Friday, February 26, 2010

Where did the time go???


February Training









Game Park in Polokwane


Debengeni Falls

These were taken at the Snake and Bird Park



Gena's 50th Birthday Party was moved to our house due to the possibility of rain. We had so much fun celebrating with her.



Sheep they fixed for Gena's party. It was really yummy!



We had some of the palm tree branches cut (they were touching the roof) one went through the bathroom window!


February 4th Mark's mom arrived from the States for a visit for a whole month. What a blessing we were given. She has just lived life with us here and we have loved having her here to experience our life here. We have been busy with all kinds of things, SOME of them included ... shopping for Mark and William to go into Mozambique for the leader's training and she also helped me make the road food for them. We sorted medical supplies for the mission, we have gone to the grocery store many times. She has gone to all the shops that we shop at. She has discovered how good the pancakes are when we go shopping a Game (our local Wal-mart). We have driven through the game reserve in Polokwane and we saw so many animals. We even walked on a trail very close to the giraffes! We went to Debengeni Falls, Cheerio Farms, the bird and snake park, Burger Bash, Luke's school, watched Luke swim, went to the mission farm, to the Mullins, watched as we waited for the drill to hit water when digging for our borehole, went to the movies, had a fun time at Gena's 50th, enjoyed time with the mission wives, loved on Tikfah, at lunch at the Farmyard and dinner at the Deck, she even got to eat at the Spur and Mug n Bean. She found out that Roman's Pizza is really good and cheap! We have done so much and are really excited about the next few days with her!!! We are so thankful for the gift we were given to have her here with us.


I can't believe I haven't updated our blog since New Year's Eve! Well here is a quick look at January and February.... (Side note ... it is late here and I am trying to get the pictures on in a certain order and it keeps deleting and even published my post before I was ready for it to be published. So with that said I am just putting the pictures on and they are not in any order. Even this paragraph will not move to where I want it. Oh well, I figure at least I got it updated!!! Thanks for sharing in our journey.


Align Center
Our freezer quit working for the 2nd time in a month so they came to pick it up and "fix" it and then they brought it back today. Hopefully it is fixed this time.






We were given money to dig a borehole (well). They pulled up around 9 on Feb. 18th and began drilling. We are so thankful that they hit water. We were told that we have sufficient water. Praise the Lord.




This is the new stadium that was built in Polokwane for the World Cup taking place this June. We were able to go see a Rugby game and it was fun!






This is Heidi - we got her in January. It took a few hours for Tex to "like" her but after a good "fight" on the lapa they soon became friends and now enjoy a good play time and then of course a good nap time.


January 19th - 6:10 am (yes that is right) Mark' s first day of Seminary - classes begin at 6:30 am. He has one session a month that lasts for 8 days - starts on a Tuesday and ends on the following Thursday. It is tough work but he is enjoying studying and learning more. In his words - he is doing this for Kingdom Purposes. It will benefit him, the mission and the pastors and leaders in Mozambique as he learns more about God's word and how to better equip the Pastor's in Mozambique. Please pray for him as he continues to juggle family, the mission and school.




Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year

Well I should start this post by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. It is 11:20 pm here and we just got home from the church braai and service. Brit has a few friends over for a movie and we are told that in a few minutes we will see lots of fireworks from the neighborhood. I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. So I thought I would highlight the month of December with lots of pictures. This month has flown by for us. We have been so busy still trying to get this house in order. Why does it take so long to unpack and get organized? Can I just say too much stuff! Today we finished removing the last of the building rubble that has been sitting in our yard for the past 4 months. We still have a lot of the garden to trim and cut back and haul that to the dump but we are making great progress.

Now onto the pictures ...
The end of November Steve Mickler and his daughter Adrienne came to visit. We were very excited to meet them and welcome them as our first official guests from the States. Steve is working on his dissertation and wanted to visit all of the villages in Mozambique that PaulAnn Baptist Church has ministered to in the past. This was a very important part of his research for his paper. A few days before they arrived Mozambique had received a lot of rain and it delayed their trip a few days so we enjoyed getting to know them while they waited for the river to go down some.

Steve is interviewing some of the mission staff for his paper.










Mark and the Land Rover - this is what it looked like after his trip into Mozambique with Steve a few days after all of the rain.


Yes it is December and yes that is Mark mowing the yard on a hot summer day!




The kids got an early Christmas Present this year... Meet Tex!






Christmas Eve dinner - we had several families join us for a Mexican Food Dinner to celebrate Christmas Eve. It was a typical HOT summer day here and before everyone came I had to go a take a COLD shower to cool off. (Cold showers are becoming our friend!)


Our tree


Christmas day we got up early and enjoyed opening presents and having our traditional Christmas breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, homemade waffles and strawberries. Then we went to church for a Christmas morning service. We spent the rest of the days at the Beakley's swimming and visiting. There were 2 American families, one South African family, one man from Kenya and one man from Zambia and one family from Zimbabwe. We had a leg of lamb and then lots of different side dishes.

Mark helping carve the leg of lamb


Luke having fun!


kids hanging in the pool on Christmas day! So strange but fun!


We had lots of help this past week loading and hauling off lots of rubble (trash!!!)


Guys taking a break from all the hard work. (We were blessed by our parents and grandparents and got a great pool table for Christmas. I am looking forward to all of the fun and fellowship that will take place with it.)


On Monday after working all day hauling off all the rubble Mark cooked some American hamburgers for everyone! He really likes his new Braai apron he got for Christmas!


The man you see here is a guy that works for us a few days a week helping us get the yard under control and odd projects. His name is Jankie and we enjoy having him around. We pay him a daily amount and provide 2 meals. We eat most meals with him and enjoy that time of getting to know him. He is not a Christian but we have had several opportunities to share the love of Christ with him. In fact this past Monday we had 4 of the Seminary guys here helping us and they were witnessing to him. It was great seeing Africa reaching Africa and it was happening on our lapa. Please pray for him that his eyes will be open to the truth. We look forward to seeing what God wants to do in his life.

Jankie and Brit playing pool after a long day of removing rubble.


The finishing touches today! I think we are all sore!




We finally got it all out!


The trees behind the lapa are going to be next. They are so overgrown we can't even walk behind the lapa. So this is next weeks project!


Hanging out at church tonight.


Mark and Mike cooking the meat.


This was the view looking down our street tonight. I love the fact that I can see the moon as it is coming up from my kitchen window. It is always so beautiful.


Well it is now 12:30 and I guess I can officially tell you from South Africa "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" We took a break and went outside to watch the fireworks. They were being shot off from all directions, you could hear people yelling and laughing, horns blowing and music coming from all over.

We want to thank everyone for all of your prayers and support. We love you and miss you all so much. We would love to hear from you!