We got back on Saturday (from Windhoek) with the children. We were there to welcome the Gillhams (new CMS missios) and help them settle in. It was great to catch up on Aussie news, new films (they had some DVDs we had not seen), and to speak English! The children got on well, too (see photo) and we pray they will settle down quickly in their new environment. They have already chosen schools, a house and a car!
I drove home alone (871 km) - and accidentally took a detour because I took wrong turn and started heading towards the coast!! David has gone to South Africa for a week for a course.
We came home to sporadic showers but it has rained almost continually Sunday-Tuesday. Our sandy garden is shooting up baby thorn trees – they are such hardy plants. I have pulled out about 100 … but have hardly made a dent.
We came back to a swag of Christmas cards so it has been fun reading newsletters and making Christmas last that bit longer!
Home schooling has started. As David is away, Étienne is helping Caris with her maths and I am just hoping the answers he is coming up with for his own problems are correct! Ah, the drawbacks of having dyscalculia (numerical dyslexia).
Our time at the coast was good. We found and touched a smallish octopus in a rock pool and caught lots of small fish. Caris especially loves the beach.
During our time away we were able to visit the dentist. We were reassured about a new tooth coming through for Caris where a damaged tooth was surgically removed when she was 3. Before we left Ongwediva last year, I went around doctors and pharmacies asking if they had liquid nitrogen (though my original request was for nitro-glycerin … until David corrected me! See, I am not a scientist, either!). Anyway, it was to no avail, but Caris got her warts burnt off in SA. I had a great-grandmother who was a ‘white witch’ and her specialty was charming away warts.
Windhoek was fun with all the shops. But we are glad to be home - despite going shopping the next day and seeing big gaps on the shelves where they are waiting for the next delivery from South Africa (every Thursday)!
I had only been home one day when 2 children I know turned up on our doorstep; cold, wet and hungry. Their mother is away and the house keeper had gone off for the day and locked them out of the house and it was raining. So I took them in and fed them and contacted their mother etc. So , yes, I AM home!
David had the car broken into whilst in Windhoek and his bag (with his Bible, NETS’ students test papers, books etc) stolen. We thank God that someone later found the bag on the road and contacted NETS and David was able to retrieve the entire contents. Our alternator just about died when we were coming back from South Africa. David booked it in for repairs in Windhoek and was told that there were no alternators for our car in the country and it would take a week to order from South Africa. We did not have a week. God generously provided us with a 2nd hand one (and thus a cheaper one) the day before I was to return home with the car!
From the time we left Ongwediva (10 Dec) to the time we returned (26 Jan) we have traveled 8,811 kms. Caris says she feels she has been LIVING in the car recently!
When you made your new year resolutions, was one of them to visit us?! We hope one of them was to continue to pray for the work here; that the Gospel will be preached faithfully and the leaders trained effectively.
Our February prayer points will be out soon so I will close now ... and look forward to hearing from you! (Proverbs 25:25)
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
The Great Trek home
At 9 am on New Year’s Eve we set out for the long drive home. New Year’s Day saw us safely arrive – thank you for your prayers. There was very little traffic but we saw plenty of animals on and by the road. We have travelled 6,178 kms since leaving home on 10th December! Caris says she feels she has spent most of her life in he car recently. And we still have the trip to make to Windhoek for the exciting arrival of the Gillhams from Australia.
Just before we left Johannesburg, David took us out to Sterkfontein, to the caves where Mrs Ples (now thought to be young Master Ples) was found; a place considered by evolutionists to be the ‘cradle of civilisation’. How glad we are to know we are fashioned in the image of the living God than an advanced form of primeval slime and rellies of the ape; that we were fashioned in love and not by accident! Anyway, the caves were exciting for the children. After that we took them to a mini planetarium. Astronomy is one of Étienne’s interests and, when the resident astronomer threw questions to the audience, Étienne had answers. When the lights went on, the astronomer asked who the boy was. When he saw and spoke to Étienne he asked if we home schooled our children!
I took the children to the movies to see ‘The Bee Movie’. It was their first visit to a cinema since we left Australia and Caris kept talking all through it as she was not used to having other people in the same room! Poor Étienne managed to get STUNG by a bee on the very day we went to see the film. He said that at least he could now wink (albeit a 3-day wink)!
Johannesburg is 1,700m asl. When the children heard that, Étienne wanted to find a trampoline to see how much higher he could jump in the thinner air and Caris wondered why there were so many people if there was ‘less’ air to breathe’!
There are a lot of mine dumps around Jo’burg because of the gold mines. David’s father used to work on the mines and has very interesting stories to tell. David’s mother was born and grew up in Scotland. After university she travelled by air and train (it took DAYS) to what was then Northern Rhodesia to teach maths. There she met David’s father who was working on the mines there.
Of course, we are back to the heat. And poor Namibia has had no rain – the rains are a month overdue already. The Trans-Kalahari, where it runs through Botswana, has had rain and the greenery was a refreshing sight for us. (I have watched Lord of the Rings a number of times and I especially lovely the verdant scenery at the opening of #1.) Seeing hills and mountains in South Africa was also a novelty for us who live on a giant sandy FLAT flood plain. And grass in a garden was also something the children have not experienced for 2 years! Ah, the things we take for granted!
Here is a snippet of information; in the Greek the wise men come to Jesus and open their ‘thesauros’. Étienne said ‘thesaurus’ means a dinosaur but we know it as a storehouse of information. The word is also used as ‘treasury’. Their treasury contained gold (for a king), frankincense (priest) and myrrh (anointing for burial). This for the Baby who was born to be King, High Priest and Sacrifice.
Just before we left Johannesburg, David took us out to Sterkfontein, to the caves where Mrs Ples (now thought to be young Master Ples) was found; a place considered by evolutionists to be the ‘cradle of civilisation’. How glad we are to know we are fashioned in the image of the living God than an advanced form of primeval slime and rellies of the ape; that we were fashioned in love and not by accident! Anyway, the caves were exciting for the children. After that we took them to a mini planetarium. Astronomy is one of Étienne’s interests and, when the resident astronomer threw questions to the audience, Étienne had answers. When the lights went on, the astronomer asked who the boy was. When he saw and spoke to Étienne he asked if we home schooled our children!
I took the children to the movies to see ‘The Bee Movie’. It was their first visit to a cinema since we left Australia and Caris kept talking all through it as she was not used to having other people in the same room! Poor Étienne managed to get STUNG by a bee on the very day we went to see the film. He said that at least he could now wink (albeit a 3-day wink)!
Johannesburg is 1,700m asl. When the children heard that, Étienne wanted to find a trampoline to see how much higher he could jump in the thinner air and Caris wondered why there were so many people if there was ‘less’ air to breathe’!
There are a lot of mine dumps around Jo’burg because of the gold mines. David’s father used to work on the mines and has very interesting stories to tell. David’s mother was born and grew up in Scotland. After university she travelled by air and train (it took DAYS) to what was then Northern Rhodesia to teach maths. There she met David’s father who was working on the mines there.
Of course, we are back to the heat. And poor Namibia has had no rain – the rains are a month overdue already. The Trans-Kalahari, where it runs through Botswana, has had rain and the greenery was a refreshing sight for us. (I have watched Lord of the Rings a number of times and I especially lovely the verdant scenery at the opening of #1.) Seeing hills and mountains in South Africa was also a novelty for us who live on a giant sandy FLAT flood plain. And grass in a garden was also something the children have not experienced for 2 years! Ah, the things we take for granted!
Here is a snippet of information; in the Greek the wise men come to Jesus and open their ‘thesauros’. Étienne said ‘thesaurus’ means a dinosaur but we know it as a storehouse of information. The word is also used as ‘treasury’. Their treasury contained gold (for a king), frankincense (priest) and myrrh (anointing for burial). This for the Baby who was born to be King, High Priest and Sacrifice.
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