Apparently South Africa doesn’t want people to spend money in their country. I took out £35 the other day, and now I am not allowed to take out any more!

This had its problems. I was planning to buy your other present today, but that was not exactly possible, thanks to banks in general.

To go with it, Mohau left the office at 10:30, and when I phoned at 11:45, promised to be back by 12:15. At 2:30, when he returned, I was hungry and grumpy. The grumpiness was not relieved by learning that one of the reasons he was late was that he had stopped off for lunch on the way!

And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
Mark 6:35-36

I went home, instead of the countryside, but its pretty similar. I had peanut butter and golden syrup sandwiches, just like I suspect Jesus did.

My friend Joyce also had problems today – her brother was arrested for driving her car without a licence. He was actually in jail, and had to pay a bail to get out. I’ve never really encountered anyone who that has happened to before.

Needless to say, Joyce was quite upset, so me and Mohau took her out for dinner at Spur. I love taking people out for meals, because, for example, I took out three people and stuffed them with food, and it cost me £12.

Spur was nice, although I ordered too much food. Who would have thought that a double rib burger would be huge? I did trade the fried onions for lettuce tho, so I’m still very healthy!

Love ya!

Chrissywoo

Monday blues lasted well throughout the day. Not enough work was done by any of us, nothing seemed to be working well. Despite being at work for many hours,

The best part happened when I got one of your presents, but unfortunately, I can’t tell you about that until I get back. I can talk about the drive there though – it was out in Vilgepark, which is a suburb just off the edge of Harrismith – where me and Mohau go to play pool.

Unfortunately, there are a great deal of road works going on at the moment, because the roads are shot. And why? Lorries. Harrismith is in the middle of the 6 hour highway between Jo’burg andDurban. Which means all the lorries stop here for breaks. And because a little bit of the highway is knocked out, instead of going round Harrismith, now they go through it. Thus destroying the roads.

This also means that the route to vilgepark is much longer than one would expect, with a circuituous route, and lots of queues, and doubling back. Someone was telling me how one day, on the Friday of a long weekend, they shut everything through town except one lane. The tail back was an hour and a half, just to leave town.

Anyway, I got your present then, and you will know soon. Hoever, everything else just seemed to be a bit rubbishy. You know how Mondays are.

I ended the day at the prayer and intercession meeting the church has once a week. We were praying for a lot of things, but I felt very strongly from God to pray about the church. We were praying about 3 hours, and it was really good.

One of the verses that came up was this:

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23,24

Love you bumley,

x

Clearly, I am a truly masterful sewing maiden!

What I find weird, looking back at these two days, is that I remember nothing about them. Like I know work was done at Tshwaranang, I’m sure I had some lunch, 24 hours of breathing occurred. But all I remember is giving Mohau his birthday vest in the morning, then shopping for more fabric, and spending another 7 hours making a tshirt, this time for me.

Sadly, the pattern was for a woman, and I’m not a woman; however much you joke about my new found aptitude for needlework. This meant that I ended up producing something a little tight for me – hence it becomes a gift for you!

I’m sorry that I have nothing good to say, but literally I look back at these two days and all I can remember is “thhththththtth! Snap!”, as the rubbish thread I bought gets caught and snaps again. At least my backing spool didn’t run out today 1 inch before I finished.

I thought instead of a bible verse today you can just listen to this instead:
It’s here, track three.

Love you,

x

Today was a massive rush. I was meant to be leaving tomorrow, so I had to get the video finished. We started off, going to Makgolokoeng, moving a caravan out there for Danell to live it. I’m ridiculously jealous, you might be able to tell.

Not only does he have a caravan, but he is getting to live in the township. And get this – someone has given him a horse for transport. Very, very jealous!

The caravan is cool, no toilet or shower, but that aside, its compact, can sleep 4, or sleeps two with a nice sitting area, sink, stove, cupboards, wardrobe, tables, etc. Hmm. Not sure if we are going to be buying a caravan any time soon, but one can dream, eh?

So then I got back to the office, and finished the video. Also managed to get a few other things done, came home, and packed for going up the mountain today. Got to Mark’s house at 2, where I was able to show them the video, on time and as I had promised.

Then I was able to relax – with 30 minutes to spare, I was ready to Mohau to pick me up, then we could go up the mountain. I had warned him repeatedly to be ready, so there was no reason for him to be late.

3pm came and went, but that was fine. I knew he would be late.

4pm came and went, I was unimpressed, but we still had 3 hours to get up the mountain.

5pm came and went, Mohau appeared, apologised for being late, but said that we couldn’t go up the mountain because he had to house sit a farm. I was cool with that though, because it would still be relaxing and fun. He said he needed to go and pick up the keys, then he could get me.

6pm came and went. I got bored and wrote that song I played you.

7 came and went, along with daylight. I didn’t know where he was.

Eventually, at 7:30, only 4.5 hours late, Mohau pulls up; yet we aren’t even going anywhere. After driving around for another hour, he dropped me off back at mine at 8:30. Oh, and to cap it all, I learnt earlier that my lift up to Pretoria has been cancelled, so all of my rushing today has been completely in vain.

Unsurprisingly, this eventually triggers a mild feeling of disgruntlement, soon followed by an evening of self hatingness. Even some chocolate, which I had to smile me up, didn’t do much – its interesting though, that’s the second time I’ve had chocolate in 3 weeks! I think I feel more content here, and enjoy eating healthily more. Even exercise is more fun!

“Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty,running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield; because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins; he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth”
Job 15:25-29

England makes me more Jobey.

x

Today was spent almost entirely in the pool. I think it finally dawned on me that I’m leaving Harrismith, and most importantly, leaving the house with a pool in the back garden.

Anyway, so the day started at the office. We needed to finish that proposal, and despite much hard work, we still weren’t making much headway. The office was noisy, people kept answering their phones, and it was all distractions. Plus everything we tried wasn’t working, etc, etc. All in all, it was annoying, and I wanted to get things done.

So, after a few hours of this, I informed Mohau that we were going to mine for lunch. We had a sort of cold pasta risotto with rolls, and salad (although the lettuce tasted odd, and the tomatoes were about ten minutes away from being off).

Then, with the laptop set up on the table, we took it in turns to be typing, or amusing ourselves by the pool. It was pretty nice, and about fifty seven times more relaxing than the office. Mohau had to leave at 3, to call some people at the office; promising to be back by 3:30.

By 6:30, I decided to stop swimming, just in time for Mohau to arrive, looking flustered. We spent half an hour doing more work, then he gave me to a lift to Pastor Mark’s house, for bible study.

It’s a long one today:

“Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

So Isaac settled in Gerar.

When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.

When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”

Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.

(Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.)

And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar and settled there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.

But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah.

And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” From there he went up to Beersheba.

And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”

So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

They said, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.” So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.

That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. “

Genesis 26

That was the subject of our Bible study. We talked about how Isaac was very like his father, both in actions (lies about wife, gets rich and asked to move on, digs wells out) – Mark put forward the opinion that he might be a bit of a sissy, too scared to stand up for his wife, and trust God; always runs away whenever there’s a quarrel about wells.

Talked a lot about trusting God – He told them to stay in the land and he would bless them and look after them – so there was no need to lie.

Rehoboth means spaciousness. I want to call our house here that, hehe.

And lots more stuff, but you can work that out!

Much lovings,
Chris

This morning heralded the dawn of Tshwaranang internet. It was very good to be able to use the web in the office. Hence, we now have www.tshwaranang.org, we have stuff@tshwaranang.org email addresses, and I can upload my blog with minimal effort.

It turned out that the instructions we had received in the box about the setting up the cable, were wrong. What I want to know is, why? I ended up on the phone to tech support, cracking up the whole office, as every time he did something that worked, I exclaimed that he was a very attractive, almost beautiful young man, that I could tell this over the phone, and if I wasn’t already engaged, then… well!

That aside, most of the day was spent doing fairly mundane things. I mean, I can tell you about filling out the registration form, which involved writing 70 names, ages, qualifications, job descriptions, etc – but you probably won’t be that interested.

Went to a place for pizza at lunch; it wasn’t amazing though, and the bloke annoyed me by commenting all the time and not leaving us alone.

I got some good footage for the video I need to make up at the townships too, which was helpful. Then I spent the evening at home, watching a preach called “Indescribable”, by Louie Giglie. I’ve seen another version before – its an extra on the Facedown DVD. But this one was pretty cool too.

Mohau was meant to come round this evening, but he didn’t lol – nor did he reply to my texts; and I cooked him dinner! Oh well, I’ll make him eat it tomorrow. Instead I read a book someone gave me called “Khayeelitsha, uMlungu in a Township”. It’s a true story about this white dude, who goes to live in the biggest township near Capetown. uMlungu is Xhosa (pronounced ‘Click’-os (as in hose)-a (as in bat) for white man.

So that was my day. And from God:

“Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.”
Zechariah 1:3

That sounds pretty similar to the New Testament to me!

Much lovings,
Chris