Highlights

Two weeks ago we went to Krugersdorp Game Reserve and had a true African safari adventure. Our first encounter was with the pride of Africa, one male lion and four female lionesses sitting calmly under the trees, chewing on what looked like a fresh leg of a zebra. The rest of the day was filled with birds, giraffes, zebras, etc. Exciting animals! 

The past couple of weeks have been full of sports activities, teaching the kids baseball, basketball, volleyball, etc. They were so excited to receive the gifts of equipment that you donated and were overwhelmed by your generosity. This past Thursday was competition day for all sports. We were able to get a regular baseball game going, home runs, pop flys, bloody noses and the works. The kids had a blast!

Saturday we attended the youth camp. After driving for about three hours we finally found our destination and spent the remainder of the day visiting with youth and playing games. In the evening we attended a service where both church choirs performed with a few solos and testimonies. The teaching was done by the fiancee of Pastor Hendricks daughter, Leah. 

This week ten students chosen by the principal have been introducing us to their cultures. Yesterday Brian was able to catch, slaughter, pluck, and cook a chicken (he loved it). The girls tended to the fire, made pop (a staple food for Africans), and choppped veggies. We saw their garden and tried on the African attire for a woman of the Ndebele tribe (Ndebele is the most well known clan in this particular part of South Africa).

Today we visited the Sangomas house, which is considered to be a traditional doctor, where healing comes from bone reading (this was the home of one of the students accompanying us this week). The girls cooked the meal and Brian got to try and kill a bird with a sling shot, it didn't go so well:(

Hopefully we'll be able to write more later, until then thank you for your prayers and good night. 

slacking...

loyal readers... we apologize for the lack of blogging.  we have been busy and without internet for the last couple days.  We will blog tonight with a massive update of what we are doing (included in tonight's blog:  killing, screaming, lions, brown water, no water, blood and much much more!) stay tuned...

An supurb day for blogging

Dear faithful readers, friends, grannys and grans,

We have had a very busy day. The morning started off with Brian and JuliAnne organizing all the sports equipment...I was just notified that it was mostly BRian who did the organizing, and soon after they went into the street to play catch in hopes of "catching" some children (to join the games).  The plot was successful, soon after 3 girls showed up, we cannot write their names, not for security purposes, but because we do not know how.  A short time brought a pack of boys, and we had enough mitts to go around.  They caught on quickly to catch, and some of them played with the soccerball. 

Around half past 12, closer to 1 actually, we went to the church where the youth had gathered for "Youth Day" (Look it up, it is a national holiday, very important to the blacks in this culture). It was also combined with a birthday party for all the JJ's (Jan-June birthdays). We had a lot of fun hanging out with the young people, 15-30 year olds, and took lots of great pictures.

After that, we went to the school where we were invited to meet with the school board, Pastor Hendrick and share a meal.  We learned about each member's job, and we got to share our own thoughts of Africa and our experience. (We all just now swallowed our malaria pills) At the meeting we got to hear a little of Pastor Hendrick's heart for this country and the million projects he is involved with...Seriously, I (Adrienne) cannot wait to share with you all about this man's incredible vision and perseverance. 

Between appointments we did our personnel chores and JuliAnne and Katie played keep-a-way from Brian.. Guess who won (Brian Flora knows the answer)?

We were invited to have dinner at our new friend's house, Pastor Cletus and Diana's house. They have always been extremely friendly and we were really happy to be able to spend some quality  time with them. We have adopted them as our African Family, their daughter Talent, is in the youth group we will be attending.  We stayed for quite a while and Cletus proved to be an extremely wise and hope-filled man.  Here is a prayer request:  They are displaced from Zimbabwe (look up "why" in the news) and are waiting to go back, they are waiting for funds to build a house there. The most needed material right now is the cement for foundation, approx. $500, I wish I could hand it over right now, we have never met a more deserving family.  

Tomorrow we are being taken to see the different Hope for Africa churches by Pastor Hendrick and Carol.  So we will now depart and go to sleep. Write to us and tell us how you are all doing!

With love, 

Your South Africa Team

YiKEssssss!!!! Spiders, oh my!!!

Ladies and gents, we are in desperate need of your prayers! We are currently under attack, the spiders which were at first few and far between have now completely invaded our home (yikes!). As I am writing to you Brian is currently on the hunt for the most gigantic spider I have ever seen in my entire life, oh by the way this is Katie writing to you. While Adrienne was brushing her teeth this evening she happened to spot this horrid creature and it sent her running and screaming down the hallway, into the dining room where the rest of us were. As I went down the hallway to inspect the unwanted creature I discovered another one on the wall in Brians room....ewwww!!! So as I screamed and ran back down the hallway into the dining room I saw yet another baby spider on the wall of our bathroom! Please, oh please, pray for us. At this moment the mamma spider that was in the girls room has been killed, the baby in the bathroom has disappeared, and after much screaming, yelling, jumping up and down and 'oh my god, here it comes!!', and Brians room looking like a tornado just had it's way with it the daddy spider is dead. Unfortunately, Brian is afraid that the one he killed in his room might not of been the first one he saw on the wall. I feel it necessary to mention to you that these spiders are not ordinary spiders, this particular daddy spider was much larger than the previous ones that would fit in the palm of Adriennes hand, this big daddy was a giant! As proof, we will provide you with pictures, one alive, one dead, and one of Brians disheveled room.   

P.S.   the big daddy is officially dead, as well as his younger brother, Fred 

Day 2

  Still jet lagging, trying to survive.  We're gonna start this day by going backwards.  for dinner we cooked chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans.  We even had a seasoning that tasted like pappy's! good 'ol pappy's. just kidding, we'll tell you about what we really did.  The day started at 5 a.m. Who knew roosters crowed at night? Showers, breakfast and off to grace school.  We had a very warm welcoming at Grace Christian school starting with Murial the principal and followed by wonderful singing by the students which moved the girls to tears but they held back. Brian liked it too.  After speaking with the principal we were able to sit in on morning classes.  Each of us were sent to different grades ranging from R-3 because the older students were taking exams.   Then we had morning tea at 10 with the heads of each department whereby we had another heartfelt welcome.  We felt like it was the happiest anyone has ever been that we were around.  We returned to the classes until noon and they served us an authentic south african meal of some mysterious meat (which we were all skeptical of) salad, rice and veggies. mmm yummm!  We were hoping to do sports with the kids but it was raining cats and dogs all day.  Perhaps you could pray for the weather to clear up.  We plan on being back at the school tomorrow and in the evening we were invited to go to a funeral of Pastor Hendricks Dad.  More details to come about the funeral.  Keep the leadership here in your prayers because there is a lot of spiritual warfare going on with the leadership of the seminary that is being built.  We'll write more this weekend about the school and funeral and any other surprises that come along. alright, goodnight. we'll write again soon. 

Credits: Ditto

JET LAG!!! wild animals and much much more!

We finally made it! after 5 bajillion hours of flying and no sleep we successfully arrived at our destination at 22:00 hours whereby we immediately did not take showers and went straight to bed.  let us tell you about our trip to our new house.  the drive home was very eventful, full of wrong turns, no headlights, and wild animals. correction, wild animals meaning one cotton tail rabbit, one doe, several cows and later on many goats including much roadkill.  (side note, as i am typing, it is raining).  

Day 1: we wake up and take nice hot showers (julianne took a cold shower because she couldn't figure out the water, it's opposite.  red is cold and blue is hot) then we went grocery shopping at the superspar. (side note adrienne thought we were going to the spa, miscommunication with accents).  Katie had to remind brian to drive on the left side of the road, avoiding very imminent death.  after we were done shopping we visited the local KFC.  we also made our first purchases along the side of the road: apples, oranges, onions, and a BIG sack of potatoes (5o Rand).  by the way we've had many spiders the size of adrienne's palm and brians job is to kill them or else very imminent death. as you can see it is very dangerous here.  next on the list: making dinner.  so we're leaving now, until next time... 

Typed by: Brian

Dictated by: Adrienne and JuliAnne

Edited by: Katie

Test

This is the beginning of the 2009 Siyabuswa, South Africa missions trip.