We love to have visitors. We just bid goodbye to visitors a few weeks ago, with a tear in the eye. We have the privilege of having my mother here for a surprise visit right now, as well, and never look forward to family goodbyes.
We are so grateful for the day and age we live in that makes overseas travel possible. We love our friends and families. We love the people and the place where God has put us here in Africa. Some of the sweetest times have to be when both of our ‘worlds’ merge for a short period of time, when friends and family visit this beautiful land. As one missionary wife put it, “It just doesn’t get much better than that!” It is with great joy that we get to see our much-loved mission field again through different eyes - the eyes of a visitor.
It’s always amazing to me how we become accustomed to the things that we see every day. When we have visitors, we see things through the eyes of an American once again! :o)
Things like:
*Passing the sign for Kruger National Park every time we check our mail or go grocery shopping!
*African ladies carrying 20 lbs or more on top of their heads with no hands
*Breathtaking scenery
*In the village, seeing houses that would be smaller than an American’s tool shed…and that probably sleep 4 people at a minimum
*Monkeys being as common as squirrels
*Killing a scorpion on the way to get groceries
*Armed guards everywhere
*Car watchers/guards at every public place
*Iron bars and gates on every house
*Being ready to greet people in one of 4 languages at any given time
*Buying meat by kilograms and fabric by the meter
*Seeing prices that look rather high, like R10.00 for milk! :o)
And those are obviously just a few things!
I recently read this portion from a book written by a missionary’s wife to Ivory Coast. I found her perspective quite interesting and her words well written.
“Goodbyes are a natural part of life, but in some lines of work they are far too frequent to be comfortable. We belong to a group in constant flux seeing many people come and go. This is the life of a missionary. I rarely cry now at a parting because I have prepared for the inevitable. It is only afterwards, in a quiet moment, the tears begin to flow at the memory of a friend who has left our lives once again, or of our extended family far away on the other side of the ocean. In missionary life goodbyes are as frequent as greetings, and the special people in your closest sphere are continually changing. When we leave our friends and family across the ocean, God brings in others to replace them for a time, but eventually we lose them too.
Once I was sitting by a missionary colleague during a conference, and she commented about this difficult aspect of missionary life. She said there are only two options for survival: to love quickly and deeply, or not to love at all. In the former course you hurt badly every time you move on and a relationship is broken, but in the latter you shut yourself off from loving anyone, and while it is true that you do not hurt when someone leaves, you also begin slowly to die within – no one can live without giving and receiving love.
How can you face the subtle, prolonged grief of always saying goodbye? When you love deeply it rips you apart and leaves you hurting. Some people cannot face it and leave to put down more permanent roots back home. I cannot blame them. Though we repeatedly hurt, we also repeatedly run to the Lord who heals all our wounds. We cry and He comforts us. We grieve and He holds us. The more we hurt the more He heals us, and the more it becomes apparent that there is no end to the fountain of His grace.
I felt the tears welling up inside me as I remembered once again those who had left. Yet God was there. He would always be. He is the one thing that never changes. He only is always sure to fill that emptiness completely. This life is only temporary; we are just passing through and moving on to better ground. We are doing our best with what we have, trying to please our Lord, until we arrive safely home to our final resting place. There we shall see all those we have been parted from for so long, and we will greet them – never to say ‘goodbye’
again.”
At the Edge of the Village (Canon Press)by L. Leidenfrost “Goodbyes” pg183-184
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Happy Birthday Little Man
Happy Birthday Son!
3 years ago today, I held my firstborn son
all 10.5 lbs of him! :o)
I shall never forget that day!
He has changed my life and taught me so many things.
I love him!
Friday, April 06, 2007
Questions...
One of our wonderful missionary group leaders from our church sent me this questionnaire to fill out for her group. Some of the questions were good ones - ones I had never thought of before. So I thought I'd post it:
Favorites….
Color... Burgundy or Lilac
Food... Sweets or Italian Food
Book of the Bible... Hebrews
Verse... Psalm 145:8-9
How old were you when you were saved? 13
How long a member? 13 years
What kind of books do you like to read? Christian Womanhood or Mommyhood books.
Hobbies / Interests - a few are reading, baking, exercising, organizing, writing, playing blocks! :o)
How would you like to spend a free day, that you could do anything you wanted. I think I'd like to take my Bible and a book to Kruger Park for the day. Turn off the engine of the car and sit by a river bed and listen to the sounds of the African Bush, while reading - of course with coffee.
Please tell us about your new home....In November, we made a move to a new house. We weren't necessarily planning on moving, but the right house was dropped in our lap. My husband desperately needed an office since he works from home. In our old house, the 'desk' and Risograph was in the living room (IE: Grand Central Station) and as the kids got older and noisier :o), it was getting harder to keep the kids quiet all day. So now, we have an all-brick 4 bedroom house. One bedroom for us, one for the kids, a guest room, and then an office. It's a whole lot bigger than the other one was - and that's nice too....lots more to clean though! It has an open plan living room, dining room, and kitchen which I love.
New favorite African fruit? Litchi
New favorite African flower? What colors? Yesterday Today Tomorrow Bush...the flowers start white and change to light purple, then to dark purple and have a heavenly lilac type scent.
New favorite African store? What kind of things do they sell? Boardman's. It's a home store....sort of like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but about a 1/4 of the size :o)
New favorite African place to eat? What type of, or description of food? Mugg & Bean - COFFEE SHOP mainly, but they do have nice meals - the closest one is an hour away....just opened up a few weeks ago....I was so excited!
New favorite African place to visit? What is to be seen or done there? Kruger Park...the size of New Jersey - great place to go on Safari!
New favorite African season of year? You will have to give us the months too. The way-too-short winter (May, June, July) because it's not 120F out!
New favorite African custom or tradition? Two things: First ~ Although at first, it was a big adjustment, we love the quiet nights in Africa. Nothing is open past 5pm. NOTHING but a convenience store. We have one restaurant and it is open later, but the mall, coffee shops and fast food are closed. It will be a ghost town by 6pm - hardly any cars in sight. We very rarely leave the house after dark. I can probably count on two hands and not need all the fingers - the times we've gone somewhere after dark in 2.5 years! Saturday & Sunday, everything closes by 2pm. Second ~ at this new house, we are at the edge of town. At night, we can see more stars than you can imagine. I love to sit out before bed and just gaze at the stars and pray or sit out with my husband.... such an awesome feeling!
You can add anything else that you would like to share with us about Africa...
Many people don't know how much of a white population (mixture of English and Afrikaans [dutch] background) there is in Africa. In town, it's probably 75% white people, of course, most of the black people live in the village. More and more though, black folks that have good jobs are moving in town too. They are glad for the opportunity. Under the previous Apartheid government, they were not allowed to live in town. Most businesses are owned by white people and operated by black people. English is the trade language, although it is a British English, so things are quite different and hard to understand. Afrikaans (dutch type language of the whites) and the local dialects are also spoken. There are 11 official languages in the country. In our province, the main African dialects are Sotho (sue-two) and Tsonga (song-a). We are currently working on both languages for conversational purposes.
Favorites….
Color... Burgundy or Lilac
Food... Sweets or Italian Food
Book of the Bible... Hebrews
Verse... Psalm 145:8-9
How old were you when you were saved? 13
How long a member? 13 years
What kind of books do you like to read? Christian Womanhood or Mommyhood books.
Hobbies / Interests - a few are reading, baking, exercising, organizing, writing, playing blocks! :o)
How would you like to spend a free day, that you could do anything you wanted. I think I'd like to take my Bible and a book to Kruger Park for the day. Turn off the engine of the car and sit by a river bed and listen to the sounds of the African Bush, while reading - of course with coffee.
Please tell us about your new home....In November, we made a move to a new house. We weren't necessarily planning on moving, but the right house was dropped in our lap. My husband desperately needed an office since he works from home. In our old house, the 'desk' and Risograph was in the living room (IE: Grand Central Station) and as the kids got older and noisier :o), it was getting harder to keep the kids quiet all day. So now, we have an all-brick 4 bedroom house. One bedroom for us, one for the kids, a guest room, and then an office. It's a whole lot bigger than the other one was - and that's nice too....lots more to clean though! It has an open plan living room, dining room, and kitchen which I love.
New favorite African fruit? Litchi
New favorite African flower? What colors? Yesterday Today Tomorrow Bush...the flowers start white and change to light purple, then to dark purple and have a heavenly lilac type scent.
New favorite African store? What kind of things do they sell? Boardman's. It's a home store....sort of like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but about a 1/4 of the size :o)
New favorite African place to eat? What type of, or description of food? Mugg & Bean - COFFEE SHOP mainly, but they do have nice meals - the closest one is an hour away....just opened up a few weeks ago....I was so excited!
New favorite African place to visit? What is to be seen or done there? Kruger Park...the size of New Jersey - great place to go on Safari!
New favorite African season of year? You will have to give us the months too. The way-too-short winter (May, June, July) because it's not 120F out!
New favorite African custom or tradition? Two things: First ~ Although at first, it was a big adjustment, we love the quiet nights in Africa. Nothing is open past 5pm. NOTHING but a convenience store. We have one restaurant and it is open later, but the mall, coffee shops and fast food are closed. It will be a ghost town by 6pm - hardly any cars in sight. We very rarely leave the house after dark. I can probably count on two hands and not need all the fingers - the times we've gone somewhere after dark in 2.5 years! Saturday & Sunday, everything closes by 2pm. Second ~ at this new house, we are at the edge of town. At night, we can see more stars than you can imagine. I love to sit out before bed and just gaze at the stars and pray or sit out with my husband.... such an awesome feeling!
You can add anything else that you would like to share with us about Africa...
Many people don't know how much of a white population (mixture of English and Afrikaans [dutch] background) there is in Africa. In town, it's probably 75% white people, of course, most of the black people live in the village. More and more though, black folks that have good jobs are moving in town too. They are glad for the opportunity. Under the previous Apartheid government, they were not allowed to live in town. Most businesses are owned by white people and operated by black people. English is the trade language, although it is a British English, so things are quite different and hard to understand. Afrikaans (dutch type language of the whites) and the local dialects are also spoken. There are 11 official languages in the country. In our province, the main African dialects are Sotho (sue-two) and Tsonga (song-a). We are currently working on both languages for conversational purposes.
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