Peace Out!

        Well our time has come to an end.  We leave for the Durban airport in an hour and land in Chicago tomorrow, Monday, around 3:00 pm.  

    It has been a busy time here and we have accomplished all we came to do and a little more.
We pray that God has used us and his plan was fulfilled. We have been impacted by the people we have met here and hopefully we have impacted them in some way too.  

Thank you for being part of our service. Our love is sent to all.

Lynn

Leaving so soon?

Well our time is going fast. We will be heading back to the States next Sunday. Arriving in Chicago Monday afternoon. It seems like we are leaving too soon. There is still so much to be done, although we have almost finished all we came to do. We will wrap it up in the next couple of days. I will miss all that happens here at Sunbury and being a part of it. God has truly blessed us during our time here, from visiting with the campers to making new friendships and of course working. It is our prayer that we have blessed others as we have been blessed.

We so enjoyed the Pinter’s; Christine and Kevin and their children, Toby, Titus and Elsa. It was so much fun having children around the camp. Our mornings started with, as I call them, the monkeys in the tree. The boys spent most of their day there and Elsa joined them from time to time.

What a neat couple with a heart for the Lord. I look forward to seeing all God will do through them and their children.

A Huge Pile of Sheets

Yea!!! I’m a bit loopy, but all the sheets are done. Just so you know this is what 150 sheets and pillow cases look like. They were put in the dorms today.

I’m so grateful for all the help that Muzi was. I think, if my records are right, he made half of the sheets and pillow cases. One more project finished.

Muzi

Well it’s been an extremely busy couple of weeks. As I showed you last week, the men took down the chapel and I was busy making white fitted sheets. Fortunately for me, the camp for last weekend was canceled so the ladies pitched in and helped for a couple of days. We are making 131 sheets, a bigger job than I had anticipated I should have started sooner.  

As of today, we have 70 finished 👏🏻 good for us. But time is passing so quickly. I’m hoping to be done by the 15th. I’ll say it again, fortunately for me Ellen told me her son, Muzi, can sew anything.  You know how moms are we think our kids can do anything. In this case, she was right he does beautiful work.

Muzi was able to complete 11 sheets today. We worked together he did the stitching and I did the pressing and pining in the elastic. Unfortunately, he’s not sure he’ll be able to help again. I guess we’ll see.

Just a little about Muzi, 22 years old and graduated 4 years ago. He does some web design at night, from midnight to 7 am. That is amazing because he comes from a very poor area without internet in the home.  I know... unheard of. He buys data for his phone and those hours are the cheapest for him to get the best usage for the money.  His hope is to go to University to study design. He has already talked to the school and they told him to come when ever he was ready. He’s ready, but because the family is just making ends-meet he’s having to find work wherever he can get it to save for school.   He’s a real go getter. School is R 5,000 per year. That’s about $350 for us, at least thats with the current exchange. This particular study takes 3 years. I’d love to be able to help him. We’ll see.

Out with the Old

This is the old chapel. We heard so many stories of people who accepted Christ through the church that was housed in it. Then there were those that remember a school being in it and marching up the long road to get to school. The last story we heard was granny bringing her grandson to the clinic for help.  So as your u can see it has been well used over the years. It’s thought that it’s been here 100 years.

One of the hopes was that while we were here the building would come down. It has fed many a termite over the years.  Howard didn't really feel up to the task so Kevin Pinter took on the task. He’s a hard worker. He had it down in three days. Howard did help a little. They hooked up a chain to the truce and pulled the roof down.

Kevin started by taking the tin of the outside. That tin will be offered to the workers here, and they are excited to get it.

Everything was sorted and the workers will choose what they want.

Today all you see is the rubble of the foundation.  Mud bricks !  They just crumble in your hand.   Dan is so excited about it being down and is trying to decide how to best use the area. Well, that is how the last few days have been spent.

WOW - WHAT A WEEKEND

I think I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. Sunbury Christian Camp has accommodations of 131 beds. We do have 75 extra sponges (foam mattress) for the overflow that sometimes occurs. This weekend we had about 230 Zionist here, yep that's right. All here to learn more about how to teach at their own local churches, a conference of sorts. I say that because it is so different from the conferences in the states. Anyway, we were short on everything, some people even slept in their cars! They had to go out early this morning to get more food. Everything they bought for the weekend was used in one night. Two meals today and breakfast tomorrow had to be purchased. I’m sure glad I’m not cooking 😜. It’s cold and rainy and still they come. The desire to know God is a powerful thing.   If I go back to the statement that conferences are different here, this is why. Their meetings are ALL night, 9 pm to 5 am, then a bit of rest, 7:30 breakfast, 9:00 meetings (2 hours), a one hour tea, meetings (2 hours), 2:00 lunch, a few hours to rest, 7:00 supper and then another all nighter.
I’m tired just writing the schedule.

All this to say God is doing a great work here and we are privileged to be part of what is happening  here at Sunbury. I hope you realize that you too are a part of the work here. Your prayers and support are making a difference for the Kingdom of God.

Earning a Good Night Sleep

Monday was a full day, even more than usual. The ladies don’t start their work week until Wednesday and normally that’s plenty of time to get ready for the coming camp. This week however the camp arrives at 1:00 on Thursday, not a lot of time. 
Hmmm, so I told the ladies I’d do the laundry so they’d have time to clean the rooms. Monday is also the shopping day and usually we make it the whole day. Anyway after the shopping this was my afternoon: 60 duvets, 60 sheets and 60 pillowcases. Ok, I’ll admit I didn’t have to beat them on a rock at the river, we do have three washers (I think it was 24 loads), but none the less I was exhausted by the end of the day. 

It was 94 degrees and the wind was strong, by the time I hung out twelve duvets the first six were dry. So I was changing loads, hanging, taking down, and folding constantly I will say I went to bed at 7 and slept all night 😴.  

Dark Clouds?

We had a great week end. The camp was Covenant Life Ministries, a large group for Sunbury, 120 people. We usually run 60-80. This particular camp was a family camp. They arrived sporadically throughout the evening on Friday in hopes of a perfect weekend. Saturday we all woke up to a dreary day. The weather was threatening all day long. Rain was in the air and the sky showed no signs of sun only dark clouds. I will say it didn’t dampen their spirits. They had planned several hours of outdoor games in the afternoon, every kind of race you can think of. As I watched the thunder rolled and the games went on. There were those that participated and those who cheered from the veranda. Their spirits still were not dampened, they persevered knowing the storm was hanging over us. It began raining just after they finished their frivolity. As I walked home this was my view. It was as if God was saying, “see, I am always here with you.” The sky darkened again and the rain came in torrents.

It encourages me to know that He is always there. I’m sure it encourages you as well. We all have clouds, a little rain and even storms in our lives, but as children of the living God we persevere In the knowledge that storms come and go but we never walk through them alone. He is with us and if we are too weak to walk through them He will carry us as long as we need him to. What a great and compassionate Father we have.

I hope your day is blessed knowing you are a child of the King.

Would you pass the test?

Do you ever wonder where your heart truly lies? What if you had to make a decision that would cost you? Would you choose to be cautious or would you be bold and stand for what you know Christ would do? I must admit that I sometimes wonder what I’d do. Of course, I’d like to believe I’d stand firm in my conviction. But I guess until the test is given I will continue to wonder.

This is the Durban North Baptist Church. Like most small churches they struggle financially. They were here this weekend for a family camp. The curriculum was the last session of the alpha course. If your not familiar with it’s content, it teaches the basics of the gospel. It’s an out reach for non-believers and helps new believers ground themselves in what they believe and why.  

Here at Sunbury we have a minimum camp requirement you must have 60 campers. If you have less there is a minimum charge of R 15,000 which is the basic charge for 60 campers.  Unfortunately this church only had 41 campers.   As I spoke with the church leadership this past week they were concerned about the financial burden.  As with all churches they felt they need a meeting with the church board to make the decision. I thought that they would cancel the camp.  To my surprise they decided to come.

Hmmm.  Why ???  Well it seem that one of the couples that had signed up to come were part of the Alpha course and we’re not believers.  The leadership of the church decided that R 15,000.  was a small price to pay for the possibility that God was doing a work in their hearts. So, standing on their conviction that they are here for the purpose of leading souls to Christ they made the hard decision. What a blessing to see convictions in action. By the way before the camp left today they told me they had two decisions for Christ.

 God at work through his body the church. I hope this blesses you as it does me.
  So I say to you, and myself, “Stand firm and be bold, God is at work.”

I love it when a plan comes together!

Wow I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve blogged.  Time passes so quickly and we have kept ourselves busy around the camp. We are continuing to work on Boaz. It’s been about nine weeks.  Seem like a long time to do one little house, but when you can’t only get supplies once a week it slows things down quite a bit.  

    This past week, on Thursday, the Pinters arrived.  They are  a young couple with three children and have committed to work at Sunbury for two and a half months while the Hoffman’s are in the states.   I believe their departure is just before thanksgiving. They are a delight to have here. Children always brighten things up don’t you think? They are such a blessing.

     As we look all around us and see the beauty and the scope of God’s creation we are reminded of how mighty and powerful He truly is. Our problems are like smoke in the wind as we keep our eye fixed on him. We are so often in the valley looking up at the mountain and can’t imagine how we will over come it. What we need to keep in mind is that we in our own strength can’t.  Well...we are praising God once again that He has moved a presumably un-movable mountain. I heard just this afternoon that the Hoffman’s have their Visas in hand.  Yep , their three year visas have been approved. This after they were told all visas were on indefinite hold as per the South African government. So, once again our God has moved in his time and in his amazing way.  “Is there anything to hard for our God“.  There was an show on tv years ago that’s catch phrase was , “I love it when a plan comes together. Well I say, “I love it when Gods plan comes together.”  We aren’t sure just when the Hoffman’s will return, but our plan, Lord willing, is to be here until Christmas.  I guess we’ll how that all plays out.

     Please continue to pray for us. There is still much we can do here to help.  Also. If you do read the blog please  let me know, it could be a comment or a thumbs up just so I know if anyone is reading it.  Thanks 😘

Let God bless you today be in his word.

Break Time!

It’s our break time, we actually have several a day, and this is the view as we sit and sip our coffee.  Isn’t it beautiful 🙂.  The dark blue you see is the Indian Ocean.

You can actually see it better in this picture. I’m in awe of the complex beauty that surrounds us every day. Are you? Do you take time to not only notice but appreciate the glorious wonder that surrounds you each day? WOW. How amazing is the mind of our God.

Thank you father for all you bless us with. Open our eyes to see you filling our lives with your glory.

Boaz Progress Update

Just a few pictures of the work is progressing in out little cottage, Boaz, before and after. Well not quite after, there are still a number of things to do. This is the sleeping area. I think it’s interesting they still put the electricity on the face of the walls  🤔 I guess there’s no choice since it is all concrete block.  Just makes things look messy to me.

It’s a low ceiling so low that we decided to paint the crown molding the same color of the wall hoping it would make the walls look higher.  (of course when I say we I mean Howard when it comes to the painting)

I think it did help a bit. We, Carlene and I, chose a three tone pallet. I’m pleased with how they blended.

The color here didn’t photograph the best.  The picture above is more accurate. We decided to repurpose a couple of old beds to help save some cash. All we needed was a can of spray pint to give it a little clean up. We used a gray wash for the baseboards.  I know it looks a little brown, but it’s not really.

Howard built a couple of “closets”  I think closet need doors, but I gave in to Howard’s idea. NO DOORS.  He did agree to give me a couple of drawers, a little give and take.

Now the fun part a shopping and picking out the bedding. I decided that the greens seemed blah, so I decided to add a pop of mustard. What do you think?

Today I picked up a couple of throws to layer on the bed, a mustard color similar to the rug, and ordered two paisley throw pillows to be made. What you see there is the sample fabric.

Hope this gives you a little idea of what we’ve been doing the past month.

The blessings of iTemba

A while back I told you about a camp that was here, iTemba, I also said I let you know more about the group. ITemba is a non-profit Christian organization that reaches out to a community in close proximity to Pietermaritzburg. It is a poor community and I was told that has the highest aids rate in South Africa. It is a tribal community which means there is a chief that is the head of everything.

The iTemba organization provides so much for this community including education in parenting , day care, pre school, kids clubs for all ages, teaching them how to use what they have in the best way. Basically they are showing them the love of Christ.

Once a year they bring two groups of kids to camp. The first camp is for younger kids.  I’m told that on the day of registration the kids sleep on the sidewalk so they have the best chance of getting to come. They bring 60 kids each camp period so if you want to be one of them you gotta get there early. Camp here is very different from the camps our kids are use to. It’s only one full day and two half days so a total of two days.  They are busy from the time they get off the bus to the time they leave.  Some of the kids have never even experience a real shower before and they were excited about that. Can you imagine? The camp is paid for by the iTemba group. What a treat for kids that would never be able to experience camp any other way!

This picture is of the second group ages 13-18. They were so much fun to watch. The pool was a particular favorite of theirs, it didn’t even matter that is was cool and the pool isn’t heated. They also took the kids to the ocean one morning and had a sack lunch on the beach. These leaders are the ultimate when it comes to organization.

On the last day when this picture was taken the kids formed a circle and asked the our ladies to come into the center, then one of the kids, who spoke for the group, thanked them for all they had done to make their stay so nice. Then I was asked to enter the circle and a different young person thanked me for hosting and spending time with them. They were so polite and appreciative. It was a great camp!

These two groups of kids really touched my heart as did their leaders.

So that is what I know about the iTemba group. Reaching families for Christ though service.

Time is getting short, but not too short to answer questions

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in awhile so much to do and time is getting short.

Sooo
Last Sunday after the camp was gone and we were finally relaxing, the buzzer for the gate rang. 😐

It was ESKOM, the electric service here, they were here to read the meters...on Sunday? Yep it seemed a little odd to me so I went down to get the scoop. There were two people in the truck, a young woman and a young man. They told me they just needed meter reading, that was ok with me, but I stayed while the gal did the readings. Once she was back in the truck she asked me about the camp and what we did and what we taught. I explained that it was a Christian Camp and we facilitated camps for and Christian organizations as well as churches and we had a Bible School here as well.

The young man asked , “do you mind if we ask a few questions?”
Me “not at all”
So these are the questions they asked :
Do you believe there is only one God?
Do you believe Mary was a virgin?
Do believe there is black magic and is it a bad thing?
What do you think about churches that teach things that aren’t in the Bible?
     Should we leave a church like that?
Do you think there is a purpose for everything that happens?
Do you think that people are where they are for a reason?

We had a great conversation and before they left they told me they were sure God had me there at that time to talk with them. Before they left they asked me to pray for them. From the conversation I think they were believers, but it’s hard to know. That is one of the things I love about being here, it doesn’t take much to talk about the Lord. People are so open and usually they bring it up.

When was the last time your meter reader asked you about God, His word and the church. Eyes are being opened, hearts are being touched. God is at work and I’m blessed to be a part of it. We just have to love the opportunities available here.

Progress in Boaz

I thought I’d give you an update on Boaz. The remodel is going slower than anticipated, isn’t that always how it goes? We are at an encouraging point, well at least I am. Here’s what we started with.

As with a all remodels there is the demolition.  Howard’s favorite.

This is where we are so far. Small but I think workable. We still have some work on the backsplash, the floor and a refrigerator. We are also putting in a small bench and a few coat hooks at the other end of the kitchen area. The color in the pictures isn’t very good, sorry, the cabinets are gray not brown

I’ll try to remember to take pictures when we are complete.  I have a bit of trouble remembering to take pictures. Howard usually reminds me. 🙃

Our time is quickly passing so prayers for energy and strength would be helpful.

Going, Going, Going

It’s been a busy week and it will continue into this week. Last Tuesday we had a camp of 68 kids from iTemba. I’ll tell you more about the iTemba organization later. They were here Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday afternoon we started another camp, a Sunday school teachers training. That was Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. iTemba will be back on Tuesday morning at 8:00 am and will be here Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We have Friday and Saturday to prepare for another camp on Monday for four days. That’s a lot of camps in a short time! A lot of  beds to change, clean and launder. Just thinking about it makes me tired 😴

These two boys were here with their parents, who were here for the Sunday school teacher training.   They were sooo bored. One of them asked if I would spend time with him. Well, we did and he invited a new friend to join us. We made cookies, played Uno, baked cupcakes, played dominoes, played janga, took a walk and played tic-tac-toe. We were busy. (This wasn’t our weekend to work it was our rest time) I think it was harder work than hosting a camp. I will say we all had a good time.

I’m am resting today 😴

FIRE!

I told you a bit about the farmers burning the cane fields. I thought you might like to see and hear for yourselves. You can see the outer fence and the fire is just on the other side. It’s amazing to watch from beginning to end it’s only an minute or two, no more. 

He sees us clearly

Today they were burning several cane fields around us. The sky had clouds of gray and a showering of black ash. Tonight as the sea breeze blows from the ocean the smoke has curtained our beautiful sunset with a gray haze .

It makes me wonder if this is what happens to us from time to time. As the trials of this world surround us, do we have trouble seeing God's will for us clearly? Do the cares of this world surround us like the haze from the burning cane fields? Is that why we feel a bit lost at times?
Praise God, when we seem a bit lost, He is not and He will always walk through the haze with us. How glorious that we can have such confidence in our creator.

Yeah God for Hot Water

Sorry it’s been so long!!! It seems like the days are just flying by. We are always busy with campers, which I really enjoy, however we did have a shortage of hot water in the kitchen for a few weeks. It made things a little stressful getting the dishes clean and sanitized for the campers. Well, it was more than a shortage we didn’t have any hot water. This in-line heater is only 7 years old, but it just died. The ladies said, "it’s tired" their version of it’s dead. It took two long weeks to get it replaced.

In the meantime, we heated water on the stove and used a bleach rinse. Finally, we have nice hot water. What a relief! This commercial beauty is the new heater and it even has a digital read out for the temperature. Nice.

Well the day has come to an end and what a lovely end it is.

Enjoy the beauty of Gods creation today.

At The Halfway Point!

Well we have another project finished and by we I mean Howard. I do stop in and check things out regularly. This is the second coat of paint the first one I chose was not good... to0 lime. So the second coat, much to Howard’s displeasure, but he did it for me, it is much nicer. I’m hoping we will have enough funds to paint the rest of the room. R2000 sounds like a lot, but it’s about $170 US. Still we need to complete all the projects before we can do extras.

On to the next project: a roof over the generator. Howard is hoping to complete it in the next two days. YEA 🤗 another project down. We are now at the half way point in our trip. So time is going fast.

The thing Howard likes best is the demolition before the redo. He started to tear out the kitchen in Boaz. Well he did tear it out, as you can see. I’m getting excited about this one. I’ve been wanting to tackle this for 7 years, since we were here last. It’s used for Pastors that come and teach at ZEBS. I really like it to be a peaceful and restful place for them. We’ll see how it goes. More pictures to come as we get going.

Let me finish up with something that is a wonder to me CREATION.  As we left camp the other day this is what I found outside the gate.  Beautiful and about 7 feet tall.  Isn’t our God amazing.