October is often a reunion month for us here at Beautiful Gate with our friends in Belgium and England. Over the past few years Andrew Pimm and Jenny Dobson, our BG Representatives in Belgium and England respectively, have joined us to serve and deepen relationships with our children and staff. Oftentimes Jenny will also bring a small group as an outreach team. It is always such an incredible blessing when these friends come to visit, as they genuinely know the heart of BG and serve selflessly in ways that make an incredible impact. This year Jenny has graciously written up some of her reflections of the trip.
Another yearly visit to Beautiful Gate – this time with a team ranging from 9 years old to 70+. Every visit I make is different and it has been such a delight and pleasure to see Beautiful Gate develop from its early beginnings when I first visited in 2007 to the thriving and nurturing place it is today. My team, apart from Christian were all first time visitors and they fell in love straight away. They loved the babies, the children, the staff, the accommodation and the country. I am always so happy when my friends love it as much as I do. Emma spent most of her time in soft play with the babies and she lost her heart to many of them as she watched them develop in the safety of the soft play area. Tracey, Nick and I spent much time in playgroup and enjoyed helping to stimulate the children with various activities ranging from play dough to paint. Tracey and Nick took children into the library for some quiet 1 on 1 time which they, and it seemed, the children loved. My school children had donated a lot of dressing up clothes and it was such fun to see the children get so much pleasure out of dressing up. Christian and Terry got stuck into putting up a ceiling with Francis in the new playgroup building and rose to the challenge of moving the old therapy building from its abandonment in the grounds to the front of the campus. Noah, our youngest member of the team loved playing with the children and enjoyed engaging with the children in the school opposite. He also loved helping his dad with maintenance tasks, especially popping out to the builders merchants.
I always love visiting Beautiful Gate and serving with you is such a pleasure and truly lifts my heart. As a verse of a remembered hymn from my youth says ‘True happiness is love expressed in service, true holiness - compassion deep and strong. In giving of myself I find contentment, and so forget how hard the way and long.’ It is so true that in giving of ourselves we receive so much. Thank you Beautiful Gate for all you give to us and for welcoming us to come and serve our God by working along side you. You do a wonderful job and we are in awe of all that you do. We love you, we love Beautiful Gate and all it stands for, we love Lesotho and we love the God we serve together. May God bless you all. Jenny x
In addition to everything Jenny’s team was able to accomplish, Andrew blessed our campus with the gift of a netted structure around our gardens in order to keep out birds and other pests from eating our vegetables. It was a somewhat spur of the moment contribution that adequately displays the generosity Andrew, Jenny, and everyone who accompanies them consistently lavishes on Beautiful Gate.
Thank you Andrew, Jenny, and everyone else from the England team. We so appreciate all of your hard work, generous contributions, and loving encouragement. Above all, we are grateful for the continued relationship we have been able to cultivate over the years. We pray God will bless each of you richly throughout the next year, and we look forward to seeing you next October!
