Of ships and strings ...

Our things have arrived and now our house looks like ‘home’! David is happy to have some theological books at his disposal; the children are enjoying the toys and books they have missed for so long, and I am happy to have Sunday school resources and the microwave.
Somehow, Caris’ little ballet clothes never made it to Namibia. She is disappointed about that. She is ballet-mad and is enjoying a ballet video sent by her godmother. Now she wants to be a ballet teacher when she grows up. Étienne has decided he wants to be a scientist or build electronic devices. He saw a documentary on how they did the robots etc for Star Wars and immediately set about trying to build his own robot from scraps around the house! Thank you to those of you who have sent the children (and us) letters, cards, stickers, presents, etc during this 7 month period without their toys.
And the work permit being issued (for 2 YEARS!) is a great blessing. They cost N$900 each (we need 4) so they are not cheap for CMS to fund. It has been hard for me, trying to learn a language and do it whole-heartedly, not being quite sure if we would have to leave Namibia in August. A friend is taking our passports down to Windhoek when he goes so we can get them stamped. It takes at least 2 weeks to get the stamps in our passports! Passports and permits have to be shown at police checkpoints at various locations. David will need his next weekend as he needs to go down to Tsumeb for a workshop. Tsumeb is beyond Oshivelo (‘gateway’), the sort of border crossing out of Owamboland, and beyond which meat products from Owamboland cannot be taken, as there is no quarantine on meat here.
The Careers’ Fair that David spoke at last week went off very well. The young people found it a bit overwhelming, going from room to room to hear about different career options. But they seemed to really enjoy David’s presentation (he did the same presentation every thirty minutes 9-4.30 for 3 days, excluding lunch!) but had lots of interested questions asked of him.
Car travelling can become a bit tedious but Caris has the answer to helping the journey pass a bit quicker (see pic)!
Oshakati Hospital is currently so short-staffed that there is only one doctor on duty there at the moment. Many patients wait all day but have to go home in the evening without seeing the doctor. Many of the doctors have either left for further studies or private practice. The hospital has been without a superintendent since the last one was appointed by the president to be his personal physician.
Now that the children are exposed to different languages, they are always making up words in a ‘Barbie’ or ‘Bionicle language’. They are always asking
us ‘Where does the word [eg tree] come from? Why did they choose that word?
What does it mean exactly?’
David’s Oshiwambo is improving down at the market. People have very interesting names here which translate to such as ‘ given’, ‘much blessed’, ‘morning’ or ‘evening’ (time they were born) ‘I am finished’ (labour is over!), ‘thanks (to God)’, ‘many people are here’. Someone, whose name means ‘I am happy’ asked David what his name was.
He replied: ‘I am angry’! The people love it when he jokes like this. There is one chap at the market who sells sweets. By this I mean he buys big bags of small sweets then sells them individually for NA10c each. His profit each day is about N$20 (about AU$4). He and David chat a lot. The other day David asked if he had change.
‘For how much?’
‘N$100.’
Much laughter ensued.
David’s morning Bible reading is sometimes BibleS reading … he has his
English, Afrikaans, Oshikwanyama and Greek open! He is translating a simple
form of ‘2 ways to live’ into Oshiwambo whilst down at the market. He then uses what he learns and practises on various ‘victims’.
Today a couple came to enrol in the NETS course, which is exciting.
We have become friends with a couple (Joey and Phileen) who were coming to the English Bible Study, which we held on Sunday afternoons. As afternoons don't suit many people and we have commitments Sunday mornings, the couple are going to take over the running of the English service on Sunday mornings, which is a great answer to prayer.
Some local children have asked me to do Sunday school for them. As I teach
Sunday school down in Ondangwa, I teach them on Monday afternoons. What a blessing to teach children who WANT to learn! It is much easier on Mondays as they all speak very good English. I am very hampered by lack of fluency in Kwanyama as only the older children in the Ondanwa church have any
English. Anyway, what I am holding up (in the pic) is the memory verse in
Kwanyama!
When the CESA team were up here, the women’s team led a woman (Asnath) from Bsp Kalangula’s church to Christ. Now she wants to give the ladies in the church a Bible study after the Sunday service. As she has very little Bible knowledge, the plan is for me to teach her in the week and then for her to teach that lesson on a Sunday. Please pray for Asnath in this respect. And for me, especially as I have to translate the kwy points and questions into Oshiwambo first – very labour-intensive.
David is discipling one man, Timothy, from that church, who is enrolled in the NETS course.