Crazy month

If anyone is still out there paying attention...sorry it has been so infrequent that we've posted anything! Just hasn't been time.

Following our last post in early April, we had a group of P2P (Prepared to Preach) volunteers here from UK for almost 3 weeks. There were 16, divided into 2 teams. We worked primarily with one of the teams. During the first week, Jane and the team worked each day on a Holiday Club (what we would call a Vacation Bible School in the States) in Lamontville. The other team was doing the same in Mariannhill. Classes, crafts, games, lunch, soccer...each day was full! Meanwhile, Paul took one volunteer from each team into the BEC each day.

The pix are of the 2 teams at the wrap-up hosted by Tim Genders; a couple people had to leave early so one team looks smaller. By the way, for those in the Bloomington & Champaign ecclesias - one of the volunteers was Luke Bamford, whom many will remember from the year he lived in Central Illinois.

Then came a long holiday weekend over Easter, and the Durban area ecclesias hosted their annual fraternal gathering. Paul did 3 adult classes during breakout periods. The P2P teams taught the children. Over that weekend, there were 12 people from Candu and Johannesburg staying at the Durban hall, downstairs from us, and we helped out with transporting them to & from the gathering. (Too many people to hold it at the hall - they rented a private school.)

After the fraternal the P2P teams hit the road for a few days, one team visiting Margate and the other traveling down to Candu, which is on the "Wild Coast" quite a way south from here. It's a rural community and you probably won't find it on a map.

While the teams were away, we got a chance (finally!!) to do some diving. We drove north of Durban 3+ hours to Sodwana Bay, which is part of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands park, a World Heritage site. The weather was bad, and the first day of diving was scrubbed. But on the second day we had two terrific dives. Very nice reefs, and of course the corals and fish are all different from what we are used to in Florida & the Caribbean. On the way back, we stopped in St Lucia and took a hippo/croc boat tour of the estuary. Very cool -- we'll try to post some pictures. These few days were our only days off during April.

When we got back, we dove straight into final preparations for an award ceremony for people who completed courses at the BEC. Of course prep had started much sooner, but there was still a lot to do, especially for Jane, to get everything for the meal bought & ready. And the P2P team was back, this time staying here at the hall. The P2Pers and the Mariannhill youth group did a concert at The Workshop (a mall near the BEC) and handed out over 2,000 cards with info about the BEC. One person came straight over and signed up for a course, and we expect more will come in as a result. Both of us manned the BEC while the concert went on, although Jane got away to see part of the concert.

Another important development: while we were away, the Beeler family arrived! Cam and Kim with their 3 kids are our replacements. The past week has been spent doing knowledge transfer regarding the operation of the BEC and all the educational activities. Only a one-week overlap, so there won't be time for much reinforcement, but we've promised to be available from afar as consultants.

During this last week in Durban, we've also been invited to a number of meals with the brothers and sisters we've gotten so close to over our months here. It is really, really hard to think about leaving. There will be a farewell for us tomorrow night, hosted by the Durban ecclesia. Jane is afraid she'll spend the entire evening in tears, and Paul's eyes may not stay dry either.

On Monday we will drive to Johannesburg, where we'll spend 3 days with the folks there, and then with God's blessing we fly out on Thursday. For those of you back home: we look forward to seeing you soon! For those of you in South Africa: we are going to miss you terribly. We hope that it will be our Father's will that we can come back some time!