Saturday Ladies Visitation

View from the church

On Saturday, I got to finally go into the Zulu Village of Embo.

Ladies on visitation

Karen (the other missionary) and I met 3 other ladies from church.

Picture taken from along the walking trail to the Gogo's house

Our goal was to visit some of the "Gogos" from church.

(In Zulu, "gogo" means granny.  

They are the older ladies and that is what everyone calls them.)

First, we visited the lady closest to the church.

Then, we went a little farther.

Down a narrow path,

winding around the hills and valley,

passed many other houses,...

Some places were hard to walk and without sure footing.

Finally, we arrived at this Gogo's house.

At each home we:

sang a few songs in Zulu,

talked to the Gogo about her health,

she shared prayer requests,

one of the ladies shared a Bible reading & challenge,

Karen prayed, 

and then we sang this song.

(press the PLAY button)

I found out afterward that this Gogo was 102 years old!

Gogo's home (made from mudbrick)

It was such a great time visiting with the Zulu ladies

 and encouraging them in their walk with the Lord.

Many more people need to be reached.

Please pray that I will learn to speak and understand 

Zulu more, so that I can talk with the people on my own.

Embo- view from the side of the valley

Differences

There are number of things that are different here in South Africa.

For example, I cannot read my alarm clock.

When the time is 0:14, what time is it really?

It is 12:14 (after midnight).

Whoa, what about 14:25?

It is 2:25pm.

After I got that down, then I also have to do math 

to figure out what time it is in the States

 so I can do my banking, write to people, and Skype my parents and friends.

(I really do not like all this math!)

There is a different view outside my windows

and different sounds come with that view.

If you look closely, you can see the banana trees.

(No monkeys in sight yet.  Wait till those bananas ripen.)

As you can see, the view also comes along with the bars.

South Africa is not a very safe place to live.

All of the doors and windows have "burglar bars" on them.

I also had to get used to locking everything up and setting an alarm system.

What is that crawling on the wall near the ceiling?

(If you are from my area, you are probably saying, "its a stinkbug".

Its not a stink bug.)

Its a little gecko.

Without screens on the windows or screen doors,

all of the lovely creatures outside have full access to the house.

I wonder who else I might get a visit from?

Even my breakfast this morning looked different.

Do you recognize any of these name brands?

From left to right:

         Ceres is a juice brand and Litchi is my favorite flavor!

         The cheese down here comes in a hard block

 (no slices of cheese or handy grated cheese, 

               you do it all yourself), which is better for you.

        Clover is a very big Milk/ dairy Product producer.

        Flora is a type of butter/ margarine.  (If you notice, this one is made from Olive Oil).

        Albany Bread - just recently the stores here have been selling sliced bread in packs.

            It used to be that every store baked their own fresh bread without preservatives

 When you bought your loaf, there was a slicing machine at the store that you could use.  

They still have the fresh bread and slicer, 

but the pre-sliced is becoming more popular

 (I think I will buy the stuff without preservatives).

       

Things are certainly different!

Tomorrow, I go to a different church,

 with different people, who speak a different language.

There is nothing wrong with something different.

It is just DIFFERENT.

The Bible says that we are to be different from the world:

Hebrews 11:13 "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, 

but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, 

and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

1 Peter 2:11 "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, 

abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;"

We are all supposed to be different from this world and its lusts of the flesh.

I am now here in this different place

 to show the Zulu people what a difference 

it makes in being a Child of God.

I hope to make a difference because of the difference He has made in my life!

...New Every Morning, Great is Thy Faithfulness!

A week ago today. 

 Has it flown by that fast?

I can't believe it, but it is true.

Last Friday morning I woke up at 5 am with only about 4 hours of sleep.

I had to finish packing the shipping crates, the truck comes today!

Ugh, ugh, I'm tired.

Got to get this done.

An empty shipping crate (made by my dad).

After today, no more packing crates - Hooray!

(I am sure you never give yourself a pep-talk, but for me it happens quite often.  

Or sometimes it is me talking to the Lord and claiming His promises.  

Like- "Lord, You promised You would never leave me or forsake me",

 or "You said, 'Faithful is He who called you, who also will do it".  

Yes, that is what I do to get things done sometimes when I feel I cannot go on.)

"No Buddy, you cannot go!" (He was no help packing).

This was surely a day when I needed much coffee.

But alas, there was not even time to make it 

(Did you just gasp?  I know, I gasp when I wrote this.  

It must be desperate times when there is not even time for coffee) or eat anything.  

Time was of the essence.

5:30 - throw the rest of the packing stuff in the truck,

                    Packing, Packing, Packing,...

                          6am - still more stuff.

                    Packing, Packing, Packing,...

                          6:30 - more and more, "How do I get this in?"

          "Which crate should this go in?

          "Do I really need to take this?

                   Packing, Packing, Packing,...

This is what I had been doing since the last Saturday

 and this is what I did till my parents arrived at 10:30am.

Dad, William and I putting metal bands on the crates.

My dad, mom, and brother, William, came to put the lids on the crates 

and to apply the metal bands.

Finished at 12:45.

The shipping truck came at 1:30pm (1 1/2 hrs early!).

With the help of my dear friend Greg, the crates and trunks got loaded onto the shipping truck and off they went to be unloaded at some warehouse,

 loaded onto another truck, unloaded at another warehouse, 

loaded on another truck, unloaded at the docks, 

loaded into a container, loaded onto a ship,

 and sailing off toward the Port of Durban, South Africa. Whew!

Shipping truck loading the crates.

Now I could shower.

Now I could eat.

Now I could rest (till I pack my suitcases, that is).

I was interupted by the director of the camp where I live(6:20pm).

He said, "Come quick, I think Jen needs our help".

We piled in the truck and speedily went down the road.

At Jen's house, we were met by a 9 month pregnant woman.

She had her Bible in one hand, purse in the other, and two crying boys trailing behind.

With a painful voice, she said, "I need to go to the hospital NOW".  

Leaving the boys in the hands of the camp director, 

Jen and I were off to the hospital(6:25pm)

Chris and Jennifer Jackson

We got less than a quarter mile down the road, when Jen said she was ready to deliver.

The ambulance we were to meet was nowhere in sight.

Contractions came harder and faster.

The Lord prompted me to drive to the local ambulance building.

As we pulled in the EMT's came out to help.

With thier help Jen was in the ambulance.

Oh, Jen.  What a strong and godly woman!

We called upon the Lord for her strength and claimed His promises.

He was there, we could feel it.

I could tell they needed help and told them that I was a midwife

 (which in case you didn't know that, I am) 

and asked if I could have a pair of gloves.

In just a few minutes, a precious little girl was brought into this world.

What a blessing to be used of the Lord to bring a baby into this world in my home town.

I will never forget that moment!

Cutest picture of my special blessing - Jubilee Jackson

The day before I left for South Africa, I received a note at my door.

In the note was a picture of this precious gift.

On the back of the picture were these words:

"Jubilee Angel Jackson

born: June 8, 2012

6lbs 4.2 oz   and 19 inches long

Delivered by: Gina Frey"

How special, how sweet, what a gift from God!"

Jen's letter included this verse:

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, 

because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness."

Lamentations 3:22-23

What a great truth!

His mercies are new every morning,

His compassions fail not,

GREAT IS HIS FAITHFULNESS!!!

How has the Lord proven Himself faithful to you lately?

Rest in the truths that his mercies fail not, 

His compassions are new every morning,

Great is His faithfulness!!!

May I never forget His faithfulness to us on that day.

I have also learned that on each morning,

 we have no idea what God has in store for us during that new day,

 but that we just need to trust that He IS faithful!

Packing to go

Why have I not been writing more frequently?

For the last few months I have been packing in my spare time.

Because the packing piles are piling up!

Why don't I have time to update you anymore?

The day before we started yardsale my South African Visa arrived- Hooray!

Because I have had yard sale from sun-up to sun-down the last two weeks.

The yard sale crew being silly and all dressed up with yard sale items after the first week.
We were very tired!

When will I be leaving for South Africa?

My dad building the shipping crates.

 My flight to South Africa leaves on June 12th

(only 11 days left)!

This guy was trying to crawl into my shipping crates
(sorry, but I had to kill him).

 Satan, like this snake has reared his ugly head during this busy time of packing, paperwork, 

and all of the "last" events I get to do with family and friends before I leave. 

 Everyday we draw on God's power to get everything accomplished.

Shipping containers and packing stuff.

Now I have to figure out how to get all of this-

- into these!