July Update

And these are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah—he is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness when he was pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibeon – Genesis 36.24. You know it is interesting reading through all the genealogies and finding comments about people. The only significant event worth mentioning about Anah’s life is that he found some water while taking care of some donkeys. The question has to be asked of us – in light of eternity - when our life is through and our epitaph is carved in stone, what will be ‘written’ about us?

We are thankful for the passing of June – as June in South Africa is winter and it is cold. June in Setswana basically means ‘don’t visit because we don’t have enough blankets.’ It has been a lot colder this year than last year. The insects that were not killed last year were certainly killed this year. Houses are not centrally heated so when you come inside from the outside cold, there is not a whole of change. We do have heaters in the bedrooms and a large kerosene heater in the living room; it still is not the same as central heat. However, I know that we are a lot warmer in our house than many people living in corrugated metal ‘houses.’ So we continue to be thankful for all of God’s blessings.
I had a very good meeting with Ben Poo and Moses – he is the man that will be leading the Bible study in Unit 15. He is also leading a Bible study out in the same village that Jody is storying in. I will be working with Moses in strengthening and encouraging these two groups. I told Ben and Moses that our purpose was for these groups to eventually become churches. They were in full agreement and that was their purpose also. The area is wide open in Unit 15, and across the road is another area of about 500 – 750 houses going up. These are RDP houses – houses that were promised to people when apartheid ended and the new government was put in place.
There has been another Bible study started at the Hotel School – like a Hotel Vo-Tech – where you learn everything from the kitchen to the cash register. We had 17 students on our very first night. Hedley Daniels, pastor of Calvary BC, and I are partnering together for this Bible study. The school is walking distance to Calvary, so many of the students attend.
That’s a little bit of what is happening. Thanks for your prayers and giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and through the Cooperative Program. Your prayers and giving makes us partners together in the harvest.

Well, first of all, I want to greet you all, our prayer partners. We certainly do love you and can’t wait to see you again. We are looking forward also, to the warmer weather! As Dennis told you we’ve been cold! We all had the flu last month, and I’m still recovering from the congestion. I can’t take a lot of medicine right now, and I think that has made me stay sick longer. Please pray that we can all be completely healthy again!
I’m still going to the village to teach Bible stories. We’ve been having huge numbers these last couple of weeks because school is out for a break. It has been really good. I think I told you of another woman last time who died from AIDS. We witnessed to her and her family. Two weeks went by after we buried her before we were able to get to the village again. When we arrived, we were told that this woman’s two month old baby had died the day after we buried her. I was heartbroken. I started beating myself up over what I should have done or could have done. But, no one knew what would happen except the Lord. I have comfort in the fact that this child is with Jesus, and also his mother. My sister has asked how I can deal with all the death. I just can’t think about it much. It does teach us all that life is short, and that the decisions we make today will affect us tomorrow whether we think so or not.
The boys are finishing up their second term of the school year in about three weeks. Andy and I are working furiously to try to finish up fifth grade so we can get back on the American schedule to start sixth grade. He’s doing very well with only a little complaining! I have just met with Caleb’s and Josiah’s teachers. They are both doing very well and excelling in every way. We’re very proud of them. Caleb’s teacher actually said that she sees Caleb as having a more equal relationship with her than that of teacher-student. That makes me laugh because I can just see Caleb telling her all kinds of things. She can actually converse with him. Of course, he also makes her laugh! He says something funny almost every day. His most recent is that he washed his “knee-pit” in the bath. I had to call and tell my parents about that one! Bethany is doing well. She’s growing up so fast! She’s starting to talk, and actually say things that we can understand. She’s also trying to learn her colors. She always starts out with something being “green.” She hero-worships her brothers. They don’t mind being wrapped around her fingers along with their Daddy. I do know one thing, though. She’s going to have a rude awakening to reality when this new little girl arrives. Bethany will have to share Mommy! We’ll see how that goes. We’re still working on a name for the baby. I want her to have at least one Bible name. There just aren’t as many girl names as boy names in the Bible. She will have a name eventually you know, though.
I guess that’s all for me and the kids. Hope to hear from all of you. Thank you for your giving and your prayers.

Blessings

An Interview with Rick Warren

I usually don't forward things but I thought this was really worth you reading this. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions years in eternity. This is the warm-up act -- the dress rehearsal that God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ-likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life, but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys -- you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good for which you can thank God. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is, "my problem, my issues, my pain."
But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder.
For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book (The Purpose Driven Life) sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism?

Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.

That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Bethany's Doings

Bethany has learned how to color. Unfortunately, she hasn’t learned on what to color on. We give her a piece of paper and she thinks that walls and furniture are OK to draw on. (That is marker and it is not coming off the wall - it will have to be painted - one of 4 places.)She has also learned that she can take her clothes totally off and take her clothes out of her dresser when she gets mad. She will go to her bedroom by herself when she is mad, close the door and proceed to take out all of her clothes. She has done this at least three times now. She also wants to help Jody with her scrap booking. She also wants to help straighten out all the rubber bands in the drawer. She has no fear of heights as evidenced by climbing up the bars of the windows and climbing onto the air hockey table. She picked up a frog and brought it to Jody and she has pointed out and picked up bugs off of the wall. She is, however, afraid of the vacuum cleaner. She is a mess, but we would not trade her for the world. I guess all parents think that their children are the cutest, but I think Bethany is in the running!!!

Happy Father's Day

(This is a picture of my first fish and there in the other picture is Autotuner1 and Inca_runner6.)

A happy Father’s Day to the fathers. This blog has opened up a conversation that I have not been apart of for many years. If you have taken time to read the posted comments you will find that 2 of my brothers have dominated the comment section. Their initial comment may be about my blog, but then they get off on a ‘conversation’ of their own bringing up anything from our growing up to serve as ammunition. I am sure that I have thought about this before, but when thinking about my brothers and sister, I still think we are those 5 children and teenagers going on vacation, loading up in a station wagon, pulling a tent camper, driving through the night just waiting for dad to find the perfect camping spot. It always appeared that dad could find the ‘post card’ camping spots. I remember one place we pulled off the road, down an embankment, and camped right beside a picturesque running stream. I remember this place because this is where I caught my first fish – it was about a 9 inch Rainbow Trout. There was another place in Wyoming that we were camping and my brother Doug and I went hiking up the mountain. We got above the road and we started throwing good-sized rocks down on the road. Upon impact, they would ‘explode.’ I don’t know why, but the highway police frowned upon that activity. They ‘apprehended’ us and took us back to our parents – now having a record on file in the state of Wyoming. I wonder if there is a statue of limitations or we still have a record.

It has been about 3 years since my dad died. Even though the last years of our lives were not spent together, there was still a closeness and connection whenever we talked or saw each other. Spending the last couple years of his life in bed, he was either playing Nintendo or watching sports. I would call and get his take on the upcoming football season or what was happening in hockey. He always kept up with the Canadian Football League. I would have loved to have called him this morning and ask him about the hockey game last night. The Edmonton Oilers won game six of the Stanley Cup playoffs to force game 7. Not being able to watch it over here, I would have loved to hear what he would have said. Some of my best memories with dad was when I was growing up playing hockey. I always liked it when dad would lace up and tie my skates – he always got them so tight. After the hockey games, we’d get into his big oil company ‘testing’ truck. He would leave the engine idling with the heater on – it felt so good to get into the warm truck. It always smelled like petroleum.
I quickly learned that whenever we as a family would go to the store or the mall that it was best to stay around dad. Dad loved ice cream. If there was a place to buy ice cream, we’d end up there. As I start to think about it, we did a lot of things and went a lot of places. We traveled to both Disneyland and Disneyworld. I think we visited every theme park that we came into contact with. Dad liked rollercoasters. I remember riding my first roller coaster with Dad – it was in California. Several times we traveled from Canada down to Los Angeles to see family and friends. We were at Disneyland on July 4th, 1976. Those were some fireworks. On our way home, we would travel back home up through Oregon and Washington State stopping and picking fruit at the orchards.
I guess as time passes, the good memories get better and the bad ones fade. It seems the older I get, the better my childhood and life gets. God is good and He has blessed me incredibly. Thank you, God, for my father. Happy Father’s Day.

Josiah’s Soccer

One of the benefits of Josiah’s school is all the activities that he is involved with. In the year and a half that he has attended, he has played field hockey, cricket, soccer, swimming, and is taking piano lessons. He did play tennis for a little while, but we would have to pay for lessons if you wanted to continue. He came home saying that golf lessons were being offered twice a week from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. We had to turn him down. He already stays after school for these activities 4 out of the 5 school day.
These pictures are from his soccer game today. They played another area school and lost the match 2-0. He did a great job and is becoming quite the athlete. He had an unofficial race with Andy (running home from church) and he won. He likes being faster than Andy. I knew it would just be a matter of time.
Josiah continues to enjoy school and to be with his friends. He’s had some friends over to the house the last 2 Friday’s after school. He is still a very low maintenance child. It’s hard to believe that he is in the third grade. I think my favorite quote about him – it relates to his loving personality – is when Caleb was just a baby and Jody said, “Josiah! Don’t lick the baby!”

To see more of his school, go to www.issa.co.za .

Thank You Southern Baptists

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--It’s a new record that’s reaffirming an old commitment. $137,939,677.59 -- that’s what Southern Baptists gave to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions in 2005, making it the single most successful year in the offering’s history. The $137.9 million marks a 3.03 percent increase over 2004’s $133.9 million Lottie Moon offering, not to mention a 1.28 percent gain over the old record set in 2003 -– $136.2 million. More than 5,100 International Mission Board missionaries depend on the annual offering, of which every penny is used to support their work sharing the Gospel around the world.
"This historic level of giving will enable us to send an increasing number of God-called missionary candidates moving toward appointment," IMB President Jerry Rankin said. "It will enable us to push forward in fulfilling the vision of bringing all peoples to saving faith in Jesus Christ. At a time of economic uncertainty, and a year in which massive amounts of funding have been directed toward hurricane relief and recovery, it is gratifying to see God prove His faithfulness through Southern Baptists."
Clyde Meador, IMB executive vice president, echoed Rankin’s sentiments and acknowledged the critical role of the Woman’s Missionary Union in the offering’s success. "The IMB wouldn’t be able to do any of this without the faithful support of our state and national Woman’s Missionary Union partners," Meador said. "Long ago, WMU laid the foundation for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering because they understood the eternal significance of sharing Christ with a lost world. "Today, they remain committed to international missions as they promote the Lottie Moon offering on a grassroots level to more than 42,000 Southern Baptist churches."
"We are grateful that Southern Baptists continue to give sacrificially to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering as evidenced in the record offering totals for 2005," said Wanda Lee, executive director/treasurer of national WMU. "In partnership with state WMU offices, WMU leaders in churches and the International Mission Board, it is a joy to see our churches embrace the Great Commission."
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., took the No. 1 spot on the list of 2005’s top 100 giving churches, adding $656,951.44 to the Lottie Moon offering. Among the top 100 churches, Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Boone, N.C., gave the most per capita. With 827 members, the church contributed an average of $243.74 per member, totaling more than $201,000 –- a record high of its own. Allan Blume, Mount Vernon senior pastor, said he isn’t surprised by his congregation’s missions-motivated giving. The church has sent more than a dozen missionaries overseas through the IMB during the past decade, in addition to taking part in numerous short-term, volunteer mission trips. "This is really not out of the ordinary," Blume said. "Without a doubt I would say there is more than a heart for missions among the people of Mount Vernon –- there is a passion for missions. And that passion is driven by the biblical values of the Great Commission and the urgency of sharing Christ with people of every tongue, tribe and nation."
Billy Hoffman, IMB director of development, said giving is a fundamental way for churches to encourage their congregations’ active involvement in missions. "We must never forget the vital role we all have in sending missionaries to unreached people," Hoffman said. "Every level of giving through Southern Baptist churches to send short-term and career personnel represents a ‘mutual fund’ investment in God’s kingdom enterprise that will surely yield eternal benefits."
CHANGED LIVES
While $137.9 million is an impressive figure, Rankin believes the numbers that matter most reflect changed lives. It’s important to remember that Lottie Moon isn’t about money, he said, but about the world’s 3.7 billion people with little or no access to the Gospel. "Southern Baptists are impacting the world in tremendous ways," Rankin said. "In 2005, your giving has resulted in 137 newly engaged people groups. You have directly supported thousands of missionaries as they and our overseas partners baptized more than 459,000 new believers and started some 17,000 new churches. "What a privilege it has been to serve you and your church as we take the good news of Jesus Christ to peoples who have never had access to the Gospel. God has truly blessed our joint efforts."
DONOR FATIGUE
The record-breaking offering put to rest reports in the secular press over so-called "donor fatigue," which many feared would limit Lottie Moon funding. In fact, the opposite has proven to be true for Southern Baptists, said David Steverson, the IMB’s vice president of finance. "Just six short months ago, almost every major newspaper was running articles about how Americans were experiencing a new phenomena they were referring to as ‘donor fatigue,’" Steverson said. "People had given to tsunami relief, Hurricane Katrina and Rita relief, and earthquake relief. Southern Baptists led the charge in supporting all of these causes in a tremendous way. "Now, unlike many other organizations, Southern Baptists have shown with this record Lottie Moon Christmas Offering where their hearts and their checkbooks really are –- in missions! They are being on mission with God to see that all the peoples of the world have an opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ. We are grateful to God for Southern Baptists and their generous spirit in supporting missions around the world." Donor fatigue wasn’t the only concern for the Lottie Moon offering in 2005. Rankin noted Southern Baptists also had to look past a series of distractions. "A great deal of attention has been focused on the IMB over the last year -– controversial policies and dissension within the board of trustees –- but Southern Baptists have looked beyond these issues to realize we are about sending and supporting missionaries to reach a lost world," Rankin said. "Nothing reflects the heart of Southern Baptist churches for our mission task as giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering."
HUMBLE PAST
The significance of the new Lottie Moon landmark gift is put into perspective when compared to the offering’s humble past. The first Lottie Moon Christmas Offering was taken in 1888 and collected $3,315.26 –- enough to send three Baptist missionaries to China. By today’s standards, however, that amount is only enough to support a missionary for one month. To date, $2.6 billion has been given over the offering’s 117-year history. As for its future, Rankin believes the record offering in 2005 is evidence of genuine progress toward completing the Great Commission, though much work remains to be done.
"Our goal last year was $150 million and it’s going to be again in 2006," Rankin said. "But that’s not some magic number –- it’s simply a measure of our momentum. Yes, meeting the $150 million mark will allow us to move more candidates through the appointment process and take the Gospel to new unreached people groups. But in reality, it’s going to take a lot more to reach every corner of this lost world for Christ. To do that, the Lord must teach us the true meaning of sacrifice.
"Thank you for your faithful giving. Truly it will touch many lives as we strive to accomplish the goal of all peoples knowing Him, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

To learn more about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions,
visit www.ime.imb.org

June Update

This picture was taken on Mother’s Day a couple of weeks ago. It is hard to believe that there will be another little girl in the photo next year. Jody had an appointment and the doctor did a scan and it looks like another little girl. It’s hard to imagine what the house will be like with some more little feet running around. The Lord has truly blessed our family. In the almost 2 ½ years here in Africa, none of us has been seriously sick with even a cold or flu. I did not ever imagine that I would be the father of 5 children. Jody and I realized that for 10 years we had house of full of boys. There will be a time after Caleb leaves the house, at 25, that I will be a minority with 3 girls in the house. The Lord is faithful.

It seems like a long time since we have talked. To be honest, there is not a whole lot to talk about. For the last 2 months, I have not been involved in a lot of activity. With Jody having morning sickness all day long, an Easter stay in the hospital, being involved with the volunteers with AMTM, and having a strained back, my activities have been very limited. For about 7 weeks, Jody could not step foot into the kitchen, however, she needed to eat every 2 hours. That meant that I could not leave for any extended amount of time, and I had to find something for her to eat. She really wasn’t hungry, didn’t really want to eat, and she could not tell me what she wanted. Try and figure that one out! I am still perplexed. It also meant that Bethany was under my supervision. Jody was able to do some things, but she was very limited in her activities. After AMTM, we enjoyed Jody’s parents at our house for a couple of days. I spent 4 nights on the couch. This did something to my back and I am just now getting comfortable with sitting on a chair.I have preached a couple of times in those weeks and am in the planning stages now of some conferences and seminars in the next couple of months. We are still working in Unit 15 (a subdivision of over 1000 homes) on trying to find a house to start a Bible study. Several meetings have been planned, but have been cancelled. I am working with Ben Poo of United Baptist in getting a building built. They asked me to be on the building committee. I reluctantly agreed saying that I really did not know anything much about building a building. I am preaching the next 2 Sundays at Mmabatho Baptist Church. I continue to meet with Calvary Baptist Church working through Purpose Driven material. They really want to find out who they are and what God wants them to do and be about.

Well, hello! I want to say first of all that I am so thankful for all the prayers that have been offered up on my behalf by all of you. I definitely felt them! I’m feeling much better these days, and am actually excited about having another girl. I can’t believe I’m going to have two daughters. After having three boys (who I love dearly), I begged God for the one I have! I never dreamed He would give me another!
The work in the village is still going strong. We meet on Friday mornings to do our Bible stories. They have to sing some too. It’s just not a “church” meeting without a few songs! Lorato and I were asked last week to visit a sick family member of one of our ladies. We found out later that the family had been trying to find us for three weeks! The woman who is sick has just had a baby a couple of months ago. When we walked into the house, I felt like I was looking at Ricki all over again. It was very sad. This woman wanted us to pray for her. Lorato told her we could not just pray for her, but that we also had to share with her what we have. We shared the gospel with her, and she said she received. I pray that her decision was genuine. Only God and she can know that. Please pray for her and her family. We went back last Sunday, and shared the gospel with the woman’s mother, sister, aunt, and cousin. They all prayed the sinner’s prayer before we left. Discipleship is such a key issue. These people honestly don’t know what the Bible says about so many things. The Bible stories that we tell are such a basic discipleship, but we have to start somewhere! Please continue to pray for us as we go, and pray for the Moshawane (mo-shah-wah-nay) village. We love you!

-- Blessings --

Mini May Update

(Bethany will show you her bellybutton; Andy's birthday was May 11th and Duane and Tammy gave him a skateboard; and she likes to laugh; she has bed head; Andy bought a scooter with some birthday money and Josiah's friend Tegan came over with 2 scooters.)

I certainly don’t where the time has gone, but the middle of May has come and gone. April is all but a blur. I think we spent more days out of the house than we did in the house. We were in Jo-burg for several days with the volunteer team, Jody’s parents, and a couple of doctors appointments before and after the team was here.

Jody is definitely doing better – having not cooked anything in the last 7 weeks. She cooked chicken and dumplings and biscuits on Sunday. Cooking of Mother’s Day – can you believe it? Actually, we had some people over and that is what she wanted. I could have done it, but I am not too sure of the biscuits. Mine are not as good as hers. I just haven’t had the practice it.

Jody did take her parents out to the village where she has been storying. After they were finished, they gave away some of the clothes that Oakland Heights Baptist Church sent along with the volunteers who helped in our annual training meeting.

I am now getting back into my regular scheduled activities having been sidelined with Jody’s condition (morning sickness all day long), AMTM, and my back difficulty. While Jody’s parents were here, I slept on the couch. As a result, my back went out. So much so that when we took them to the airport, I could not get out of the car. I hardly made it to the car. Who said I didn’t love my mother-in-law? I really have not been on the computer for the last month because of all of our activities and my back. I could hardly sit down.

The kids are doing well. School is back in session. That makes our life a little easier!!! Bethany is growing, changing, and talking more every day. She does not like to keep her clothes on. After her bath, we’ll get her pajamas on and within 10 minutes she will have everything off – sometimes even her diaper. It is becoming winter here, without central heat – so it gets rather cool in the house. I would say that the inside of the house has not been over 70 degrees for the last 3 weeks. We do have space heaters, so we will survive!!!

Thanks again for your remembrance of us. Your prayers enable us to continue to do our work over here.

AMTM 2006

This last week we went to Tshipise, South Africa, for our Annual Missionary Training Meeting. As part of the meeting, a volunteer group from Oakland Heights Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, came to provide ministry and activities for our children and youth. This is Jody’s dad’s church. While we were in meetings all day, the volunteers did VBS material with the children and youth. We are so thankful for this team that gave of their time to invest in the lives of our children. The missionaries that grew up on the field are so thankful for groups like this because they remember when they were children the incredible times the volunteers provided for them. Part of our meeting time was worship and Bible study in the morning and some in the evening. Matt Roberson did an incredible joy leading worship with all age groups. Tom Roberson did an equally incredible job sharing with the Word and applying it through very transparent, personal application.

After the meeting, we and the volunteers drove to Pilanesburg National Park and spent the night. We all took part in a night game drive and some followed that up with a drive in the early morning as the sun was rising. At night, we saw the last half of a leopard walking into high grass. We were able to see his head look up a couple times. We also experienced a dominant bull elephant stare us down, take a charge at us, and then leave. The morning group got to see a male and female lion at about 25 feet in the grass. The pictures are incredible – unfortunately I was not a part of that morning drive. Matt, Josiah, Andy, and I spent the night in a safari tent. The temperature outside the tent was about 45 degrees and the temperature inside the tent was about 46 degrees – but that is a part of camping, I guess.

Jody’s parents came home with us for a couple of days while the rest of the team returned to Johannesburg to fly to Capetown for a couple of day. Matt flew back home.

(The pictures are Caleb in a Baobob Tree, a picture of the team at Pilanesburg, the boys and Matt in front of our tent, the children's program at AMTM and the elephant that wasn't to happy.)

What a Day!!

(The Journey-girls that had my camera took these pictures. They thought they would be funny and give me a self portrait

- I think it's pretty funny - Their picture is on the World Wide Web.)

Saturday, April 15, 2006, did not start out as any regular Saturday. This was the day that I was to preach three times at the Baptist Union of South Africa’s annual Easter Conference in Tweelaagte, South Africa. I woke up at 5:00 am to get ready to leave at 5:45 am. I had two Journeyman (actually 2 college-graduate girls) that would be riding with me. We also had to pick up 2 other girls (daughters of a man that was already at the conference) on the way. We traveled about 2 and a half hours to get to the conference. What I haven’t told you is that the afternoon and all evening before Jody had been ‘tossing her cookies.’ So I was concerned about leaving her all day. To help her prepare for the day, I peeled and grated a potato for Andy to make hash browns for her. Andy has been making his own hash browns for the last couple of weeks. I also prepared the eggs to be scrambled in the morning. I showed Andy what to do to help his mother out. My usual routine is to make Jody and scrambled egg and a piece of toast before she gets out of bed. Then, in about an hour, I make her some hash browns – somewhere in between she will eat a bowl of Rice Krispies.
As we are traveling, I get a text message and then a phone call from Jody telling me that the electricity has gone out and she hasn’t eaten. I tell her to call the Beighle’s – other IMB missionaries 3 doors down – and ask them if their electricity is off. It was. So, Dale Beighle climbs into their attic to retrieve a propane stove and they come over and cook Jody’s breakfast. Jody takes about 3 bites and then quickly deposits that into the toilet. She had not been able to keep anything down. Jody then calls our mission’s medical department for advice. The short of it – go to the hospital.
As all this is happening, I am preaching my first of three scheduled sermons for the day. With about 7 minutes left in my first sermon, Jody tries to call me 4 times. I have my phone in my pocket on vibrate – so I knew something was up, and I knew I was almost finished, so I waited until I was able to sit down. By that time, Jody had text messaged me saying that she was on the way to the hospital. I let the people know of the situation and told them that I must leave. I make in back to Mmabatho by 1:00 p.m. I go to the hospital and she really isn’t any better. She was still nauseated and very uncomfortable. They were able to give her an injection for the nausea and she finally was able to sleep. When I came back at 6:00 p.m. she had already finished her supper and asked me to go get her a burger and fries. I did, she ate half of it and then went back to sleep. She felt good and told me to go home. A couple of hours previous, she said I was staying at the hospital all night with her. Through this time, the Beighles watched the boys and Bethany for us. They have become like grandparents to the b and B. I think that they enjoy it since they miss their grandchildren in the States. It will be a sad day when they retire next year after 32 years in Africa.
So, tomorrow is Easter and I will be going to the hospital in the morning to see when I can bring her home. Jody has saved an Easter dress for Bethany for about a year – it doesn’t look promising?! On Monday, we will leave for Johannesburg to pick up Jody’s dad, my mother-in-law, and the missions volunteer team. On Tuesday, we will travel 6 hours north to Tshipise to have our annual mission meeting. I would ask that you pray for Jody – that God would simply take her morning sickness away. We certainly don’t see the big picture, don’t know why this is happening. That would be our desire – if not, then wisdom to understand what God is trying to teach us.