Worship services are much like ours. Praise team - words on screen. Nice building - two flats together rented from a muslim who lives in London and knows it is being used for Baptist church. Pastor's family lives upstairs and some church meetings held there too. Pastor and wife came 3 months ago from South Africa on occupational visa for 3 months. Hoped to get a permanent occupation vise because they are counselors but they were refused for vairous reasons but mainly because they are from South Africa. Hindus are in the majority politically and are feeling threatened by Christians converting Hindus. Christians are a small majority behind Hindus, Muslims, Catholic but when Hindus convert to Christianity they lose political base. So the pastor and wife had to leave Saturday at 1:00 (during the Lay Renewal weekend!) because their appeals were denied. I think they will now try to get a religious visa good for one year but has to be renewed every year which they were hoping to avoid with the occupational visa. God has a plan!!
Women met and it was amazing that there was so much ministry going on by different women that the other women in the church were unaware of. Prison, children, bookstore. They need to get sood discussion and notices of different ministries so other women can get involved. They have good outreach - they need some "inreach" where the ladies can gather and talk, get to know one another, pray for one another and encourage each other. Prayerfully God has put that desire in one or more hearts.
I'm sure Frank will keep us informed of what happens in the churches after these weekends.
Marc and Susannah our hosts come to America once a year. Susannah is American from Maryland. Hopefully we can contact them while they arein America and keep up with what's going on in their lives, the church and their school.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
food
obioiusly different here. On island lots of rice with various sauces. Don't eat a whole lot because it is so hot. Brianni (sp) seems to be rice, spices, chicken and potato. We had meat and rice once. Pasta with a tomato corned beef sauce - actually pretty good. We went to the store to buy cereal. To the open air market for fruit and makings for salad. (I did find two t-shirts at one market and we are probably going to another one or two before we leave) Marilyn, local worker, will be at the church I am going to next week. We talked about tea and she said she would take us shopping during our free time nex Saturday. What woman turns down shopping? We did have some sandwiches and pound cake last night. They drink a lot of tea - hot even when weather is hot. But if you like hot tea you have to drink in hot weather! LOL We drink lots of bottled water. Water OK for brushing teeth but not for drinking. That's about our experience so far with food.
They don't want us to leave
We were scheduled to leave at 1:00 or 1:30 Sunday. Marc, our host, had invited us to take a ride on their boat. They have started a Christian school so we toured it and didn't have enough time for the ride. They asked about Sunday afternoon and when we told them when were leaving, they said "Why so early?" Susannah said they have a van and driver that could take us to Blue Bay later. Betty and Pete are staying next door with Marc's mother and are included in this offer. We told her she would have to talk to Frank, our leader, and I thought "Good Luck!" because he runs a tight ship. I saw them talking together tonight but later she told me they had arranged a later time to leave - 3:00. The interesting part is - the whole team is to have dinner at Marc's mother's home after church so are we ALL staying and leaving in the van at 3:00 or is the rest of the team leaving at 1:00 and WE are staying until 3:00. The trick is that the other teams will be waiting to be picked up. BNC 1:00-Goodlands 1:30 and Curepipe 3:00. If we ALL leave at 3:00 that means Curepipe will not be picked up until 5:00 (could be sooner because it is Sunday and traffic will be lighter than Friday's traffic. We'll see. Next installment won't come for a while. Earliest - next weekend. Latest. April 4.
I must say I am amazed at how close we have come to these Brothers and Sisters in Christ in just 24 hours or so!! They have become our friends. We have shared with them, eaten with them and grown to care for them. What a bond we have in the Body of Christ. What a great thing it will be in Heaven when we never have to say Goodbye again!!
I must say I am amazed at how close we have come to these Brothers and Sisters in Christ in just 24 hours or so!! They have become our friends. We have shared with them, eaten with them and grown to care for them. What a bond we have in the Body of Christ. What a great thing it will be in Heaven when we never have to say Goodbye again!!
Suffering for the Lord in Mautirius
Right now I am sitting in our room looking out on the Indian Ocean. I wish I could say I was sitting on the veranda but I can't see the screen out there. :-) We are staying this weekend in a beautiful home right on the beach. And we have A/C at night! Praise the Lord. This is a tropical island, i.e. hot and humid. We only brought what we needed for the weekend so I don't have my connection to upload pictures but you can imagine the most beautiful view of the ocean with tropical breezes blowing.
Now Blue Bay is a different story. No A/C. bu t still hot and did I mention it is humid? At night there is a big fan blowing with open windows which keeps up actually very comfortable at night. In the daytime, we sweat and sweat and sweat some more. And who really wants to eat in hot weather. I'm hoping to drop a few pounds albeit involuntarily.
The 20 of us are from America and South Africa. It has been amazing to get to know these wonderful people who love the Lord and have such wonderful testimonies. We talk and talk and talk - a lot of time while basking in the cool waters on the beach. I will tell you the we do have flush toilets (one on each floor) and two showers that do the job but after 10 minutes you feel as if you need another one.
You would not make money opening a cosmetic store here - makeup does not last. So obvioiusly I am in my element! And clothing is loose and comfortable. Sandals is the shoewear of the day.
OK, we flew to Atlanta then to Johannesburg. Spent two days in Joburg. Flew to Mauritius on Tuesday. Wed-Friday morning, we spent getting to know one another and getting used to the climate although I'm not sure you can really do that.
Friday we left at 1:00. 20 people in a rented van WITH luggage. Can you say tight fit. (Did I mention it was also hot and humid?) While we were moving it was tolerable. We dropped off the first team in Curepipe (cure-peep), the second group in Goodlands and we came to the Baptist Church of the North. Sunday afternoon we will reverse the process and go back to Blue Bay (boo!) :-) I could live here! :-)
The people here are very gracious. We have had three meeting of Lay Renewal. Friday evening, Saturday morning coffee and women's/men's meetings after lunch. We had a free afternoon but our hosts have started a Christian school about 3 years ago which started with one child (their own) and has now grown to 60 children - grades 1-3. Our speaker is an architect who designs schools. What a coincidence!! LOL Does God direct our steps or what? So we took a tour of the school.
When we came back to the house, I turned on the netbook intending to catch up on my notes but found the wireless connection so of course, I would post instead. :-)
God is doing such a work here in this church and I pray the same is happening in the other churches. I know the bus will be a-buzz on the way back to B lue Bay as everyone wants to share about what God did in their church. Fortunately the BNC speaks English so we do not have to have an interpreter.
We will have three different teams in three different churches next week and we may have to have interpreters there. That will be an entirely new experience. I'm glad God is breaking us in easily this week.
The people are very open to share their needs, their testimonies, their concerns. I know God is going to bless this wonderful people.
I could probably say more and perhaps I will post again tonight or tomorrow. They keep us pretty busy. I only have about 20 minutes before we are picked up for the evening meal and tonight's session.
Please continue to remember us in prayer that we remain healthy and without accident. Also that God will continue to bless us and the people here. There is soooo much more to say but it will have to wait. Besides, you're probably tired of reading.
Now Blue Bay is a different story. No A/C. bu t still hot and did I mention it is humid? At night there is a big fan blowing with open windows which keeps up actually very comfortable at night. In the daytime, we sweat and sweat and sweat some more. And who really wants to eat in hot weather. I'm hoping to drop a few pounds albeit involuntarily.
The 20 of us are from America and South Africa. It has been amazing to get to know these wonderful people who love the Lord and have such wonderful testimonies. We talk and talk and talk - a lot of time while basking in the cool waters on the beach. I will tell you the we do have flush toilets (one on each floor) and two showers that do the job but after 10 minutes you feel as if you need another one.
You would not make money opening a cosmetic store here - makeup does not last. So obvioiusly I am in my element! And clothing is loose and comfortable. Sandals is the shoewear of the day.
OK, we flew to Atlanta then to Johannesburg. Spent two days in Joburg. Flew to Mauritius on Tuesday. Wed-Friday morning, we spent getting to know one another and getting used to the climate although I'm not sure you can really do that.
Friday we left at 1:00. 20 people in a rented van WITH luggage. Can you say tight fit. (Did I mention it was also hot and humid?) While we were moving it was tolerable. We dropped off the first team in Curepipe (cure-peep), the second group in Goodlands and we came to the Baptist Church of the North. Sunday afternoon we will reverse the process and go back to Blue Bay (boo!) :-) I could live here! :-)
The people here are very gracious. We have had three meeting of Lay Renewal. Friday evening, Saturday morning coffee and women's/men's meetings after lunch. We had a free afternoon but our hosts have started a Christian school about 3 years ago which started with one child (their own) and has now grown to 60 children - grades 1-3. Our speaker is an architect who designs schools. What a coincidence!! LOL Does God direct our steps or what? So we took a tour of the school.
When we came back to the house, I turned on the netbook intending to catch up on my notes but found the wireless connection so of course, I would post instead. :-)
God is doing such a work here in this church and I pray the same is happening in the other churches. I know the bus will be a-buzz on the way back to B lue Bay as everyone wants to share about what God did in their church. Fortunately the BNC speaks English so we do not have to have an interpreter.
We will have three different teams in three different churches next week and we may have to have interpreters there. That will be an entirely new experience. I'm glad God is breaking us in easily this week.
The people are very open to share their needs, their testimonies, their concerns. I know God is going to bless this wonderful people.
I could probably say more and perhaps I will post again tonight or tomorrow. They keep us pretty busy. I only have about 20 minutes before we are picked up for the evening meal and tonight's session.
Please continue to remember us in prayer that we remain healthy and without accident. Also that God will continue to bless us and the people here. There is soooo much more to say but it will have to wait. Besides, you're probably tired of reading.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Safe and Sound in Joburg
We arrived safe and sound in Joburg. Having a great time visiting with Frank and Joy (our hosts) Had a great night's sleep and are just about acclimated to the change. We are 7 hours ahead of you and on Mauritius will be 9 hours ahead. We are having a bbq at noon and meeting the other Americans on the team. We met George last night who is a converted Muslim. Had a great conversation last night at dinner with him. We leave for Mauritius tomorrow and will be there until April 4. Please continue to pray for our teams, for the churches and their people. I am hopeful I will have some type of internet access (either wireless of Internet Cafe) where I can post from there. We will face some spiritual warfare there so we cover your prayers. It was raining last night but is a beautiful sunny, warm day here today.
Have to mention that we were about 30 min late taking off from Atlanta because they had to check every non-South African passport which took forever. Then getting on the plane they scanned our passport and ticket and mine set off the alarm. Took a few minutes to get it straightened out but all was well. We both had aisle seats but there was an empty seat next to Ben and the woman at the window seat wanted an aisle seat so we switched and I was able to stretch out more and even curl up to sleep. God is good!!!
Have to mention that we were about 30 min late taking off from Atlanta because they had to check every non-South African passport which took forever. Then getting on the plane they scanned our passport and ticket and mine set off the alarm. Took a few minutes to get it straightened out but all was well. We both had aisle seats but there was an empty seat next to Ben and the woman at the window seat wanted an aisle seat so we switched and I was able to stretch out more and even curl up to sleep. God is good!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
