Dries, Ilse, Jana Van Jaarsveldt & the new baby (on the way) are from Capetown, South Africa. In case you do not know, South Africa is an extremely developed part of the world, and Dries & Ilse met in their college years together. They both served in a program called “Year For Christ” and studied missions. God then called them to the bush of Mahopa, Botswana and they have been in Botswana for a little over 6 years now. This family lives by faith everyday – faith that God will provide for their every need and they see Him come through time and time again. They live off of about $14,000 a year of support money from friends and churches and just believe God for things they need when the money doesn’t cover it. You can expect that coming from a place that is developed a lot like America – that it is difficult to move to a remote village, 2 hours away from any cell phone reception, no internet and almost no modern conveniences. They have had to almost relearn how to do things: laundry, cooking, even just having simple drinking water. Dries has learned how to be extremely creative with his circumstances and created things to make his life operate as normal as possible all the while ministering to the “Bushman Tribe” there in Mahopa. Dries & Ilse are practicing the language of the people – which is made up of clicks and I must say, Dries is very good. Their 3 year old daughter, Jana, has made up her own language by combining her native language of Afrikaans and adding the clicking to it. Ilse has some health issues and she was told that she would never be able to have children on her own. For years, they believed that God would give them children, and when it was not happening, they decided to adopt. Just a week or so before they were going to sign official papers to adopt, Ilse found out that she was pregnant!! And now, almost 3 years after Jana’s birth – they believed that God could work a miracle again, and she is due to have their second child sometime around Christmas.
They have been living in a small house for the past 6 years and Dries petitioned a church to help them build just one extra room for Jana. The church got so excited, that they not only decided to build a room for Jana, but an entire new home – calling it “Jana’s project”. This family has not paid even a penny for their brand new home…a brand new 4 bedroom home that is connected to their previous home. And, it has only taken one month for their new home to be built – it is almost completely finished. They drive on the terrible, unpaved roads of Mahopa and did not have a car that was sufficient for all of them to arrive somewhere safely. So, Ilse began to pray and for 15 months, she prayed faithfully – believing that God would somehow provide for their need for a vehicle. After 15 months, a brand new Toyota truck (that drives great on the roads there) showed up at their home … they have no idea who gave them this truck, but there is a sticker on the back that says “Sponsored by Jesus”. They also had a run-in with a lady last year who runs a water purification project … that walked up to them in the parking lot of a grocery store and asked if they need water. She is due sometime in the next year to be putting in a water purification system for their entire village, which will be stationed at Dries & Ilse’s home. The lady is donating the system to them for free – and this would normally cost over 1,000,000 Pula (the currency in Botswana). They are thrilled about the opportunities they will have to share the love of Christ with the people who come to their home to receive their pure water… it will be quite an easy way to share the connection of water to the Lord. This family taught me so much about faith! I was amazed at the tons of stories that they have of God’s faithfulness and how He provides – even when we have NOTHING! That God is in control of all the money in the world, and He will bless those who are faithful to Him and who believe He is who He says that He is – and that He can do anything!
