In October we had the privilege of hosting not one, not two, but THREE of our international Beautiful Gate Representatives. It was a real glimpse of God’s Kingdom on earth as our friends from Belgium, England, and Australia joined us in Lesotho, and came together to make the Father’s love known on our campus. In addition to utilizing all of their unique giftings and specialized areas of service, all three groups joined forces to fundraise for our ongoing bathroom renovation project in the baby houses. Thanks to them, this project is fully funded and will be able to be completed in the near future!
Andrew Pimm, our Belgian Representative has been blessing us at BG for several years now. Every time he comes he brings peace, joy, and love to children and staff alike. This year he continued forming special bonds with the housemothers and children in Khotso 1, as well as playing a fatherly role in our playgroup program.
Jenny Dobson, our Representative in England returned to Lesotho with her friend Christian. Like Andrew, Jenny has shared incredible love and passion at BG numerous times over the years. In addition to further developing relationships in Khotso 2, Jenny also spent a great deal of time on playgroup. Her methods of helping the children develop their imaginations, especially through dress-up, are always a highlight of her visits.
Christian was also a returner to BG. During his time this year he partnered with our maintenance staff to help hands on with the bathroom renovations. He helped install new sink basins and taps, installed curtains to provide privacy in the toilets, and designed and built new baby baths that will be installed once renovations are complete. We are grateful for the hard work and overwhelming generosity he poured into this project.
Last, but certainly not least, we welcomed back Barbara Quinn, our Australian Representative. Barbara, too, has invested in our BG community a great deal over the past few years. Along with her came friends Rosemary and Shane. This was Rosemary’s second visit and Shane’s first. Beyond spending time with the care staff and children in Nala, Barbara and Rosemary spent time acquiring many items to donate to our BG community. They were able to bless us with a variety of donations ranging from new school water bottles to a sewing machine for our campus. They also enjoyed blessing the children at playgroup with special snacks in the afternoons and our staff with a braai/barbecue one day at lunch.
Shane also joined our maintenance team, helping with routine maintenance around campus, as well as lending Christian a hand with the bathroom project. He worked hard and was able to establish some new friendships with the maintenance guys.
While this short blog post doesn’t do justice to how these individuals have impacted us here at Beautiful Gate, we hope it provides a glimpse into why we treasure them so much. We so appreciate their contributions, both financially and in service, but even more so we value their hearts as they lavish the Father’s love on our children and staff. We are also so incredibly blessed and humbled by the work they do in Belgium, England, and Australia to tell their communities about what God is doing in Lesotho through Beautiful Gate’s ministry.
Thank you Andrew, Jenny, Christian, Barbara, Rosemary, and Shane. There are words adequate enough to express how truly grateful we are to all of you. May God continue to equip you to be radical Kingdom-builders. We eagerly anticipate the next time we get to see each of you here in Lesotho!