 a month and Care Center $ 250.00 dollars a month. 100% of your sponsorship will go to this cause. We are scheduling short term mission trips for 2017, if you or your church would like to experience ministry first hand we would love to have you come to Swaziland for a one to two week mission experience. Anyone may contact us via our emails and we would be glad to help you plan this life changing experience. We would love to hear from you either snail mail or email... or even via phone. Second Mile Ministries Don & Diane Page PO Box 2611 Mbabane, Swaziland AFRICA H100 donpage236@gmail.com diane.rambeaut.page@gmail.com (268) 7853 2610 Don (268) 7818 1104 Blessings, Don and Diane