Breaking the Silence

Dear Everyone,
You're probably wondering if the chunk of Africa where we live fell off into the ocean since we haven't written for so long. But we're still here, alive and well.
Of course the big news is all the great work the Mission Helps team did. I still can't believe all they got accomplished in less than two weeks. I didn't get near everything done that I had hoped to do before they came, but they just picked up where I ran out of time. They built a 4' by 8' (approx.) room onto the back of the storeroom for a bathroom. Then they helped me finish up the store room that Nt. Mokoena and I laid the blocks for. Then we took the roof off the old storeroom, and they built a new gable roof over it all. The next step was to move all the stuff out of the old storeroom into the new one. (I had to go to a meeting that day. I'm sure they thought I planned that on purpose. It was a nasty job!) They took the ceiling out of the storeroom then, and made a new cathedral ceiling. They also did the rough plumbing in the bathroom, poured the floor there, and finished up the shower. I really didn't think they would get that far, but they worked hard and late every day! I'll try to put a few pictures on the blog.
Besides doing a lot of hard work, we had a lot of fun. Bro. Dave Weaver is an endless source of jokes, and Jon and Jonathan contributed a few, too. One night we quit a little early and had all-you-can-eat ribs at a restaurant in Ladybrand. (Thanks again, Bro. Dave! It was VERY GOOD!) On Sunday last week we went into Ladybrand to the service at Manyatseng. After church we had a quick lunch at the Geises' then all the missionaries went to the farm for chicken curry. On the way back to the airport we went to a game park near Rustenburg called Pilanesberg. It's in the crater of a dead volcano. We saw LOTS of game even though it's not a huge park. A special highlight for me was watching four lions stalking a herd of rhinos. We think maybe they were more playing than serious because lions wouldn't even get close to the rhinos once they pointed their nasty horns at them and charged a little. We also saw elephant, hippos, zebra, giraffe, impala, red hartebeeste, tsesebe (both antelope), etc. It was a very nice day! We left the game park about 5:30pm and drove down to the airport in Johannesburg for them to catch their 11:30pm flight home. After dropping them at the airport, I spent the night at a Baptist mission just a few miles from the airport.
Another big event was our annual Easter conference. Though I only got to two of the services (Saturday night and Sunday morning), it seemed to go very well. Ntate Pheko's church has started a project raising pigs. They gave the first pig for meat at the conference as their tithe.
Every once in a while I hear something in Sesotho that amuses me. I guess it's just the way you say things, but it's funny. Sunday morning one of the pastors was exhorting about how the Jewish priests didn't want Jesus and the thieves still hanging on the cross during the Passover. He said they didn't want any bad smells or ugly sights around the city because it was a holy feast. The part that amused me was when he went on to say they didn't want any "human jerky" hanging around on their holy day!
Monday after Easter is a holiday in Lesotho and South Africa. We slept in a bit, then I went to Ha Matala to get mattresses, benches, and the rest of the stuff from the conference. Then we went to Uncle Johan and Aunt Hessie's fro the night to celebrate Amrie van der Merwe and Issac Geise's birthdays. We slept there. (Actually we tried to sleep, but for some reason Kaitlyn didn't sleep most of the night. Consequently, we're very tired today!)
Well, that's the news from us.
Love to all,
Glenn, Steph, and Kaitlyn