Pastor Thabang

About two weeks ago I finished teaching through A Theology of Christian Counseling with Pastor Thabang.  Here he is with his certificate.  We both really learned a lot and we plan to co-teach a new class on Biblical counseling to several in our church.

Our House

Here's a picture of where we now live.  We are very thankful that the farmer is allowing us to stay here for free.

Snakes, Spiders, & other "visitors"

Since moving to our new location we have seen quite a few snakes.  I ran over a puff adder yesterday (Sunday) on the way home from church.  Last week while I was in town Gwen found a small snake just inside our kitchen door.  She killed it!  The picture below, thankfully, wasn't taken in our house, but I'm sure they are around since we live in an old farm house.  We did catch a mouse in a trap, and we also found a mole under our stove.  I know you would be interested to know that for about two weeks we also found little white worms in our kitchen about every morning.  The mystery is that we also found them in a closed cupboard inside one specific stack of bowls.  They were never anywhere else in that cupboard.  We even moved the bowls to the other side of the shelf and we still found one in the top bowl the next morning.????  

Sequel to being burglarized

Well, tomorrow it will be three weeks since our house was broken into, and a lot has transpired in that time. After the burglary several of our national brethren expressed to us that they felt the burglar would come back again after having found money the first time. There were others who were concerned about our safety and were hoping we would move to another place.

Back in November when we moved out of town we could not find ANY other house open or in our price range except for "Arizona", the farm house where we were burglarized. The house was very isolated in the country and there was no security, but we took the house since there was no other option.

After the burglary someone told us about a house about 3 1/2 miles from coworkers in the mission. We went to look at the house and found it was much more suitable to our situation. So eight days later we moved to the new location. We are thankful that there are neighbors right beside us and we have made several attempts to get to know them.

Two days after we moved we returned to the old house to get a few things from the garage that we didn't have room for on the first day of the move. When we arrived we found out that the same night we moved the burglar returned. From what we could see it appeared there were two men this time. After trying but failing to get in the same window the man had entered previously they broke a kitchen window and entered the house. They also smashed a window in the garage/shed and rummaged through some of the things there. We thank the Lord that His timing is perfect.

Thank you for your prayers. We know God is in control and that He allows things to happen according to His divine purpose.

Burglarized

This past Thursday afternoon, March 25, about 4:30 in the afternoon our family left home to go to a missions meeting with our coworkers in the mission. When we arrived home between ten and ten thirty we found that someone had forced open a window, searched the whole house, and located and stole the money that they found. We handle finances for three different organizations so only about $275 of personal money was taken.  The rest of the money was from our local church, the school, our mission, and from a Bible fund.

We are thankful that nothing was damaged and that nothing much besides the money was taken. (The individual also took some bread and a backpack.)  We are also thankful that God in His mercy allowed it to happen when we were not at home.

We have naturally been struggling with some fear and uncertainty, but God is helping us to place our trust in Him. Since moving out here to the country we have known that this type of thing could happen as there is no security at all. We are thankful that God in His faithfulness has been speaking to us and teaching us to trust Him in the difficult times. Actually when we left the house on Thursday and on our way home in the evening we were listening to a message about "bad days". The Scripture that was read was the first chapter of Job. So right up till a few minutes before we found out about the burglary God was speaking to us about His love to us even when we don't understand what is going on. He was telling us to trust Him even in the dark times. Praise the Lord! God is so faithful!

Since that time God has been speaking to us through Isaiah 41:10. We don't need to fear. God is with us! Also concerning peace of heart and mind God has used Isaiah 26:3 and Philippians 4:6-7 to encourage and strengthen us. We understand that really this is a small thing. There are many others who are facing real tragedy in their lives.

There are several times each week when Gwen and the boys stay here at home by themselves for a number of hours. We appreciate your prayers that God will give us wisdom to make the proper decisions in the coming weeks and months. We don't want to be foolish and welcome problems. Pray that God will show us what to do in this particular situation. Thank you for your prayer support.

Life

Life is now in a busy routine of home, church, and school.  I, Steve, am the treasurer for HCA, which provides lots of headaches.  The school recently purchased a new financial program so I am struggling to figure out how to operate it.  (I'm not trained to do this kind of thing!)  They didn't tell me in college that I would be a preacher, teacher, counselor, finance manager, carpenter, maintenance man, painter, plumber, landscaper, electrician, secretary, father, husband, gardener, and run a boarding house for an unwanted dog! (Well maybe they did warn me....)  Anyway that's what we are involved in at the moment.  I'm not complaining!  I just thought I would let you know why I haven't posted much recently.....................

Too Tired....

Front Porch Panarama

Here is the view from our front porch.  We are thankful for a quiet, peaceful place to come home to after long hours of ministry. 

Produce

Our garden has done very well.  We are enjoying some sweet corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, green beans, and spinach.  Here are a couple of pictures of some of the produce.  We allowed some of the zucchini to get big and then we had stuffed zucchini.  It was really good.  I think we'll do it again.  We've also enjoyed sharing some of the produce with different friends.  We are really thankful for God's blessings.

HCA

Here is a picture of some of the school girls playing a game.  Most of these girls are first grade students.  Even though everything is new to them they seem to be doing well.  I, Steve, have been teaching at the school two days a week because of the shortage of staff at the moment. Even though it is not what I feel I came to South Africa to do, I am enjoying my time at Hope Christian Academy.