Current
February, 2006
October 2005
VBS in July 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
August, 2006
In the South African seasons of Fall and early Winter the city conducts two interesting environmental activities: grass burning and tree trimming. Whole hillsides and open fields (velds) are set alight so the dry, brown, grass burns and leaves a blackened landscape. It is not unusual to approach a city and see three or four major fires burning i n the distance. It is not a pleasant place to be for the asthmatic. Reportedly, this is good for next year's growth of grass. Perhaps it is easier than mowing as well. This aggressive method is equaled when it comes to African tree trimming. So much of the the tree is cut off that it doesn't seem possible for the tree to survive. But somehow it does, a lthough it takes two or three years before the tree looks even close to normal. Here is a picture of non-trimmed trees on the left hand side of the street, and just trimmed trees o n the right. The second picture is the follow-up crew coming to pick up the masses of branches from the earlier day's work.
One key characteristic of missionary life is adaptability. Long lines and different customs in the area of customer service will either drive one crazy or will be embraced as an opportunity to pray more. Here are some pictures of our new experiences. John is "growing" in the area of simple electrical work. A few of our electrical switches were failing so John "replaced like with like." As you can see, he really enjoys his work! Rachel and Benjamin miss the e xperience of building a snowman. So when you clean out the freezer, you take advantage of the "homemade snow" to build a mini-snowman!
Tree Trimming
Tree Trimming
Electrical Work
Snowman