Leaving for Cape Town.

Im headed to Cape Town tomorrow at 4AM! Carol, Richard and I will drive for 15 hours to get to the south coast of South Africa for a little fun at the beach. We will be gone from Friday December 28th until Saturday January 12th. I wont have internet access during this time, so the blog will be a little quiet. Im sure I'll make up for it when I get back from our trip. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years celebration. May God bless you in 2008!

Christmas 2007

I had a great Christmas. There is no doubt that it was hard being away from family and friends, but the Lord definitely blessed me and helped me to have a great day. The day began with presents from home. My family spoiled me by sending 5 packages! It was hard, but I waited until Christmas day to open them. I got some wonderful things. And I went from not being able to find a stocking in South Africa to having 3 stockings (2 imported from the US). It was great to have things from home to open on Christmas morning. I’m wearing some of my new clothes right now.

After I opened my presents, I went to church. We had a very casual service with classic Christmas songs. 4 of the girls from the youth group sang "Mary Did You Know?" They did a great job!

After church I went home for a brief break. I got the chance to call my Mom and talk to her on Christmas! And then we headed to Peter and Yvonne's house. We had a four course meal for lunch. This sounds very formal and fancy, but things were very relaxed. We ate at tables out on the patio. It was a bit over cast so we didn’t have to worry about it being too hot. The weather made it very comfortable to eat outside. There were about 20 people at lunch. We took about 3 hours to eat lunch. Between each course there were things to do. We took a break to open crackers (paper tubes with prizes inside that you pull and pop open). One set of crackers had whistles inside. Each whistle had a different number (note), and one cracker had a sheet of music and a 'baton' for the conductor. So we attempted to play Christmas songs with our whistles. It was all quite fun!

A few people went swimming, but the day was so overcast, that I didn’t hop in the pool. It would have been far too cold! Instead of swimming, I went inside and called home. I called Grandma's house and got passed around from one person to another. It was great to get to talk to everyone! I also called Paige's house and got passed around her family as well. It was fantastic to get to hear from people at home. I got a little choked up, but my roommate Carol commented "You don’t look like you've been blubbering, so it must have been a good phone call."

Peter and Yvonne gave us gifts (even though they told us NOT to bring gifts!). We each received some smelly lotion and a small painting. My painting was an abstract of an African woman carrying her baby on her back. I need to get it framed and hang it on the wall.

After Peter and Yvonne's house, we were supposed to come back to the apartment and open presents from the roommates. But we didn’t have time because we needed to go to Pastor Cheryl's for the evening. We had lots of sweets and desserts at her house while we watched the movie "Happy Feet." It was odd to watch a movie about penguins when it was HOT. But we had a nice quiet end to the day. Just hanging out and relaxing with our "Africa Family."

And finally, after a very busy day, we came back to the apartment. My roommates and I opened our presents from each other at 10PM. I kinda liked having Christmas events all day long. It stretched the day out and helped prevent the "Christmas let down" that you often get when you rush through the day. My roommates got me a few Christian fiction books, a small Bible that will fit in my purse and zips closed so the things in my purse won’t mess it up, and the WOW 2008 CD. They did a great job! I really feel spoiled this Christmas. I hope they liked their presents as much as I like mine.

Now the apartment has the typical after Christmas MESS! Guess I better go do some cleaning. Thanks to all of you who prayed for me this Christmas. God truly blessed me with a great day! I hope your Christmas was a great one too! God Bless you and Merry Christmas!!!

I'm Rich

Today we gave out food parcels to many of the people in our church and community. There were 2 plastic shopping bags FULL of food. Each person received:
1 chicken
1 lb. ground beef
½ liter each of milk and juice
½ lb each of potatoes, onions, apples, bananas, cabbage and tomatoes
A small bag each of rice, flour, and sugar
A package of tea
A can of coffee
And because it’s Christmas and time to celebrate, they also received:
A box of cookies and a chocolate candy bar

The bags were overflowing with food. It was amazing to see the reactions of some of the people. One lady started singing and dancing. The whole fellowship hall stopped to look at her and she made them join in with clapping and cheering. I was reminded of David who danced and sang to the Lord and would not be stopped. He did not care if other people considered him “undignified.” When it is time to praise the Lord, sometimes you just can’t hold it in.

Another lady commented “I am rich today! In my house, we are rich today. God is so good to us. He does give us what we need.” Wow, 2 bags of food make her feel rich.

As we were checking the list to make sure everyone got their parcel of food, a few unexpected names were added to the list. One precious lady kept saying “You can give my parcels to her. I want to make sure she gets food as well.” How sweet it is to know someone with such a generous heart. But the Lord is good and we had more then enough parcels to go around. So everyone got something and no one had to walk away empty handed.

I was blessed to get to help pack these bags and help pass them out. Everyone was thankful and had big smiles on their faces. It is good to know that at least for a few moments, the worries of the world were eased. The burdens were lifted. God is good and cares for His people!

Good worship followed by good fellowship. I am truly blessed to be able to serve God here at this time.

Christmas Plans

I’ve had several people ask me about my plans for Christmas...so here is what I know so far....

Carol and I will begin the day by going to church. Sara plans to go to the Door of Hope and watch the toddlers open their presents.

After church, we are going to Peter and Yvonne's house for lunch. Peter and Yvonne are the nice couple that treated us to a vacation weekend in the Drakensburg Mountains. They seem to adopt the international volunteers, so there will be several 'misfits' there. It will be nice to celebrate with a crowd of people that are missing home too. We are having a fancy meal followed by some swimming in the pool.

After a nice lunch and some fun with friends, we plan to go to Pastor Cheryl's house for afternoon tea. Knowing our typical visits with Pastor Cheryl, we will be there until late.

So it will be a fairly busy day...which is a good thing!
I hope YOU are having a wonderful Christmas. Whether it is a busy day or a quiet day, I hope you have a chance to celebrate the birth of Christ. Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eat a piece of birthday cake. Just enjoy the day our Savior was born.

Frustrating Day with a Surprise Ending

Today was a lesson in frustration. I finally have my tire fixed, so I left around 11AM to go shopping. I needed to shop for Christmas, for my upcoming vacation and for the Day Care. My list was quite long. The first frustration came when I was looking for clothes. The sizes are different than US sizes...once the size difference was figured out in one store, I realized the next store's sizes were not the same. The difference between sizes from one store to another was huge! And when I finally found what I wanted, they didn’t have ANY size that would fit me!

The second frustration came from the lack of educational toys. Apparently, all of the things I have seen in the past few months that I wanted to buy for the Day Care are not big sellers for Christmas. They have all disappeared! I saw some Fisher Prices Little People sets that I want in a store. This store is usually MORE expensive, so I didn’t purchase them. The next 2 stores (Which are usually LESS expensive) had the same thing at a higher price. *sigh* Shopping is so difficult.

There were also frustrations of having NO parking, lots of people to dodge, and long lines at all of the food places at 2PM when I wanted lunch. What mall has long lunch lines at 2PM?!? And who would have thought that there are NO Christmas Stockings available on December 20th! I’m almost sure that there are no Christmas Stockings available in all of South Africa. hahaha I guess decorations aren’t a priority this late in the season.

But the biggest frustration is definitely the fact that I STILL haven’t figured out where to find things. As I was checking off items on my list, I had to try several different stores to find what I was looking for. Sometimes, things just don’t make sense here. The sugar is not always on the same aisle as the flour in the grocery store. The milk and butter are not near each other. I just kept thinking "I could find it at Wal-Mart!"

After a lot of frustration, I realized it was my night to cook. I went to the grocery store and got all of my ingredients....then I went to get some chicken and there wasn’t any! How can there be no chicken in the whole grocery store? I went to ANOTHER grocery store, got the chicken and (finally!) at 5:30PM got back to my apartment.

And surprises, surprise, waiting for me on the kitchen table were 4 packages!!! Wow, what a great end to a frustrating day! Thanks Grandma, Aunt Dianne, Aunt Sue-ee, Paige and Dad for sending packages! Thanks God for bringing them just when I needed them.

Mold

On Friday, I was in the mood to bake. So I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. This was an adventure on its own because finding chocolate chips is IMPOSSIBLE. So I bought a few chocolate candy bars and chopped them up to make the cookies. As I was getting other ingredients I needed from the pantry, I realized we had some water damage. Several of the shelves were damp and a few even had mold growing in the corners. So I pulled everything out of the cabinet to clean. I bleached every surface of the pantry. It was quite disgusting. I assumed that the damage was from the excessive rain we've been getting. I figured we had a slight leak that was aggravated by the storms.

The next day, after everything was cleaned and replaced, I go to pull out some cereal and step in a puddle of water. Only, it hadn’t rained in 48 hours! The best thing we can figure out is that one of our upstairs neighbors must have some leaking pipes (none of our pipes go through that part of the wall). The walls in the pantry are wet to the touch and there are drip marks in various places. We dont think the water is coming from the roof.

The horrible part is that we have a fan running 24/7 to help dry out the moisture, and it’s not working. Less than 24 hours after the bleach, our mold has returned, and we wake up to a small puddle every morning!

I've put everything in plastic bags or on Pyrex dishes to prevent them from touching the shelves. There is NO other option for food storage. We only have two other cabinets (one under the sink with cleaners and one beside the stove with all the dishes). So living with this problem and the process of getting it fixed is not going to be fun. And to make things harder, the city shuts down at Christmas time. This is summer vacation for most people. They leave the city and go visit family. So there may not be anyone available to find and repair the problem until after the New Year! Pray that God will send a miracle in one form or another to help us with our leak.

The only good thing that came from this was the batch of cookies I made. And they were very good if I do say so myself!

Needs for the Touch Life Centre

I have had many people ask what we need here in Jo'burg. I have compiled a new list of needs. If you are interested in finding out how you can help provide some important materials for the Touch Life Centre, please click on the link on the left that is titled CHURCH NEEDS (below the box with the date and time). This will take you to a page that lists the needs we currently have here in Jo'burg. Thanks for your prayers, support, and words of encouragement!

Nail

About a week ago, I was stopped at a stop light (robot), when the man behind me started beeping his horn (hooting) and gesturing. I didn’t know what he was beeping about. The light was red so surely he didn’t expect me to go anywhere. When the light turned green, I turned…and he followed me. At the next light he was beside me and gesturing for me to roll down my window….he didn’t seem angry, so I cracked the window. (I was curious!) He told me that my rear, right tire looked a little low. He told me to get it checked at a garage. I thought “Wow, there are nice guys here in South Africa too!”

But being the girl I am, I forgot to get it checked on the drive to my apartment. Two days later I noticed the tire was really low. So I went to the gas station to have them put some air in it. As the guy was putting air in my tire, he noticed a small nail. The nail was causing a slow leak. But did I stop right then and there and put the spare on? NOOOO. I drove to church so I wouldn’t be late. And then forgot about the tire again and drove home. It wasn’t until today that I woke up and finally remembered. There is still some air in the tire, and I have no where to go today. So I’m going to see if I can’t find how to get this fixed. My first instinct was to call my Dad or a friend of mine that knows a lot about tires....then I realized there wasn’t much advice they could give about getting your tire fixed in South Africa. It’s strange how a nail in my tire can make me home sick.

Big Brother

One of the things that amazes me here in South Africa is the way the older kids of a family take care of the younger kids. It is common to see an 8 year old carrying around his/her 2 year old brother or sister. It is amazing that these children are so responsible at such a young age. Although we don’t have a class for children under 3 for Sunday School, we often have children that young come. And we can’t turn them out or we'd be turning away the older children as well. The older brothers amaze me most of all. I have seen them be so gentle and loving with their younger siblings. They don’t shy away from changing diapers, comforting a crying child or playing silly games to entertain a fussy toddler. Along with the responsibilities of caring for a younger sibling come the common trials of childhood like school, making friends and figuring out what life is all about. And these kids seem to face the challenge.

Although it is touching to see such strong relationships between siblings, it is hard to see these kids burdened at all. My childhood was free of worries outside of myself. I long to see these children just enjoying being kids. These kids are amazing. Please pray for these kids. They are growing up in poverty. They often live in cramped apartments and most things they own are second hand donations. They are growing up in a country that has a 40% unemployment rate and they are at a disadvantage because of their lack of resources. The cycle of AIDS, illiteracy and poverty is overwhelming. God is working in this community and many people are trying to provide for the needs of these children. But there is so much more to do. Please pray that God reveals the greatest needs to us so that we will know how we can be His hands and feet here in Jo'burg.

Training Days

So I have survived two days of teacher training. Two down, one to go. All in all, things are going well. The teachers are participating in discussion and seem interested in learning. Im not sure how affective my teaching is. Im good with 5 year olds, but adults are not my forte. Some times I wonder why God ever thought I could manage this. I can’t tell you how many times I pray that God will teach these teachers what they need to know in spite of me.

It is extremely difficult to tell these teachers what they need in their classrooms when we don’t have all of the materials they need. It’s also extremely hard to describe good teaching to people who have probably never seen it. They seem to understand what Im talking about, but Im not sure how these concepts will affect their classrooms. My next big job is to figure out specific skills the teachers need to work on and plan lessons I can teach in their classes to model the skills they need.

Im still having a bit of culture shock. Im coming from a school where all the teachers understood good teaching techniques. They have seen them, practiced them, and have a curriculum that is used as a jumping point rather than a 'bible.' Now Im in a school where the teachers know very little about teaching techniques. They have not seen them or practiced them and they need a curriculum that is all inclusive with lots of 'meat.' I come from a world that has more 'stuff' than we could ever use in our classrooms. And Im now in a world that doesn’t have enough and wouldn’t know what to do with it if they had it.

Im going shopping tomorrow. I can provide 'stuff' for these teachers. And I can provide what knowledge I have. But there seems to be a missing component and I don’t know what it is. Pray that 'stuff' plus training will equal a dramatic change in the quality of teaching. And pray that stuff plus training plus God equals a miracle.

Christmas Bags

Today we had the Sunday School Christmas Program. It was thrown together at the last minute and I wasn’t sure about the outcome, but I was pleasantly surprised. The kids made the best of it and did a good job considering the short notice.

After the program the whole church had some tea and cakes. Having food and fellowship is a Baptist tradition after all.

As the children were leaving, we handed out Christmas bags to all of them. We made enough bags for all of the children that come to Sunday School. But apparently there are some children who know how to church hop this time of year in order to get a present. But God is good and we had enough bags to go around. The notebooks, pencils, crayons, candy, toys and beanie babies were provided by VA Baptists. Some things were sent from VA. Other things were purchased here with the money that was donated to us. Carol's family did a great job getting money and donations from their churches! Thanks!

When I get a chance I will post some pictures of the kids with their bags. I also had to take the opportunity to take a picture of some of my favorite kids sitting down inside of the big box of beanie babies that my church sent to Africa with me. I think it’s awesome that my kids from my church at home helped provide Christmas presents for my kids at my church in Africa! I miss all the kids back in VA SOOO much!!! (ok, ok, I miss the adults too!)

Thank you to all the people who provided things for us to hand out. It was a privilege to get to bless these children because of your generosity. God is good!

Tomorrow (Monday, December 3rd) is the beginning of my teacher training. We will be training Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please pray for me and the teachers as we work together, learn and plan for next year.