March 2008

MARCH 2008

In Canada you see cows and horses on the country road, but driving through the wine country in Stellenbosch you see so many exotic animals instead.



I am volunteering and teaching some of the missionary kids how to read.

In the last week of February two cars in the mission house was broken into. They took the radios, speakers and personal items in both cars. When the police came they told us that the thieves robbed the whole neighboured around us. Later in the afternoon the police caught the thieves, but most of the items that were stolen were not found. That week also I visited my grade 4 reading class early to see how the teacher taught her class and I ended up teaching the whole grade 4 class for a couple of hours. I was put on the spot, but it was challenging and fun at the same time.

Elizabeth and Catherine Teefel are Children who attend my church in Canada and they raised enough money to buy CD players for one of the the schools. They gave the money to their Grandparents and I received the money personally when they visited Cape Town! Thanks again Teefel family!

In the beginning of March I had my second teachers training with the mama’s from the schools. This time I taught them what to do each Monday. I taught them about the ABC’s, how to introduce each letter, how to pronounce the sound that each letter makes, how to write it and recognize. The sessions went really well and as I visited each school for the month of March the teachers were enthused that they had something teach the kids each day. I was blown away when I visited some of the schools because the children would recite the rhyme that goes with each letter. This program, overall is working well, but still lots to do. I also got some donations from some special people from Canada to buy CD players for all the schools. What a blessing that was. Now the children can learn all the songs that I will be teaching them this following year. Unfortunately 10 out of 4 schools don’t have electricity; therefore, I have to buy batteries for them all each month. I am hoping that the Mama’s use the CD players wisely and not waste the batteries to listen to just their own music.

Elijah is starting a mechanical shop and school ministry with African Leadership. They will start building the shop in April. He is just putting taking off the tow rope from my car.

Paul and the youth pushing my car.

That same day that I had my teachers training, my car’s immobilizer broke down and I couldn’t start the car. I ended up waiting until 5:00pm for my friend Paul and Elijah to help me tow my car to the mission house. In South Africa, people just tow each other’s car’s because it cost too much to call the tow trucks. My friends did a great job towing my car because they had to go 30km on the freeway all the way to the mission house. God sure send Angels when you need them.

Johannes is asking one of the grade 4 students in my class about starting a newspaper for kids.
(Johannes is from Germany and is doing and internship in South Africa. He also belongs to a NGO group who is willing to sponsor some of the schools.)





Making a birthday cake for Ben in my reading class.

Sleepover in Khayletisha

On Friday March the 7^th Nospiho invited all the girls from the mission home to have a sleepover at her house in Khayletisha. It was a very interesting night because I ended up driving people back and forth trying to figure out where we were going to sleep. In the end it was a really fun time. Later on I found out that the weekends are not the safest time to be out on the roads at night because in Khayletisha people start to drink and party all weekend and the crime goes up. Again I thank God his Angels are always by my side.

During the month of March I also had the opportunity to meet some interesting people and network with them. Thomas from impact ministries under Campus Crusade and a person from Germany named Johannes. Johannes ended up spending lots of time with us and is willing to set up his NGO partners to sponsor some of the schools in the future. Praise the Lord. I also met up with the head of directors of my ministry finally. We are going to have another meeting at the end of this month and we will discuss what our goals and future plans for Lilly of the Valley Educare centres. She will be a great connection because she can help me partnership with some of the English churches and hopefully support some of the schools in Khayletisha.

On St. Patrick’s Day I had received a new car! Pastor Ohm didn’t want me to have any more car problems and he bought me a car from a missionary who was leaving. My new car is a 99 Nissan Sentra and it’s a huge improvement from the last one. Elijah is helping to sell the old car for me right now. I will have to pay Pastor Ohm later when I have enough money to pay him back.

Street entertainment (Zulu Dancers)

Celebrating Helen's 20th birthday and Angie's 45th birthday at a Jazz Restaurant.

The mission house is full of people again. We have Helen (who is Sarah’s sister) visiting us for 2 months from Canada and Steffi from Germany who is here for 6 weeks to do a short term mission. The mission house has 6 single girls (2 from Germany, 1 from Brazil, 2 who are Korean Canadians from Calgary), I older married couple (Korean Canadian from Toronto) and 1 guy (from Korea). Wow, and more girls to come and short-term mission teams coming soon too!

One of the most famous tourist spots is Good Hope and Hope Point. It is where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.






We saw different animals this time!

The church rented a big circus tent to hold the people in and the preschool was used to cook and feed the people all weekend.



After door to door evangelism 17 people from the neighborhood decided to be Baptized!

This past week was Easter weekend and I took a break from working and and climbed Table Mountain with my friends and went to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point (where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meets) on Monday. On Sunday I went to Mama Nosandla’s church. Mama Nosandla is the principle and pastor at one of the preschools I support. They had a Baptism at 8am at the ocean and about 17 people were baptized. The service was extra long because it was an Easter service, Baptism, Children dedication and communion. I was at the church for 6 hours! (I think that was the longest service that I been to!)

It took 2 hours to climb Table Mountain






We are climbing Lions Head again every 2nd week and it's a tradition to take jumping pictures. (I think when I come back I need to start a gallery of jumping pictures called Glorious jumps! You must try taking pictures like this because they are so much fun!)