Today, I had my best experience of 2010 so far, and I owe it all to my wonderful mother-in-law.  She sent me Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup and I had my first glass of real chocolate milk since arriving in South Africa.  I am so grateful for three things from America – Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Grape Jelly, and Duke’s Mayonnaise.  By the way, if you have any of these items lying around in your house taking up precious cabinet space please feel free to send them our way : ). 

Ok, seriously, thank you to everyone who has been so generous in sending us packages from the states.  The girls, Georgia, and I get so excited when we look in the mailbox and find a little slip of paper saying that we have a package from back home.  We are so grateful for the gifts, thoughts, and prayers that all of you have sent our way.

Soweto Evangelism Team Video

Our wonderful team member, Rachel, made a video showing a bit of our life and ministry here in South Africa.  The video is at the top of this blog page and is really great.  It shares many of our prayer needs and the needs of the people here as well.  You'll also see our Bible studies, Girls Club, Soccer Ministries, Church Services, and Baptisms.  I hope that you will enjoy it and share it with others.

Odd Ending to 2009

So, we have left 2009 and have entered 2010 in South Africa.  It's kind of like living in the future since we are 7 hours ahead of our family in South Carolina.  Anyway, Brett, continues to tell me that I am really not in the future.  I guess he is right because I still have trouble predicting the outcome of sporting events and absolutely no luck with lottery numbers (just kidding IMB).  The end of the year was very nice.  We took the girls to a water park in a place called Sun City, and we all had a blast.  That night finished with a blue moon and our blue moon also came with a lunar eclipse.  Pretty cool way to end the year!  Needless to say we were in bed by 10 and asleep way before midnight.  However, I did predict a ball to drop in New York City and was right.  What do you think about that big brother?

First Christmas in RSA

Well, we were away from home for the first time ever during Christmas.  We missed being with our family, but had a wonderful day.  We began the day by Skyping, Yaya and Poppy and Mammy.  We had to get the girls up at 6 am to do this and our folks in the states had to stay up until just about midnight to see Isabel and Kylie open their presents.  Isn't the internet wonderful.  After the excitement of the morning I had the opportunity to preach at Snake Park.  Although many were not their it was a joy to share the gospel on Christmas day.  Which is what it is all about, right?  Well, I loved it!  That afternoon our team and friends came over for lunch.  It was great, and very close to mom's cooking.  Frank's turkey was excellent and could only be topped by mom's, but everyone knows that.  We had a great afternoon of eating and fellowship and finished up with an intense round of White Elephant gift exchange.  So, first Christmas in RSA, a little warm, but not too bad.  Anyway, Merry Christmas and a happy Boxing Day to you all!

Bunny Chow

Today, after a hard day of visiting in Soweto, my friend Given took me took a place to enjoy a South African “delicacy”.  It's called Bunny Chow.  It is basically hollowed out bread with pretty much anything inside of it.  I think the Bunny Chow first began with the Indians who first came to work in South Africa.  Instead of carrying containers for bread and curry, it was easier to hollow the bread out and place the curry inside and then place the bread back over the top.  Basically, the meal was also a container.

My Bunny Chow had chips (french fries for you guys in the states), cheese, a fried egg, and some kind of bologna type meat in it.  Along with these ingredients it also had some type of spice like red chili pepper on it.  It was pretty good at first, but kind of got old as you kept eating it.  I took some home to Georgia and she did not seem to care for it.  I will probably try it again soon.  I hear there are countless combinations of it.  There's nothing like buying something on the side of the road and eating it.

Dobsonville

This past Saturday we had a great morning evangelizing in the area where I will be working next year.  Six of us went into the streets of Dobsonville and passed out Challenge Newspapers.  These are newspapers full of stories of people and how Jesus has changed their lives.  It's a really great tool to get people talking because it has stories of people from South Africa and sports figures on the back page telling how Jesus has changed their lives.  Through this we were able to show our faces in the area, meet people, and make contacts.  A few people seemed quite interested in beginning a Bible study in their home which would be wonderful. It's definitely a different place.  Many of the men were already busy drinking (or actually beyond busy) and it was only 10 o'clock in the morning.  God was good, as he always is, and answered prayers of meeting new people and giving all of us safe passage.

Braaing in Soweto

This week we were busy doing follow ups with the schools that we hope to work in next term.  We had a very successful day.  I met with all but one of my schools, as well as going to some of the other schools that Zach, Amber, and Rachel will be working. It was a beautiful day and as lunch was approaching, Zach, suggested that we try the Buy and Braai.  Braaing is the term in South Africa that we would call grilling or cooking out.  Anyway, they have these stores that have meat to purchase and then right outside on the street is a braai (grill).  So you buy and then you braai.  I was very fortunate to be given the honor of braaing that day, which was my first experience braaing in South Africa.  The meat was great and I think we were the main attraction that day as it was hot, we were braaing on the street, and were the only mulungos (white people) within miles.