Dear Everyone,
Things are going faster and faster here as my departure gets closer. There have been several mission projects that I've tried to finish up before I leave, so that has put on extra pressure. Some of the TEE projects won't get done, but others look like they'll be completed. It doesn't seem like there's that much news in our lives in spite of the business, but let me see if I can think of a few things.
Friday Philip came out to our house for the evening to relax and visit a bit. His stay was short because he had to attend a funeral in Ladybrand Saturday morning, and I also had to go to meetings. We really enjoyed having him again. He used to visit about every other week when we were starting the weekend Bible School together. I guess there's no use wishing the clock back, but hopefully there will be a time when were all not so busy and we can see more of him again!
Saturday morning I agreed to pick up a sick man at Ha Teko and bring him to the clinic. They knew he needed to be transfered to the hospital, but they told me if I could get him to the clinic they could make a plan to get him on to the hospital because I had to go to a meeting. When I got to his house, to be honest, I was shocked at his condition. I'm not a squeamish sort of person, and I've seen a fair bit of sickness and gore since I came to Lesotho, but this was right at the limit of what I can stand. In mercy I will spare you the details, but he had an open wound on his foot that had not been properly cared for. I decided that meeting or no meeting, he needed special transport to the hospital, so I took him.
As a result I arrived at the meeting late. I found that they hadn't really started yet, but were waiting for me. The meeting was with the financial committee and representatives from all the congregations. We were to discuss projects to benefit orphans. Originally we asked each congregation to submit plans for a small income generating project that would benefit the orphans that come to their church. Eventually most of the congregation submitted plans, but they came late, some weren't good at all, etc. So we decided that it would be better to start one big project and put these plans off until next year to give us more time to revise them. I think we were all nervous about how the congregations would respond especially because we would have to tell them or show them that some of their plans wouldn't work. God really helped in the meeting. We discussed all the projects one by one allowing people to offer advice, ask questions etc. God providentially arranged that there would be someone with expertise or knowledge about each of the projects. At the end, all of the "bad" projects were voluntarily withdrawn, every one was encouraged, and we plan to go ahead with implementing them in January.
The big project that we're already working on is raising pigs. Over the last 2+ weeks we've built a nice pig pen at Matukeng. Yesterday we were supposed to pour the floor, but the weather didn't look good for cement work, so we didn't get that done. We're planning to buy two females and one male pig and raise piglets for sale. Several of the congregations had already planned
to raise piglets as their orphan project, so will will probably supply them with piglets in the future. The only thing left to do now is pour the floor, put a partial roof on, and buy the piglets. I've already bought some of the food.
Sunday I visited the new congregation at Popenyane. The Roma church is starting this "daughter" congregation. They have been given a house in the village, and some of the youth go there every Sunday. Either the assistant pastor or Nt. Matsaba preaches there most every Sunday, but if they can't make it, a young lady holds a Bible study. There were several visitors, and some new converts who got saved the week before were there. Though the congregation is mostly young people, I was very encouraged. After the service we spent an hour and a half counseling some of the youth. It is very rewarding to explain the Christian life to brand new converts that are hearing these things for the first time! After the service one of the ladies asked us to come to her house and haul her tithe down to Roma to the church there. She tithed approximately 200lbs of corn. I didn't get home until after 5, and we didn't leave for Ladybrand until about 8.
The week has been fairly normal here in Ladybrand. Monday I ran a lot of errands. Tuesday Kaitlyn stayed at the Geises while I went to Lesotho to take care of business there. Tuesday night Sis. Carol fixed a
delicious meal and invited Geises and us! She is really an amazing cook! Today I have a few errands to do while Steph is at school, and lots of typing to do on the computer.
Hope you all of a good rest of the week.
Love,
Glenn, Steph, & Kaitlyn
