She being dead yet speaketh

Yesterday was a little rough, with lots of "gotta get there on time" tension.

We had to leave home well before six, to race across town to Paul's first school with him scheduled to speak at 7:30 AM.  That's normal, but all three of us had to go with him which is not the norm.  I made breakfast tortillas the night before, filled with bacon and eggs.  I made one apiece for the boys and me, and two for Paul.  Note to self:  one apiece is not enough for teenage boys.  So on top of other tensions, tummies were growling. 

From school #1, we raced to the thickest part of Cape Town, downtown, to the Absa Building, a skyscraper where we had an appointment on the 21st floor.  I wish I had a picture because the view of Table Bay is pretty from up there, but we had other things on our minds.  Finding parking was a priority, then the sprint to the Absa building, passing security in the lobby, and going up the elevator to where we get to wait, get told we blew it, and leave. 

By then we're late to school #2, so we have to jog across streets and sidewalks, all in the shadow of skyscrapers, back to the car, and head off to find this second school. 

Tummies are roaring by this stage. 

Tensions were tamed though, every time we got into the car.  We had Rosalind Goforth's book, How I Know God Answers Prayer playing in the car.  I downloaded it from here at Librivox.org.  The exact page is this one. 

How thoroughly refreshing!  Hearing her problems, and the Lord's answers to her prayers, put our own pressures and problems in perspective.  Their family very nearly were killed in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.  They were beaten bloody, lost everything they had including some of the clothes they were wearing, and were very grateful to escape with their lives. 

Just after one of the Chinese attacks, their son Paul exclaimed, "This is just like a Henty book!"  Our boys have read some Henty books too, so the 100 year gap in our two families was bridged by knowing we read some of the same books.  We follow the same God, we have the same goals to lead many to Him, and to make our time count.  Cool!  History lives! 

I just felt the tension seep out as we listened in between each rushing session.  And then today I got into a conversation with another Mom, telling her about some answered prayers in my own life.  It was good to look back on what the Lord had done and remember, and share with another person. 

I saw on Wikipedia that Rosalind Goforth went to Heaven in 1942.  I mean, Wikipedia didn't mention Heaven, but you know what I mean.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to leave things behind that could still be helping people all these years after death? 

Book report #3, John Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides

Dear Readers;

We are now up to my most recent required reading (though not most recent reading) is John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides; An Autobiography.   As guessed by the title it is an autobiography.  It is 212 pages long, and divided very unevenly into ten chapters.  It is not repressed by any "politically correct views," that is none of today's.  

 

The first chapter, covering his family history and early life was rather slow, and was rather boring wading through.  The most interesting highlight from it concerned how his grandfather escaped death at the hands of the "pirate of the seas" John Paul Jones.   A different view then one usually hears of that individual.

 

Fortunately the book picks up in speed and interest from the second chapter.  By the third chapter I was not needing to be told to read it before other books.   This in fact was my favourite chapter, concerning his evangelism amongst the Catholics and other characters of the Scottish town.

 

In the fourth chapter he goes into the main thrust of this book, his missionary interests.  He was accepted into his church's missionary wing, and was sent to the South Seas.  He describes in latter chapters that this was not the ideal, relaxing, no-worries, mission field that some of you might be thinking.  Mainly the weather was nice, except for the worst hurricanes in anyone's memory hitting the island after he arrived.  The food was good except there was a fair chance of getting a poisonous fish (which in fact killed off at least two of his helpers).  Then the natives of the islands were friendly, except they were cannibals, entirely perfidious, utterly treacherous, and they thought it a virtue to be able to lie and get away with it (sounds like a few politicians I have heard of).   

 

He worked under some of the hardest circumstances I have heard of in the field, included but not limited to mosquitoes, malaria, diarrhea, consumption, the death of his newborn son, the death of his wife, the critics' insults for these two previous things,  a hurricane flattening his house and destroying much of his other work, the knowledge of previous missionaries being killed, the enmity of the heathen witch doctors, the enmity of most of the chiefs, the equally disturbing result of treachery by supposed friendly chiefs, constant and blatant thievery of almost everything he had, the enmity of the equally pagan European sandal wood traders, their thievery of his boat, and lastly almost daily threats to his life.  The list could easily be extended.  To the world this is of all things strange, a man who willingly stayed at his post despite all this, despite over five times being offered free passage else where.  

 

The thing that in hindsight seems most to have destroyed his work was the evil influence of the sandal wood traders, and it well seems that they were a worse lot then the cannibals that Paton had gone to witness to.  

 

I hope this does not spoil it, but he survives all of their attempts to kill him.

 

 

 

 

Star of Light-the movie



With great excitement and mounds of relief, we are announcing that Star of Light, the movie, is finished and available for viewing!  We had  a discouraging family premiere where the male part of the audience all fell asleep as it was at the end of a hectic day, and then a premiere for some of the actors which went much better, and NOW, on Saturday, the 15th of November, 2014, we're having a premiere where we're inviting the entire home-school community to a church to see the movie. 

 Evangel has been working on Star of Light for more than two years.  She's been making movies since she was 11 and they keep getting better as she gets older and more skilled, as well as getting access to better equipment. 

In watching Evangel, I've sure learned a lot about what goes into the making of a movie--blood, sweat, and tears, for sure, emphasis on the tears!

She had to write a script that's nearly as long as the book itself, and that took some time.  By the time she was finished with that, she had clear ideas on what she wanted.   

 

She had to find more than 40 actors and some animals and the right scenery.  She shot scenes from Cape Town to Trompsburg, as well as one in America.  There's even a shot from Zimbabwe.  She had us driving all over Cape Town for an illusive fountain that never quite suited her. 

Her filming days were interrupted by ministry trips with her Dad, leading to some hair problems.  Hamid's  hair was shiny dyed black, chalked black, German shepherd black-and-brown combo, and light brown hidden by a hood in the course of the stretched out filming. 

She was thrilled with getting some of her costumes as "manna from Heaven" as she called some discarded clothes she found in the grass.  Don't worry, we washed it thoroughly before it touched anyone.  She also considered her little "gutter kitten" as "manna from Heaven".  He came to us through the bathroom fan in a place we stayed in Riversdale.  The kitten fell right out of the ceiling,

and Evangel caught it in the fan cover.

Editing has been the thing to do on trips.  For months she has been editing.  Clipping, choosing music that does not have copyright issues and making decisions 'til she was ready to scream.  She did scream a few times, if I remember right. 

It is so satisfying to see it completed! 

My parents read Star of Light to me when I was a little girl, and it was probably my favourite of all the books they read us.  I snagged that same battered paperback to read to our kids and of course, they loved it too.  But Joshua is younger by 3 1/2 years than Timothy, so he didn't remember anything about that first reading so I decided to read it to him as a bedtime story.  He was about 10, and had a little cousin Connie who was just a baby.  Connie and Josh adored each other, and as we read the story, I could just picture them acting it out.  I mentioned it to Evangel who took a while to get used to the idea.  If you see the movie, you'll see she really caught on to the idea. 

As she is saying, "TO GOD BE THE GLORY." 

All are welcome to come Saturday, the 15th of November, 2014 to Medway Community Church in Plumstead, at 6:30 for a prompt 6:45 start to Star of Light, the movie. 

To see the advertisisement, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Nbbu7n5No

In His Service & Loving It---the book!

 "But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."  2 Cor. 9:6

Our family is known mainly for Paul's chalk art evangelism, but it is not the only way we try to reach people to tell them about Jesus.  Paul write books that can go where we can't, and can be read while we sleep, and can even speak after we're all in Heaven.  We do other things too, but these books are a big deal to us, so a new one, back from the printers after years of writing, editing, formatting and then waiting, is a BIG DEAL!!! 

 Tandym is our printer, so when the truck pulled up in front of our house last week, we all spilled out like ants to welcome the load. 

 Tim's friend Daniel was visiting, so he got roped into helping unload the shipment of 3000 books.

 In His Service and Loving It--fresh from the printer!  It's biographical, with lots of pictures. 

 The front cover...picture taken in March in Sasolburg, South Africa...

 and the back cover on our last day in Zimbabwe in May. 

 

James was here passing books to Daniel and Tim.

 

Gabby was here, acting with Evangel, another ministry.  They didn't stop to unload books as the guys had that well in hand, but they continued filming the last scene for Evangel's movie.  

Recognize Evangel?  She looks like a gypsy, but it's all part of sowing bountifully. 

The Color of a Trip

Every trip we take is flavoured by the books we read as a family along the way.  Usually we have at least one family read-aloud going on together, besides our own books and our family Bible reading. 
Our last trip was flavoured by Joel C. Rosenberg books, while this trip is deep into The Jungle Doctor. 

We have been reading Jungle Doctor books for about a year now, whenever we could find them.  We loved The Doctor of Tanganyika which we found in a crowded old book shop in Port Elizabeth. 

                                                           *     *     *
                  I'll add a little commercial here for that bookshop.  It's called Classics and is across from the Spar in Walden.  Timothy was able to add to his Biggles collection there, Josh found the Hardy Boys, and Evangel found LM Montgomery and others she likes.

And now back to our show. :-)   
 
                                                         *      *       *

Dr. Paul White tells his story with wit enough to keep us laughing, and wisdom enough to know he's one of us.  He's a good guy for sure.  It's not often you run into a Christian book with an entire chapter on funny things that have happened to a guy in bathrooms, but he has one.  It's entitled "Bathrooms". 

This from a man who's story could have been told with grimness.  His wife suffered from mental illness, and died in her 50's from mental problems.  His every mention of her shows tenderness and caring. 

He is an Australian who went to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) shortly before World War 2.  Because of his wife's illness, and his own struggles with asthma, he only could stay one term, and then had to come home in a boat during the war.  But those 4 years in Africa colored the rest of his life.  He did go back to doctoring in Australia, but always he was speaking about the Lord and Africa in churches, clubs, and soon, on the radio. 

The Jungle Doctor radio program ran for over 25 years, and from that came more than 25 Jungle Doctor books, animal fable books, and some TV programs. 

We're inspired by his work ethic, his zeal for the Lord, and his humor.  He's got me plodding along again on a book project I hadn't touched in months. 

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."

Fun Day at KSB

On the road again--first family trip of 2014 finds

 us in Virginia.  This is not Virginia, USA, but Virginia in the Free State in South Africa.  Paul has been able to preach and draw 11 times this past week.

 We have been staying in a most unusual place.  Kwasizabantu Mission has been given the use of a defunct mining network of buildings.  It's huge.  It was used to house over a thousand people before.  The hostel they gave us to sleep in could house 100 people easily, so the five of us have lots of room to rattle around in there. This is a little more elbow room than we're used to. 

 Wheat, from seed to feed in 9 days!  Wow!

 We really enjoyed seeing their hydroponics project.  They said they learned how to do it on You tube. 

 My boys think it is hilarious that this mission dog's name is Vicky.  She's probably a very noble beastie. 

 Three times Paul preached in the evenings to the KSB people and guests.  We're enjoying getting to know them.  I was fascinated by the egg cartons used to help with acoustics.

 I got a close up to show our friends the Kers. 

 Josh was thrilled when  a school gave Paul a pack of biltong with chocolates on top.  This is a top-of-the-line gift as far as he is concerned.  Yum! 

 As part of Fun Day today, there were game stations where the children could go to play games.  The boys gravitated to shooting.  Tim won a prize for best adult shooter which was quite a big moment for him. 

 There was a competition to see who could string the most beads in a few seconds. 

 Evangel didn't play much, but she helped out with the flour digging game.  Little toys were hidden in that huge tub of flour and the kids had 15 seconds to see how many they could find.  There also was a bit of a flour fight at times. 

"How good and how pleasant for men to dwell together in unity.  " 

We're thankful for the many ministries of KSB.  They are quite an example of industry in their outreaches and businesses. 
There is a bakery, school, farm, and constant evangelism.  There is constant vigilance needed as thieves try to steal their copper wiring. 

We first heard of Kwa Sizabantu by reading God Among the Zulus.  We're thankful to be friends with so many of them. 

This boy's aging fast

 

 

Joshua turned 12 on the 21st.  Look how old he looks!  We think he looks like our friend Mr. Ford. 

Evangel made him that little goodie for his birthday.  She crocheted it.  

 Not only are the kids growing in stature, but also in wisdom.  Paul reads to them nearly every day.  Sketches from Church History is one of his current reads.

 And Operation World is an old favourite.  Paul plays games with the kids and often their friends, over each country, and they learn so much. 

 I was pleased to find Jungle Doctor books in a used book shop yesterday!  We love Jungle Doctor.  He lets us know how far Africa has come in the last 50 years as far as the comforts we enjoy.

Harold St. John was a missionary evangelist.  One time a lady gushed to him, "I'd give the world to know the Bible like you do."

He replied, "Madam, that's exactly what it requires."

 

It takes a long time to read as much as we do; it costs; but we like what we're reaping. 

Living Happily Ever After

Yesterday we had our first Ladies Bible study of the year, after a long summer break.  Our ladies Bible study was begun as a young mum's group and continues to have that goal so our study this year is aimed at child rearing, especially for those with little guys. 

Mine are 17, 15, and 11 now, so I'm sort of past the little guy stage, but I want to continue the group, and have input.

One topic that came up was keeping our marriages happy and passionate in the midst of those hectic years when child rearing. 

Now, this is a topic I've been thinking of since August when we visited some friends in the States.  My friend Debbie always goes right past small-talk, and into the deeper zones, and she told me I needed to put our secrets of a happy marriage online, or talk about them.  I've been meaning to, so today's the day.

 

First of all, I know I'm blessed in that I come into marriage having had a good background of a happy family, led by godly parents who set a good example, so I just expect my own marriage to be happy and right. 

 

 Even with that good example, I'd say my number one key to a good marriage, is to do it God's way, the right way.  I find out what's right and wrong right from the "horse's mouth" (I hope that's not sacrilegious) the Bible.   Paul and I both start our days with time alone with the Lord, for prayer and Bible reading. 

When I read the Bible, I get sorted out on bad attitudes, selfishness, sloppiness, hatefulness, and anger, (marriage killers) and motivated toward love, joy, peace, patience, and self control. (good stuff for all relationships.)

Next helpful book to me is one I keep on a shelf by our bed, Created to Be His Help Meet,  by Debi Pearl.  Mrs. Pearl is one blunt lady, and she takes the Bible and applies it clearly and in an interesting way to married life. 

 Debi Pearl reminds me of wifely duties and attitudes, pulling it together from every corner of the Bible and illustrating it with real life examples. 

A huge thing we gleaned from the Pearls is our little tradition of "wallowing".  When the Pearls have time to just linger in bed, enjoying each other they call it wallowing. 

In the years when our kids were all little, we were having tensions about the physical side of marriage.  I was breast feeding, and had other little ones piling on top of me all day, so when Paul, my beloved husband, wanted a little romance, my response, was sometimes, "Oh, no, not you too!"
Not exactly loving, but just a typical tired mommy response. 

 

We tried different things during those years, with varying degrees of success, and then finally settled

on a plan we have used now for years, but it took some time to get it smoothed out.  We started scheduling "wallows."   

 

When Evangel was 7, nearly 8, Paul taught her to cook the family breakfast.  We have eggs nearly every day, and from there, she had the freedom to add lots of other things and she enjoyed learning French toast, grits, fried potatoes, pancakes, donuts, and waffles.  We gave her a waffle maker for one birthday, a blender for another, and her cousins gave her the donut maker.  She cooked breakfast for 5 years!  When she was 12, she passed the baton to 10 year old Timothy, who cooked for the next 5 years, except on Fridays when Evangel took over so he could be sure to get the rubbish into the street. 

 

Timothy cooked for 5 years, from age 10-15, with only 2 fires, I think, and then in December he passed the baton to Joshua, 11, who is launched into his 5 years. 

 

(By the way, this cooking is when we're at home.  Usually when we're traveling, I take back over, but now I have 3 kids who are handy with a spatula.)

 

So what do I do with all this extra time?  It's designated for wallowing!  If we can, we spend 30 minutes a morning alone together.  The door isn't locked, but the kids are trained.  We do get interruptions like the devastating, "Mom, we're out of eggs,"  (Paul doesn't think it's breakfast without his eggs), but we are basically alone.

 

We sometimes have "girl wallows" where we mostly cuddle and talk, or it might be a "guy wallow" which is more steamy.  Point is, we have time together in bed.   Paul was feeling tension in approaching a potentially tired, grumpy wife.  I was feeling tension that I might be approached when I wasn't in the mood, but this plan helped.  It took some of the guess work out of the timing issue. 

 

We can't do it every day.  This week I think it's only going to be 2 days out of 7, because of preaching appointments that make him leave extra early, but it's our general plan.  It took a lot of child training, planning, and adapting to get to this point, but it's worth it.  We enjoy our wallows.   

 

Another little marital help, is to share the funny stuff from each day with my Beloved.  Whenever the kids do or say something cute, I try to remember it to share with Paul.  I try not to save up their sins for him to deal with (not 100% successful there, but it's my goal), but I do want to laugh with him.  We share jokes, (if anyone would like, I can email you some blond jokes I was given recently), and other things of interest. 

 

Now, please don't see me bragging in here.  I could write a long, long post on my mistakes and wrongs as a wife.  Thankfully, forgiveness is key to the Bible message, and I married a Bible loving guy.

 I was challenged yesterday by some verses Sarah brought out, Ephesians 5:24 and following, where it was talking about how Jesus purifies the chursh, and so a man should be treating his own wife.  They're supposed to make us better!  I know I don't always take correction from Paul well, and yet he's supposed to be doing it in obedience to God when there is a need. 

 

We also acknowledged greetings are important for setting the mood.  Just a quick kiss and a, "How was your trip?" says I'm glad to welcome you back home. 

 

I could say more.  Maybe I will some day, but good marriages take some physical labor too, and mine's not done yet so off I go.

 

 

 

We're not supposed to be here--or maybe we are

We  planned to drive east to Port Elizabeth FIVE DAYS AGO.   Paul went, but the rest of us remain at home.  I know that's normal for a lot of ministry families, but it's not normal for us!  When Dad goes,we all go.  Unless of course the car is STILL in the shop, after more then two weeks. 

So we're making the best of it.  We all 4 have been busy.  All 3 kids have been having math troubles in their homeschooling, and Tim is still battling that out, but the other two are free!

So Josh set up "cones" in the driveway and practiced on his new swayboard to see if he can get through 10 cones, without knocking any over and he can!

And I am finally writing again.  I've been so wishing I could put some of the good books I/we read on here, to share the joy.  My friend Margie loaned me her friend Jenny's book There's a Sheep in My Bathtub by Brian Hogan.   I laughed so hard over his stories of church planting in Mongolia, and then I cried.  He told of their loss there, and through it all I learned, and I ended up more at peace with what we are doing in South Africa.

I've always believed it's important what we're doing.  We're trying to help all the problems of the world from the inside out.  We're introducing people to Jesus, King of Kings and their Saviour.  That's huge! 

It's the solution to the Aids problem if people will follow God and be pure.
It's the solution to stealing, which would be a huge economic help. 
It's the solution to the orphans' loneliness, as they enter the family of Christ

just to name a few things that pop into mind for the social issues, never mind giving them a hopeful, wonderful eternal life in Heaven with pleasure forevermore.

But I also can't help but notice our lacks.  We can't stay with our new converts.  We kind of have to "love 'em and leave 'em." This book gave me a new peace about that!!!  They boldly live what I believe.  I won't re-write the book here, it must be available all over the Internet, and it's worth reading.  Good stuff, and hard to stop once you start. 

Tummies are growling, time to run. 

Emerging beauty

Look what Evangel did!

You have to scroll down to the bottom to get to the best ones.

 And there's a little story here.

 Evangel wanted art lessons, and her wise Dad said, "No."  I was rather surprised, but he said she doesn't do art on her own, so she doesn't need lessons.  I had to think about that, but it makes sense.  Why get someone to teach you, when you don't even know what you don't know, you know? 

 So we, as parents and daughter were all pondering this thing, and I ran across this book Cute Country Animals by Jane Maday at the Reader's Warehouse. 

 Evangel followed her directions, read her tips, and adapted a few things. 

 I liked watching progress, but it's been slow since she only worked on it when we were home, and we had  that Zambian trip and everything. 

 I liked it then, but I loved it when she added the pink tree.  The Black Eyed Susans are her finishing touch. 

                                                                        Ta-da!

Trip Flavors

Every trip we go on is colored or flavored by our family read-alouds. This trip we loaded up on cassette tapes (one of the perks of having a 2004 car--it still has a cassette player!) a CD, and books to enrich the trip. There are big ol' books written, plus scads of little articles, on why it is good for a family to read together, and we agree! It gives us harmony, and lots of similar little jokes. That first book, Family Sabbatical, was a fun fiction by Carol Ryrie Brink, the same lady who wrote Caddie Woodlawn. Now this book is not so good that someone could get saved reading it, or dedicate themselves to the mission field or anything. This is just good in the sense of warm fuzzies, lots of laughs, and a close family who reminded us of ourselves. The Dad gets a year sabbatical leave from his teaching job, so the whole family goes to France where he can do research, the mom can write a novel, and the 3 kids try having a French governess for awhile. From now on, if anyone calls, "My child!" we'll all instantly remember a French castle and a doll down a hole, for example, and Abyssinia has become a family joke word for "I'll be seeing you" thanks to George (Shorges) in the book. Beyond Survival, the middle book, was not a family read aloud, and should not technically be on here at all, but it's in the picture and is worth explaining. That book gets my creative juices flowing in all things homeschooling. It is inspiring, while also being a fun read. I haven't read it to the family, but they have heard me tell a few stories from there at the dinner table. The third book is the best in the eternal sense of being a GOOD book, helpful not just to amuse us, but also edifying and inspiring and challenging to a sacrificial life of leading others to the Lord. It is Peace Child. We have seen the video of it, and want to see it again, but the kids and I had never read the book. It does have some EXTREMELY gross little parts as we have to learn about this degraded culture in New Guinea, but to see the Lord touch the hearts of these impossible looking people, is a wonderful story. Don Richardson tells the story in such a way that we care and are glad when the headhunters turn to the Lord and away from cannibalism. Our car was not functioning for most of the 2 weeks we were away. We got it back on Friday, and then headed for home, and our choice to listen to was Lords of the Earth, also by Don Richardson. We have this on cassette, and it's a little bit too beloved. It's worn out, but we could hear enough between squeaks to remind us of how good that story is. For people to die for Christ, and then have their killers surrender to Jesus because of an "accident" is such a good story. (Ariel, if you're reading this, Peace Child is part of the guinea pig thing!) If anyone wants a copy of Peace Child or Beyond Survival www.christianbook.com would have it. Family Sabbatical is probably way out of print, but http://www.abebooks.com/ is my usual place to look for out of print books. We just found it at the CAFDA book shop in Tokai, and for locals, your best bet is just to borrow our copy. :-) While we're enjoying books from New Guinea, I'll mention Otto Koning's ''sermon'' CD's again, The Pineapple Series for sale at iblp.org That is our family FAVORITE SERIES OF SERMONS IN THE WORLD. On this past trip, a lady was asking me to recommend good videos, and I love having good videos recommended to me, so I'm going to make an effort to recommend and blog about our family favorites.