Back to Jo'Burg

Hello again everyone. It has been 2 weeks and I have a lot to talk about. We are settling in quite nicely here. It occurred to me that you might not have any clue about what Johannesburg, South Africa is like so let me try and describe it for you. It is a large city with a population of about 8 million people. We have not even ventured into the downtown area yet. The city is surrounded by hills/mountains depending on where you live right now. Us Floridians would call it a mountain. We have opposite seasons from the States. We are in winter right now. It is usually about 30 - 60 F. They say it has been a pretty mild winter. We have been in winter for 7 months now so we can't wait for it to be over. Back to Jo'burg. The traffic is not too bad except when it is the good luck your stuck. All of the houses have walls and barbed wire around them. Very hard to meet your neighbors. The crime can be bad here. It is a case of either you have money or you don't no real in between. There are more BMW's here then I have ever seen. Most people do not follow traffic rules. Stop signs mean slow down, look and go. Motorcyclists are crazy. We live in a flat at the Baptist Missionary Services Compound. The IMB built 4 flats for missionaries to live in here. If you are a Baptist this is what your Lottie Moon offering goes to. We are so grateful. We drive a Condor. It seats about 7. We are so blessed to have all of this.

The children are doing well in school. They will be on holiday for the whole month of August. A much needed break for all of us. We will be going to a prayer retreat in Durban on the coast at the end of August. We are planning on staying a few days after to have so family time by the Indian Ocean. We are all excited. Yesterday Micah participated in his schools field day. It was a lot of fun. They do things big here. Remember that he goes to an all boys school so there was a lot of competition. The girls have been going to birthday parties and having play dates with new friends. David and I have also made some South African friends so that is fun.

We joined a church here called Edenvale Baptist Church. On Wednesdays we have joined a cell group. It consists of about 10 couples. Most have children. Last week the group went to a government run hospital here. This was very different than any hospital I had ever seen. They also have private hospitals here but the people in this hospital could not afford it. There were many dying of AIDS there. Most did not have anyone to visit them. They welcomed us. We gave them Bibles and prayed with them. Please pray for these sweet people.

David is still doing his classes and is working hard at the office. His boss and family left on stateside last Friday. We are missing them already. They will be living in Tennessee for 5 months and coming back in January. We also are losing another of our BIMS missionaries to retirement next week. She has been serving for 20+ years. She is an amazing lady and we will miss her also.

Good news. I finally finished the bunk beds. They are together and Emily slept in hers last night. It took about a month to strip the old wood and put new finish on it. It gave the girls so much more room in the room.

We have been connecting with a lot of our old friends through Facebook. I have also been putting pictures there. Please join so we can talk to you too. This is not a commercial for Facebook it is just an easy way to keep in touch.

Thank you as always for your prayers, notes, e-mails, encouragement. We love them. Keep them coming.

Prayer/Praise Requests:

Prayer: That our crate will get here soon.

Prayer: for the patients at the hospital that we visited.

Prayer: for the leadership of the IMB and our Regional Team.

Prayer: For the Naude family on Stateside and Sarah as she retires.

Praise: The beds are done!

Praise: We have all made friends.