New House Pictures

I mentioned in my last update that Tonya and I have been able to rent a free standing house and will be moving at the end of March.

Tonya recently updated her blog with some pictures of the house and detailing some of the changes that we will have to make. For instance, due to our wonderful allergies we won’t be able to handle the existing carpeting that is throughout the house. God has opened the door for a fantastic deal on tile, so we are going to be able to slowly but surely tile the house. Our rooms and at least the living area will need to be done before we move.

We are willing to make some improvements in the house as there is a potential that we could buy this house if financing from the States would be able to be arranged. You can definitely make that a matter of prayer with us (first for wisdom and second for financing arrangements).

Click HERE to link to the pictures. Enjoy your tour!

Dad, Mom, and JC’s month here in South Africa has come and gone. We had a wonderful time together. Forgive me for not blogging much through that time, but I’ll try and catch you up on some of the highlights during our time together (which happened to also be my “summer break” from school).

After their arrival, much of their time for the first week and a half was spent recovering from the time change and helping me wrap up school work. Mom and Dad both marked (graded) papers, helped with field day, and generally kept the house from falling down around me while we finished the term. I’m so thankful for that help! You can see pictures from the end of school and my family’s first week and a half in my last entry.

After I finished all my school responsibilities, we packed up and headed for Kruger National Park (about 5 hours away). We were able to stay in a beautiful bed and breakfast (inside the park was full), and had a wonderful time having the pool to ourselves and great service from the owner and his wife. Driving in Kruger included longer periods of time without seeing anything because of the heat, but each day we had a few “big” sightings that made the day worthwhile. In the course of three days we saw four of the “Big 5″ animals. The best sighting by far was the leopard (my first time to see one). We had picked out a route through the park from one gate to another so that we could make it out of the park and home in a reasonable amount of time. However, we arrived at our turn off, and it was closed. Disappointed, we carried on. About 5 minutes later we drove into a traffic jam of happy wildlife viewers and were told there was a leopard up in a nearby tree. We were no longer disappointed! We also enjoyed seeing elephants and rhino wallowing in mud to cool off right near the road (in separate places of course :)), giraffe in the road, and rhino about 10 feet from the car. I don’t have many pictures from Kruger as most of the time Dad and I shared a camera and I let him leave without copying his pictures. Oh well! You’ll have to get more from him if you’re interested. I do have some highlights from our last day and video of the leopard and the giraffe.

Pictures from Kruger:

Videos from Kruger:

After returning home, it was time for Christmas. Tonya had stayed at the house with the dogs while we were gone. She took a lot of her week at the house to make it beautiful for Christmas. It was so fun to come home to a decorated house, Christmas music, and a Christmas Eve dinner on the table. Christmas morning was nice as well. We rested, read the Christmas story, opened gifts, and rested so more while enjoying our gifts. Sophie and Addie got to open first (being the youngest) and spent the rest of the time fighting over their new toys or attempting to make us play fetch while we were opening our gifts :).

Christmas Morning:

We spent the afternoon and evening out at Bethesda with friends. It was nice to enjoy their fellowship and a great meal! We also delivered Christmas cookies that Mom, Tonya, and I had made to all the families. It was fun to hear all about their Christmas mornings together. All the families that were home were busy playing with their new gifts when we came in to greet them.

The week following Christmas we filled by taking family pictures, doing some minor repairs on the house, picking up souveniers and gifts to be sent to America, dinners with friends, dinner at Carnivore (a restaurant where you can eat many times of “game” meats), and going to Pilanesberg National Park (about 1.5 hours away) for one last effort to see all of the “Big 5″.

Carnivore and Family Pictures:

God gave us a fun evening on a game drive at Pilanesberg. We had a great driver who was very informative. We sat right next to a herd of elephant (mostly moms, babies, and juveniles for quite awhile. Two of them trumpetted which JC said sent chills up his spine. Someday I’m going to catch that on tape! Later, after it was dark, we saw a cerval (looks like a house-cat sized leopard) which they didn’t even know lived in the park any more. Everyone was pretty excited to spot it. The highlight was a little farther down the road when we spotted a huge herd of wildebeest and a lone female lion stalking them! It was dark, so no pictures would have turned out, but it was amazing to hear her roar and watch her picking her way down the hillside to try and get to the wildebeest. That sighting completed the Big 5 for my family! They were pretty excited.

Pilanesberg:

During some of our running, we spent time out at Bethesda. I enjoyed watching my family get to know some of my “extended family” at Bethesda. Sunday the 27th, we had the privilege of having the Msiza family (from Bethesda) over to the house for the afternoon. We all had a great time playing with the kids (I swam with them…brrrrrrr… :)). JC helped one of the boys who was terrified of water get in and after that (being able to hold onto a mountain for a bit) he swam all over the pool happy as a clam! Yay for JC :). Enjoy some of my favourite pictures from time at Bethesda and time with Msizas.

Time at Bethesda:

The whirlwind time came to an end yesterday as Mom, Dad, and JC packed up and headed for cold, snowy Indiana. They are going to have their own final adventure getting there as security restraints have backed up all the airport and their flight was delayed by 5 hours. However, they were confident that everything would work out and hopefully they will get some good rest on the flights!

I’m moving right into organizing the house again for two people to stay in it instead of 5. Tonya has officially moved in to my house and we will be living here together until at least April. My lease is up on 31 March, and we are praying about whether to stay in this house for another year or move to a larger rental unit which would allow for more hospitality. We will also be spending a good part of the week finishing preparations for school. There’s a lot of work to do to get curriculum and classrooms prepared for the student invasion that begins on 13 January!

Thanks to all who had a part in helping my family come and visit and praying for us all while they were here!

On prompting from my mother, I’m starting a blog update this morning. I knew I was behind, but this is a little bit excessive. Anyway, I’ll try and catch you up on the highlights

First, school is finished! We wrapped up the 2009 year at Jabulane Christian Academy on December 11. The last week of school was quite busy with final exams and grading those exams, report cards, athletics day, and finally an honours program.

Athletics Day:

 Honours Programme:

Second, my family has arrived! They have been here two weeks now and are having a good time. Most of the pictures in this post came from their cameras- I’ve been happy to leave the pictoral documentation of the last few weeks to them We have attended a professional soccer game and are halfway through a trip to Kruger. They have met friends and co-workers at Bethesda and a dear friend in Stinkwater, Suzanne. All in all it’s been a great trip. Here are just a few pictures:

 Kruger Pictures will be in a later upload

Third, Sophie and Addie are doing great. I know they are two of the biggest reasons that people read this blog now… I get more requests for updates about them :). Addie has developed allergies of some point, so we are trying to figure out what’s going on with that. She’s not too excited about her special food, but I’m sure she’ll live! They continue to grow- Sophie is 30.2kg and Addie 27.5kg.

Fourth, Bethesda continues to grow! The new house is coming along quickly. Most of the outside work is finished and now the finishing touches on the inside must be done. That means that sometime in the first quarter of the new year we might be able to welcome new house parents and new children!!! The school is growing too. You’ll be able to read lots about that in my update that should come out this week.

Hope you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS celebrating the birth of the Savour!

This morning during devotions…

“Who were the first people ever to experience consequences?”

“Adam and Eve”

“What were their consequences for?”

“They ate the fruit of the spirit?”

“What is a robin?”

“Someone who steals things!”

Yep all that was before 10am this morning

Grammy asked about Sophie and Addie… 

Here’s an update on their lives for the past few weeks.

They had some minor surgery two weeks ago- it was not their favourite activity in their short lives.

Sophie just trying to forget about life…

Addie trying out an ice pack and looking extra pathetic

I thought I’d post some pictures of their ”not so stellar” moments from this week :).

Wednesday night I came home later than normal in the evening to find that they had not allowed themselves to be bored… They had found plenty of new uses for their bed… (sorry the pictures of them being naughty are almost always on my phone. By the time I grab a real camera, they are off to some other activity :).

It looked like it had snowed in South Africa… Thursday morning it took about a half hour to “shovel” the yard :).

Yesterday (Friday) I came back from school to find that somehow while the puppies were in the back yard for the day and I was not home, the tap in my front yard had been broken and water was now spraying from it. Thankfully it isn’t flooding the yard as it won’t be repaired until today (Saturday). Anyway, the puppies eventually wandered out in the front yard unsupervised and the temptation was a little too great… They jumped the short fence in front of the tap and had a ball…

This would be the aftermath of said party…

They just wanted to look like Mali…right Mom?

The dirt from Addie (in the red) clogged the bathtub drain while she was getting hosed off!

For all their “puppy indiscretions,” they are still sweet, loving, active, and mostly self-entertaining almost 8 month old girls. This morning (when I was trying to sleep in and fight off a lingering sinus infection) they graced me with a wake up call at 5:30 (that is sleeping in for them and me, but not quite as late as I was planning), wolfed down breakfast, attempted to wash my face without authorization 3 times, and were chastized for overzealously defending the house from imaginary intruders at 6, 6:30, and 7am :). Oh yeah, they also spent about half an hour fighting over a rock they brought in from outside and I was too lazy to get up and return to the outdoors where it belongs :). Their mission in life is to incorporate themselves into every facet of life in and out of this house by leaving their hair EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING and are quite excellent at fulfilling their mission.

They are turning into good watch dogs and can often be seen at the gate checking out what’s going on like this:

Oh yeah, they are also BIG Sophie is about 25kg/55lbs and Addie is about 22kg/48.5lbs. (Converting those weights just made them seem so much bigger! :)) They just drank about 3.5 litres of water in under 3 minutes and are still going. Food…well, lets just say I can’t wait for them to be on adult food :). Cleaning the yard could be someone’s full time job…

But they are cute Here are some pictures from this morning to wrap up the S&A (otherwise known as SA) update.

The “good” shot-Sophie (left) and Addie (right)

The “normal” shot… Addie has too much to do to sit still for a picture

Sleepy Sophie at 8 months

An unfocused Addie- 8 months

Actually she was quite focused…on the box of dog treats and NOT on me

Thanks for asking about us Grammy

*Just one more story… Did you notice they are collar-less? That’s because Addie chewed Sophie’s collar off her neck last week (into two pieces) and we are still waiting for the replacement to come in. Addie’s got so filthy the day they both dug up every flower in the flower bed (and ONLY where there were flowers) that she is banned from wearing it until I get it washed (and today just happens to be washing day :). There’s rarely a dull moment around here- and if there is, it doesn’t last very long!

After almost two years in South Africa, Tonya and I both came to the conclusion that we were ready for a holiday. This trip has been a fantastic way to relax and regroup after three busy terms of school this year. I don’t have to tell most of you that a teacher’s work day is definitely not an 8-4 day. It’s been a welcome break to have a complete change of pace, be able to catch up on correspondence, and all around relax!

We had thought we were coming to a warm climate… It’s warming up nicely in Pretoria after all… However, in our push to finish the school term and turn in report cards, finish Heritage Day preparation, etc. neither of us checked the weather! We packed for summer, and arrived to very early spring! It’s been quite chilly. There hasn’t been any sitting on the beach and reading books while getting a tan. However, there has been a lot of movie watching under the duvet with the electric mattress pad on! We’ve had plenty of chances to see the beauty of God’s creation while driving along the coastline and checking out Table Mountain. We’ve also been able to worship with fellow believers and meet other missionaries.

I’m having trouble uploading pictures to my blog today. For the first round of snapshots from the trip- click here.

Why blog in small quantities when you can update the world on the entire term at once… I do apologize for my delayed/non-existent blogging of late. I’m still attempting to learn to get everything done that I’d like to get done on a regular basis :).

Anyway, I thought I’d update you on the term via pictures and small captions. Here goes:

I’ve taken some snapshots of the kids enjoying their holiday and thought I’d post them for you to enjoy since they won’t all fit in my next newsletter :). School starts Monday so they are getting all the playtime in they can before the work begins again!

Many of you have seen this recent picture of me:

Yep, it’s wintertime around here. (It was especially cold and windy that day, and I’d been outside all morning :)). I’m sitting INSIDE my house and it’s 55 degrees (up from the 53 it was when I started working in the office this morning).  No, that’s not all that cold, but when there’s nowhere warmer to go, it starts to feel like winter pretty quickly! (Plus if you think about our summer temperatures followed up by 53- it’s still cold! Just thought I’d give you a temperature related picture of what “cold” is here.

I was writing a math final exam for my grade four students two weeks ago and came across a story problem that definitely shows the difference between Jabulane and other community schools- see if you can figure out why. “On Thursday Sister Mary (sisters are nurses) went to Jabulani School to weigh and measure all the Grade 1 learners. There were 56 learners in class A, 53 in class B, and 59 in class C. How many learners did Sister Mary weigh and measure altogether.” I interested to see if you notice what the major difference might be and why so many parents are from the community are interested in bringing their kids to JCA. We have a growing number of students from the community and look forward to having even more next year.

To close- here are some updated puppy pictures

Sophie

Addie- quite interested by the tune I was whistling

Addie just being cute

 Both girls Sophie (L) and Addie (R)

Today was an exciting day for Jabulane Christian Academy. Thanks to the opening of another home at Bethesda, we’ve now have 50 students at JCA! Lebo joined grade 6, Julia joined my class in grade 4, and Thembi joined grade R. It’s exciting to have a new family and new students!