Our visit to Johannesburg

I am mortified that my last post was in May of this year whilst I was in the USA.. How could I have been so caught up with ministry that I did not take the time to update this blog..

So where are we now - this post will be a random collection of new as I will be making notes as they come to mind rather than a chronological collection of comments...

We had the joy of travelling to Johannesburg in September this year...Craig and his wife Mel sponsored our bus fares and so with much excitement the Garnie family boarded the InterCape Mainliner for a 24 hour bus ride to the capital of Gauteng..  To be honest the bus ride was not half bad- we talked, played, slept and simply enjoyed the time together.. 

Dad, Joshua & Sydney ready to board the bus.

I have to go now and will do more on this blog later.  I am back again..  Our visit to SA was so enjoyable.. Faye got to see her dad and brother Conrad and we were able to see some of our friends-

I was thankful for the opportunity to see my brother and to spend some time with my dad who came down to JHB for the special event..  Well I had the joy and privilege of dedicating my niece and nephew (Craig and Mel's two children) as well as Mel and Craig's grandaughter.. How funny is that.. I am older than Craig and yet he is a grandfather.

There were people at the baby dedication that I had not seen in many years.. One of the guys that I met was one of the young boys who always came to watch basketball and during half time they would dash out onto the court and play at one of the hoops.. When Craig introduced the young man to me I honestly could not remember him...  By the end of the evening I finally did place him - phew for a while I thought I was getting old !!

My heart was very sore at the end of the evening because some of our family members were embroiled in a verbal fight that spoiled what was an otherwise enjoyable day.

One of the realities that has been indelibly imprinted on our minds is the reality that time is so short, we really cannot afford to spend time arguing and fighting with each other over issues and things that in the big scheme of things are really not that earth shattering.

Our bus ride home was rather unpleasant- the bus was delayed, there was an accident about 50km from the Namibian border which delayed us even further and I honestly think the South African police officer who insisted that we remove our luggage off the bus, including the plastic packets containing food fromWimpy, KFC etc, was a man who was having a bad day and decided that he would cause as many other people to have a bad day as well.  I guess he wanted to share his bad day with as many as possible.. Thanks alot for something we did not need...

The Upington bus depot where we changed buses for the final section of the journey to JHB..

I guess we did not look to bad after a night on the bus.. You should have seen us by the time we got to JHB..

We found the sleepliner bus to be very comfortable and the hostess on the bus was very friendly and helpful - I guess having kids like Joshua and Sydney was a great help as well..


All in all we enjoyed ourselves tremendously and look forward to future trips....

Summer Camp

It was my privilege to be a guest speaker at Youth For Christ's end of year camp 'SUMMER CAMP' in 1998, 2000 & 2002..  We then moved to Namibia in January 2006.. Last year I was invited to speak at SUMMER CAMP and was so very blessed because not only was I a guest speaker but my daughter was amongst the almost 300 young people who turned out for this event...

Last night I spoke again at SUMMER CAMP - It was so exciting to walk into the Tabernacle and watch the excited and energetic young people coming in..Music played loudly and excited young face could be seen all around the meeting place.. On the Video screen was a slideshow of pictures taken through the day - What a fun I had as I watched young people's faces light up when they saw themselves on the screen..  Faye and I were just so at home amongst the youth.. We love this kind of ministry and are grateful to God and to YFC for the opportunity to be part of an event that will change the lives of these young people..

Yes, Larnelle is once again a camper and she was quite an active ambassador for Summer Camp this year.  She invited several of her friends and I am happy to say a few of them signed up for the event..  Larnelle is part of the Victory Dance Team and they were featured as part of the opening night programme, which I am told went very well..

We are praying for God to work some long term change in SUMMER CAMPERS and dare to believe this will have a positive impact on the youth of this beautiful nation.

Food Food Food

I have been in the USA for just over a week and one thing has become very clear- I will have to exercise self control when it comes to food..   I guess I look like I need some fattening up.. 

On Monday night Pastor Lon and I were in the mountains relaxing and being refreshed.. It was a most wonderful time- the beauty of the Rockies is something to behold and with the sun shining brightly and the weather not too cold I relaxed in the beauty of God's creation and meditated on the Psalm that reminds us to be still and Know that He is God..  

This past Saturday Ps Lon and I met with a group of people who had all been on the mission field in some part of Africa.. We shared our experiences, and prayed for each other's present needs. One of the folk shared that he was due to fly to Angola via London BUT that there was the possibility of a strike by BA employees.. You can imagine my joy when a few days later we heard a news broadcast informing people that the strike would not go ahead.. I am waiting to hear that this man made it to Angola on time.

Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Ontario California-- yes I know- when you hear Ontario the first thought is Canada.. At any rate I will spend about five days in Southern California.. It is going to be great to visit the folk at Grace Presbyterian Church (Temecula) who have been faithfully partnering with Faye and I in ministry..  I was last with them in 2007, and they have been supporting us since then.  Spending time with my dear brother in Christ Bob Vasquez and his dear wife Jan is going to be a highlight of my time in California..  

Whilst in Southern California it is my hope to visit some Zimbabwean friends - Vic and Nancy.. We have been in touch for some time and it just seems as though our plans are experiencing some turbulence and disturbance...  I hope we will visit, but if we don't we both recognize it does not affect our friendship.  

Keep an eye on this space for more updates.. 

The Eagle Has Landed

It is Thursday morning and I am seated in Pastor Lon's living room. We are in Denver Colorado.  The weather outside is cool and the sun is shining brightly..

I left Namibia on Tuesday at about lunchtime and flew to Johannesburg where I had the joy of spending some time with a very good friend of mine - Mark Pendy.  We were able to chat and catch up on the news about each other..  He took me to Mugg and Bean for coffee and we then went to his home and to my joy was able to see Cassy (Mark's wife) and their four children.

The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful and to be honest I slept most of the way.  I had no problems in Frankfurt and after a five hour layover, boarded the flight to Denver.

I was seated next to dear old lady who made sure to keep checking up on me throughout the entire flight- hence I did not get much sleep.

The fun really began when I got to the Immigration desk- for the first time in my life I was taken to the special interview room.  Needless to say I was a bit anxious as to why I was now having to go to the interview room.  After a 30 minute delay I was finally interviewed.. Can you believe it, the problem was that they were not happy with my passport picture.. The man said this to me- :"I can see it's you but it's not a really good photo" You work that out !   At any rate, because of the delay, I was simply waved through and that was up my street as I was not in the mood for another delay, or suitcase searching exercise to find nothing..

My friend, Pastor Lon is looking very well and this morning we went together on a Pastoral visit.

It is quite surprising that I have not really experienced jet lag.  I slept well last night and this morning was feeling just fine.  

I gotta run now as we are having a cookout with Pastor Lon's family.  Back home we would call that a braai.

More posts in the days ahead..

A short Family Update

Am I imagining it or does time seem to moving at an accelerated pace?  Just yesterday it seemed it was Christmas and today we begin the third month of this new decade.. The Biblical directive to make the most of the time we have takes on greater significance..

Last night I was part of the worship band that lead in a combined churches worship service here in Okahandja.  The attendance was the best it's ever been and by the time we had sung the final song for the night, just about everybody in the sanctuary was on their feet clapping hands and rejoicing..

We arrived home and found a truck parked in the open piece of ground in front of our flat- Well Joshua decided this is the place to firstly sit and then of course to explore.  He loves trucks and motorbikes and cars, and to have a real live truck in his 'front' yard was just about too much for our young prince.

Today I take Sydney to the dentist (there is only one in our town) and will either see her having an extraction or a tooth filled..  I hope it goes well and that there is not too much discomfort for my little princess..

Yesterday afternoon (before the praise and worship concert) Larnelle decide to make some pancakes.  For some reason however when I put the mixture into the pan it kept sticking and just seemed to be a lump of dough. After three failed attempts I started using Spray and Cook - a little better but not much.. Larnelle was disappointed and I was confused BUT then  a revelation was given:  In her enthusiasm to make pancakes my young queen did not add egg to the mixture !!  Once corrected she was able to cook some tasty pancakes and I enjoyed my share following the concert.

Joshua woke up at 4:00am and felt he needed to inform me that the sun was not waking up.

I am working on a website for our church - so keep an eye on this space, you should soon be getting the page address and can visit us and see what God is doing at Victory Christian Church..

Oh My Goodness!

Can you believe it, my last post was in October last year.. Does that mean nothing has happened in the past few months? Not by any means..

Let me take you on a relatively quick overview of the past few months, highlighting some of the major or critical events in our lives..

1. At the close of October 09 Faye and I had come to the agreement that our time of ministry and service within Christ's Hope International was coming to an end. So many thoughts passed through our minds, so many issues presented themselves and we found ourselves looking to God for some very clear guidance on the next step. That God was giving us the go-ahead to leave Christ's Hope was not the issue- it was the question "Where to?". Like Abraham we felt God was saying "Arise and leave this place to a place I will show you".. So that is what we did.. I am happy to once again be able to declare that God is faithful.. He has connected us with an American Missionary couple who have been serving in Namibia for the past ten years or so, and as we spoke it became clear that this is where the Lord was opening the door for us. We are now serving in a ministry called Leadership Outreach Namibia.. Our goal is to serve the local church and Christian Organisations in Namibia by providing training, equipping and community involvement to develop emerging leaders and to assist these organizations in being more effective in their endeavours. Faye will serve as the business manager and will be training up a young Namibian lady in the areas of bookkeeping and general fiscal management principles, as well as taking care of the books for the ministry.

I will serve as Co-Executive Director responsible to lead the team when the Executive Director is out of the country (which is the case at the moment) and to train and equip our team and give input to the churches and organizations we partner with. An exciting development is my being released with the blessing of Leadership Outreach to serve the local community as the pastor of a local church here in Okahandja. This is probably the only church in Okahandja that conducts services in English. The Church is called " Victory Christian Church". These are indeed exciting times..

2. In December my father and mother and My sister (Lisa) and her husband (Ozzie) travelled to spend Christmas with us. It was such a joy to have family with us and to see the children playing together.. In 2008 we were blessed with a 3m (circular) splash pool and this past December we had the joy of seeing the children make full use of the pool. The temperatures were oppressively hot and so the pool was a most welcome place for relief..

3. We used the last week of December to move our possessions from the International Training Centre to the flat which now has become home for us. Yes we now live in a small 2 bedroom flat on the fringe of the CBD. It has been quite a welcome change of environment and Sydney and Joshua have already made friends with two of the children who live in one of the other flats..

4. Larnelle excelled in school and finished at the top of her class. We are so proud of her, she has grown in her maturity and grasp of some key Biblical principles..

5. I was invited to be a camp speaker at Youth For Christ's end of the year SUMMER CAMP. "All for Jesus" was the camp theme and it was a privilege and joy to see God using us to impact and influence the almost 300 (298)campers who travelled to Hodygos (YFC campsite) for the week long camp.

For us, the new year, NEW decade began without much fanfare and fuss. The momentum picked up slowly and we are finding our feet in the new ministry, and giving thanks each day for the Lord's goodness toward us.

I gotta run for now, but will be posting some more info and hopefully some pictures, later this week so please do pass by this web page in the next few days and do drop us an email from time to time

Blessings to ALL.