A Hard Goodbye

Sunday morning we met for worship with the group in Outapi. This is a picture of Melba and Blake talking with 2 of the nationals. The guy to the left had talked to A a couple of nights before. He lives with a group of people and is mistreated for coming to Bible Study. He had bruises on his face. These people often go through a lot and have little to no support for being a Christian or for interest in being a Christian. It is so much easier for us to be a Christian and I think we take that for granted. We don’t want to be inconvenience by our faith and these people who are mistreated are willing to go through whatever. It is sad (for us and them!) A was talking here with a guy from the group. His Bible had our Director of Missions name on it and we discovered that he had given him this Bible on one of the earlier trips. It was great to see the people that have been changed by God using our groups. This is Erastus with his wife Lovissa. She was so sweet and from what we saw a very loving, supportive wife. It was great to see them work as a team. Erastus is one of the men who has been identified as a strong leader there and it was great for us to see his wife working alongside him. Love this shot of A with Erastus and David Lovissa and Erastus with their son. Precious GODLY family! Thank you Lord for them and their service. A preached from Phil. 2:12 about being light in the world. This theme of light in the world and living our lives like we are truly born again continued to come up. The Lord really spoke to me over and over through each time this was taught. We have to be different in order for others to notice we have “something” and want “it”. I think too often we think that we are different but if we really look at ourselves we are not different than the world.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture of the people worshipping OUR LORD! The guy to the right was our second guide and he is South African. The lady in the black had an amazing voice and brought tears to my eyes. This sweet girl took to me on Sat night and she was back on Sunday morning looking for me! You know I loved that! She melted my heart!!! I needed me some little girl lovin’ bad and the Lord sent it to me! Lovissa and I A and Erastus As in the past, the groups have a leisurely Sunday afternoon and see some of the God’s beautiful creation. It is breathtaking to me to go different places and see what God has created. It always makes me reflect on just how BIG our God is! The area we minister to in Namibia is near the Angola border. This picture shows the division of Namibia and Angola. This side of the water is Namibia and the other side is Angola. It was hazy so this is the best shot I got.

We visited Ruacana Falls. Because of the time of year it was not flowing very much but it was a beautiful area. See A?! Of course he had to go as far down as he could. I don’t freak out anymore. I am used to it and it does me no good! How I LOVE this man! We then went to a campsite and had a picnic lunch. Very relaxing and a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Melba and Richard kayaking A and Richard. Of course, A was loving this. This was the view from our picnic area. Thank you God for allowing us to enjoy your beautiful creation! A and Mr. Herman relaxing. Mr. Herman is in his 70’s and this is his second trip to Namibia. His wife Lynda is beside him. Not only did they go to Namibia but they left there and headed to Romania for another 2 weeks of missions!!! I am not sure I could have done that! Very inspiring! Our group We had the opportunity to visit a very impressive farm. One of the men who has been very active in our missions there and is a member of our church is a farmer and it is his passion to teach the people of Outapi to grow their own food. Last yr on a trip he was on he met the lady on the right in town at the market she has where she sells the produce they grow on their farm. They invited us out to visit their farm and it was amazing. They gave us some tomatoes and butternut squash that Richard cooked for us on Mon nt. Here A is talking with her about their farming methods. They have all drip irrigation. It was a neat experience. On Monday we visited one of the schools in the area. A couple of the groups before have visited before and we continue to try and get in the school and help them in any way that we can and through that minister to the staff and kids. This is a brand new facility. The man who owns the hotel where we have always stayed owns this school. It is a private school and quite expensive but the govt pays for some of the kids. This pic is with Mrs. Melba and the principal of the school. Doesn’t this sweet boy look like the PERFECT addition to the Hall family?! A and I visited with the Kindergarten class and little David had us both from the minute we walked in! Oh my word, look at that face!!! Giving the teacher supplies we brought to her The kids on the playground Our SWEET David again!!!

Mrs. Lynda with the kiddos. They are so loving! Notice how they are dressed. It is their winter but it was in the upper 70’s to 80’s during the day and they were dressed like they were freezing. A started picking them up and swinging them around and they loved it and wanted to do it over and over! A can get rough so I was begging him not to hurt any of the children!

One of my favorite pics! Mr. Herman was hanging right in there! A had to have some help so Blake got in on the action! From his face, I think he enjoyed it! A sharing the story of Samuel with the class We gave the class some dolls to have for their classroom. Every child we came into contact with everywhere we went was so well behaved. Very respectful! As I mentioned in an earlier post, it made me think that we as Americans really don’t have it as together as we think we do. We give our kids so much that they appreciate nothing and we have allowed so much in their lives that they do not know how to appreciate or be respectful. I asked the teacher about discipline and she said we usually just correct them one time and they stop. Gives you a lot to think about… Monday nt was our last night with the Bible Study group. Mrs. Melba getting with it in worship! Notice that they have worked more on the walls. What a testimony-the black walls becoming white. What a wonderful representation of the change that comes when we accept the Lord as our Saviour. What a wonderful picture of light in the world and the brightness of the white vs. the darkness of the black. They picked out the paint and I was thinking (because white is well white) they should have gone with a more taupe color but no they had it right. The white is perfect!

I was not prepared for that night. I would have never dreamed I would be so emotional. The last song we sang as we closed worship that night was Amazing Grace and wow was the Spirit ever present! In a few short days I had fallen in love with the people of the city and it felt like my heart was being ripped out to have to leave them. They need us. We need them! It felt like it feels when we leave our families, and then I thought, this is my family. Because of HIS Amazing Grace, they are family! How sweet to think that one day we will all be praising Him together in Heaven!!! I think sometimes we get so caught up in our own surroundings that we forget how large this world is and how he died for people all over this world, many who are very different from us whether that be in color, economic status, location, and the list goes on. He died for all of us and it saddens me to think that we have allowed prejudices and selfishness to prevent us from living like we are ALL PEOPLE WHO HE DIED FOR!

We came back to the hotel and Richard (our guide who we have used from the beginning of the trips) was grilling for us. It was wonderful. It is neat to spend time with Richard (who came to know Christ on the 2nd trip to Africa) and be reminded that we have the opportunity to impact everyone we come in contact with. We go to minister to the Omblantu people but God can use us all along the way and He has. A and Ell were on the first trip so they got to be with Richard before he became a Christian and so it was really neat for A to get to spend time with him now. He even asked if he could do our devotion one morning and it was very moving as he described how he had always had a good comfortable life but he always felt like something was missing and that through our teams he realized what was missing and ACCEPTED CHRIST! To me it is also a testimony of how every day we have the chance for Jesus to show. Once again, a reminder to be light and to be different!

A couple more Africa posts to come! Hope you all are enjoying!