Table Mountain High

After yesterday we can tick (check) off Table Mountain as one of our biggest milestones. It took us 2 hrs and 15 min to go vertically 2500ft. There were 6 of us that decided to take on the challenge. 2 of them were 18 so they put the rest of us to shame. There were some people actually running up the mountain and I was doing all I could to put one foot in front of the other. We had a great time and really felt great when we finally reached the top. One of the most amazing things was how cold it was when we reached the top. We all brought jackets because we knew it was cold but I just didn’t realize it would be that cold. We decided earlier that we would ride the cable car down. As we fast approached the bottom of the cable car ride, it occurred to me that our car was about 1 ½ miles away. We all just laughed and said this is nothing it is flat we won’t have any trouble hiking this. I really thought we would be sore today but we are fine. We actually got out and walked again today.

Shocking Prices

Ok, so I almost fell out of my chair the other day when Mike came home with the receipt for windshield wiper blades. They were R450.00, translated that is $60.00. That got me thinking about what we paid for our oil change and 15,000 Kilometer check up on our car R895.00, translated $119.00. This makes Jiffy Lube prices look really good. Most things here don’t cost as much in the states, but I think we call this highway robbery! I was in a conversation today where a local South African was talking about getting ripped off in the airport and I thought let’s talk about getting ripped off. When I told him what I paid he shook his head and said he buys his wiper blades for R27.00 at the pick and pay (our Wal-Mart if you want to call it that) I’ll be checking that out today!! He also said that kind of price for an oil change is crazy. I happen to agree. Unfortunately this is one of those things that we have to accept as a foreigner and move on. Just another few examples of price gouging at the grocery store: tortillas $8.50(we don’t buy them), laundry soap, $11.99 for ½ gallon, Campbell’s soup $3.99 per can, Kraft Mayonnaise, $3.99. These are just a few of the shocking prices that keep going up. Never do they have buy one get one free!! We truly understand why the staple food for the poor is bread and a type of porridge similar to grits because there is no way they can afford to have anything else. The oppression is so great here and no way for them to get ahead. We like to surprise some of our friends with something that we know they can’t afford and it really makes their day. (Obviously nothing mentioned above) Thanks for your continued prayers and support as we are able to pass on some of your blessings to the poor.

Blog, Blog, Blog

Journaling has never been a big thing for me, but I know when we look back on our Journey it will be great to have all of these stories to read about and reflect on what we did along the way. I wrote a blog and it turned out we would use it for a Newsletter article, so I thought I would post this along with Miracles still Happen. We have been waiting for the weather to get better and the sun to set later in the day so we can start back with our Bible Study. The Zimbabwe ladies asked us yesterday if we could go ahead and get started. We are excited about this and plan to start next week. We will only have about 8 weeks before we head back to the states for the holidays. How amazing another year will have gone by. We continue to help Khumi with the bag business as she is still recovering in the Healthcare Centre. We continue to have a steady flow of teams but the individuals have slowed down some. We actually are getting longer term volunteers which are great for the ministry. We have 12 here now that are for a year or more and expect another 5-10 next year. We are also expecting 2 families next year. It is great to see God at work in all of the lives of these people.

Miracles still happen

We had a team here from Knoxville, Faith Promise Church, and we did the standard outreach where they go door to door for the week and invite people to testing day and a celebration with Praise and Worship and food. This time we had to have the celebration in a different location and had to bus the people there. We were told that a lot of people wouldn’t come because of the distance, which was less than a mile, but those that told us that were wrong. We packed the church and had an awesome time. When it came time to pray for people, the team made themselves available. I was standing at the back observing. This young man came up beside me and asked me to pray for him. I asked him, “How I can pray for you and he proceeded to tell me that he was a homosexual living with another young guy and he found out 2 months ago that he was HIV positive, his mom had passed away and he didn’t have any way to get any help because he doesn’t have any identification. So how do you pray for all of that? I prayed for him and he moved on but I told one of our support group facilitators so she could follow up with him. This is one of many young people living this same lifestyle and on top of everything else they are hooked on “tik” Chrystal Meth. It is no different in America, but God has called us here to help these folks. Just 2 days ago, I took a class that Living Hope is asking all of its employees and volunteers to attend. Mike is going on Tuesday. It is a substance abuse training course to understand how we need to help with addictive behaviors before “we” (lots of people who are here because God called them here) can fix the HIV problem. We also have to address the “poverty of the mind” issues before we can fix the HIV problem and we are doing that through Living Way. There is a lot of work to be done here! Here is where the miracle part comes in. Because we were told that we wouldn’t have that many people, we only fixed food for 250 people. As the box dinners began to dwindle, Mike, Danielle and I looked up and there was still a very long line of people to get food and we began praying Lord please let there be enough food for everyone. We just repeatedly looked at each other saying, “keep praying, keep praying!” So as the line started to dwindle down, yes you guessed it, the very last box went to the very last person in line. In the Bible (Mark 6:30-44) Jesus talks about feeding the 5000 people on 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, I believe in this day and age Miracles still happen!!