v.3-9 " Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret - it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land."
He also reminded us of His words in Isaiah 30:
v. 15 " This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength"
v.18 "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him."
This past week God provided in an extraordinary way! We will soon have a rent-to-own agreement signed on a place that will give us much more space than we had hoped for, allowing us to have friends visit, even large families from the ship or relatives who may want to visit. We have been dreaming about the possibility of having enough room to extend that kind of hospitality freely, and the Lord has provided it! We are very thankful for that! And Bethany has not only been accepted into the local Christian school to which we applied, but will likely receive a full scholarship for the year! That brought tears to my eyes and to Jenny's as well. God has blessed us abundantly beyond our imaginings.
All of this seems to have happened at almost the last minute. God often asks us to wait down to the wire like that, in part I'm sure to develop our ability to trust in Him. Thankfully, he's not offended if we don't wait perfectly. We had been going around actively enquiring about rental properties and enrolling Bethany in public school just in case the other fell through. I guess we could have saved ourselves some of that headache, but maybe that's part of learning to walk by faith. God has been faithful and we are believing that He will provide all that we need in the coming months and years as we walk in His Kingdom, not relying on what we can see, but on His wisdom and goodness. Glory be to God! We are on an incredible journey with Him! It's really fun in times like this to see what He can do, to see what He can call into existence out of nothing!
Just today, in Walmart, Jenny received a two-fold word from fellow Jesus follower and missionary, Juan Suarez - the word 'TRUST' and Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
The day after the details with the house and Bethany's school were settled, Jenny got a call from the ship asking her to return as soon as possible to Sierra Leone for several weeks to help the hospital with critical needs. Jenny initially thought that it just couldn't be done now with our move coming up, but we will manage in her absence. Hopefully she will be leaving for Africa by week's end and provide some relief there. That will make it hard for those of us left here, but we believe that this is also part of God's plan, so as with the house we can't yet pay for, we will walk this out by faith and see where the Lord takes us. God is faithful, so shall it also be with us. May God grant us the grace we need to be His faithful servants wherever He sends us.John & Jenny
We had an interesting trip home too. The trip to the airport was a real adventure. We rode in a convoy of ship vehicles to the Government Wharf, transferred to the ferry (with all of our bags containing what we could bring home of our clothes and household items, etc. - ugh!), transferred from the ferry to our ride (organized by the ship) on the other shore, and then finally through security and the check-in counters at Lungi Airport. Actually I was quite amazed at how well the whole process went, we were blessed to have a lot of honest guys help with bags and such. It could have so easily been a fiasco, but it wasn't that bad.
Pop, Jenny's dad, works some in his retirement for the Black Tie Transportation company. We were not expecting that kind of treatment, but it was really nice, if not a bit surreal after our time in Africa. I know many would shudder, but we had to park the stretch Hummer at McDonald's for a burger. The things you miss, huh?!
In fact, the beginning was really the afternoon before as a team of folks hauled truckloads of stuff to the site and began preparing for screening and crowd control. There was a security presence on site from that time forward as they not only managed the lines that were forming, but also educated those in the lines on the conditions that we can and cannot help. This proved to be a very productive exercise that kept people with inappropriate conditions from having to wait for many, many hours for nothing.
The Lord blessed us with orderly, peaceful crowds and cloud cover until the line outside the gate was gone. Everyone was inside the gate and proceeding through the stations before 9:30am. And by 2pm, the last patient for the day was being scheduled. What a difference from the previous screening day! I believe that God wanted to remind us that we are not in control, but when we trust Him in our weakness, He shows Himself strong!
A couple of days after leaving Durban we arrived in Cape Town. (Above are photos made by Airserv as the ship left the shipyard in Durban.) The ship refueled in Cape Town and the crew had about 24 hours to visit the city. We were docked at the V&A Waterfront, a very active and interesting part of town. 
There were lots of sea lions in the water in the area and the kids really loved watching them interact with each other. We had a chance to visit Table Mountain 
and to get acquainted with the city bowl (downtown area). Others ventured further afield and went to see a penguin colony on the peninsula. We really liked Cape Town and would have loved to have spent more time there, but the ship needed to get to Sierra Leone as soon as possible. We considered ourselves very fortunate to have had a day in Cape Town and left with thankful hearts, some photos, some groceries and a take away pizza. (Below is a video still of the ship leaving Cape Town that was sent from the Mercy Ships South Africa office.) 
After leaving Cape Town we sailed for about two weeks across pretty remote stretches of the Atlantic. We didn't see very many other ships, but occasionally would pass some dolphin pods. We crossed the equator and passed through a little squall simultaneously on February 24th. The captain let us know on the overhead announcement that we wouldn't see the dotted line you usually see on globes because we would be passing directly between the dashes. He was kidding of course! I like that he has a sense of humor. Most of the crew gathered on the outdoor sections of deck 7 to mark the occasion, but other than that there wasn't much to see.
We arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone early in the morning on February 27th. There were large numbers of people on the dock, many of which would be coming to live on board the ship. They were part of the advance team and Gateway (Mercy Ships' long-term crew preparation program) participants who had been working in country during the weeks and months prior to our arrival. There was a lovely local band there that played a number of songs and the Minister of Health spoke. We all really enjoyed being reunited with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. There is a nice slide show of the arrival made up of some of my photos and the photos of the other photographers present (at least four of us - two on the ground and two on the ship) at the following web address: 
Jenny and I are getting pretty good at it too with nearly as many moves as we have years of marriage. Now we are pretty settled in our cabin. The last of the shipyard work was completed and we set sail out of Durban yesterday. The port pilot who guides ships in and out of port was lifted from our ship by helicopter as we approached open ocean. The tugs helped us along and stuck with us though the harbor. Jenny was impressed by how much we are like tugs for one another from time to time, offering a little help through the tricky stretches, even a nudge or a tug or two to get us going in the right direction.
There was a huge push to complete all the work and get all the preparation work done for sailing, but it all got done and its hard to believe we're actually at sea now. All the usual drills, briefings, and stuff took place earlier this week and now we're rocking and rolling, literally. Next stop, Cape Town, South Africa. We were going to spend a week or so there and do some P.R., but since the shipyard work took longer than hoped, we will probably have a little over 24 hours to visit and to pick-up/drop-off crew. After our brief stop in Cape Town, we head for Sierra Leone and the huge work of getting surgery underway. We should pass by off the coast of Cape Agulhas between Durban and Cape Town, the official place were the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Later on our way to Sierra Leone, we should cross the equator and become "shellbacks",or at least the civilian equivalent thereof. I'm sure both events will be a little anticlimactic in that there are no lines in the ocean and nothing really to see, but it will be fun anyway. We have departed Appelsbosch and the shipyard and are on our way again. God is faithful!
We then made positive images by scanning the negatives into the computer and inverting the tones in photoshop. The students got some really amazing photos with the pinhole cameras they had made! We also did classes on some history and basics of photography, depth of field, ISO, white balance, and basic artificial and studio lighting. The P.E. teacher has been working with the Academy kids on doing some gymnastics and they did a nice demonstration for everyone here in early December. 
The last week of school just before Christmas break, the teachers and kids put together a Christmas play and many of us invited friends from the surrounding communities to come and watch the play with us. It was really fun! Bethany was Mary in the play, David was a wise man, and Joey was one of the angels. 
They also did signing to a song under black light. They all wore white gloves so their hands showed up really well. It was really cool!
All of the Academy kids (and teachers!) did such a nice job with the play! 
John
We spent an evening at a local farm house that some friends of ours were house sitting. We had a cook out (braai) and the kids played with the animals.
In mid November, just before the rats arrived, Jenny flew to Texas, along with several other management folks from here for a management conference at the Mercy Ships International Operations Center (IOC) near Tyler. Lots of good things happened during the conference and it was a great opportunity for staff at the IOC and crew on the ship to meet and foster relationships. She was there for a couple of weeks and had the opportunity to work in a two day layover in North Carolina on the way back. It was really great because she was able to spend most of Thanksgiving day with her family there before crossing the great pond again for Appelsbosch. In the midst of all of this, too, Jenny found out that she will be promoted to Operating Room Manager for our time in Sierra Leone. I'm confident she can do it, but we know it will be hard on her (and our family because most all of her energy will be poured into the O.R.).
We saw animals and had breakfast at the Hippo Haunt restaurant. The breakfast was incredible and the location fantastic. We watched a bright red male weaver bird wooing his mate,
saw a two foot long lizard, watched other birds and turtles and catfish all while we had breakfast there. No hippos, but that was okay; it was still a very memorable breakfast! We visited the Ngwenya Glass company and, contemplated how much we had enjoyed our 24 hours in Swaziland and continued on across the border to the north and back into South Africa. We spent three days in Kruger National Park and saw all of the big 5 except lions - elephants, water buffalo, hippos, and even a leopard. The leopard was particularly wonderful because they are more rare to see and I had been praying pretty hard that we would cross paths with one. 
One appeared in the road and we got to watch probably for a full minute as the leopard made its way up a river bed to the right of our car. We also saw a small creature that had quickly risen to the top of the kids' (and therefore our own) must see list - a dung beetle rolling a ball of dung across the road. 
We saw spotted hyenas with young which really pleased Bethany - the hyena is her favorite African animal. 
We stayed in rondavels (round houses with thatched rooves) at Kruger and ate dinner one night at the old rail station at Skukuza rest camp that is now a restaurant. We went on a sunset game drive and almost got charged by an enormous male elephant in musth! The driver knew what to do and after the elephant retreated I looked back at Bethany who had been thoroughly terrified by the event. All of the color had drained from her face. She wasn't the only one, though, that was nervous about the encounter. After that Bethany was adamant about staying a comfortable distance from the elephants. We encountered another huge male in musth walking down the middle of the road stopping all the traffic in both directions. We really wanted to pass, but simply were not interested in challenging the elephant for the right to use the road. No one else on the road was either. 
The elephant kept pushing us back until we came up with a plan. We backed up a quarter mile or so to the turn off to a watering hole beside the road figuring the elephant might be thirsty and stop off for a drink. We positioned our car for a quick escape in case he didn't turn in and waited. Soon he came lumbering (do-de-do) down the road and turned in to the watering hole. Success! Then we went down the road we wanted to and that was a good thing because it was further down that same road where the leopard had appeared. We had great adventures during our three days at Kruger. I never thought we would ever have the opportunity to go on a real African safari together as as a family. That was a great blessing! 
We spent a day traveling up to the Blyde River Canyon area. We visited the Pinnacle (a cool rock formation) where David found a toad in the bushes.
We visited God's Window (a lovely view from the escarpment), Wonderview (another nice overlook), Burke's Luck Potholes (interesting rock cavities made by the river and waterfalls), The Three Rondavels (a beautiful view of the Canyon area with three rock formations that look like the typical round houses of the area), 
and Lisbon Falls. Nearly every spot had its own government toll and its own craft market stalls so everyone was taking the opportunity to make some money from the tourists. It was a long day, but we took in some amazing scenery! We were sad to leave the area less than 48 hours after we arrived, but we had to. We traveled to the Royal Country Inn in Dundee and slept in the nicest bed we had since we left our home in North Carolina. The following day we visited the historic battlefields of Isandlwana 
and Rorke's Drift 
and learned about those fateful days in January 1879 when the Zulu warriors wiped out a regiment (some 1,300 plus British soldiers) at Isandlwana. The following night, a small contingency of of 100 or so British soldiers held off the Zulu advance (about 4,000 strong) at the small outpost of Rorke's Drift a few kilometers away. Amazing history! The 1964 film "Zulu" with Michael Caine hardly does it justice in my opinion. Joey really enjoyed the battlefields. He's been really into military stuff these days. We had traveled for a week dodging hundreds of potholes over 2200 miles of South African and Swazi roadways and counting our blessings every step of the way. We had a great time getting away and being a family. 
We also got close to some lions in the lion enclosure that you drive into, but thankfully not close enough to lose a car bumper, which had happened to someone when our friends had gone to Lion Park. 
After visiting the lions we dipped candles at a candle shop in a nice town called Nottingham Road north of Pietermaritzburg. 
Then we headed out for 6 days in the northern Drakensberg mountains. We stayed at a place called the Tower of Pizza that originally was a tower, I think a silo, converted into a pizzeria and is now a much bigger restaurant and B&B. Our friend Miriam joined us for those six days. It was fun having her along. The three girls stayed in one rondavel and the boys and I stayed in another. We ate pizza almost every day, much to the boys' delight!! Imagine, a little slice of Italy in the South Africa mountains! Joey, Miriam, and I went on some really nice hikes. The best one was the Sentinel Peak hike, a hike up to the top of the escarpment, around Sentinel peak, 
up some really scary chain ladders, 
across the plateau and to the edge of the sheer drop at the top of the "Amphitheater" where Thukela Falls (the second or forth highest falls in the world depending on which criteria you use) plunges into the gorge below. 
Good grief what an incredible view - one of the best I have ever seen!! The three of us really enjoyed that hike despite the fact that we were past the point of exhaustion by the time we got home. It was a long hike and we had driven more than three hours round trip to the trail head. It began to storm violently up there as we were driving home, so we were really thankful that we were down and had had such nice weather for our hike. We felt bad for the guys we had seen preparing to overnight up there earlier in the day. The following day we all went on a short hike (which was all Joey, Miriam, and I could muster) to some San Bushman paintings and to the cascades in the Royal Natal National Park. The paintings were worn but interesting. The cascades were really nice; nice and cold too! 
We had a blast there swimming and splashing and exploring. The next day we all hiked up the gorge to see Thukela Falls and the Amphitheater from below - not as impressive as from above, but still pretty cool. At the end of the day, despite my fatigue, I took David and Bethany fishing at the pond a few hundred yards above our lodging and we were able to catch a bass and almost caught a second one. The kids loved that and Bethany talked to and petted the fish most of the way down the hill. As the kids were to sad to eat the fish themselves, we gave it to one of the Zulu guys who worked in the kitchen and he was absolutely thrilled. He cooked and ate it almost immediately and thanked us over and over! Fishing was a definite highlight for Bethany and David. None of us wanted to leave when it was time to come back to Appelsbosch on New Years Day! Before the drive home on New Years Day we went to Falcon Ridge so Miriam could see the first class bird of prey show they have there. We really enjoyed seeing it a second time. 
Then we went to the Didima Rock Art Center and learned more about the Bushman painting in the Drakensberg. David and Bethany were most impressed by the life size statues of Eland antelope that they have there. They loved pretending they were real and clowning around on them. 
We were really sad when our time away was over, but we had had such a grand opportunity to spend time exploring northeastern South Africa that we couldn't be too sad.
