Hope Christian Academy

Bro. Malimabe once again helped us a lot around the school during his summer holiday. He did a lot of much needed painting on the outside of the school.  He painted door frames, fascia board, and down spouts.  The school looks much better.

Bro. Malimabe also was a big blessing for the first week and a half after school started.  He taught the new first grade students until Rebecca Fetzer came from the U.S.  After that he went to the upper learning center and helped out there.  Bro. Malimabe is now back at college and enrolled in his fourth year.  Pray for him during this year of school.  We want him to come back and teach at Hope Christian Academy but there are a number of hurdles that need to be crossed before that can happen. We pray for God's will to be done.

Birds

Here is the list, I promised, of the different kinds of birds we have seen on our farm.  This is not a complete list. Once in a while I see other birds that I haven't been able to identify yet.   One problem with so many birds is we don't get any fruit from the couple of fruit trees we have.  Thankfully we haven't noticed them bothering our garden.

• Swallows
• White-throated Canary
• White-browed Sparrow Weavers
• Southern Masked-Weavers
• Red-eyed Doves
• Speckled Pigeons
• Helmeted Guinea Fowls
• Swainson’s Spurfowls
• African Sacred Ibis
• Hadeda Ibis
• Spotted Eagle-Owl
• Red Winged Starlings
• Pied Starling
• African Red-eyed Bulbul
• Mouse birds
• White Storks
• African hoopoes
• Cattle egrets

 

Afrikaans Music

About a month ago while we were in Bloemfontein we happened across an Afrikaans Band. They were playing their instruments outside one of the stores we were going to.  They were playing guitars, drums, an accordion, and a concertina.  It was very interesting to see and hear a little of their culture in this way.  Watching the man play the accordion kind of made me wish I had one.  (I used to play one for several years. Though I was never real proficient.)

Farmer Boys

I just thought I would post a picture of the boys out on the farm.  They really enjoy being outdoors.

Our Garden

Our garden is doing well even though a cow got in last week-end and chewed the tops off about half of our sweet corn.  We are already harvesting zucchini, squash, lettuce, cucumbers and green beans. We thank the Lord for the privilege of gardening.  We enjoy it and we also really like the fresh produce.

Farming

We spent New Year's Eve and January 1st on a farm with my brother's in-laws.  Since it is summer here there is a lot of work to do on the farm so we were able to help out a little.  The boys enjoyed riding in the combine and on the tractor. 

When you don't have a grain wagon an old truck with sides will work!

Birds

It seems we have a bird sanctuary at our farm.  Presently I have a list of about 15 different kinds of birds that we have seen on the farm and there are several others that I haven't been able to identify yet.  I forgot to bring the list with me to town, but maybe next time I'll post the names of the different birds on our farm.

Here are a couple of pictures of different bird's nests on the farm.  This first one is from a weaver bird.

This next one is from a weaver-sparrow.

This one, of course, is from the swallow.