Sunday Snippet: A Trip to Lesotho and a Back-to-School Reverse GiveAway…

Every Year our church goes on a Mission to a small town, Tyateyaneng just north of Maseru in Lesotho. We have a sister church there called “Cavalry Hope to the Nations.” The purpose of the mission trip is to encourage, to support and to help the local church and people supported by the local church. You can read a report back from a previous mission here.

Image 1

We made friends with their pastor’s daughter when she was studying at the local Bible College and our children are dying to visit her home. It is not exactly on the beaten track, in fact it is one of the more remote areas of our world. Lesotho happens to be one of the poorest countries in the world, with an unemployment rate of about 80 %. It is also a country that has been hardest hit by the scourge of Aids and many children in the area have been left orphaned as a result. This is a part of the world where running water and electricity in your home are unheard of and pit loo’s are the norm. This year our family is hoping to join the mission and visit with the church is Lesotho.

Image 3

The Church helps to provide a feeding scheme for about forty of the local orphans serving one meal a day, five days a week and for most of the children that is their only meal. So many of the local children were not in school that the church began a primary school for the children in the area. At the moment they have about eighty students many of whom are orphans and have no means to pay their school fees. You can imagine that this is a school that needs all the support it can get.

Image 2

Every year my kids beg to go on the mission and every year there has been a reason why we couldn’t attend. But this year there isn’t, the only thing between us and a trip to Lesotho is our very dodgy vehicle, and we are praying that someone in our church would be able to lend the mission team a vehicle for the week. Provided we have wheels, we have decided it is time for us to head out and serve for a week in Lesotho this Spring. For years our kids supported the Lesotho orphans by baking every week and I think it will be a great life experience for all of us to meet the kids that they helped to support.

3171_80671155881_572835881_2261611_6964118_n

We are hoping to have a week long kids club, play with the kids and especially encourage the teachers in their fledgling school. And while they do need financial help to support them with their feeding scheme and they are a dozen or so kids that desperately need support with their school fees. My ever practical kids have decided to help them by bringing them a gift of school resources. I look at the school materials my children have, every possible tool and every possible opportunity and it would really be no effort for us to give a couple of school materials.

Image

And this is where you, dear readers, come into the picture… And this is how a Reverse GiveAway works: I know for a lot of our readers it is that Back to School Time of Year and you are off to the store to buy fresh markers or crayons for the year ahead… We thought it would be great if we could take the teachers a school package. So if you would like to pop something that would fit into an envelope off to us… a packet of markers, or crayons, or a picture book/easy reader (It is an English Medium School but English is not their first language), an educational poster, flash cards or any kind of school supply that you can fit into an envelope… I pretty sure that none of these kids will have ever seen markers or even crayons… so if even ten of our readers could post some markers to us, to take with us, it would be brilliant!!! Maybe your kids would like to help my kids gather up a box of resources, one envelope at a time, for this little school in the mountains and we will take them the supplies as a gift.

If you would like to send us something towards our package then please leave a comment and I will get back to you with an address for you to send your gift. And what is a GiveAway without a prize, At the end of the week will pop all your names in a hat and pick a winner. I have a book for you courtesy of our sponsor:

I have blogged about this book before and you can read about it here. As usual I have to thank CBD, our GiveAway book suppliers for another great book.

6F84A2B2-1701-4283-B4B5-6F4807494B6C.jpg

If you would like to win this book, then go ahead and send us some school supplies. The GiveAway works in the usual way, leave a comment before the end of this coming Sunday, 22 August 2011, and we will draw and publish the winner next week! – I won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because I don’t want to be included in our own giveaway. I will however email you with an address to send your school supplies to.

Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away. Postage takes forever from here but eventually it should get to you! Good luck and get commenting!!!

Sunday Snippets.jpg

26 Replies to “Sunday Snippet: A Trip to Lesotho and a Back-to-School Reverse GiveAway…”

  1. Dear Mrs Hood,

    (I’ve been reading your blog for almost two years now, but somehow have not yet figured out your last name, sorry!)
    As mom of two and an elemantary school teacher from Germany I enjoy your blog so very much. I normaly check in every day and many of your thoughts and ideas have inspired me as a mother. Thank you for sharing and for all the work you put in this blog. I’m not the commenting typ, although I’ve come to understand, that bloggers like comments….
    The reason I am contacting you today is that we would like to help your kids gather school materials and send you something the children there could need. Could you please give me an adress to which we can send our donation?
    Thank you and all the best for your kid’s wonderful project!
    Peggy

  2. What an experience this will be for you and your children! A group from my alma mater has started an organization to help children in Lesotho called BLOOM Africa (bloomafrica.org). I’d love to help out and send something along for you to take with you. We’ll try to get it into the post tomorrow!

  3. Count me in, too. I wish the wealth in the world was distributed more evenly, but it’s not. I’d love to send a little something to let people in Lesotho know that someone in Canada is thinking about them. May the Lord bless your trip!

  4. Our hearts will be with you in Lesotho. We are looking foward to taking our family on mission asap. We would love to contribute.

  5. I would LOVE to help fill a huge school box of supplies! That would be so wonderful for them to have some art supplies to try out and enjoy!!!! Shipping from me to you is soooo expensive…. I was thinking we might be able to do more if I just sent a cash gift instead? Do you have a pay pal? Or maybe school supplies are so expensive over there for you to purchase that it would be most effective to send? Either way!!!! Xoxoxoxxoxoxo

  6. I told my son (age 4) about this and he enthusiastically helped me pack a box of crayons, markers and more. He insisted on including a toy car and a little man. 🙂 He is still trying to give me things to send but the box is full! Some of the crayons are very gently used, I hope it’s OK. We don’t have a lot by American standards, but it’s still truly abundant compared to so many. I’m glad to have an opportunity to share, and to teach my son about sharing with people across the globe who have such a great need. Bless you all on your trip!

  7. Yes please, we would love to help out too. Do you need anything different from markers? Would crayons or coloured pencils be good too?

  8. We’d love to contribute too. We’ll do a hand delivery sometime if that’s ok! Praying that all the practicalities work out for you to go 🙂 Some KZN friends of mine have just visited Lesotho via Sani Pass. Have you seen the SNOW there recently!!!! Hope it’s warmer when you go!

  9. We would love to send something, I think this is a wonderful way of teaching children to be a part of God’s wonderful kingdom. Please send an address. Thanks Kim

  10. We’d love to send some supplies. Please send an address.
    Good luck finding reliable transportation!
    Thanks, Amy

  11. We would love to send a little something. We are hoping to take our children on a missions trip next year–not sure where yet. What a wonderful and hu,bling experience this will be for your kids.

  12. We’ve been sorting through the school stuff and have a donation box ready; where should we send it?
    Your blog is an inspiration in many ways–I know God will bless.

  13. We would LOVE to help out! Count us in! 🙂

    How large of an envelope may we send?

  14. We would love to participate…It looks like shipping would be at cheapest about $15 from our country to yours. Would it be better to send something or to donate some cash via paypal?

  15. I can’t help thinking of Miss Agnes 🙂 We’d love to send some stuff or $ by paypal.

  16. Hi Hoods! I LOVE your blog and as a rookie homeschooler with a first grader and 2 younger ones, I am always encouraged to forge ahead when I see what you’re able to accomplish with 8! We would like to participate in your support of the Lesotho school. Saw other comments about donating cash as opposed to supplies – we live in Canada so please email with whatever would work best for you in regards to time and best use of resources.
    Thanks for your wonderful blog and we pray that God will provide for you in this endeavour as he does so richly in everything else you do. Psalm 127 is my theme passage this year and for me it seems to relate to all kinds of life decisions “Unless the Lord builds the house the builders labour in vain…” We trust that God will make a way for you to go if that is his plan.
    Be blessed.

  17. we would love to contribute something, but as mentioned before shipping is crazy expensive – any other way?
    hope we’re not too late already :)!!

  18. Hi Daniela, Never to late… you are welcome to contribute as quite a few folk did to our paypal account – I am headed for a big shop before we leave. Thanks for asking and I will email you the details. Have a great day!!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *