Three weeks at a glance

As most of you know, when you go away for a holiday you come back with stacks of paperwork on your desk from being gone for a week or two. Well with us being gone a month you can only imagine. We have been backed up with work since we arrived. We had a team from Delaware already on the ground and we have managed to work every day since we have been back. We did get the new property at Living Way and because the college knew they were leaving they left us with a huge mess to clean up. Luckily this team of students has had lots of energy and provision to employ some locals to come along side and help us get it cleaned up and painted so we can focus on getting the classes started. Mike will be talking about all of the details of the property in the newsletter. We did get to celebrate Mike’s birthday. I gave him a surprise birthday party at the office and then we cut out a couple of hours early and went to a restaurant that was rumored to have great cheeseburgers. I must say they were good!
The wedding that God orchestrated was a huge success! It was this past Saturday and the bride and groom are still smiling. It is sad to see them living in such poverty, but at least they got to have a “real” fairytale wedding and honeymoon night. We picked them up the next day and took them back to their shack and it wasn’t long before reality set in. Blessing decided to walk by herself to her dad’s and was wearing her engagement ring and band, when three young men came up to her with a knife and demanded her rings. She refused to give them to them and took off running. She ran to one of the shacks and began banging on the door and the people that lived there let her in. The boys and some girls were laughing because they knew how scared she was. It is awful to have to live in these townships and have to deal with stuff like this every day. Brian had given her the engagement ring the week before and I asked her why she hadn’t been wearing her ring and she said, “Because someone will steal it from me.” I thought surely not, but I was proven wrong, it took less than a week.
This coming Saturday we have an all day seminar on training trainers in thinking skills. This is the last of the Grassroots classes that began back in October. We are looking forward to implementing the course at Living Way. It is designed to help us help the locals how to write affirmations, build up their self -esteem and see beyond anything they could ever imagine. Of course, we always reap some of the benefits.
We are looking forward to the next few weeks as we will begin getting our classes ready to start. Please pray for us to get all of the curriculum written and that we will find other people to help us train. We want to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us and it all starts with the right people for the jobs.

Stuff

I am presently reading a book titled, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, by John Ortberg. When we were packing in Nashville we were 12lbs. over weight in our luggage and had to leave some “stuff” behind. (Jif to be exact!) When we arrived at the Nashville airport, we realized our scales were not exact and in order to keep from paying overage for every bag, we put all the extra “stuff” in one. This cost $50.00. After all, this was our “stuff” and we didn’t want to do without it. Now we are being asked to pay a penalty in London for our extra “stuff” to board South African Airlines. The fee here is 259 pounds, translated into $ 417 US. Ok, now is my stuff really worth it? Yes! We must make it home with the rest of our “stuff.” The ticket agent advises us we can take a purse/backpack, in addition to the one’s we already have on our back and save the $417 fee. Now we have bought more “stuff” to keep our “stuff” in, ($30 US) but we didn’t have to pay that ridiculous fee!!! This is supposed to be a funny story but at the same time it’s a sad one. We all think we need so much to make us happy but the truth is all that we have won’t go with us when we die. The book is based around playing the game of Monopoly, but it is really about the game of life and when we finish the game those pieces go back in the box. I am reminded that it is not about “stuff,” but it is about keeping our eye on the true prize, Jesus Christ, and looking forward to eternal life.

The Time has come to an End

The last 2 weeks have been spent with our families for Christmas and New Year’s and we have had a wonderful time with everyone. Now our time has come to an end and it is sad to say its time to go. We have met new friends, enjoyed seeing old ones on New Year’s Eve, and look forward to what God has in store for 2009. We are actually leaving today and want to say thanks to everyone who made this trip such a success. We couldn’t have made it without the support of friends and family. We were blessed to stay with friends in their beautiful home with great hospitality. We were blessed with a car to use for the entire month from a couple we had never met. What a witness and inspiration they are! We were blessed with gift cards from various places, Cracker Barrel for one; you can’t get that kind of cooking in South Africa! We were blessed with our team/church that surrounds us to have great fellowship and plans for the future and we were blessed to meet some people from a small church in Alabama that may consider supporting us this year. The list goes on and on! We have especially enjoyed being at our home church for a month. The candlelight service on Christmas Eve touches my heart every time. Just knowing that Jesus is alive and living within us gives me great peace and joy in my heart!! We will miss everyone and be looking forward to next December, but we know that God is in control and will take care of all things. Much love to all and we ask that you pray for our safety as we travel back to Cape Town.