For all the posts that don't get written

This is a tribute to all the random things that don't get written about.  To all the things that don’t usually or often make it in a blog, all the things that are part of any missionary's life but kept "secret".  At least they aren't talked about in a mission blog, or not a whole blog of those things.  

 
Because mission blogs are supposed to be spiritual, full of stories of people’s lives being changed and of how God is using the missionary in question to do His work.  This folks is what a good mission blog is about.  

I’ve never been one to follow the rules.

 

What you get with me is randomness and truth.  Spoiler alert: Our lives aren’t always filled with ministry work, especially over the holidays.  *gasp*  I said it. 

As we take time to focus on Jesus and let Him fill us so we can keep on going, we don’t have as many stories to report back on!!!  So bear with us as we are people too ;)

We like wordly things too

 

Africans love bling + I love bling = I love Africans.  Except I love Africans for so much more than just for their bling, and their style, and their swag.  But for me those things make it even easier!!! Am I super duper shallow?  Nah!  I just love shallow stuff ;)  And I love having conversations about these very shallow things.

My co-workers love love love the bling as much as I do :)

I love making good food 

 

One of the hardest thing for me moving to SA was that I had to learn again how to make good food with the ingredients here.  I spent a good part of our first month crying over the food I was making.  I don't know why, but it was a big deal for me and I really felt like I was failing my family.  With a limited food budget (other missionaries are nodding their heads), it can be so frustrating.  But once in a while I'll splurge a little and come up with something like this.

Stuffed brie chicken breasts

And then all is right in the world again.  Perhaps I should have gone to cooking school, huh?

We pack food in our suitcases 

 

Coming back to SA this time I had at least one suitcase packed with food.  Especially with Christmas right around the corner, I knew I wanted to be ready to make things from home, deserts that I've grown up with.  This is all part of traditions I want to pass down to my kids, and it's hard to do when abroad.  But I was ready people, and I ended making 7 recipes from my maman this Christmas.  GLORIOUS.

Peanut butter chocolate covered balls

I've also had to become quite organized, which goes against my "free-spirited-ness"!!!  But with hosting lots of people over the holidays, and juggling a busy homeschooling schedule, I carved out a few baking extravaganza days where I traumatized my kitchen for a few hours.  My friend Claudia from Malawi joined me on some of those days in order to learn to cook and bake from "the royal master".  Her words, not mine.  She claims I need a cooking show.

Cooking extravaganza chiiiiiiiiiiiiicken

Homeschooling is not natural for all missionaries

 

Wait, aren't all missionaries supposed to love homeschooling and pretty much have been born this way?  EEEEEEeeeeeeeer, NO.

Homeschooling isn't for the faint of heart.  I thank the Lord every day for His strength as I learn more and more about my kids and teaching.

Fact: Boys do not sit still for their mom

And I thank the Lord every day that I get to be my boy's teacher.  I never pictured myself homeschooling.  I'm really not the organized type and I don't have much patience.  So no, I never thought I would be homeschooling.  But situations change, and sometimes life surprises you in the strangest ways.

So I get to be my boy's teacher.  And I get to teach them about Jesus.  Like all the time.  And I get to shape their hearts and pray with them as we work and discover challenges.

Is it easy?  No.  It's the most challenging thing I've ever done, besides being a mom!  This is like being a mom AND a teacher.  Yes, I welcome prayers in this area.

Homeschool work for the day.  Ready, set, go.

Sometimes we even have fun

 

Well folks, sometimes we like to have fun too.  Did you know that missionaries have fun?  Wait what.  Yes we do!!!  Life is short, ministry is stressful.  Did you think all we did was ministry?  Yikes, sorry to burst your bubble. 

So yes, sometimes we have fun, BUT we feel guilty.  And then we feel like we can't talk about it, or post if on facebook (for us social media people) or Instagram (for the MAC lovers...).  And we feel like our supporters will judge us if they knew (but like, they know right?!?).  And we pretend like all we do is Jesus-stuff.  Which is indeed a huge part of what we do.  But the real stuff that doesn't get written about is that we also have fun.  And I'm big on fun (yo, have you met me?).

Firefighting fun

We do kids outings, we go on dates and we hang out with people for pure social purposes, without a ministry agenda.  *gasp*  We iz humans too.

We hang out as a family, and sometimes do nothing at all except watch cars drive by.

We hang out with our significant others.

We like to get stuff in the mail

 

We are perhaps shallow (again), when it comes to getting stuff from home in the mail.  But the truth is, we love getting stuff.  Anything and everything.  Food, pretty things, nice things, ... we love it all.  So don't stress about it.  If you're thinking "would they like this?", the answer is YES.  And if we don't, we have many missionary friends who will like it.

Jelly Beans from Pastor Chris

We get homesick

 

Sometimes we get homesick, and it hurts, and we wish we could go home.  It doesn't take away from the fact that we are so incredibly blessed to be doing what we are doing, but we feel like if we talked to supporters about it, they would think that we are ungrateful.  And one thing we are not, is ungrateful.

Skyping with my family

Our country is beautiful and we ain't sorry

 

Our assignment country, South Africa, is ridiculously gorgeous.  Sometimes we hesitate to tell you, because we don't want you to think that it's the reason for our being here.  It's so pretty, that sometimes we don't post the pictures so you don't get the wrong idea.

South Africa is beautiful

So you get the picture now do you?  Missionaries live a double life, and it's not easy, but it's a life we are told to live and expected to live.  I'm just figuring it out as I go, and I try to be as real with you all as I know how!

Thanks for reading this crazy blog.  CHEERS.

Before we break for the holidays

Coming back to SA and jumping back in has been busy busy!  And we were so ready for Christmas break.  

Staff Celebration 

 

But before we took some much deserved holidays, we had wonderful times of get together and celebration with out staff.

We drove to a little strawberry farm, played some games, and ate a LOT of meat.  Africans love their meat, so they loved this celebration.  It was so nice to be all together celebrating Jesus coming to earth.  We have grown to love our staff so much, and I'm always amazed of how easy it was for us to become part of this big Hope Africa Collective family.  These people are just incredible.

Christmas holidays means a lot of people go away.  Including our co-workers and staff.

So Mike and I looked after our friends and co-worker's 2 boys while they packed and got ready to fly to Australia.

We did some tree climbing and possibly wall climbing...

And then I decided we should make pizzas and bake cookies...

And with 4 little boys it was a bit chaos but loads of fun

Church Mobilization Update

 

While back in Canada, Mike made this connection with a great organization and has been looking into using their material for Church Mobilization.  So we were so blessed when Pastor Amos, the local representative here, said he would like to come meet us in South Africa!  He traveled all the way from Zambia and was with us for 3 days.

If he was expecting a South African experience, he got a Canadian experience!  We fed him French toasts, burgers and pizza.  I don't think he minded though.

The kids really liked him too.  He has 7 children back in Zambia, so he is used to it.

Raphael using his Dr. things to see if Mr. Amos is sick

We look forward to seeing what God will do with this new relationship, and continue to look for pastors to partner with us in Church mobilization.

South Africa speedz "tshomi"

8 days in South Africa are just not like 8 days in Canada.

It's a whole different SPEED.

But first, what a HUGE difference coming to South Africa is this time compared to 18 months ago.  Leaving wasn't easy, but now when we arrived, we actually know the person meeting us (Terry our director).  He greeted us with big hugs, not knowing we were covered in vomit (air sickness is a thing, apparently).  Bless his heart.  Or "shame" as they say in South Africa (even when it's not shameful at all.  Go figure).

Vincent "sleeping" on airport chairs

Even thought we were UBBER jet lagged and exhausted, this felt really different.  We knew the roads that we are going to travel on, and we moved back into our house!  In many small ways we have adopted and gotten used to the South African way of life.  Or at least it feels familiar, and that's an awesome feeling.

Jet lag is for real

And it wouldn't a welcome to South Africa without a few simple things going wrong.

Car dead...  Getting it revived by merciful friend Peter

But it doesn’t take long for us to realize that even though we are more familiar now with our surroundings than we used to be, there is still much for us to learn, especially about life in the townships.

We landed here on Thursday the 13^th, and spent the next few days recovering from I don't know...  a 2-day-sleep-deprivation-marathon.  The following Monday, Mike went back to work with ridiculously red blood-shot-eyes and started a new Faith Discovery Group.  I don't know if anyone noticed how "terrible" he looked (he is always handsome, I'm just kidding).

He writes:

"What a huge privilege to come back to SA and join a new Faith Discovery Group class. I love being able to present the good news of Jesus and seeing how God uses these times to build His kingdom.  Sometimes this is difficult, as we saw in our faith discovery group class last week. 

There was one student the same age as me (33), and she came to me to ask if she could leave early one day.  I asked her what she needed to go and do, and she tells me that she had to go to the hospital because her daughter had just had a miscarriage.  My heart broke for her, and we spent time as a class praying for her daughter during this difficult time of loss.

Later I couldn’t help but think how grown up many people have to become in the townships.  She is the same age as me, and yet she is already a grandmother!  She is the same age as me and she needs to already be learning and adjusting to a new role/responsibility in life that many people in Canada wouldn’t think at all about until they are much further along in life.  She is coming to study computers so that she can hopefully get a job, so that she is able to take care of her family.  I am also really encouraged by how her fellow classmates are caring for her at this time.

Each day of Faith Discovery Group, as we went through the life and teachings of Christ, it was awesome to see how God was moving and preparing hearts.  On Friday we spent a lot of time talking about John 3, and what it means to be born again.  Praise the Lord 3 out of our 14 students stepped forward to follow Jesus for the first time.

Then at our first FDG follow up group last Wednesday, 2 more of the 14 also decided to repent of their sins and turn to Christ!  I don’t think I will ever get used to ministry here in South Africa, my expectations are sadly too low of God.  So I pray for more faith, I pray for faith to believe that God really can change many, that he can the townships, that he can change the city, and that he can change the country of South Africa.  As Jesus said in Luke 18, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”  I need so much more faith about what God wants to do; his plans are just so much bigger than I could ever dream.  How amazing it is to serve Jesus! 

Challenges and blessings seem to happen much faster here than at home, in just the first 8 days since being back here in SA, we have this huge joy and privilege in ministry, and the heartache of a hurting family.

Please continue to pray for us as we share the gospel and minister to the Xhosa people in Cape Town."