Not much

Here's a few little newsy items from our lives recently.

You never know how much you miss something until you have to do without it! Our refrigerator gave up the ghost the first week of January, and it took almost two weeks to get it repaired since it works off of propane instead of electricity. The only person I have found who can work on this type of refrigerator is a jack-of-all-trades in the tiny village of Tweespruit, South Africa, about 50 miles away. I don't know if it actually took two weeks to clean the carbon out of the little tubes on the back of the fridge, or if he was so busy fixing cars, selling gasoline, and patching tires that he just didn't get around to working on it. Anyway, we're glad that it's back and working again!Here the new school year starts in January instead of September. Thabiso is back to school (preschool for him) along with most of the rest of the children in the village, so it's been quiet around our place. Steph is doing preschool/kindergarten work with Kaitlyn again, too. She really enjoys it most of the time, but her attention span is still developing. In the afternoons she usually plays with Thabiso. I think their favorite activity is pushing each other (or better yet being pushed by an adult) on the swing in the oak tree outside the front door.
Last week on Wednesday we visited Steve and Gwen Geise out at the farmhouse where they moved. It's a very quiet, relaxing spot in the country, and we enjoyed spending the night with them. As usual, there was plenty of mission business to discuss, but we also enjoyed a barbecue, homemade cinnamon rolls, and a short walk around the farm. The kids really enjoyed playing with legos and riding bikes.

This coming week promises to be a busy one as usual. I am hoping to start the process of getting indefinite residence permits for Lesotho. If we can get them, we won't have the hassle of renewing them every two years, and we will also be able to get a 6 month's border pass that will save us hours of standing in line when we go to South Africa. As the Lord reminds you, please help us pray that this process will be successful. Thanks!

Kristell's Favorite Christmas Present

I think this video and followup picture are pretty self-explanatory!

More Pictures

We opened Christmas presents on Monday before Christmas. Of course Kaitlyn enjoyed that! Again this year she wanted to play with her first present instead of opening the rest. She lives for the moment!

Christmas Day we went to the van der Merwes. We really had a nice time with them, the Cutlers (who were visiting us and the work in Lesotho), and the Steve Geises. A highlight for Kaitlyn was horseback riding with Uncle S.W.

As usual we had a Christmas conference. The services were good and it was also nice to catch up with friends. This is Me Mafelepe and their boy Reabetsoe. If Kristell hadn't been born premature, they would be the same age. He has definitely passed her up in size though. We think he'll be big and tough like his daddy who is a policeman.

Bro. Cutler spoke three times at the conference. They were missionaries here back in the 80's.

Sis. Cutler worked at the clinic here at Matukeng before there was a bridge across the river into Maseru. Their life involved much more sacrifice back then than ours does today.

Ready for conference.

Kaitlyn really enjoyed Rachel (l) and Anna (r) Cutler. Rachel has applied with HIM to come to Lesotho as a missionary.

Saturday after New Years, Kaitlyn was invited to the birthday party of Puseletso Letuka, the child of the former chief (Ntate Lioane) of our village. She turned one on the 2nd of January. A boy in the back row is holding her. Kaitlyn had a great time with the other kids.

Today Kaitlyn went with me (Glenn) to church. Steph has been sick and running a fever with some kind of a nasty cold or flu, so she couldn't go. Kaitlyn enjoyed dressing up in her "church hat" and "church shoes." She did a great job of sitting still on the front seat while I preached!

Pictures

Here's the house where we stayed while on vacation.

The mountains around Clarens, South Africa are beautiful. I enjoyed watching this big anvil shaped thunderhead form at sunset. The mountains in the background are in Lesotho.

Thabiso loves driving his "taxi." Kaitlyn enjoys going along for the ride.
Maybe we'll put some more pix up soon, but we've been busy.

Miracles, Blessings, & Providence

Over the last several weeks it seems like we've been especially blessed by God. Here's a few things that we want to praise the Lord for:

Recently we've had to go to South Africa quite a bit. November and December are busy months at the border of Lesotho. It's not unusual for the lines to get your passport stamped to be an hour long this time of year. Several times recently when we had deadlines to meet, God providentially arranged for us to get through the border quickly.

One Friday afternoon when I was hurry to get back to Lesotho for the Bible School, there was a very long line. I took all our passports and was planning to call Steph and the girls when I got near the front of the line. I had only waited a few minutes when a police man came to the man about 5 people in front of me and told everyone from that man back to follow him in a line. He led us down to another office quite a ways from where we were parked. I knew Steph would not be able to find us there, but the immigration official kindly stamped all four passports saying she had seen us many times at the border. We got through the border in about 10 minutes instead of 60!

The first week of December we had a meeting in Ladybrand, doctors' appointments in Bloemfontein, then we took a little vacation. We were planning to be in South Africa nine days, but we can only get a 7 day visa for South Africa. On our way from Bloem to our vacation, we intended to go back into Lesotho and then stamp back into South Africa to get another seven days. That day I wasn't feeling well, and we completely forgot to stop by Lesotho on the way. I didn't think of it again until I was standing in the line to stamp out of South Africa having overstayed our visas by two days. As I stood in the line I prayed for God to work some kind of a miracle. Normally at best the police will open a file which takes a long time and often they fine people as much as $100 per day. There were two immigration officials on duty. I could see the first one and knew that I didn't want to go to her. I got in the line for the other window without knowing who was working there. Miraculously, it was one of the border post managers whose wife attends the church in Mauersnek and serves on the school board. He normally works in an office somewhere and almost never stamps passports. I doesn't attend church, but is very friendly and helpful to us missionaries. I told him what happened and he just said "No problem." It was clearly a miracle that he was stamping passports at the window I "happened" to choose!

Last Thursday when we were in Ladybrand we took some plates of Christmas goodies to a few friends there. I went to a place of business to arrange with one of the owners to visit her after work and give her the plate. When I walked in she greeted me and before I could arrange with her she said she was so glad were in town; she had something at her home she wanted to give us. I told her I had come because we also had something for her. In the evening we visited for a bit, gave her the plate of goodies, and she proceeded to fill our cool box with about 25 pounds of beef--steaks, ground beef, sausage, soup bones, etc. We are SO blessed!

So you can see that God is at work in our lives. We are humbled and very grateful for His providence, miracles, and blessings. We are experiencing the wonder of Immanuel!