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| Us, The Alders and Elder Duma in Tzaneen |
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| Our church in Tzaneen |
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| Visitor at a church members home in Tzaneen |
It's
Christmas Eve and we were feeling a little lonely even though we had plans to
go to dinner with the other senior couple serving in our area, however the last
three phone calls have changed life as we know it. The first phone call was about a sister's
home that blew down in a storm last week.
We received permission from the District President to rebuild it for her
and it was suggested that we start tomorrow.
Yes, that's Christmas. The next
phone call was to confirm that Ed, the new branch President, would be able to take care of the building
project because the District President lost 2 family members in a car fire and
his brother's home burned down this past week so he is dealing with his loss
and concerns. The third phone call was to
tell us that the Elders in Modjadji are having a difficult time and would like
to meet with us tonight. Our thoughts
are, "What were we thinking that this would be a "lonely" Christmas
Eve and how do we transport each of you to help with building this home as we
know you would and could."
Now let us tell you a little about our new home. We have been assigned to serve in Tzaneen
(Za-neen) which is a little town about 5 hours northeast from
Johannesburg. So much for our dream of
seeing the Padovichs when they go down to Johannesburg for meetings. Anyway, we are in a nice area and our flat
(apartment complex) is secured with high walls and electric wires along the
top. It's cute and we are comfortable
here. We have become painfully aware of
the fact that there are the "Haves" and the "Have nots" in
Africa. We are in an area with fairly
affluent families, but our branch members (We serve 2 branches) are in the
townships that are truly the "Have Nots." The home that was destroyed looked a little
smaller and older than our metal shed to the side of our home in Saugus. Almost all the members live outside the town
and have a long walk to church. A few of
them take a taxi, but the taxi's are unreliable and a bit scary. Not to mention that it costs more than they
have even though they are cheap according to our standards.
The town of
Tzaneen is green and beautiful. It has
been nicknamed the "Hawaii" of Africa. I will attach a picture or our church where
the Tzaneen branch meets. They tell us that we will often find monkeys hanging
out at the church. There were none on
Sunday, but we will take our camera each week to get pictures when they do join
us. We haven't had a chance to go meet
with the Motupa group (Ed is the branch president over both), because we were
called to speak in the Tzaneen
branch. That too was an experience. We received the call about 9:30 Saturday
night. We looked at each other and said,"
We can just give our farewell talks from home," but as we sat on the stand the next morning
it dawned on us that this was the Sunday before Christmas. We needed Christmas talks. During the very short sacrament we both
prepared our talks. The other senior
couple in the area tells us that we were lucky.
They were asked to speak as they walked into church. (When I say speak, we were the meeting.) We
have much to learn and are very thankful for the Alder's who not only are the
other senior couple, and live right across the hall from us, but they have
quickly become our friends and our life line. They have been here for 14 months
and know the culture, the area, and have learned to love and know the needs of
the people.
Tomorrow we
will have been in Africa for 1 week. We
spent the first few days sheltered in the mission home and arrived in Tzaneen
Friday night. It has already been an
enormous growing and learning experience and we have to remind ourselves hourly
that we are doing the Lord's work and he will watch over us. We know that we are blessed, but miss each of
you more than you can imagine. Please
take care. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW
YEAR and PLEASE keep in touch. We can
respond to emails, but pictures and
Skype will be limited as our internet access here is not what we are use to.
WE LOVE YOU,
Ed and Jolene
