Katherine, Joen and myself have been on the ground in Harrismith for just over a week now, and things are starting to get busy. We have more than 2 weeks left here, and we are involved with:

• Volunteering at Hope House children’s home.
• Organising a party for those with no family to stay with over Christmas.
• An end of year event at the bible school in Makgolokoeng township.
• Running a men’s and women’s social for Freedom Church
• Volunteering at the local hospital and clinics.
• New charity and church websites with videos.
• New computers for the charity and children.

God is giving us a real opportunity to celebrate and build relationships here, with 3 parties at Hope House over the next 2 weeks, bonding socials at Freedom Church, an end of year celebration at the Makgolokoeng Bible School, and a week long art fair at Rheola’s (our generous host who runs income generating craft projects in the township).

Today we visited Hope House, where the children immediately took my phone and started taking photos: tw0 of which you can see on the right. The level of love the children need is very intense: they run into your arms at the first opportunity, and both of us found our eyes moistening throughout the afternoon. Joen, on the other hand, was fairly shocked, having never been borderline attacked by 27 black kids. They loved him, although we did have to stop them putting him in the sit on car that they raced at breakneck speed aroudn the concrete. Over the next few weeks, we are going to take them out in groups for ice cream, or round to our house for DVDs, for cooking: general family time they miss out on.

I am finding the work in the local hospital very rewarding: my smattering of Sesotho is already coming in useful, and I love the air of friendly faith in the hospital. Last night around 2am I was dancing around the kettle with the senior sister, singing “Ke a bina hobane Modimo o motle” – “I am singing because God is good“.

We currently do not feel any closer to knowing if this is our long term home: for now, we are focusing on thanks and praise, and trusting that He will reveal his will to us.

Love you all,
Chris, Katherine and Joen.

Hey there. Been a fairly long time since the last update. First of all

New Housemate

Marian has moved in, which is exciting for all of us. That now means there are 4 of us (plus two dogs and two chickens). Please pray she settles in okay, and is happy.

Finances

We have been discussing the best way to deal with our finances as a community. We aim to live a life of community, as exampled in Acts 2, and thus the subject of money has to come up at some point.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The difficult question, is how to have “everything in common”? We are looking at everything from pooling all our money, outgoings and debts, to just being more open about finances. Prayer appreciated, as well as any opinions/discussions on the subject…

Names Not Numbers

Myself and my wife now help run a charity – called Names not Numbers. Please check out our new website! See it at: www.names-not-numbers.co.uk

That’s about it for now.
Thanks for reading!

Hey there. Chris here. You may know me from my medical revision or web design sites, or maybe my website “All about Chris Lowry“. Or you don’t know me at all.

I live at 82 Pickmere Road, in Crookes, a suburb of Sheffield. In the UK. We are currently/hoping to become/perhaps not an intentional christian community.

More will be posted here after Christmas, but for now, please pray for us.

Bless,
x

Obviously it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve posted on here. I set this up as a brief diary of my last trip to Africa, for my girlfriend to read whilst I was there. She is now my wife, and I’ve been back for about 10 months, and frankly, I could just tell her how it was face to face now.

I have many other project, including this medical revision website, and this web design and web hosting website. I am also a member, with my wife, of a Christian community in Sheffield, UK. Check our community page at Community of Communities, or read our new blog on blogspot.

I am keeping this page as a personal blog, but it may not be updated frequently!

Bless,
Chris

PS. Wedding photo below: