Fall is in the Air

Apparently yesterday was the official beginning of fall in South Africa. There does seem to be a little bit of a chill in the air. The nights are getting colder and we've had a few overcast days. It still seems a little odd to be heading into fall in March, but so it is.

Next week is our Fall Break, which we are very much looking forward to. Part of being involved in the School of Biblical Studies program is a 6 day work week. In order to finish what needs to be finished, as a student, it's necessary to work 6 full days each week. And staff are expected to work 6 days as well. So we are thankful that every 3 months there's a little break to recuperate and prepare for the next 3 months. We plan on going camping for a few days with our friends, James and Sarah, and then we have several practical-life-things we need to catch up on (taxes, newsletter, fall cleaning, etc...) We also want to spend some quality, not-homework-focused time with the students who will be remaining in town for the break. There's so much to do and see in this area and many of them have not been out of Muizenberg. Basically, we aren't worried about getting bored!

But before the break, we will finish studying the books of Kings. We've already mapped out the books, noting each king and which kingdom he was from and whether he was good or evil. Next we're going to do an in depth inductive study of the first 12 chapters of 1st Kings. And by Friday, we will turn in a summary of each of the kings, including cross-referencing to Chronicles (which has additional information on many of the kings.) After the break we're going to create a time line of the kings which we are told will be very helpful as we study through the major and minor prophets. It will be interesting to see where in the history of Israel each of the prophets fits, and what events they are writing about. It helps to put everything in context.

Hans led devotions at the Cape Town PD again this morning. He really enjoys that. It's so amazing to have that connection. Every Tuesday, they've invited YWAM to send someone to lead devotions at the beginning of their staff meeting. This morning, Hans said they started with singing. One of the officers printed up song sheets and led everyone in an acapella sing-a-long. He said the singing was beautiful. And that they seemed more comfortable with him and engaged with what he was saying than the first several times he's been there. So that is encouraging and exciting. Who knows the impact this could have.

So this post has been a random assortment of information about our lives. Hope you enjoyed it!
~Susan

tomatoes

I don't know if it's appropriate to brag about your husband on a blog, but I'm just going to go for it...

So it's late summer here in South Africa, and summer vegetables are available. There's a pick-up truck that parks on our street and sells veggies and fruit from crates. We usually grab something as we walk by (buying it, of course) whether it's a bag of plums or onions or bell peppers. Once I bought what I thought was a cauliflower still wrapped in leaves, and it turned out to be a head of cabbage.

Recently, Hans decided he wanted to make salsa. We knew the truck was there (it's usually only around on weekends) and had seen they had tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers and onions. Perfect! So he went to buy the goods. However, since the small bags of tomatoes were gone, he came home with a 5kg box of tomatoes. That's about 10lbs. Which is a lot of tomatoes for two people.

But I'll tell you what... if Hans didn't use every last one of those tomatoes. I think we had to throw one out that went bad, but other than that, he was a crazy tomato machine. And when after two enormous batches of salsa there were still yet more tomatoes, he made spaghetti sauce, from scratch. Meaning from fresh tomatoes. He roasted them with garlic and olive oil and made them into a delicious veggie filled sauce. How many of you have made spaghetti sauce from scratch? I know I haven't. Who does that? My husband does.

So we've been enjoying the summer bounty of the Cape Peninsula farm lands. We hope you are enjoying the first signs of spring. Here's a few pics of Hans in action... just to prove my story. (I must admit, I'm excited to see that Hans may have gotten the Oines cooking gene. Thank you Coke!)

Just for clarification, the man Hans was referring to in the previous post is a homeless man in our community who professes the Rastafarian faith. He often spends time on the corner near our house and is very friendly. He talks a lot about Jesus and how he climbs the mountain every morning to worship God. Often we aren't clear exactly what he's talking about, but we do know that God often chooses us to provide him food. We know he's a vegetarian, so we bring him a lot of peanut butter sandwiches and fresh fruit. We don't know a whole lot about the Rastafarian faith, except that they worship a god named Jah and that the religion is often associated with Jamaica, but has roots in Africa. And that it involves lots of dread locks.

God moves in mysterious ways......

There is a rasta here in Muizenberg named Barnard. He is a joy to chat with and regularly informs us that the Lord has spoken to him specifically that we are to bring him food........ we have been chosen.....

its a beautiful thing to be the "Lord's" chosen one so often. what a privilege : )

The other day after one such instance, he could barely contain his excitement. He said he didn't want to tell me what he did, but he couldn't hold it in. He said the Lord told him to pick all the weeds from our entrance, by way of showing gratitude......

I thanked him. He said; "Thank the Lord".

Beaming all the while.....

simple joys.....

Nations 2 Nations

Once a quarter (every 3 months) on our YWAM base we have a celebration called Nations 2 Nations. On a Friday evening, all the staff and students gather for a meal to celebrate a region of the world. The most recent N2N dinner celebrated the continent of Africa. (The previous N2N focused on Europe.) So the Africans on our base planned the evening and made the dinner and did presentations on the nations they are from. The food was delicious and the program was informative and entertaining. It was a fun evening!

Thomas and Butshwa are staff of the School of Biblical Studies.
Thomas is from Zambia and Butshwa is from Zimbabwe.

Vera is a student in the SBS from Cameroon.

Nick and Daisy (and their son Nassie) are students in the SBS from Zimbabwe

Here we are, crammed into our dining room,
listening to the Zimbabweans sing their National Anthem.

The South Africans are also singing their National Anthem