Greetings!

We pray you and your family are doing well. Anna & I have missed our South African Jesus’ Family.

I want to share something the Lord has directed us to do, and I am seeking wisdom and insight from our South African brothers and sisters and I pray you can give some thought and prayer to what I am about to discuss and then share any thoughts, insights, opinions and of course words from the Holy Spirit that you might have for us.

I don’t want to bore you with a long, drawn-out dissertation but I do need to give you a bit of background on why I am seeking your help.

As you may remember, Ps. Theo had commissioned Anna and me to establish an orphanage for CFC back in 2005. Prior to our marriage, I was operating under the nonprofit ministry (White Stone Ministries) in the USA that I established in 1989 and went to South Africa to establish an orphanage under that nonprofit. After our marriage, Ps Theo asked me to come on staff and together with Anna, establish the orphanage for CFC. We spent 6 months looking for just the right property and we found an amazing plot out by Heidelberg where we could have several agricultural projects operating to help make the orphanage partially self-sustaining. Before Ps Theo agreed to the purchase, we had to apply for all the legal permits from the government, and also the licenses for the operation of the orphanage from the South African child protective services (Sorry…I don’t remember the title of that government department).

It took us 7 months to receive all the permits and licenses and then we were set to go, but at the last minute, Ps Theo canceled the orphanage due to financial issues at the church.

We could have stayed and continued on as an independent ministry, just as it was before I joined CFC, but we felt that it could possibly cause contention and even strife with the CFC leadership if we did that, so we prayed and the Lord opened the door in Mexico.

South Africa has never left our heart and several months ago, I had an extreme burden that we were supposed to have stayed in SA to establish our own orphanage and I sought the Lord for the root of the heaviness that I was experiencing. I received a very clear word from the Lord that we indeed were to start a children’s home in SA and that we were now again to pursue that plan.

When I first met Ps Theo in San Antonio, he gave me a word form the Lord that I had the anointing of an Apostle in the ministry to orphans. That has been spoken over Anna and me and confirmed two more times. I asked the Lord to help me understand what that actually means, and He showed me the Apostle that Anna and I are submitted to. His name is Apostle Tracy Harris, from Texarkana, Arkansas. This man has approximately 200 ministries that are under his ministry and the Lord told me clearly to “look at Ps Tracy”…our apostle. I realized that the Lord was telling me that we are to function in much the same fashion that Ps Tracy functions. He did not start all those churches…a few were planted directly by him but many who already had existing churches and ministries have come to him to connect to him and the vision of his ministry to spread the gospel internationally.

In addition, the Lord has confirmed that we will be involved in 8 nations, including Mexico, so we realized we could never physically go and start from the ground up, orphanages in 7 other countries. I realized the Lord’s instruction to us, is that Anna and I are not supposed to move to all these countries, but rather establish our own orphanage(s) in those countries with the help of people who already live in those countries whom the Lord has put a call on their life to establish and operate an orphanage. We will certainly travel to these places but our headquarters will remain in the US.

So….I have told you all this to help explain why we need your help.

We already have an active NPO registered with the SA government. So that part is already in existence. However, we are praying about the following issues:

> We need people. We need to identify a strong, stable Godly couple who have experience with children’s ministry …not necessarily in orphanages…but have a proven heart for reaching out to children and teenagers for the Lord who can be the leaders and organizers of this orphanage. We are not expecting these people to be volunteers because we will pay them a salary.

> We want the Lord to clearly show us in what city He wants us to establish the first orphanage. He may have us set up more than 1 in SA, but that is not clear at this moment. It could be Joburg, Cape Town, Pretoria…we are open to the Lord so we are seeking His word and your counsel about the best or most needed location.

> We need insights on current issues or situations in the country that would affect our ministry to the children.

> We need your prayers!

So if you have any information, contacts, insights, opinions or just general comments, please do not hesitate to get back to me.

You can contact me through email @  drron@whitestonekids.org   or through Facebook messenger  @   White Stone Ministries

You can also see what we are doing in Mexico @  http://whitestonekids.org

I hope to hear from you soon.

Blessings!
Ron & Anna Sherman