Friday, November 28, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving greetings a day late. I sat down three times yesterday to write this, but got interrupted every time.

We have so much to be thankful for! This morning we were talking about a few of them when we had devotions together. I think Stephanie and I are especially thankful for our parents who have prayed for us and modeled the Christian life consistently as long as we can remember. We are blessed to have my parents here helping us right now! Daddy is still working in the apartment. Yesterday he finished grouting the tile in the first room, and did the baseboards. Today I think he plans to finish up the bed. It's really looking nice. Steph and I keep joking (or are we serious??) that because it's so nice we'll move back into this efficiency apartment and leave the rest of the house for guests! Mama has been a huge help to Steph around the house.

Here's a couple pictures.Kaitlyn really enjoyed making and decorating sugar cookies!



Printing E-mail Messages from Thunderbird

This post is on a different topic than we've ever written about before, but variety is the spice of life! I (Glenn) am fond of Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail application, but I always hated the way it included most of a page of non-essential header information whenever I printed an e-mail. I just found the solution to this problem. Maybe it will help you out too. Go to this link.

Good luck!

Monday, November 17, 2008

The Apartment

We are really enjoying having Daddy and Mama Gault with us! Daddy and I have been working in the little efficiency apartment at the back of our house. Daddy is making some custom furniture that will make the best use of the small rooms. Together we have been putting down tile.Is that a table saw?

Kaitlyn has been enjoying all the activity. She calls the tile cement peanut butter!

Kaitlyn's Birthday


Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn

Friday, November 14, 2008

Rain!

Dear Friends and Family,

Hi! I trust you are all doing well. I see that it's a month at least
since we wrote to you all. Sorry about that.
I don't know what all we did in that month--must not have been that important!

Glenn has had quite a few meetings in the last few weeks--school board, executive committee, pastors' meetings, etc. Then of course he preached quite a bit at the tent.

The tent services in our area ended this last Sunday night. Now I believe Life Ministries (an organization in Lesotho) is showing the Jesus film in 5 or 6 villages in our immediate area this week (one a night). I think Sunday night they will show it in our village. They use a big screen that people can see the film from either side.

I did want to tell you about one night that Kaitlyn and I went to the tent meeting. The tent was still up at the top of the village, and it was fairly windy up there. That night was a bit cold too--people were wearing their sweaters and blankets. As we were all singing some
choruses before the testimonies and choir, I looked down and to the left at the bottom of the tent where I saw a dog cowering beside the tent. I guess it was cold. I pointed it out to Glenn, who poked and kicked at it unsuccessfully. I think he did finally get it to go away a bit, but
then it came back in under the tent and lay beside a child. In a little bit a lady come up to the front and beat at it with a bottle (I think). Finally it went away, and I think the lady went outside and beat it some more and chased it away. In the meantime I think most people were laughing about the dog, somewhat ruining the chorus. But the service went well. The wind was very strong, so finally Glenn stopped and prayed that the wind would die down. God answered prayer
and the wind did die down, and when it did blow, it was coming from the opposite direction so that it didn't blow into the door and the cold and dust did not come in.

One answer to prayer is that we finally got rain this Sunday and have had quite a bit of rain then, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, especially in the afternoons and evenings. Now tonight it's mostly clear. I don't think we'll have any rain tonight.

The biggest news in our lives right now is that Glenn's parents are with us. They arrived in Jo'burg on November 5. Glenn needed to pick up a tent for tent meetings in Pretoria, so we left very early that morning to get that. Because they were arriving at 10pm, we decided to sleep at
the Baptist mission that night. We came back Thursday, stopping in Ladybrand on the way. We visited the Geises a little bit and saw some other missionaries, then went to the vdMerwe's for supper and to pick up Munchkin.

Glenn's father is working in our "apartment" to put tile down on the floor and make custom beds and some other furniture. That's a big help. Glenn's mother is doing all kinds of things to help me. We're worried that they're going to do too much, but they said they don't want
to just sit around!

This last Saturday we all went to the tent meeting. Then Sunday therewas a funeral in our village, so the church service was there. I stayed with Kaitlyn since little children don't go to funerals here.

Kaitlyn turned 3 on Monday. She enjoyed her Curious George cake (her choice) and all the presents that family from America sent. Then on Tuesday we took Ntate Kali, his wife 'Me Manthabi, Thabiso, and Ausi Mastefan ('Me Manthabi's sister) with us to Bloemfontein for the day. We had a doctor's appointment that day, in addition to getting a new tire and several other errands. We got most of them done in the morning (we left at early), then we met Steve and Gwen Geise and their family for lunch at McDonald's. After lunch we all went to the zoo for a
couple hours. The children really enjoyed it, and I think our friends from Lesotho had a very good time too. The two ladies and Thabiso had never been to a zoo before.

Last night Glenn and his father went to HaHlalele (on around the mountain) for their tent meeting. I think they started this week. Then tonight Glenn is at Mazenod for an education committee meeting. Tomorrow we will all go to Ladybrand for the day.

Thank you for all your prayers! I trust God will bless you all. I know that things are not going well in America right now. Here things are about normal, although the rand has weakened a lot and it is about R10 to the $ instead of R7 to the $. If it stays this way, however, prices
will start to go up again. We are thankful that fuel is some cheaper right now though.

Blessings,
Stephanie