With just one month left of Anne and Annika’s three-month stay, time is flying by, and there’s still so much to do and experience! Last week, Annika and I began working on the mural in the new classroom. We managed to complete the background for our underwater-themed design, though I’m still finding traces of blue paint under my fingernails! Our goal is to finish most of it in the coming days. Every now and then, some of the children would put their heads around the door and encourage us by some ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’.
There was a lot of enthusiasm on Saturday when the girls kicked off the merit about Germany with the Adventure and Expedition Rangers. They shared about their home towns and families and every week there will be a short German language lesson. This week, the Rangers learned to greet each other in German. Well, let’s just say that the ‘ch’ sound proved to be challenging. I think the passers-by were intrigued by the sounds coming from the classroom. Everybody did their best though, and I encouraged them to take it seriously, because learning a new language is always beneficial.
There was freshly baked baguettes on the street when we returned home from Rangers on Saturday afternoon. Annika and Anne each enjoyed one on the way home, an unexpected treat, since fresh bread is usually sold only in the mornings. But with Ramadan underway, bakeries prepare bread for the evening, when people break their fast after sunset. I find it all a farce, because here people eat right through the night. They even get up in the night to eat, so what happens in fact is that the normal routine of meals is simply switched to the night. Yet, you’ll always hear people saying that they feel faint from not eating and that fasting for fourty days is really hard. I just realise once again that there needs to be more outreach amongst the Muslim population on our island. We have a number of children in our school who come from Muslim homes. The parents also hear the Gospel at parents meetings and there have been testimonies over the years of how Jesus made Himself known to people.
Dries was one of the speakers at a missions conference at one of our sending churches in Cape Town over the week-end. He was blessed and strengthened by the fellowship and all the testimonies from people. He said that he was encouraged and sometimes we need that to come back with a fresh vision and motivation.
We are off to Russian Bay to visit Lovako school tomorrow. Please pray for a safe trip and our time there.
E-posadres: lynettedj@gmail.com
Bank: ABSA, Lynette de Jager,
Rekeningnr: 1410142909,
Takkode: 632005