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 had even brought there clothes to change into). I tried to talk them out of it (not really, but I was explaining about how life was not easy for a Christian, baptism doesn't take away temptation and all of that). They still wanted to be baptized so Zamile did that. He said the water wasn't too cold, but the girls seemed to think otherwise. Anyway it didn't keep them from obedience.
As I was leaving Flagstaff, I received a phone call from Azaria in New Castle telling me that he had just baptized a young lady. So it was a good day here.
YAY:) that sounds like a wonderful weekend:) question for you-i have been asking diffrent preacher friends what they thought of this-i've been thinking about teaching english in a foreign country for the purpose of going somewhere that i could live and be a help to hte church. so I woul dbe slef supported, but be able to spend a lot of time with members, etc. do you think something like that would be helpful to a church in a foreign area? or not becasue i'm not a man and therefore can't preach. your thoughts?
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.
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 ESV. I have a couple of those I want to give to some preachers here. It was a good time to buy since the Rand is gaining strength against the dollar again, but the dollar is still strong. Since I used my check-card from my US bank account, I benefit from the exchange rate. Anyway, Mzwandile got one of the nice Zulu Bibles since his is falling apart and Brother Langa got the other one. They seem pretty happy with them.
Are you looking for places to speak, then? Just preaching in general or telling about your experiences there, or a combination of the two? I could ask and see if there would be interest here at the congregation I attend. (I know I'd be interested!) Hope you will make a stop up here anyway, though! We'd very much like to see you.
:) we'd love to have you up this way; are you going to be visiting the western PA church? And ok, I'll be glad because of Amanda's pregnancy that he is not coming, but I'm still a bit sorry. Maybe next time.
Evan says, "Thank you for saying that!" He got to go to Springville businesses dressed up casually as a fireman. That's why we weren't home. But thanks for trying!
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 care which evil man or woman is running the country? Does it really make any difference to anyone's soul?
My responsibility is to pray for them and obey them in whatever is right, no matter if I like them or not. I'm not going to change my life because of who becomes President - will you?
I've seen some Christians being real jerks over politics recently, and I hate it. Politics mustn't change us - our lives are based on something much greater.
I doubt I will vote either, well except for the vote I cast with my Heavenly Father. But when I mention to some of my brethren that I probably will not vote I am looked at like I have two heads. The man that God wants in office will get there whether I vote or not.
and they didn't give me a driver's license. What caused them to do such an outrageous thing? I passed. But their system is down so they can't issue the license until it's back up, maybe in a couple of days. But I do have a pink slip saying that I passed the test.
We are planning to reapply for Mzwandile's visa. We will have the churches where he plans to speak send a letter inviting him. That was Jim's idea, and I think it's a good one. I should also make an official letter stating that I am sponsoring him, although that may not help any. The biggest help would probably be getting a different interviewer.
Ok we will pray for a different interviewer as part of the prayer plans. But "pink slip" for a driver's license? Somehow that sounds like you got fired from driving!!!
Sounds a bit frustrating for you two right now. And my pink slip was issued back in FC days... I do pray you find better reception when the next interview comes up for Mz.
Don't know much, and that a fact. Each to his own in how they try to help. I was concerned they were planning to send seeds - thought that was illegal, at least for SA?
Joel, when we take up food it includes especially cooking oil, dry beans, soya, whatever they are requesting/lack besides mealiemeal. What they take up from here is everything but the kitchen sink!
