Geise Gazette Spring 2019

Snapshots of the Children

You know the saying, "Out of sight, out of mind."  Well, here are a few snapshots of the children to help you keep us in your thoughts and prayers! :)

Priya enjoys picking flowers for Mommy! This is beside Lake Shengeza, close to where we live.

Adin was helping Daddy trim the grass with his own edge trimmer!

They are not always this loving to one another, but they are growing!

On January 24th, Antonie celebrated his 8th birthday.  How time flies!

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!  Your prayers are invaluable!

Community Outreach, Carpentry, & Mentoring

It is now summer in South Africa!  Temperatures have been getting up into the 90’s (Fahrenheit) and sweat is becoming a daily and close companion. :)  To bring you up-to-date with a few things that have been transpiring in our lives, we share the following details.

Getting Our Feet Wet in the Community

In addition to our endeavors to learn Zulu, we have had a strong desire to make contacts in the community, build relationships, and start learning more of the culture.  As a start, we visited a couple of churches in the area and even a home fellowship.  Then, on November 10th, we joined with a local church to minister to the poor and needy – including widows and orphans.  It was a very special day for us as we gave out buckets with groceries and household supplies.  We were also able to share a simple Gospel message at each home.  This day of outreach also opened our eyes more to the needs of the area to which the Lord has called us.  To give you an idea, please allow us to share just a few details regarding the life of the lady pictured below.  This lady was never married and now has no remaining family.  As a result, she has been chased from place to place, because those around here have been unwilling to support her and then go to the effort and expense of burying here when she dies.  She is at the mercy of anyone who is willing to assist her.  This dear lady cannot read, and she does not even have a birth certificate, so she cannot apply to the government for any kind of financial support.  She as well as others that we visited that day have been much on our minds and hearts… and they are just a small percentage of the needs of the greater area.

Sharing the Good News in Public Schools

The Lord is opening doors for us to be able to share the Gospel in local public schools.  The public schools are in chaos because of the lack of Christian principles of living.  Some of the principals and officials are thus open and interested in the Gospel being shared in their assemblies.  Currently, the South African school year is closing for the season, but Lord willing in January we will be able to start visiting the schools with the Good News that Jesus came to deliver them from the kingdom of darkness.  Please do pray for us, as this area is especially steeped in witchcraft.

Around the House

One of the notable things that has transpired around our little home is the addition of two new kitchen cupboards (pictured below).  It was quite a process in the bush, but thankfully, the Lord helped Phil and Antonie to build the cabinets, and Amrie - wife, mother, and cook - is so happy!  

Traveling Again

Currently, we are not in the bush… It was necessary for us to make a trip to renew Priya’s United States passport at the Consulate in Johannesburg.  We have successfully submitted the application, and now are in the process of waiting for 7-10 business days for the process to be completed.  In the mean time, we have been visiting with some family, friends, and brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord.  We also plan to do some shopping, as availability and pricing of goods is much better in the big city.

Our South African Son

You might remember a picture we placed in one of our recent formal newsletters of a young man by the name of Tokiso.  Well, Tokiso is somewhat like a son to us, in that he attended Hope Christian Academy for a number of years, and Phil specifically spent much time mentoring him.  Currently, Tokiso is attending a technical school in Bloemfontein, South Africa.  Lord willing, Tokiso is planning on joining us on our return trip to Emangusi and will be spending some time with us over the holidays.  We are looking forward to being together.  Please do pray that it will be an eternally profitable time, and that together we will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!  The prayers of God’s people are our lifeline!  Thank you as well to each of you who so lovingly draw out of your precious resources and give so that we can be here.  May God bless you!

African Animals & Our 10th Wedding Anniversary

On September 20th, we were blessed to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary!  To celebrate, as a family we visited a local game park.  It was a special day!  Following are a few of the details, and some of the nicer photos we were able to capture.

• Tembe Elephant Park is about 115.8 square miles (300.1 square kilometers) in size.  
• It boasts the largest elephant herd in South Africa. 
• It is home to some of the famed "Big 5" (Elephant, Lion, Rhinoceros, Leopard, Cape Buffalo).

This is a list of some of the more noteworthy game we saw.

• Lions (4)
• Elephants (+/-10 – including a small calf)
• Cape Buffalo (herd)
• Wildebeest
• Giraffe (4 – including a young calf)
• Red & Blue Duiker (like a little deer)
• Kudu (2)
• Warthog
• Waterbuck
• Zebra (+/-14)
• Vervet Monkeys
• Impala (many)
• Nyalas (many)

This lion was tracking some nyala and impala along with a lioness.

This lioness was at a this water hole along with a lion.  They were keeping their ears and eyes open, as there were nyala and impala in the vicinity.

This bull was together with about 8 others elephants, including a small calf.

According to our understanding, these birds are called Crowned Hornbills.

This is a little nyala calf.

Two beautiful zebra!

We saw this giraffe together with the following young calf.

We were amused by God's creativity, when He created the very unique warthog!

We were blessed to sight so many beautiful animals in the park!  Even more of a blessing are the 10 special years the Lord has given us together in marriage!

And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18

Spider Bites, Stolen Electricity, & Zulu Lessons

Much sand has been blown around here in Emangusi since our last post (other than our newsletter) – dated June 15th!  Following are a few specifics that have transpired in our lives since then, here in the warm, Northeast corner of South Africa…

Welcome to Bugville 

I (Phil) do not believe that there is anything official written down in the books regarding Emangusi having a second name – that being “Bugville;” however, after having lived in Emangusi for nearly 3 months now, Bugville as a name for this area has entered our minds a few times, and even escaped our lips once or twice. It is not just that we have seen a few bugs here and there, but rather that they have personally come around to give us quite a warm welcome. Some of the more intimate welcomes came back in July when both Amrie and I received spider bites from what we believe to be the sac spider. It was our first time to experience such a thing, and we will not soon forget it either! To make a long story short, Amrie and I both more or less moped around for a week and a half under the effects of the spider’s poison… not only did the poison deteriorate the tissue around the bite, but it also spread through our bodies, resulting in swollen lymph nodes, fevers, head and neck aches, and sore muscles. At one point, we wondered if we were actually going to ever get over the effects of the poison, but at last, we seem to have no serious repercussions. The only things that remain are some scars that bear witness of our warm welcome. I must say in addition to the spider bite, I believe I was also bitten by a “what-if-I-don’t-shake-out-my-clothes” phobia… 😅

Not long after the above episode, Amrie had another visitor… She was sitting in bed reading her Bible with a dictionary at hand. Needing a little more light, since it was the early morning hours, she reached for a head lamp sitting next to her bed on a little table. Well… that is when I came into the picture. All of a sudden, I heard her calling my name in a tone that was somewhat unfamiliar, so I quickly made my way to our room. It was then that I discovered the dictionary and the scorpion on the floor, after a flight through the air! It seems the scorpion was on the flashlight, and when Amrie placed the light on her lap, it crawled on to the dictionary. Thankfully, all that Amrie experienced was a fright… the scorpion, however, did not fair so well.

 Legal or Stolen Electricity? 

When we made plans to move to Emangusi, we did so with no thought of having the convenience of electricity. We have been greatly blessed, however, and now have electricity right in our house! I must add though that it is probably not quite what you might think when you hear of having electricity in a house. Electricity being brought to this area was a free community project, and only one free prepaid system was allowed to be installed on a property. Thus, the line was run into the Blignaut’s house, and a 20 amp box installed. The Blignauts graciously offered to let us share their electricity, so they ran a wire to our house, and installed a couple of outlets. Thus, as 2 households, we are sharing 20 amps! If you are not an electrician, this might give you a better picture… just the electric oven on our gas stove requires about 11 amps to operate. You can maybe imagine that the breaker flips at times, and then we have to scale back on how much we are doing with the electricity in our two homes. :) We are, however, so grateful to have some electricity in our home! As summer is approaching, and the temperatures are already climbing into the 80’s and 90’s Fahrenheit (upper 20’s and 30’s Celsius) in the Springtime, we are blessed to be able to use something as basic as a fan to swirl the air around in our house.

For interest sake, you might be surprised to know that there was electricity in our area prior to the community project mentioned above. It was, however, stolen electricity. There is a line running underground (most of the way) that supplies “free” electricity to this area. I say, “most of the way,” because sometimes it is uncovered, like right in front of our house, and can be dangerous if the line is damaged. The picture below was taken just up the road from where we live. It is reported that frequently children are taken to the hospital, because of having stepped on some damaged part of the cable!

Getting Started

In addition to getting settled in, with projects such as building kitchen and bedroom cabinets, we have also started out on our journey to communicate in the language of Zulu. The ministry of Jesus was quite simply people-oriented. People are the reason He came, and we go… It is with great longing that we desire to build relationships and communicate with the dear people in this area. Thus, it has been our prayer to find a good Zulu teacher, and the Lord has faithfully lead us to a Zulu gentleman who is fluent in English. In addition to doing our own studying in grammar books, we have now had two classes, and are slowly making progress. Please do pray for us that the Lord will grant us understanding in this language, so that we can simply and yet clearly the communicate the Good News.

How much of us does He have?

I would like to share the words of this prayer taken from John Wesley’s Covenant Service. If we will walk daily in the spirit of this prayer, what rest and peace it brings, as we abide in Christ!

“I am no longer my own, by Yours. 

Put me to what You will, 

Rank me with whom you will. 

Put me to doing, 

Put me to suffering. 

Let me be employed by You or laid aside for You, 

Exalted for You or brought low by You. 

Let me have all things, 

Let me have nothing. 

I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. 

And now, O glorious and blessed God, 

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 

You are mine, and I am Yours. 

So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, 

Let it be ratified in heaven. 

Amen”

Geise Gazette Summer 2018

Diesel Only!

Three weeks ago we landed in South Africa, and several notable things have transpired since then…

DIESEL ONLY!

First of all, three weeks ago I asked the fuel station attendant to pour petrol into the diesel tank of our Pajero (as I explained in our previous post)!  Please allow me to warn any of you diesel driving gentleman/ladies that a necessity for your vehicle is a strategically placed DIESEL ONLY sticker!  Coming back to our story… after we drained the tank, replaced the diesel filter, and bled the diesel system, the Pajero started up and seemed to be fine.  We went on our way – very thankful!  Fast forward about 600 miles… and the picture below comes into the story line.  With the occurrence of some very cold mornings in Ladybrand, we begin to realize our “little” petrol experience left its mark.  In this picture, our brother/brother-in-law was preparing to pull the Pajero to an acquaintance who is a diesel pump/injector specialist.  It did not take a specialist, however, to understand that there was a problem – the clouds of white smoke coming out the tail pipe and the engine sputtering was quite noticeable.  Well, long story – short, we are “stranded" in Ladybrand, while the diesel pump is rebuilt and the injectors changed… 

APPLICATION FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCE

In the mean time, we have visited several dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ along the way, and now are enjoying some time visiting with our family while we wait on the Pajero to come back to life.  One of the things that I had on my “to do” list for our time in Ladybrand, was to submit an application for South African permanent residence.  We praise the Lord that after gathering the remaining necessary documents, we were able to submit the application and supporting documents at the Visa Facilitation Service on June 8th.  It has now been forwarded to the South African Department of Home Affairs for evaluation and we pray – approval.  That process, however, takes about eight to ten months, so now we rest in the Lord’s timing and will.

BEEF BILTONG & BROTH

One of the blessings that has come our way over the last few weeks, required some work, but will be enjoyed for a long time!  When I married my dear bride almost ten years ago, I did not follow the traditional African way and pay a bride price with cows… In fact, just the opposite happened - I was blessed to marry a wife who had some cows!  When we planned to return to South Africa this time, we thought to turn one of our cattle into eatable form, but alas, we did not have any steers, only cows and young calves.  Well, just a few days after arriving in Ladybrand, our family informed us that a young heifer was unable to calve her first calf, and would have to be slaughtered.  You guessed it!  The option was given to us to take the heifer in exchange for one of our little herd.  We are very thankful!  After it was processed and the meat was in the freezer, my dear wife and mother-in-law (pictured below) cooked the bones and then froze quite a few containers of delicious and nutritious beef broth for use in the bush.  Oh, yes!  What is that word “biltong” in the above title?  Have you ever heard of beef jerky?  Well, this is the South African version, and there is some out in a little outside room busy drying right now!

Piano Player in the Making!

While I compile these few thoughts, music is ringing in my ear… played by my wife and son.  That’s right!  Just yesterday (Thursday), Antonie started with piano lessons.  He is excited and doing well.

In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being!

We are so thankful that the Lord continues to work in our hearts and lives.  He is so faithful!  I believe the greatest revelation we can receive from the Lord is the revelation of Himself.  When that happens, truth – that which corresponds with reality - becomes more clear.  We see the Lord as He really is – holy, loving, faithful, awesome, sovereign, eternal, and the list goes on and on.  We also will see the truth about ourselves… The Apostle Paul understood this when he penned the words, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18)  Oh, when we see through the eyes of faith the truth regarding ourselves and our God, what a blessing!  When we realize we have nothing in which to be proud of in ourselves, nothing on which to rely, and we are cast on Him in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), oh, the abundant life that springs forth in us!  Praise the Lord for the revelation of Himself!