Timothy & Christi Chaffee Newsletter (Winter 2023)

Happy New Year Everyone!

As we launch into this year together, we hope you’ll join us as we reflect on the past few months!

Personal Involvement

In addition to our regular preparations for the Mud Run on May 6th and the Lord’s Boot Camp in June, I have been able to assist and sometimes lead work projects. We have had to demolish some of the older offices to be able to bring them up-to-date. With a bit of support from a young work group of teens who were visiting from Idaho, our full-time retreat center has begun receiving the same tender loving care so that when people rent our retreat center they will feel more comfortable. To accommodate this, Teen Missions has plans to renovate the bathrooms, floors, and walls. I have also repaired plumbing in some of the volunteer and staff housing, installed dryer vents in new trailers, and chopped down and trimmed back trees that were unsafe to prevent them from toppling over during hurricane season.

Teen Testimony

Lydia, from the South Africa team, recounted, “Hi! I’m Lydia and I went on the South Africa team. I was in a park. We had just finished our presentation and Pastor Alan, one of the staff members at the base, came over to us and said, ‘Does anyone have a wordless bracelet to go share with this lady?’ I said I did and we went over to this lady sitting on a bench who had been watching us. We went up to her and we asked, ‘Could we share this bracelet with you?’ and she said, ‘Yes.’ I told her about what the wordless bracelet means, what it represents, and what it meant to me personally, and I gave it to her and then Pastor Alan asked if she was a Christian. She said, ‘No, but I was watching you kids and you all look so happy talking about Jesus. I would like to give it a shot and give my life to Jesus.’ There we took her hands and we prayed with her and I watched her give her life to Jesus right there. I just felt so happy! I couldn’t even describe it. I was so overcome with joy and a sense of peace knowing that someone else is going to go to Heaven as well. Jesus and the angels are all celebrating. I definitely feel like I’ll never be the same after this. It’s been such an amazing experience to meet all these wonderful people and to get to go to South Africa and see the way God is working and moving in people there, the churches, the worship, the people at the base, the staff members. It was an incredible experience.”

South Africa Overview

We have decided to share a detailed glance of Teen Missions South Africa for this letter. Teen Missions in South Africa is located in the Pyramid, outside the capital of Pretoria. The ministry was established in South Africa in 1984. Our base is home to an annual boot camp and Bible, Missionary & Work (BMW) Training Center. The property additionally has accommodations for retreats to provide income for its ministries. One of their biggest outreaches is ministering to children through Sunday schools—there are 11 Sunday schools throughout the country. Of the more than 61 million citizens, approximately 7.5 million are living with HIV and life expectancy is near 65 years. Around 86,000 die of AIDS each year and there are predicted to be at least 2 million AIDS orphans. Approximately 18.2 million of the residents live on no more than $1.90 a day. There are 11 official languages in South Africa, including English. Though 86% of the population claim to be Christians, many still hold to indigenous beliefs and animism. There is also a small percentage of Muslims and Hindus.

Family

It is crazy to think that Allister is already 14 months old and has mastered not only walking, but he has begun running. He will also climb nearly anything, if given the chance, but he most frequently climbs onto the couch and my chair. He loves being snuggled, but will make it very clear when he is ready to move on. Some newer foods Allister enjoys are pizza, Kix cereal, pancakes, eggs, and cheese.

Brielle still looks forward to striving to save tiny beetles and following butterflies, or flutterbies as she has called them. Recently, she had found a teeny bug which she put in an open sandwich bag and attempted to feed and relocate, but before the insect made it safely outside it escaped from the bag which was disappointing for Brielle. Brielle also likes getting Allister to smile and laugh and enjoys spending time playing with her older siblings.

David’s science obsession is in full swing and has been fostered through National Geographic science kits and a telescope which he got for Christmas. He loves to figure out why things happen as they do and he still aims to read in some of his free time. He normally can be found reading non-fiction or historical fiction. Exercising his imagination and planning themed events for his and his siblings’ stuffed beanie boos are also a favorite for him.

In keeping with her inspiration to be a veterinarian, Rebekah enjoys researching YouTube videos on vets and their jobs and her aspiration is to transform part of her room into a makeshift vet clinic. Her specific focus at this time is to work with smaller animals such as dogs and cats when she becomes a vet, though she still is enthralled by horses and we think there would still be a lot of benefits to her working at a nearby horse ranch where she would get an outlet from home, but also learn some responsibility. In her free time, Rebekah could also be found creating things with beads and doing hands-on activities. She has also enjoyed playing with new friends who recently moved to Florida and whose families serve with Teen Missions as well.

Christi has been notably exhausted as she makes the effort to balance our family. We found out our pumpkin patch is growing and we will have another sweet baby boy to snuggle this coming summer! Through ultrasounds and feeling him move, our baby boy is very active and I’m confident Allister and he will have a wonderful time playing together as he gets a bit older. In the meantime, Christi is making the effort to wean Allister from nursing and still keep with homeschooling the older three and I have been kept active with rearranging the house to help things function more smoothly as well as remodeling an outdoor shed for a special hangout area for family and friends. 

We would like to express our gratitude for the blessing you have been in our family’s lives and we pray you’re showered with many blessings throughout this new year! 

Praise and Prayer Requests

• Praise as my fluctuating foot pain has subsided.
• Praise Allister’s reflux seems to have decreased.
• Pray for me as I experienced vertigo on Thanksgiving. The vertigo has begun occurring more frequently, but the doctor has given me one or two exercises that should help.
• Pray for the health of Christi and Baby Boy Chaffee who is expected to be born this coming summer. There have been a couple concerns on and off this past month, but each time our baby boy seems to be doing well.
• Pray David will implement the tools he was given through behavioral therapy—especially when he finds himself in unpreferred situations or when he needs to complete unpreferred activities – such as school and his chores. Pray we had shined God’s light to his therapist who is not a Christian. David is no longer having the behavioral therapist come over since his therapist and us all felt we’ve been prepared to deal with many of the behaviors David exhibits.
• Pray for Christi as she is homeschooling Rebekah, David, and Brielle this school year.
• Pray for our children to have increasing desires to learn.
• Pray for Christi and me to balance and prioritize everything we are involved with.
• Pray for Christi and me to have wisdom with important decisions we have to make.
• Pray for God’s peace in every area of our lives.
• Pray for our health and safety in all we do.

In Christ’s Love,

The Chaffee Family