Good espresso in Durban

Lou Lou was invited to display her jewelry at the Design Indaba in Cape Town this past weekend.  HUGE for any South African designer, something that will give her a great confidence boost and also the kind of exposure that can really help any new start-up business venture to succeed.  Kristy continues to help Lou Lou struggle through the beginning stages of life outside of school, starting a real business, and dealing with Lou Lou's "less than ideal" family:).  One perk is the best coffee in all of Durban (and I would say arguably Africa)  is available at their spot, making Bible study so much more rewarding when I find my way there! 

Best man

2007 was a great year for some of my "key guys."  Both S'pho and Cyril got engaged and S'pho is already married!  Beyond them finding wonderful women who are fellow followers of JC, they both also asked me to be their best man!  

Cyril and Gloria are medical Dr's and have both been a part of our ministry since the first year we came to Durban over 6 years ago.  I have been able to be a personal part of Cyrils redemptive story by coaching him in basketball, discipling him, and praying with him as he came into relationship with Jesus.  This photo I took of them on Wed to use on their wedding invites (you are some of the first to see it!).

Sick and Fired!

I've been sick for a week.  Sorry for the lack of posts.  The quick update on life in the evergreen city:

1. Thatch guys didn't show up all week so regretfully we fired Joshua and his never present guys!  Lost a bit of money, but not too bad considering the potential, and we did get those two days of labour  and materials out of them before we amiable, if not a bit frustrated, parted ways.

2. We are left with a huge pile of raked and discarded thatch and another pile of thatch to be put on the roof, both of which has put us in a big need to find a new thatch guy!  (pray we find a good, honest and quick one ASAP)

3.  I just started feeling better, Kristy just started feeling sick!

4. Our wall is falling apart because of a need to be patched and painted, so we've got painters scraping and patching away!

5. Ministry goes on even with me in bed!  Daniel is meeting guys.  Thobe meeting girls and our Core team meeting at our house to eat laugh, pray and do Bible study.

6. I've managed to connect well with a number of key returning students and they are all keen and eager to recruit 1st years as well as friends into Investigative Bible Studies.  Pray for some great connections.

7. Our house help lady was stealing from us and we had to let her go.  Hard and frustrating.

8.  It's valentines week and the Core guys are going to be making a special evening for the ladies in the community on thursday night!  look for the pics to come!

thanks for reading.

Two weeks of thatching and...

I've been kind in my blogging by saying it was only 5 days. In actuality the thatching began on Mon. 21st of January (that is two weeks and a day). On Friday I was a bit cross, OK really I was just trying to figure out how to motivate Joshua(our thatching contractor) to actually do some work and to get Kristy to stop smirking in the back ground with that "I told you I didn't have a good feeling about this guy" look on her face. I saw a challenge and decided that I was not going to be another victim! (Maybe just a bit dramatic, really I just phoned Joshua and told him to come with new guys or to bring back my deposit) On Sat morning Joshua showed up with a whole new crew of guys. They took one look at the work of the past two weeks and told me it all had to come down! Two weeks gone. Wasted.

I pulled Joshua aside and decided that a lil' chat was in order. After many apologies from my thatcher who told me that the guys working here the past two weeks had "just been playing," and a handshake to seal the deal, we agreed on a date he would have the whole thing finished: next wed the 13th of Feb. Doubtful though I am, the pictures can speak for themselves on how much work an inspired and trained crew can do. Double the work done in two days than the first crew did in two weeks!

Now if I can just get them to show back up!
It's been two days and no sign of thatchers:)