Some days you just have to celebrate the little things. Like yesterday - such a lovely, productive day. May seem like little things, but it's no minor feat in South Africa to be able to achieve so much in a day. So grateful for the successes, and thanking God for moving things along so encouragingly! Thanks for your prayers and support!Let me share with you yesterday's small victories:
Opening a new Thembalethu bank account in less than 2.5 hours .
We managed to get the five signatories for our bank account all to the bank at the same time with all required personal and organizational documents in hand (a stack over an inch high) AND were able to open the account. Hooray!!! We've been paying $20-30 per month in bank fees, and switched to a bank that promises we should pay less than $5 per month.
Getting our Permission to Occupy the land at our new community site!
After being passed between the municipal council (local government) and the Amangwe Traditional authority (traditional government, a parallel structure), we managed to get permission to occupy our new land in the Mandabeni area of Loskop. We hope to put some structures up soon and start caring for the community there, especially orphaned and vulnerable children!
Completing and handing in the last of the accompanying documents required for a Department of Social Development funding proposal, and just in the nick of time.
This 40-page funding proposal plus 20 pages of accompanying documentation was no minor feat to complete - especially with the last-minute notice I received to turn it in. The Department says they can't find enough NGOs to be funded to support the orphans and sick in the community, so we're praying that our application will be accepted so we can get going at our new site.
Finding a quaint lunch joint where Xoli and I could grab something to eat and two drinks for the two of us for just R25 ($2.50)! (And it was good - Indian pea and potato curry with two rotis, yum!)
Enjoying a newly tarred road on one of my favorite shortcuts from Winterton/Loskop back to Tugela Ferry.
Thanks to the upcoming elections, approximately half of the 20km rough gravel road, a nice shortcut to Tugela Ferry, was tarred just in time for the elections on Wednesday next week (22 April). It felt so luxurious to be able to enjoy a nice, smooth road instead of its rough, bumpy, hugely rutted former state!
Writing of elections... please pray for South Africa. That a man of integrity and truth would be elected. Politics and the whole political system seem to be at a big turning point here, and with the history of violence around political rivals, we need a LOT of prayer.
Also, in two weeks our church in Greytown, Shalom Fellowship is hosting the Mighty Men's Conference (www.mmc2009.co.za). Last year they had approximately 60,000 men attending the conference on the farm, most of them camping there. This year they're anticipating an unprecedented whopping 200,000 men to attend the weekend-long camping conference. The famous Christian evangelist, Angus Buchan, on whose farm our church is, will be leading the Conference. Please pray for this weekend (24-27 April) as well - for God's hand and movement amongst the men, and for Uncle Angus.
Please also mark your calendars for the evening of Tuesday 21 July, as I'll be giving an update of my work here in South Africa, and of Thembalethu at the Africa Interest Group at University Presbyterian Church, Seattle. It'll be a very brief visit, and my (our) time in limited so I hope to see you there! If anyone is interested in hearing more about what's happening here, please let me know, and I'll try to squeeze it in.
