We have lots of answered prayers this week!
When Kevin and Erica fly home on Monday, their departure will end 24 days in a row of having company stay with us. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve loved it and would do it again, but it will be great to have a slower week and our house back to ourselves. Dan has told me I am not allowed to schedule anything else for awhile! In the last 6 days, we’ve done lots of meal hosting. We’ve had dinner or lunch appointments with 3 pastors and their families, 3 different missionaries couples here for dinner (not including Kevin and Erica who are here every night!) and lastly today was “baking day” with a couple of gals from a church in Soweto. We were baking things for their church’s coffee bar. It is a fundraiser held after church today at Buhle and Themba’s church. This week has been lots of fun, but with baby girl kicking me in the middle of the night, I’ve not had as much rest as usual – I am a bit tired these days.
On Wednesday we met with our friends Elvis and Susan Mvulane and they invited us to be a part of the leadership team for a church plant they are starting in the next couple months. We have struggled in the last couple months in feeling at home at our church in Jabavu. The family we were closest to has left to pastor another church, the pastor and the “leadership council” are at odds with each other, and the last Sunday we were there with my sister Julie, we counted 6 different languages being spoken during the service and we are understanding less and less. It has been hard. The boisterous 3 hour service with no children’s ministry isn’t exactly infant friendly either. We have permission from our team leaders here to consider a change and we are excitedly praying about joining Elvis and Susan. We love their dream for an English speaking, multi-racial church. I’ll write more another week when we have more details.
Dan got an invitation to join a couple guys to go rock climbing after church tomorrow. This is a big deal since guys over here don’t easily initiate friendship and Dan has really been missing adventurous friends in his life to hang out with. This is really fantastic!
Also, some of you know that I have wanted to start a class for some HIV+ people who meet 2x a week at Buhle’s church. This idea has been in the works since May and this last Tuesday I met with Thelma (Buhle’s mother, who is in charge of helping the ministry to this group currently) and the ball is finally rolling! She cried, hugged me and kissed my neck like 12x and said that partnering together on this project is an answer to prayer for her. I am SO EXCITED also!!! Heather Witherow (my teammate) and I will be doing a lot of lesson writing in the next couple weeks and Thelma is already in process of translating the sample lesson I gave her into the Sotho language so that it will be more easily understood by the group. The plan is to teach lessons on health issues pertaining to HIV and AIDS as well as Bible lessons. Thelma said that all are HIV+ and none are believers currently, so this is a tremendous opportunity for evangelism and practical help too. When I was there last Tuesday, I took some pain meds, vitamins and a first aid kit with me and several of them asked if I was a Dr since I knew about antiseptic cream and how often they could take pain pills. Funny! J
Dan is busy preparing messages to teach on the trip to Zimbabwe (Oct 7-14) and we have agreed for me to stay home. Last year when we traveled together there, it was a fantastic experience, but the effects of the journey stayed with us for a while. The water gave us both had “the runs” and we needed to be near our toilet and only eating bland stuff like bagels for almost 2 weeks after. It is just too risky at this point in our pregnancy for me to go too and it made all the guys nervous to even consider it! J
One final story from baking day: I volunteered to host baking day since I have a large kitchen and tons of misc baking gear like muffin tins and bread pans which these gals don’t have access to. It was really like supervising some first graders in the kitchen since they had very little experience baking. The recipes used cups instead of grams, so for them it was reading a foreign language in more ways than one! Many of the recipes were creatively altered since they added things early and such. The oven only started on fire one time (thank you Dan for putting the fire out!) but it was because the dough was too close to the edge of the cookie sheet and spilled over.
I have added some fun pictures for you to see.
(From L to R) The girls are Denao (Themba’s daughter, Buhle’s step daughter), Maria, me, Nao, and Lunga (Buhle and Themba’s daughter). Nao is with the oven fire! Dan and I dressed up for a team dinner Saturday evening and he currently has a fun hair style!
Thanks for your love and prayers for us,
Dan, Janell and Baby girl
