Lyle "Simba" here in South Africa. Nights are cold but the days have been sunny and what a beautiful part of the country here in the city of Stellenbosch where I am. Surrounded by mountains and the fields are full of grape vines.
I am together with 26 other people from all over the world. Different languages, cultures and different humors. Our first week was a time of team building. We were given different challenges that we had to overcome as a team. We all came as individuals and we soon became a group. After the days went by we became a team. And now that we are living basically in the same building we are all learning to become a family. With all different personalities, this can be a challenge at times but also fun.
Our day starts at 6am and is over at about 9.30pm. The days consist of lectures and different outreaches into the local community working mostly with the youth in different sports activities.
My drive from Zambia was a 4 day trip. It was good to travel alone; it gave me some good alone time with my thoughts and the Lord. We generally don’t have time for this sort of thing in our busy life schedule, although I did pick up different people on the road having a chat to them about their life.
I picked up a group of Bushmen in Namibia who had been waiting for two days for a lift. They were glad for me to give them a ride. They chatted away with one another with the clicking of their tongues as they spoke. They tried to teach me but it was not a pretty sound. I in turn tried to teach them some Swahili and we all had a good laugh.
Crossing over into S. African border at midnight, I pulled over and slept in the car trying my best to stay warm. Waking up with the sun and back on the road. When the sun got bright enough to see the vastness of the open land, I noticed that the ground as far as you could see was covered in wild flowers by the millions of all shapes and colours. What a beautiful sight indeed. I was told later that this only happens about once every five years when the temperature and rain fall is just right. So I enjoyed about 200 km of rare ground covering wildflowers .
Jette and kids are in Denmark at this time visiting with her folks, different churches and friends. The kids are going to a Danish school and learning the life and culture of the Danish world.
My heart continues to go out over our broken world. There is hardly a day that goes by where I don’t shed a tear or two for the condition of our world. Satan is after the families, he is tearing them apart by the millions. I beg you men, please, keep your families together, love your wife as Christ loves the church. Love the kids, I understand it is hard at times; life is busy and full of challenges but keep a positive attitude and remember to laugh. That is something that I need to work on as well, just having a good laugh.
Be encouraged in your walk with the Lord, He is God and He is there with you wherever you are, all the time. Live for eternity for it is just around the corner. And oh yes, don’t forget to pray for the nations. Help me carry the burden of the world to the cross.
Blessings to you,
Remember to send us a note and keep in touch!
Just before we left the States, we had a family reunion in honor of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, this is a photo from that day.
