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.