An amazing testimony - One year later

I would like to share an amazing story from a family who adopted from Beautiful Gate one year ago. Their story was very unique, and was filled with "mountains" that they needed to climb in order to bring their precious boy home. Please take some time to read their story because it is an encouragement to all and a testimony of perseverance. We at Beautiful Gate are so grateful that they persevered because another of our precious children has a home and a loving family. Please click the link below in order to read the words from his new mother.

http://laughingonthewater.blogspot.com/2016/10/mohale-one-year-later-beautifully.html?m=1

The Power of Prayer

When our children pray at Beautiful Gate, they are asked to fold their arms and close their eyes...this sweet boy is ready to pray. 

Prayer is vital in the life of a Christian and also in the life of a Christian organization. Many of us have experienced the power of prayer and seeking God’s face with deep sincerity and we have seen God respond to the cries of His people.

Beautiful Gate has been privileged to have a prayer team in past years. This team has gone through some changes and we are hoping to jump start a prayer team again.

We know there are some of our readers who have a passion for prayer and maybe belong to prayer groups that are faithfully and fervently interceding on the behalf of others.

We are asking if anyone would like to be on a prayer team for Beautiful Gate Lesotho.

If you are interested, please send an email to Karen opsmanager@beautifulgatelesotho.org

Karen will send prayer updates, praises and requests periodically to your emails as well as periodically on our blog page.

Thank you for considering this and thank you to those who are already praying for Beautiful Gate!  May God receive the glory!

Here are some items that we humbly ask you to pray for..…………

Ongoing prayer items:

•     Health for our children
•     Forever families for our children
•     Emotional and psychological health for our children
•    Salvation for our children
•     Strength, energy and health for our care staff

Current prayer items:

•       For the little one who was reunited with family last week and is old enough to understand and experience the unknowns and fears.
•       For the adoption ceremony that took place on Friday and for the bonding process to be strong and healthy.  We praise God for this new family!

Thank you again for your prayers and support of Beautiful Gate!

Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

           

Working at the Car Wash

We want to extend a huge thank you to the Youth Confirmation class and all who helped them from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Grand Ledge, MI, USA! After hearing about Beautiful Gate Lesotho and our mission to care for abandoned, orphaned, and other vulnerable children, some of the youth at Good Shepherd decided they wanted to do something tangible to help the kids at BG. In order to raise some funds to send to Beautiful Gate the Good Shepherd youth and some other generous volunteers put on a car wash where they were able to raise $700 (~R10,000)! Thank you so much to our brothers and sisters in the Good Shepherd Lutheran community! We are so grateful for your generosity, your compassion, and your partnership!

- Tyler Robbert

"Lemonade For Sale"

Beautiful Gate has friends all over the world. Sometimes these friends do the most beautiful and unexpected things. Recently, we were given a donation from Evelyn (Evi) Hulls, who is a missionary middle schooler in Lesotho. She went on furlough during our winter (her summer) and while she was there, she and a friend decided to have a lemonade stand. It was not just a way of making money to go buy ice cream or make-up, but it was a lemonade stand for a cause. They took their time and sat in the hot sun to raise money for the children at Beautiful Gate. They raised M1550 for the children at Beautiful Gate! That was a pretty successful lemonade stand.

As volunteers, staff and children at Beautiful gate, we are so touched by such a sacrifice by two young teens. Giving up a day that could be spent doing all sorts of fun things, and spending it raising money for those who don’t have parents to provide for their needs. What a gift! Thank you Evi and Carly for your thoughtful gift to Beautiful Gate. Thank you for being a friend to children who really need a friend and advocate. May you both be blessed for the love you have shown to God’s little children in Lesotho. I hope others will be encouraged by your thoughtfulness, and even inspired to find ways to bless the kids at Beautiful Gate. It does not matter what age you are, you can always do something special for a child in need.

 “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12

Here is a picture of their lemonade stand as well as a picture of Evi handing money to our office assistant, Thato, and Evi and her brothers meeting some of the BG children.

~written by Anita Geurink

Welcome To This World

Welcome to this World

You probably have no idea
how special you are.
For years and years you
will carry a scar.
Unwanted, unloved, abandoned
at birth,
People will tell your story with
careless mirth.
Was it a pit toilet, a garbage bag, 
or buried alive?
Unwanted, unloved, until at our gate
you arrived.
Our eyes well with tears as we
hear your story,
Knowing you will be safe now-
we give God the glory.
It breaks our hearts that you came
to us this way,
Unwanted, unloved, and abandoned
until today.
Welcome to this world, my sweet
little child,
This day of your birth has been
anything but mild.
We will give you love, care, and even
your first meal,
As you wait for your new family,
we hope you will heal.
                     Anita Geurink

Reality

There are some days that the reality of this place affects us in deep ways. 

There is a precious child here at Beautiful Gate who arrived recently for a temporary stay. The child's mother was ill and in the hospital and the child could not be around her for fear of the child getting sick also. So we were going to be the caretakers until the mother was better.

This was a difficult separation for mother and child, as the child was old enough to know what was going on and has never been away from mom.

The child has been quite sad ever since arriving to Beautiful Gate. We are concerned because even eating has been affected.

We were informed that the child's mother passed away. 

We will need to tell the child this news. We don't know what the future is, whether or not there are family members willing to take the child. But since the child has already needed a place during the mother's hospitalization, this may be an indication that there may be no one to step forward.

Please pray for this precious one and the brokenness in such a short life. We are praying for the emotional health of the child and for a forever home.

Trusting God together!

Support

A local man whose daughter volunteered with us for a few weeks has blessed Beautiful Gate with a walking tool for our children.

We have been longing for a walking bar in our soft playroom for the children to use to pull themselves up on and walk along side of.

When this man heard of our need, he immediately made things happen so that the bar would be finished as soon as possible. The bar was installed within the next few days and has been in good use ever since!

Now with the walking bar, the children who are just learning to stand and walk have been using the bar for support and gaining confidence each day. We now have one of our little ones who was a bit behind in walking…. taking steps on her own!

We are so thankful for the gift of this bar and for the support of our local community.

What a blessing for the children of Beautiful Gate!

Forever Family

Beautiful Gate is happy to announce the beautiful union of a forever family!

Last week we celebrated the adoption of a little boy to a local Basotho family. We are thrilled that this little one will be raised in his own culture and that they love him already as their own.

The adoption ceremony was full of joy and singing as we praised God for His goodness and provision for this precious child!

Blessings as you go from this place, we love you Katleho!

A Closer Look

My friend, Tim Spykstra, has talked many times about divine appointments. It is amazing how we can look back in our lives and see God moving us, and how the people we meet have such a big impact on that movement. Peter and Lindiwe Kirstein have had their lives impacted by just such a divine appointment.

Lindiwe attended church with Ray and Sue Haakonsen (founders of Beautiful Gate Lesotho, BGL), but she had no idea that becoming friends with them would have such a large impact on her future. Through her friendship with the Haakonsens, she was able to watch them set up BGL as they took 3 infant children into their home. Lindiwe had a job working as Director of Administration and HR at a bank in downtown Maseru, but she came and visited the care centre when time would allow. As BGL moved to other houses as they expanded, Lindiwe would also visit them , and then joined their board of directors in 2006.

In March of 2006, Lindiwe and Peter were married. They had met on a mission outreach in South Africa, and he moved to Lesotho. Lindiwe shared about BGL and Peter was interested in being a volunteer. He became the volunteer and team coordinator in April of 2006, and by 2009 he was keeping the books for the building projects and serving as the HR manager.

Peter and Lindiwe were given the opportunity to become the directors of BGL in 2009, but they felt God tugging at their hearts to serve at a different ministry. Lindiwe had been working in the business realm and had not had an opportunity to be a missionary before. She felt led to leave her home country of Lesotho, leave her comfort zone, and serve God as a missionary in South Africa.

They moved to Dundee, South Africa in 2010, and shortly after moving there, they met a baby boy who needed their help. They became foster parents to Simphiwe as they served in Dundee. They served there until 2014 when they felt God telling them to return to Lesotho. They once again volunteered at Beautiful Gate, and after some time, the Lord made it clear that this time, they were meant to stay and become the new directors of Beautiful Gate.

We are very blessed to have them here because their love for the Lord is very evident. Knowing that they seek Him first gives us the peace to know that God will lead and direct them as they lead and direct His people. Their love for children is clear and their willingness to jump in and be helpful wherever is needed shows that they care deeply for this precious ministry. We could not have asked for a better fit for the new directors, and while it will be hard for Bryan and I to let go, we know that BGL will be in very capable and loving hands. Training has begun with a hopeful handover date coming in January of 2017. We all praise God for the way He crossed all of our paths. The divine appointment of friendship with Ray and Sue, going to South Africa where they were able to become parents of Simphiwe, and coming back and getting to know Bryan and I are all clear signs of God’s hand and timing. We are all amazed as we look back and see God moving. We wish you all the best Lindiwe and Peter!

~Anita Geurink

Actions Speak Louder

Actions speak louder than words.......

A group of 13 people from Faith Reformed Church in Zeeland, Michigan recently spent 9 days at Beautiful Gate showing God’s love by their actions.

They served the children and the housemothers every day by hanging clothes on the line, sweeping, washing dishes, changing diapers, preparing food, feeding children, playing with children, reading to children, they played soccer with children, painted the office interior, spent more time loving on the children, and they gave our entire staff new shoes.

All of these actions showed God’s love without a word.

Not that this team didn’t express love through their words, but their actions stood out and were so obvious to those of us who were watching.

All of their acts of service were equal in level of importance and impact. But we'll now focus on just one of them… the gift of shoes for our staff:

The entire staff was gathered for a Braai to celebrate Women’s Day last week.  After the celebration, while we were still seated, Faith’s team leader stood up and spoke to the staff.  He said how much they appreciate the people of Beautiful Gate and their commitment to caring for orphans. He expressed how much Beautiful Gate has meant to individuals from their church and community and that they had wanted to bless the staff in some way. They decided to raise money to purchase a new, good quality pair of shoes for each staff member; which their church eagerly contributed to. At that moment, our staff cheered, whistled, sang, danced, cried and celebrated in such a way that most of us have never seen before. There was so much joy in that moment, we were all overcome with emotion watching them. 

One of our Beautiful Gate employees stood up and thanked the team for their generous gift, concluded by more singing and dancing. And without much hesitation, the first round of employees hopped into the team’s rental vans and were taken to the local shopping mall where they could pick out their own shoes. They sang the entire way to the store. They each picked out their shoes and then sang all the way home. The following day the team brought 2 or 3 more van’s full to purchase their shoes…again, more singing and thanking God for the amazing gift!

One of the staff members said that shoes were so important to him because he didn’t have shoes for much of his growing up years. This was truly a blessing!

The staff continued their celebrating and dancing across campus as they went back to work with joy in their hearts.

We all learned a lot that day….how to truly show thanks and how to truly celebrate God’s goodness.

Thank you Faith Reformed Church for showing Beautiful Gate the love of God through your actions.

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ~James 2:26

Building for the Lord

                                        Allan on the left, his 2 grandsons and Murray (who has been here for the 4th time)

We would like to thank our long time friend, Allan Long. Allan has been involved at Beautiful Gate since coming on a mission team in 2006. He has done the construction management and the coordinating of most of our buildings on campus here at Beautiful Gate. Allan has also helped with the landscaping and has worked along side of our head of maintenance, Ntate Francis, over all these years.  He has also brought various teams of specialized workers several times to help with specific tasks. He is basically a missionary builder, who has lived here in Lesotho for extended periods of time as he continued his projects for Beautiful Gate.

Allan was also the building manager and coordinator for Beautiful Gardens, our new rental housing facility about 5 miles from Beautiful Gate.

Allan and a team of 3 men came last month to finish our two largest rental homes at Beautiful Gardens. They mainly worked on the cabinets in the houses and finished any last items that needed to be done.

Beautiful Gate would like to acknowledge and thank Allan for all of his work at Beautiful Gate and also his work at Beautiful Gardens.  Allan, we are grateful for your service, for your Christian leadership and for your friendship.

Thank you also to the team who gave up your time and served the Lord as you worked on these houses. They are beautifully done! This is such a valuable project, as the income from these rentals will help provide for some of Beautiful Gates needs.

We pray you were as blessed by your time here as we were by you!

May the Lord bless you!

Amazing Grace

We praise God for another adoption! Last week we celebrated with a wonderful couple and their son, the joining of their new family!

Again we were able to see a picture of what God did for us by adopting us in His family. It truly is God's grace and is a blessing to be a part of!

As is always the case, we were witnesses to a beautiful union as we saw the obvious bonding process already beginning. This little boy already has a brother who is, ironically, just 3 weeks younger than him!

We are grateful to God that one of our precious children will be taught to love the Lord as he grows and matures in Christ with his brother and parents.

Congratulations to this beautiful new family! May you live in that amazing grace and may God bless you on this new journey!

~God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:5 (NLT)

Memorable Volunteers

Beautiful Gate has the honor and privilege of hosting and serving along side of some amazing volunteers. These past couple of months was no exception as we enjoyed time with 3 wonderful young ladies.

Sarah Risser, Ashley Rogalske and Mallory Boes were such a blessing to Beautiful Gate. Each of them had different gifts that we benefited from and will always cherish. But they all had loving and giving hearts.

Sarah was an intern at Beautiful Gate for 6 weeks. She lovingly served in playgroup with the children and also lovingly helped in the office with projects that needed her expertise and the available time needed for them. We really appreciate all the things she helped us accomplish!

Ashley served in a baby house for 2 months, assisting her housemothers with chores and the daily care of the children. She also was actively involved in the soft play room working with the babies on their milestones every day. Her love was clearly shown in all her tasks!

Mallory also served in a baby house for 2 months, helping the housemothers with chores and with the children. Mallory spent a lot of time with the older children in playgroup, helping them with their small motor skills and social development. She showed her love everyday!

We are so grateful to each of you for your love and your time serving the Lord in His kingdom work......investing in and blessing the children and staff at Beautiful Gate.

We know your hearts have been changed! May God bless you as you go from here. May you continue to use your servant hearts for Him!

Farewell Emily!

We want to express our deepest thanks to Emily Esquivel for her service here at Beautiful Gate.

She served a year in 2015, coming two mornings a week leading our playgroup with stories and crafts. And now she has served full time in Pula 2 for 8 months. We are also thankful for the extra time Emily put into our playgroup program. She helped the children with many crafts, read to them and shared God’s word with them. When we had mission teams serving at Beautiful Gate, she helped coordinate the team members in playgroup when they were here. This made things in playgroup run more smoothly.

Emily, we are so grateful for your love. We are so grateful for the energy you put into everything you do. You have such a beautiful gift of serving others. Thank you for caring so much!

May God bless you as you go from this place and continue to serve Him!

Thankful

Forest Hills Bible Chapel Mission Team 2016

For the past 17 days Beautiful Gate had the privilege of getting to know and to be served by 13 brothers and sisters in Christ from Forest Hills Bible Chapel in West Michigan.

This team was remarkably flexible, patient and willing to do whatever was asked of them.

One of the main focuses of their mission trip was to serve the housemother’s and children by doing chores, helping with meals and assisting with activities in playgroup.

Another focus was painting. They painted 8 rooms in the baby houses! This is no small feat as there were little hands everywhere throughout the day. They needed to be strategic and plan around the children’s schedules.

To complete their project, they painted 4 murals on the living room walls. The walls look so fresh and clean and the murals add so much joy to the room.

It was very impressive to see some of the team members interacting with the neighborhood children and teens as well. Almost everyday on their break they would go to the neighbors house right outside our gate. They would talk and laugh and play.  They also learned a dance together! It was wonderful to see the relationships that were formed and how they made such a lasting impression on these kids. No doubt, the kids made a lasting impression on the team.

The team brought a lot of hand sanitizer for the care staff to help with keeping sickness at bay. They brought baby dolls, beautiful fleece blankets, fleece sweatshirts, receiving blankets, bibs and handmade quilts for our children. Thank you for these gifts and thank you to the dedicated ladies who made them! We deeply appreciate it!

The team also enjoyed a few day trips to see some of God’s creation and the beauty of Lesotho.

Even though it was quite cold this month, the team didn’t complain. Their Christ like attitude was an example to all! Beautiful Gate is so grateful to the team for their service! We really enjoyed getting to know you and working along side of you for the last several weeks!

Blessings and thanks from the staff and children of Beautiful Gate!

New friends with Beautiful Gate's neighbors

New murals for the baby houses!

Beautiful Painting job!

Cherish Week

                                                         Here are some of the girls who participated in Cherish Week

A couple of weeks ago a group of 24 girls ages 13-21 from the community had the opportunity to come together for 5 days and 4 nights on the campus of Beautiful Gate. They came to bond with one another, support each other, to work on schooling, to laugh and play, to be pampered, to hear from the word of God, to be mentored, to hear inspiring messages and much more.

These girls belong to a non profit organization that meets at the Ray and Sue Haakonsen (founders of Beautiful Gate) Training Center, which is located on our campus.

The organization is Mustard Seed Lesotho Society which includes Jewels of Hope which is a discipleship and skills program of the Mustard Seed.

Typically the girls come together once a week on Sunday’s where they enjoy a meal together, a time of mentoring, Biblical training and jewelry making. The benefits of belonging to the Mustard Seed reaches far into the girls lives. Not only do they get Biblical training and the mentoring needed during some tough situations, but the proceeds from their jewelry sales go toward their schooling and for some; it gets used for living expenses. Some of these girls are orphans and are caring for younger siblings at home.

But Cherish Week was unique and special; instead of one short Sunday afternoon, they were able to spend 4 nights and 5 solid days together. What a rich time for these precious girls!

I had the privilege of interviewing the girls after the week was over. I asked them what were some of the highlights of their week.

Here are some of the things they shared with me:

1. Taking a shower

2. Having hot water

3. Playing and seeing each other happy

4. Sleeping on comfortable beds

5. Having electricity

6. Sharing our dreams and stories at night

7. Hearing a Bible message from Ntate Moribe

8. Having others pray over them

9. Working on school (their dream is to be able to finish school)

10. Eating pasta (thanks for the spaghetti from the freezer Holland Christian Team!)

11. Making bread with success

12. Coloring

13. Having time to talk to an adult

14. Skyping with a big sister/mentor in Japan

15. Attending Beautiful Gate’s church service

The leader had a few things to share as well:

“ We are thankful to the private individuals whose contributions make it possible for us to reach these girls. We are also thankful to the community of Beautiful Gate. You allowed us to use your team housing with such amazing facilities. The girls were overwhelmed with the luxuries they received while staying at the Maroon House. As a leader and the cook, I appreciated the kitchen facilities, they were so amazing and so convenient. We were so thankful for the food that was already in house for our use, as our donations for Cherish Week were not as much as we were hoping for. We are thankful that the community of Beautiful Gate prays for us and supports us. We are also thankful when you admire the jewelry that the girls make; it’s such an encouragement to them when someone gets excited about their jewelry.

God has blessed us richly through Mustard Seed donors and through Beautiful Gate.”

What a joy is was to interview these girls and their amazing leader. They truly are beautiful young women of God, seeking to follow Him and make a better life for themselves and their families. Please pray for them as they have some big challenges in their lives. But praise God for this organization that mentors and encourages young girls to be all that God wants them to be!

~Karen Boersema

                                                                           GIrl Time!

God Ordained Adoption

(Our deepest apologies to the family; this blog post was written back in November 2015, but never made it to publication. So please enjoy the record of this momentous event!)

Adoption Day is one of the most beautiful celebrations a person could witness. To see a family welcoming a child into their hearts and lives and a child now receiving that unconditional love of a forever family, is moving to say the least. A place of belonging for the child! A true picture of God adopting us into His forever family!

Today we celebrated with a beautiful family from Sweden the adoption of their almost 2 year old precious little boy who has been with Beautiful Gate since he was just a newborn. This little boy quickly bonded with his parents, it was evident at the ceremony the love that has already begun to form there. The ceremony included singing, prayer, sweet words from the child's housemother and the "handing over" of the child from the housemother to the mother, gifts, touching words from the parents, and a message and blessing from our Beautiful Gate Chaplain.

What a day! Incredibly moving and many tears of joy! Congratulations to this beautiful new family and blessings to you with love from Beautiful Gate!

We give God the glory for the great things He has done!

Rejoicing in Adoption

We celebrate again the joining of a precious child to a loving family! 

The adoption ceremony at Beautiful Gate was a joyous event! There were a few tears and also there was plenty of dancing and singing! It was obvious how much the family loved this little one and how much he has bonded already with them. We praise God for such wonderful adoptive families for the children that we love and care for so much, it makes our saying goodbye so much easier.

Adoption is such a beautiful picture of what God has done for us...God adopting us to be His sons and daughters welcoming us into the family, providing love, security, instruction and a future. What a gift!

Days like this one are what we work for here at Beautiful Gate, this is why we do what we do! It's such a joy to see the progression from a orphaned, vulnerable child, to being whole and belonging to a complete family. 

Congratulations to the family! We are so happy for you! May God bless you as you go from this place!

Planting Seeds

Every week, the staff and most of our children, attend a Wednesday chapel service called Time with God. We sing, hear a Bible story and a short message from Ron. We pray and then make any necessary announcements. This is a valuable and wonderful time to come together as a Beautiful Gate family.

On Sunday's, the weekend staff and a few of our older children, enjoy a more formal church service. There is singing, a call to worship, a message, prayer and a blessing.
Beautiful Gate cares for a handful of children who are over 5 years old. These children are the ones who often attend these Sunday services.
Last week I was observing these older children and wondered how much of an impact this small Sunday service has on their young, challenging lives.

Our children don't have the opportunity to learn a lot of in depth Bible knowledge since they are most often in a group of 30-35 kids of all ages. They may get a short lesson and singing at playgroup but our older children are seemingly ready for more.

On Sunday's I watch how they seem to be paying attention. I watch how well behaved they are. (of course they are surrounded by BoMe who will keep them in line!) Every once in a while they will look around the room to see what the adults are doing. They are learning by example.
I wonder when they come, how much are they understanding? Are they actually listening to Ron's message?  How much do they relate to their own lives, which happen to be very different than most children's lives.
They don't necessarily have the foundation that most children have who belong to normal family units. Their realities are different than most kids.

We pray each week that the Holy Spirit will do what he does and bring clarity to the truth of God's word. Not just to the care staff that attend but to these precious little ones that attend as well.

I believe these older children are ready to be asked the basic questions like...Do you know that God loves you? Do you know that He is so big and mighty, that He will take care of you no matter what? Do you know that God has a plan for your life? Do you know that you can talk to Him whenever you want to? Do you know that God cares about all the big things and little things in your life? Do you know that God sent His son Jesus to save you and make a way for you to be in heaven and live forever?

Because of some of the language barriers and the fact that we have so many younger children, I don't believe these older kids have been asked these specific questions.

I do know that these truths are being shared each Wednesday and shared a bit deeper on Sunday's and I pray that the seeds that are planted there will be watered, take root, grow and bloom as God has intended His word to do.

Please join us in praying for the spiritual well being of our children, especially the older ones.
Our desire is to take the older ones aside and ask those questions that I believe they are ready for.
Ready for water!

(Written by Karen Boersema as shared on the Boersema blog)

Adoption Blessings

Beautiful Gate is proud to congratulate again, two new forever families! Two beautiful boys were officially welcomed into these beautiful families today with much joy and celebration!

It was a wonderful ceremony with a lot of singing and time for sharing.... Sharing from the housemother's who cared for the boys and an opportunity for the families to share as well. 

Parents who have a heart for adoption have longed for and prayed for this special day for months and some for years. The adoption process can be an emotional roller coaster. So as no surprise, the actual adoption day can be very emotional for the new parents. But the tears that are shed are tears of joy!

Praise God for the love He gives His people to pour into the children He has placed in their care.

What a blessing to see the bonding and the love already taking place. As we observe these two families we can see they are a perfect fit! It is truly a God ordained placement for these precious boys!

"May God bless you and keep you, may He cause HIs face to shine upon you and may He give you His peace."

~With love,

The staff at Beautiful Gate