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.