An Eventful Journey

Plans were being made in September for me to visit Zimbabwe with my colleague, Tony Duran. It would have been a wonderful opportunity to see friends and family during the ten days or so that we would be home. Unfortunately the trip to Zimbabwe did not take place, but I was offered a ride to Johannesburg with a friend who is currently the National Director of Youth For Christ-Namibia.

The journey to JHB was quite eventful--The plan was to travel through to Gaborone on a Saturday and spend the night with very special friends - Toby and Doll Ralph. We would join them for fellowship on Sunday morning and then move on

to JHB after lunch and my friends would collect me from the YFC centre in the Magaliesburg area..

We left Okahandja at 6am on the Saturday and after 15 mins of travel had a flat. Now the fun began. The jack did not lift the vehicle of the ground sufficiently for the flat wheel to be removed and the spare fitted.. So we removed the flat and began to dig a hole under the hub so that we would have space to fit the spare- sound like a good plan - Only one problem.. We are on the side of the main road and as a long haul truck passed the combi was moved and slid off the jack onto the ground.. Okay so we dig another hole to get the jack into position to lift the car BUT it was still not enough to lift it so that the spare could be fitted- Thankfully a good friend, Johnny Pedreiro willingly came our and helped us with his jack and we got the spare fitted and on our way.. By the time we stopped in Windhoek and had the flat repaired and resumed our journey about two and a half hours had passed. When w

e were leaving Windhoek we should really have already been at the Botswana border..

No problems getting through the border, except the shock of the new road taxes etc.. BUT .... Oh yes there is more to come..

About thirty kilometres before the little town of Kang (375kms from the border) we ??? Ran out of fuel ! Now way you say.. Oh yes.. Well what to do now? Walk.. That was our only option. So Stanley and I start walking.. We walked for about 25 mins before a vehicle stopped to give us a ride into Kang.. Yippee..

we get there and buy ten litres of fuel and ??? start walking back again.. We are now walking into the sun and carrying a twenty litre plastic container with ten litres of fuel - Had a nostalgia attack as I remembered what it was like in Zimbabwe with fuel containers etc.. At any rate God favoured us and a long haul

Namibian trucker stopped to give us a ride.. yes I finally got to ride in an air conditioned Scania rig.. Every cloud had a silver lining..

Okay so now we have the fuel, we're back at the combi and our journey resumes - Oh by the way - Travelling with us was Stanley's wife (Desiree), their son Justin (4yrs) and daughter Rachel (8 months).. Another two hours have passed -

so all in all we have had our journey extended by four and a half hours.. Arriving in Gabs at night and looking out for Toby was fun.. We found each other and were treated to a phenomenal chicken curry and roti dinner (prepared by one Mrs Gwen Harry..

Toby and Doll

Seeing friends we have not seen for some time was refreshing and a great blessing..

To add to this was the enjoyment of sharing in their worship service the following Sunday morning..

Rowan and Gwen Harry

The service was excellent and we were treated to a very special lunch- in fact it was so enjoyable that by the time we checked our watches it was already 3pm !! We still had to drive through to JHB.. Our trip to JHB was without any major negative event, we did get ourselves temporarily misplaced for about 30 minutes, but who's counting?

The next post will talk about JHB ..

Adding Value to Others

Both Faye and I consider it a privilege to be missionaries and to know that God is gracious enough to afford us the opportunity of adding value to others. We have both had the opportunity to speak at Encounter Camps, Faye to the ladies and me to the men, organised by a Powerhouse Family Fellowship - a church based in Windhoek.

Faye participated as a small group leader and came home so blessed and fired up after the weekend of ministry. Dad of course had the joy of babysitting.. Confidentiality commitments prevent me from giving details of some of the ways in which lives were impacted as the Holy Spirit worked through us. I can however say that both Faye and I were very conscious of the Lord's hand on us in giving us wisdom to know how to speak to and pray for people whose lives have been traumatised and who have come to such a camp looking for answers and looking for solutions, and some not even sure of what they are looking for.

Through a structured programme of big group and small group sessions we listened, prayed spoke and saw how God became more real to so many of the people and how eyes that appeared dull and without light suddenly came alive and lit up with hope as people experienced the person of the Holy Spirit and a revelation of Christ which brought hope..

I was invited to be a guest speaker at a youth camp and while taking the campers through the Biblical account of the prodigal son had the joy of sharing with them about the Father heart of God. On the final night of the camp I spoke on the value and importance of a father's blessing.. My dear friend Tony Duran and I then invited the campers to come to the front for prayer if they wanted to receive a father's blessing.. Almost all the campers came forward to receive a blessing and it was my singular joy to not only bless these young men and women, but my own daughter (Larnelle) was on the camp and I was honoured and moved as I held her in my arms and blessed her and spoke words of life and destiny over her..

Parents you know how your heart lurches and questions go whizzing through your mind when you receive a message that the principal of the school your child attends, requests that you come in to see him ? Well I did get just such a call from Larnelle's school.. I had no idea what to expect and was just about blown off my feet when the principal explained the reason for his wanting to see me.. NO Larnelle was not in trouble and in fact there was no problem with her at all, in fact to the contrary. Because of how well Larnelle is doing at school (and at the end of the second term she got all A's) the principal informed me that there was a scholarship/sponsorship being made available specifically for Larnelle that would cover her school fees for all of 2010 ! This comes to a total of about twenty four thousand rand for the year !

While still giving thanks to God for His provision for Larnelle I received another call and on going to see this precious person was told that he and his wife wanted to cover Sydney's school fees for 2010.. This amounts to an annual figure of fourteen thousand four hundred rand. How awesome is that ! God is indeed Jehovah Jireh (Go our provider) and he does meet our needs.. It seems as though God has been pleased with us adding value to others and so moved others to add value to us..

Catch UP..

It has been said the 'time flies' and when I look back at the last posting on this blog I cannot believe how much time has passed. An update is way overdue..

In June we had the joy of a few days break to attend a sports festival in Swakopmund. Due to the large number of people being in the town for this important private schools event, we had the benefit of excellent rates at the Municipal Bungalows. Despite the cold June weather of this picturesque seaside resort we simply enjoyed some quality family time. It was so good to be without a rigid and fixed schedule for a few days it gave us a time to unwind..

Sydney and Joshua in the Bungalow Larnelle in full flight

Larnelle's team played fairly well and although not emerging as champions the players all seemed to have enjoyed the tournament.

On the way back to Okahandja we stopped over to visit our friends Calvin and Koesha Martin

who live in Karibib. We first met the Martins whilst they were living in Okahandja, and have continued to keep contact with them even after they moved to Karibib where Calvin took on the post of principal of a private school. During our visit Calvin mentioned his wanting me to conduct a church service for the school boarders one Sunday. We looked at the calendar and set a date and I had the joy of travelling to the school and running a chapel service one Sunday morning, and of course we all enjoyed our fellowship with the Martins.

We were very blessed to have my Uncle Ernst and Fay pay us a visit in August. They first travelled to Cape Town to attend a family wedding and then came up to Namibia where they spent a few days with us. During their short visit they were able to see the beautiful Etosha Game Park and then spend time in Swakopmund as well. From Namibia they travelled on to Zimbabwe to see family before returning to Switzerland.. The value of seeing family face to face and spending time with each other cannot be fully quantified and both Faye and I have come to treasure these times.

One Sunday afternoon I went out to play tennis and on returning home discovered that my laptop was not functioning properly. All my efforts to get it sorted out came to zero and finally I sent it in for a check up - the diagnosis- the motherboard is faulty and it would be best to replace it - cost of a new mother board? +/- R 4000.00 The lady at the computer shop very gently suggested that rather than replacing the laptop I should simply consider purchasing a new laptop. Yeah right ! Now you know we Christians are an interesting lot and we tend to talk to God about such situations.. wonder of wonders we often receive answers and solutions to such situations .. I am happy to report that some good friends who had purchased new laptops for themselves had one that was gathering dust on the bottom shelf of a closet.. They knew about my chronically 'sick' computer and decided to bless me with their extra laptop. Whilst it may not be brand new, it does work and has sufficient resources and facilities for me to do all I need to..

The winter this year was not unbearably cold and we were thrilled that our children did not suffer too much in the way of colds and/or flu.. However our Joshua had a nasty fall which resulted in his two front teeth being damaged quite significantly - thankfully they are milk teeth which will be replaced with permanent ones.

Joshua was pushing himself along on his little racer, and going very fast.. He accidentally put his feet in front of the front wheels which resulted in him flying over the front and landing face first on the concrete floor. It has been a while since this very painful and unpleasant event and we are happy to say that there have no further mishaps. Joshua has recovered from it quite well, although Faye and I are thinking that perhaps we should take him to the dentist to have the two front teeth removed as we wonder if the damage to the milk teeth may not create problems for the permanent ones..

Faye and I are well, our work keeps us fairly busy and we have the added joy of being active in a local church and are building some very good friendships with folk here in Okahandja and Windhoek. We both have noticed a few more grey hairs and we tend to move at a more royal pace than before !