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.