Last Day on the Continent

Dear Friends & Family,

Well five months ago tomorrow I arrived here in Africa and my last day here has come. I have had a very good time here in South Africa over the last 9 days and it feels like I should stay longer, but I must go for now.

Sunday I enjoyed meeting with Jean and Jackie’s church. There are about 600 people that are a part of it. We heard a great message on “The Favour of the Lord.” What it means to have the favour of the Lord on our lives. This message was mainly taken from the story of Joseph’s life in Egypt. It says several times that Joseph found the favour of the Lord. In this message there was a contrast made between grace and favour. They are quite similar but grace is given freely to everyone but favour is earned. As we enjoy the Lord more and draw into a closer relationship with Him we experience His favour on our lives. We will see situations worked out that would have turned out totally different had we not had the favour of the Lord.

Tuesday morning I went with Jean to the community center in here neighbourhood that the church rents and uses every week to reach people in that area. Most of the people that are a part of the church has been reach through this outreach. They have seen how important it is to go and meet people on their own turf. We enjoyed a time of prayer and worship and then one of the pastors spoke. After the meeting we spent quite sometime praying and seeing people released from demon possession. You would not believe the amount of people that are possessed here. They start dabbling in occult stuff, going to witch doctors and also going to people that will call up the spirits of their dead relatives so that they can talk with them, as Saul did with Samuel. This stuff is very real and when people get into it they open themselves up to so much more then they realize. We praise the Lord that greater is he that is in use then he that is in the World. People are being set free and their lives are being transformed. Friday evening there was another family of new believers that had several of the Christians come to their place and help as they removed all the lamps and gods and altars from their homes inside and outside. People are bringing their gods with them when they come to meet with the church and giving them up to be burned because they have been set free and know that Jesus is Lord and there is none other.

Wednesday I spent most of the day with Pastor Chris his wife JR and their two sons David 21and Jona 18. I was helping David put cupboards in the kitchen in his flat (apartment). He has been working on them for quite sometime and his uncle was there as well so we were able to get them mostly put together for him. Then they took me out for supper at the biggest mall in South Africa. It was very nice. We rode go carts as well and then went and watched Ice Age 3. I had such a great time with them; they are a very nice family.

Jona, Pastor Chris, Me, JR and David

Gateway Mall South Africa's Biggest

On Wednesday Jackie took me to the mall as well and we bought a triple decker pizza. He only ate 3 pieces and this is me trying to manage the other 5 but really it was 15 because they were three high. Going to have to go on a diet.

The four ladies went first.We get to wear these cool hat things before we put the helmets on.

Jona and Pastor Chris

That's me.

I am driving the first go cart.

Thursday afternoon I went back over to their house and David took me to Crocodile Creek. They have thousands of crocodiles they also have snakes and a few other animals.

This was probably the largest one there.

The crocs just laying around. They are Hibernating this time of the year.

Who needs personal space.

I hope you two are married.

So what do they do with all of these crocs cause there were at least eight pens like this?

We think they butcher a lot of the crocs for meat and then sell the leather and the heads. They sell croc steaks and burgers there but I didn't get to try any.

Cotton Top Tamarin

We called it a rasta monkey.

I think this was a boa, but I might be wrong.

This cobra was spitting venom at us but thankfully there was glass between us.

Pythons aren't venomous, but they still have a pretty good bite.

A souvenir from Crocodile Creek.

Having a small bonfire Thursday night before I left.

Me, Jona holding the croc skull, Kari and David

I flew out of Durban this morning just before 8am and now I am sitting in Johannesburg for 10 hours while I wait for my flight to London. I have 16 hours of flying and 15 hours of transit time ahead of me before I am back. Can’t wait now looking forward to seeing many of you.

I hope you Canadians had a very good Independence day on the 1^st. I actually forgot about it till my sister sent me an e card. I kind of loose track of what is going on, on that side of the world. Also an early Happy Independence day to all of you south of our boarder.

The dogs and their houses.

Jean and Jackie's dogs, Michka and Junior

These are the dog houses Jackie and I made. Junior loves being in his but Michka wasn't so sure about it. She wanted to go in with Junior.