Wednesday and Thursday we had an AMAZINGLY wonderful Children's conference here. Geared to kids preschool up to forth grade, we had some 400-450 kids. Community kids and our kids who attend the school we have here.
We had morning and afternoon sessions, and served lunch inbetween. It was lots of fun with skits and dramas, memory verses, 4 lessons (Jesus dying on the cross, a salvation message, hearing God's voice--I got to teach that one, and Making the right choices), crafts, games, prizes, 450 little dixie cups filled with juice, and cookies for snack time, and a juggler! It was lots of fun. The kids really had a great time, and it was so awesome to see them drawing pictures of what they felt God saying time them, and hearing a 5 year old recite the memory verse from the day before!
We are planning another one in November for community children, and kids from the city dump. I am looking forward to it!
Friday morning I and a missionary friend from Denmark, who is working here, left by bus for South Africa. She had to get a new visa, and we were both looking forward to the rest. We stay for $10 a night at "Mercy Air - Wings of Love". A missionary aviation where they send out emergency planes, and also go on outreaches. They have guest housing for missionaries, and this time we were blessed to stay in a missionary families own house because they were at home on furlow.
We arrived at the bus stop in Nelspruit (about 3 1/2 hours from our center in Mozambique), and took a very short walk up the side walk to a little cafe for lunch. We then started back towards teh bus stop, to the grocery store right by it, and on the way stopped in at a cell phone shop to buy credit for our phones. Suddenly a lady appeared in the door way to the shop announcing that "There are some robbers that were going to rob you to ladies, so please stay in the shop until we tell you! The police are after them now." The first thought that ran through my had was " Lord, how are protect us and look out for us! We are just walking along our merry way, and you are going behind us guarding us and looking out for us!"
A few minutes later another lady shows up in the door way saying they have caught 3 of the men but questioned them and there are still 3 more guys (6 in all!) that ran off, so please stay in the shop until they tell us. The man behind the counter, seeing the surprised looks on our faces, says, " Oh it's no problem, that's why I carry this...you are safe here." ANd He reaches into his leg pocket and pulls out small gun! We are now going "Ok, are we safer outside or in here with you mister?!" He said he would take us wherever we needed to go, so he walked us to Shope Rite. Then he says to do our shopping and he will wait for us and take us wherever we are going, but we thanked him profusely and said we would get a taxi. We called the taxi, and the guard at the door to shop rite (By the way, there ARE guards at the grocery stores, and every else around here) said to wait with him until the taxi arrived, and when it did arrive he motioned to the taxi driver, and gave us the all clear that he would watch to make sure we got to the car ok.
Once inside the car and the doors locked, we told our taxi driver the story. He said in a repremanding tone "How could you be so stupid to walk around Nelspruit?! I carry a gun, and I woudn't even do that!" And when he dropped us off at Mercy Air he handed us a newspaper article about a man who was mugged the day before and they were going to kill him but he ran off.
For all of you wondering, I won't walk there again... but also know that I and many other missionaries HAVE walked there many times, but the violence in that area is growing and now we are seeing it. My story is to let you know God is defending us and we are free in Him! No need to live in fear. I wonder how many times God protects us from things we never even know about??
We had morning and afternoon sessions, and served lunch inbetween. It was lots of fun with skits and dramas, memory verses, 4 lessons (Jesus dying on the cross, a salvation message, hearing God's voice--I got to teach that one, and Making the right choices), crafts, games, prizes, 450 little dixie cups filled with juice, and cookies for snack time, and a juggler! It was lots of fun. The kids really had a great time, and it was so awesome to see them drawing pictures of what they felt God saying time them, and hearing a 5 year old recite the memory verse from the day before!
We are planning another one in November for community children, and kids from the city dump. I am looking forward to it!
Friday morning I and a missionary friend from Denmark, who is working here, left by bus for South Africa. She had to get a new visa, and we were both looking forward to the rest. We stay for $10 a night at "Mercy Air - Wings of Love". A missionary aviation where they send out emergency planes, and also go on outreaches. They have guest housing for missionaries, and this time we were blessed to stay in a missionary families own house because they were at home on furlow.
We arrived at the bus stop in Nelspruit (about 3 1/2 hours from our center in Mozambique), and took a very short walk up the side walk to a little cafe for lunch. We then started back towards teh bus stop, to the grocery store right by it, and on the way stopped in at a cell phone shop to buy credit for our phones. Suddenly a lady appeared in the door way to the shop announcing that "There are some robbers that were going to rob you to ladies, so please stay in the shop until we tell you! The police are after them now." The first thought that ran through my had was " Lord, how are protect us and look out for us! We are just walking along our merry way, and you are going behind us guarding us and looking out for us!"
A few minutes later another lady shows up in the door way saying they have caught 3 of the men but questioned them and there are still 3 more guys (6 in all!) that ran off, so please stay in the shop until they tell us. The man behind the counter, seeing the surprised looks on our faces, says, " Oh it's no problem, that's why I carry this...you are safe here." ANd He reaches into his leg pocket and pulls out small gun! We are now going "Ok, are we safer outside or in here with you mister?!" He said he would take us wherever we needed to go, so he walked us to Shope Rite. Then he says to do our shopping and he will wait for us and take us wherever we are going, but we thanked him profusely and said we would get a taxi. We called the taxi, and the guard at the door to shop rite (By the way, there ARE guards at the grocery stores, and every else around here) said to wait with him until the taxi arrived, and when it did arrive he motioned to the taxi driver, and gave us the all clear that he would watch to make sure we got to the car ok.
Once inside the car and the doors locked, we told our taxi driver the story. He said in a repremanding tone "How could you be so stupid to walk around Nelspruit?! I carry a gun, and I woudn't even do that!" And when he dropped us off at Mercy Air he handed us a newspaper article about a man who was mugged the day before and they were going to kill him but he ran off.
For all of you wondering, I won't walk there again... but also know that I and many other missionaries HAVE walked there many times, but the violence in that area is growing and now we are seeing it. My story is to let you know God is defending us and we are free in Him! No need to live in fear. I wonder how many times God protects us from things we never even know about??
1 comment:
WOW! Praise God that you were OK through all of that. Sounds intense.
Love ya,
Sarah
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