http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike recent pleonast.com entries by user unclespike en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=616146 I've been to Athens to see my parents and grandmother and then Bowling Green to see Philip and Becca who are totally awesome. I also got to see Chad and Laura and Emily. That was really fun. Emily almost beat us in Settlers of Catan, but then she had to leave. Tough. Becca ended up winning. I didn't do very well, but it was my first time to play. Today, I traveled to Chicago where I am staying with the Schaufels, a really cool family I met when they were in Bowling Green. I should see Carolyn tomorrow when I give my report at Bridgeview. Have a great night! 2009-01-06 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=612118 After a nice stay in Atlanta with Jim and Alyssa Statham, where I got to see some old friends and meet some new ones, I am now in Birmingham with Nathan and Bekah. We all ate at Andy and Meg's tonight which I enjoyed. I get to be at Edwards Lake Wednesday and I'm excited about that. Anyway I have to go eat some cookie-dough ice cream. Have a great night. 2008-12-23 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=610198 Lord willing, I'm leaving Eshowe in about 8 1/2 hours. I won't fly out of Durban until 3pm, but Brother Craig wants to get there early for his 2pm flight to make sure everything goes smoothly. Then we have to wait in Jo'burg until 7pm to fly out of there for America. I think I'm finished packing. I feel like I'm forgetting something important, but I think as long as I have my passports, ticket receipts, and money I should be fine. Pray for a safe trip for us! I hope I get to see many of you soon. 2008-12-16 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=609387 Do I know anyone in the Atlanta area (I'll be in North Forsyth with Jim and Alyssa Statham) who won't be working Friday or Saturday, December 19,20 and has their own transportation and want's to visit between 7am and 7pm (for both days)? I may still be recovering from jet lag, but when I came over, I was only down one day, so I don't expect it to be that bad. I learned from the doctor yesterday that I have tick bite "fever". It's not that bad, it's only that my legs hurt late in the day. I'm taking pills for it. This was my first time back to the doctor since I was 17. At least it wasn't anything serious. I have some rashes and I'm not sure if it's from the tick bite or the medication. Our meeting is going well with Ken Craig. Robin Bouer is here from Cape Town and I'm enjoying him. We have brethren from all over. 5 preachers from Zimbabwe are here. I have an invitation to go preach there, but I doubt I can do that next year. Yesterday, many of our Indian brethre... 2008-12-14 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=608136 He's here safely and is hopefully sleeping now, as I should be soon. Good night. 2008-12-10 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=606680 Three ladies were baptized (13, 17, and maybe early 30s). With preaching against Shembe (who claims to be the Zulu equivalent of Jesus) and against drunkenness, smoking dagga (marijuana), and fornication, there were a good number of people who were not happy with us. Last night, the young men caused a big disturbance by yelling loudly outside the tent. At the end of it, I had to take take one young man outside because he was acting like he was planning to do something and would not stand still where I told him to. He didn't like that and a fight almost broke out, but it didn't and we were able to get the tent down and leave without problem. (Mzwandile thinks that he was afraid to hit me because I'm white.) The police escorted us to the tar road and a few miles down that road to see that we left safely. That was nice. We're hoping to go back soon after I return from America because we have seen some things we need to study with the Christians about. It was enjoyable overall and ... 2008-12-06 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=599979 Grandpa went to White River with Zipho this weekend. Grandma had to stay with the dog. I went to Flagstaff on Saturday. This was my first time going by myself. I couldn't get anyone to go with me, so I phone Phumzile who is one of the Christian men at Flagstaff to see if he would be able to interpret for me and he said he would. Saturday night, Zamile and Phumzile came to the house where I stay and brought a young man with them. He wanted to be baptized. Mzwandile had talked with him before but the young man had not come back to church for a couple of weeks. I talked to him about his responsibilities as a Christian and how life was just going to get harder for him. He still wanted to be baptized so we drove down to a watering hole and Phumzile baptized him. Kalipha is Amanda's cousin who cooks for me when I am there and she is also a Christian. Two of her friends were at church last week when Mzwandile was there and they came again today. They wanted to be baptized (they ha... 2008-11-16 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=598197 Scott Adams, the cartoonist for Dilbert, has a blog entry that I thought was really great. Keep in mind that he is an atheist, but he's a pretty nice one and highly intelligent. More importantly, he's really funny. Anyway, all is well here. Have a great day. 2008-11-11 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=592848 Yesterday, Mzwandile had his visa application rejected again. We weren't so disappointed this time since we half-expected it. It could very well be that God doesn't want him leaving Amanda for a month toward the end of her pregnancy, and I think Mzwandile is kind of happy that he won't be doing that. So, now I have to schedule my three months. I only have one place scheduled for me to speak so far, so I'd better get busy. Yesterday, Grandpa bought a new copier/printer/scanner/fax machine since his old copier is dying. I got it set up on the network and it's pretty nice. It came with some fairly good OCR software that Grandpa is learning to use now (it works a little differently from the OCR software he had before). While I was waiting on Mzwandile at the US Consulate yesterday, I walked around and found a bookstore that had the new nicely bound Zulu Bibles. I got two of them to give away, a hard-back Zulu Bible for myself since mine has disappeared and a hard-back large print ... 2008-10-29 http://www.pleonast.com/user/unclespike?l=5&entryID=590808 Zipho passed his driver's test today. That's scary. My license is finally ready for me to pick up. It's been raining too much yesterday and today for me to be motivated to go to Melmoth to get it. Hopefully tomorrow, it will be clearer. I'll probably be going to a funeral on Saturday. Sipho Zuma's brother-in-law just died (probably from AIDS). He was the last of the men in his family. Those left are only the two women who are Christians and one other sister. Their older brother was murdered a couple of years ago. It's pretty sad. Politics: I have been seeing many things saying that Christians must not vote for Obama because he is pro-abortion, etc. For some reason, they never mention that McCain is a gambler, uses foul language, etc. If a Christian should not vote for Obama because he stands for immoral things, then a Christian should not vote for McCain either. Politicians are evil people, almost without exception. That's one reason I don't care to vote. Why should I ca... 2008-10-23