Epic picture of Josh!

 

Look at the cats’ faces. 

Our Thanksgiving

What a relief! The big feast is over, and I must confess, I got nervous about cooking it this year. Gloria and I have been doing the cooking together for years, so to do it without her left was a little daunting. However, as you can see, I did have 3 assistants.

Spookie, Beulah, and Guylo watched my every move and were very eager to be taste testers. They were ready to chase every nut that fell to the floor, bat my skirt as I walked by, and endure being stepped on a lot, all for the sake of helping me. I'd rather have Gloria to help.

We are still in Vryheid, staying with Gerrie and Rika Ploos van Amstel, who are the parents of our wonderful scheduler, Lizelle. We decided to have a proper American Thanksgiving, and they were eager to have one, so we did the turkey, sweet potato casserole, pecan pies, and the gravy. It was the gravy that stressed me out! I'm not good at it, and haven't made any in years. Gloria does the gravy, and hers is delicious. I probably even lost sleep over that gravy. I considered a package mix, but that's a shame when you've got all those lovely drippings.

I'd like to say I conquered that gravy, but I caved in and yelled, "Darling!" when it wasn't thickening too well, and Paul came and added corn flour til it gelled nicely. Phew!

We had a nice time fellowshipping as we feasted, and everyone seemed to like everything. We went around telling what we are thankful for. Several people mentioned the pecan pie. No one mentioned the gravy. After that we took a long walk to settle the food.

I also don't want to forget a few other things, like the time I heard doors slamming and ran out into the hall yelling, "Joshua, I told not to slam the doors!" and it was Gerrie who can slam his own doors whenever he likes. Oops. One should really not shout at their host.

I've wondered if our GPS gets occasional bouts of demon possession. As Paul tried to get to one school, the GPS led him over dirt roads, grass trails, and through a remote Zulu village filled with staring, wondering people, but never did get him to the school. How do we punish a rebellious GPS? He did finally arrive, over 40 minutes late, and was still able to preach.

Tomorrow Paul is to preach twice more, and we have to pack, but today we're just thankful we don't have to move too much more.

Free in Vryheid

Since I last blogged, we've been home to Cape Town for about 12 days, then headed back up the N-1 to Jacaranda territory again. I snapped this purple petal trail on the way to church this morning.

We stopped overnight in a tiny town called Geriep Dam, where the main feature is (can you guess?) the dam. A sunset stroll had us captivated with the changing colors on the hills and lake.

I picked just these two out of the oodles we took, but the funny thing is the darker one was taken first, then the light changed and we got this more purpley one before the sun completely quit. It was one of those magical, memorable walks. I guess they can happen at the end of any long, tiring day, but after 9 hours or so of driving, every muscle rejoices in a chance for a good stretch.

"Psalm 90" here is just an example of why we do those long drive. We're preaching the word in season and out of season. Well, Paul does the preaching, and the rest of us do whatever we can.

One special little story, Paul preached at one local school in Vryheid, and a teacher brought a little boy up afterward in tears. His brother was home with a bad back and had missed Paul's preaching. Happily, Paul was able to slip the boy a DVD with chalk talks on it, to show his brother. The boy hid it as Paul instructed, so that he (Paul) wouldn't be stampeded by other kids wanting DVD's, and went away with eyes now made happy.

Vryheid means "freedom" and we're having lots of freedom to preach here. We plan to stay in one house (!) with one family (!) for most of the month of November. We'll even be having Thanksgiving here. I'm thankful!

Vryheid is in the province of Kwa Zulu Natal, and is about 18 hours of driving from home in Cape Town.