The Last Six Months: An Overview

Once again, we apologize that we have not kept the blog updated for the past several months. Our regular routine has been disrupted since we've been in the United States (not that we've been that good about keeping it up to date, anyway ...). 

We will be returning to South Africa next week, and we can't wait to get back! But it has been wonderful to be here with family and friends for awhile.

Here's an overview of what we've been doing since December:

We spent Christmas and New Year's in England with my family.

We drove or flew to eight different states for conferences and/or to visit family and friends:

California, Texas, Iowa, Alabama, Virginia, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee. If you're a Facebook friend, you can see pictures of some of our adventures here.

We found out we'll soon be a family of four! Our son/brother is due in mid October. His name is still being debated. :)

We were officially appointed to serve long-term with our organization. So, hopefully we will be staying in Africa for awhile!

We are now busy shopping, packing and preparing to return to Johannesburg. We are not looking forward to saying goodbye to family here, but we are ready to get home and get settled. We'll be moving into a new place (a house with a nice yard!) so we are ready to get there and get it set up. We'll post pictures once we're there!

The Next Baby

We apologize that it's been sooooo long since we've updated our blog. Since January, we've been in the US for a break between terms. We will return to South Africa in June. We'll try to post an update of what's happened over the past few months.

For now, the big news is that we're expecting our second child in October, and we found out today that it's a boy! Kylie is still getting used to the idea -- she really wanted a little sister -- but she will be a great big sister. We just got back from visiting family in Iowa and she was really great around her new three-week-old cousin.

We are excited about the newest addition to our family!

Focus on Johannesburg

Today the great city of Johannesburg is featured in the IMB's Week of Prayer for International Missions. The stories featured here are moving and heart-breaking. Please take a few moments to view these features and life up our city in prayer.

Meetings

This week, Tuesday through Friday, is the annual meeting for our Communication Team. Our teammates from Kenya flew down to join us for four days of brainstorming, planning and decision-making for 2012 and beyond. As a team, we took on some new responsibilities this year, so we'll need to do a lot of re-thinking and re-prioritizing to make sure we are making the best use of our time, talents and resources.

We would appreciate a lot of prayer this week. We truly desire for our team's plans to be the Lord's plans, and not just our own whims and wishes. Please also pray for Kylie, as she'll be moving from one friend's house to another while we're in meetings. She's very social so I think she'll have a great time, but it will still be a little challenging to be out of her routine and away from mom and dad so much.

Adventures in Camping

A couple of weekends ago we went camping with three other families from our church cell group. It didn't go too well:

• the first place we booked canceled because a water pipe burst
• once we got to the new place, it took forever to select where to set up our camp site
• after we started setting up, we were told to move because we'd be right beside a rowdy "bull party" (South African term for a bachelor party)
• in the process of moving, the wind broke our friends' tent pole
• it was so windy that our tent was super noisy all night
• it was so cold that no one slept much at all
• it was so windy the next day that we decided we should probably just pack up and leave (thunderstorms predicted)
• then the wind died down and we decided to stay
• then immediately after that, another friend's tent pole snapped
• so we decided to head back home and cook that night's meat at someone's house instead (which ended up being a good idea, because that night there were massive thunderstorms and even tornadoes)

Despite all those complications, the kids had a GREAT time playing together, and it was fun to be with our friends and get out of the city, even if it didn't last very long. And the sunrise over the dam was beautiful.

Henna

Henna is a temporary dye used by many Asian, African and Middle Eastern women to beautify their skin. I've seen it many times but never had it done myself -- until last month, when I participated in a birthday party with a henna/Indian theme!

Once applied to the skin, the design stays anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. The picture above shows what my hand looked like immediately after the henna was applied. After it was dry I brushed off the dark stuff, and an orangey-red pattern remained. The photo below shows what it looked like about a week later.

Typically henna designs are just beautiful, intricate patterns with no real meaning. But Christians around the world are now using henna to share Bible stories! The patterns contain symbols to remind the wearer of certain aspects of the story.

The pattern on my hand illustrates the Biblical account of Jesus feeding 5,000 people using only five loaves of bread and two fish. If you look closely, you'll see two fish illustrations within the design. The five flowers represent the five loaves of bread, and the twelve dots on my fingers represent the twelve baskets full of food that were leftover after everyone had eaten. Pretty cool, huh?

One of my former teammates designed a booklet teaching people in the US how you can make the henna dye and draw your own designs. You can even host a henna party to draw henna on your friends, enjoy unique foods from henna countries, and learn about/pray for Muslim and Hindu women around the world. Click here to order the booklet.

You can also find more resources and information, including lots of henna patterns, here.

Famine Crisis in the Horn of Africa

Many of you have probably heard about the famine/drought in the Horn of Africa. Check out this slideshow that Deron put together to help raise awareness about needs and relief efforts:

Orphanage Ministry

 

Every Thursday morning Kylie and I go to an orphanage with some friends from our mission and church. We play games with the kids, share a Bible story with accompanying activities, and generally just try to give the kids a lot of love and attention. I've been wanting to work at an orphanage since we moved to South Africa, but finally only started going a few months ago. It's been really fun to get to know the kids.

Most of the kids at this orphanage are HIV+, and some also come from abusive, neglectful homes. We work in the hospice, which is home to the kids that need the most constant medical care. The hospice has about 10 kids ranging in age from 5 months to 14 years. one baby has bad burns, a couple of the kids have brain damage, and two of the boys are quite frail, but for the most part they are happy, normal kids who like to run, play and laugh.

Please join us in praying that these children will grow up knowing how much God loves them and that they can always depend on Him, no matter how tough their circumstances might be.

Sanyati Stories

Visit AfricaStories.org for materials produced from the trip to Zimbabwe back in March.

Re-Visiting Cote d'Ivoire

Recently our friend and honorary teammate William Haun made a trip to Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to get videos, photos and stories of what is happening in the aftermath of the presidential stand-off that plunged the country into months of fear and violence. These powerful stories tell of how God worked in the midst of tragedy and how church leaders are now pushing for peace and reconciliation. Please check them out at AfricaStories.org. 

Reading these stories made me feel like I was back in Cote d'Ivoire -- I even saw familiar places and people in the photographs. Our hearts break over the trauma experienced by Christians in Abidjan (the city we used to live in) during the worst of the crisis. We wish we could go back to hear their stories and offer a little comfort and encouragement. Through William's stories, at least we got to find out a little bit more about what is going on.

Kylie's 2nd Birthday

Last Saturday, July 9, was Kylie's birthday. For some reason, turning 2 seemed more significant than turning 1, at least for me. It felt like the official marker that she is no longer a baby. She is definitely a little girl now -- exerting her independence, playing more by herself and with others, and trying to reason with us in order to get her way. It's exciting to have a little pre-schooler, but a little hard to let go of "babyhood." So last week was filled with lots of nostalgia. :)

Like most kids, Kylie loves animals, so we celebrated her birthday with a trip to the zoo and a giraffe cake decorated by me and my mom. It was a really fun day!

Trip to Durban

Last month Deron made a long trip to western Africa to help at a camp for teenagers and visit with some colleagues at a prayer retreat. So Kylie and I decided to take a "girls trip" to Durban (a city on the coast of South Africa) with my mom. We had lots of fun!

We stayed at The Royal Hotel (which you can see in the background of the photo above), the oldest hotel in Durban (about 150 years old). Over the years it's hosted lots of famous guests, including Nelson Mandela, Mark Twain and Marlene Dietrich.

We stayed in the city center and enjoyed seeing lots of the historical parts of town, including an old fort, city hall (also pictured above) and the Indian district. 

The most fun part for Kylie was visiting uShaka Marine World, the largest aquarium complex in Africa (although I don't really know if that means much - how many aquarium complexes do you think there are in Africa!?).

It was a very fun getaway and we're sorry Deron missed it -- but Durban is definitely a great town so we'll be glad to go back some day!

Grandma and the Lion Park

 

Between Easter and Mother's Day we enjoyed a visit from Deron's mom. She really spoiled us by cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, and taking care of Kylie a lot. We were blessed! We really enjoyed spending time with her, and Kylie loved having Grandma around. She often wanted to have a "tea pah-ty" with Grandma! We did not do much sightseeing, but did take a trip to the Lion Park, where we got to play with lion cubs and feed giraffes.

 

 

One of the lions was really interested in my sweater -- maybe he thought it was another lion??

AfricaStories

The latest version of the AfricaStories magazine is now available to order FREE. Please order some for you and your church!

Guidance

We would appreciate your prayers for us. We have some big decisions to make about the future and are not at all sure what direction to take. We really want to be obedient to the Lord and His plans, but are not sure how He is leading. It has been quite a struggle to know what to do. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Good and upright is the LORD;

therefore He instructs sinners in His ways.

He guides the humble in what is right

and teaches them His way. ...

Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

He will spend his days in prosperity,

and his descendants will inherit the land.

The LORD confides in those who fear Him;

He makes His covenant known to them.

Psalm 25:8-9, 12-14

Cow Troughs and Rough Roads

My trip to Zimbabwe was fantastic! There were some bumps along the way (like taking 19 hours to make a 6-hour drive because two different vehicles broke down along the way - the third one finally worked!), but overall it was a special time. It was great to be back in the country I loved so much while growing up. I got to see lots of familiar places and people -- it was such a blessing to be there again.

Unfortunately Zimbabwe is in the midst of political instability, which has led to an atmosphere of tension, hunger and poverty. However, God is at work in some amazing ways!

(Baptisms in a tarp-lined cow trough)

We visited a remote, rural area where several new churches have been started and over 600 people have become Christians in the past year. We attended an amazing baptism service in which 74 people were baptized in a trough (a cement basin near the water pump where cows typically come to get a drink). One by one, nearly every member of the new church was baptized, from young children to old grandmas. It took well over an hour, but it was such a heavenly celebration, with clapping and spontaneous songs of praise between each baptism.

(The team on the pot-hole filled road to Sanyati)

We also drove a long, incredibly bumpy road (more potholes than pavement) to visit Sanyati Baptist Hospital, where one dedicated, long-term volunteer from America is both the facility administrator and the hospital's only doctor. Faulty equipment and frequent power and water outages significantly hinder the work that can be done, but people from all over the country still come to the hospital because they know they'll receive genuine love and care. They also know they won't be turned away for lack of money - the hospital sometimes sees patients for free or accepts goats and chickens as payment.

(Interviewing the hospital's only doctor, a long-term volunteer who's on call 24/7)

The hospital is in desperate need of more doctors -- if you know someone who'd like to serve there either short or long term, please let us know. The facility has also fallen into disrepair and is in need of a makeover. Fortunately, Baptist Global Response and some partner churches are taking on that challenge! If you'd like to find out how you and your church can help the hospital, visit www.sanyatimakeover.com.

Travel to Zimbabwe

Today I (Mary Beth) am heading to Zimbabwe (the country just north of South Africa) with three teammates for an 11-day trip. We're going to visit with missionaries and local believers and hear their stories of what life is like in Zimbabwe these days. Some days we'll be faced with some rough, West Africa style conditions (sleeping in tents, no running water or electricity, etc). I am excited to return to the land I grew up in from ages 4-10 and visited repeatedly as a teenager. I'm sure much will be different, but I'm excited to see some familiar places and people, too.

Please pray for our team:
- that we'll have patience and joy throughout some long days ahead
- that we'll have safety on the roads
- that we'll have God's vision for who to talk to and how to capture their stories

This is the longest I've been apart from Deron and Kylie. It will be a challenge for Deron to be a single parent for that long (as it would be for me if I was the one staying behind). Kylie's been more whiny and demanding than usual, so please pray that:
- Kylie will adjust to life without mommy with minimal trouble
- that they'll enjoy their time together
- that others will step in to help watch Kylie during the day so Deron can get some work done

A Kylie Update

It's been awhile since we did an update just on Kylie. She is now 19 months old and such a joy! She is definitely now a toddler, not a baby, and is learning and growing so fast it's hard to believe.

Vocabulary
When Kylie turned 18 months old, we wrote down a list of the words she says, and it was about 200! The average vocabulary for a child that age is 5-30 words, so we were pretty impressed. :) She LOVES to talk and seems to learn a new word every day. She is also putting together short sentences. It's so fun to hear her pick up words - but, we have to be careful what we say now, because she copies EVERYTHING she hears. She is also learning colors and numbers.

Friends
Kylie loves to be around other kids and loves to talk about them when she's not with them. She's been known to ride in the car and say the same friend's name over and over and over, hoping she can talk us into taking her to see that friend. She also loves being in our office and is learning the names of everyone who works there.

Activities

Kylie loves to swing, take baths, play in her little pool, and climb on the jungle gym and slide at the playground. She likes to look at books and name what is in the pictures. She likes to play with cars and push her baby and monkey in a little stroller. She also loves animals and does a great job of naming different animals and the sounds they make. She has a collection of magnets she likes to stick on the washing machine (which is in the kitchen) -- but she also likes to shove them under the washing machine and try to get them back out with a long wooden spoon.

Food
Kylie developed my love for sweets -- she's always asking for chockit (chocolate), cany (candy) and cookies. Unfortunately she also has her dad's love for chips! If she had things her way she'd just eat snacks all day. Fortunately, she also loves fruit, and she tolerates vegetables. She is learning to "help" cook and especially likes to stir, cut out shapes for cookies and scones, and put sprinkles on cookies. She enjoys eating the batter, too!

Hands On Botswana

Deron is making a five-day trip to participate in orientation for the next group of Hands On students who'll be serving in Africa. Hands On is a program for students/young adults who want to spend a semester serving in international missions.

Deron will be leading a session on culture shock, and also getting to know the students so they'll know he's available throughout the semester if they need to talk about anything.

Please pray:

• for safe travel to and from Botswana
• for Deron to build good relationships with the young missionaries
• for confidence and wisdom as he leads the session and likely assists with others
• for Kylie and me as we stay home alone in South Africa
• for the Hands On missionaries as they prepare to serve -- that their hearts will be fully committed to the Lord and His plans for them for the next five months
  

Merry Christmas from Africa

Some of my teammates created this video and the paintings that are in it. Enjoy!

May you have a blessed Christmas that's full of joy in worshiping the Savior.