Thanksgiving

We had a great afternoon of fellowship and food with friends on Friday as we celebrated Thanksgiving. We had around 40 missionary friends and family over. We put up a tent for shade as we don't have any big trees and it gave us a place to all sit together.

Everyone brought their favorite dish, something that makes Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving for them. It was a quite a feast as you can see the table(s) were full. We had turkeys, yes turkeys. We could only get ones around 6-7 lbs (from Brazil) so we had 5 of them, along with all the other Thanksgiving trappings.

After a wonderful meal, we took time to share

as a group what we were thankful for. Sally had taken time to print 'thanks' verses as part of the table decorations. Reading God's word and sharing personal thanks was a great way to recognize a small part of what God has so greatly blessed us with.

The kids had a great time of hanging out together, talking, playing games, just being kids. A bit of sidewalk chalk added some fun and opportunity for artistic expression.

I enjoyed sharing some of my home roasted coffee as I prepared some lattes, cuppacinos, and espressos to go with the variety of amazing desserts.

Well, we didn't have a football game to watch after eating, but we did have some great time talking, laughing, and just relaxing and enjoying friendships. We did miss being with the Pepper and Jessup families, but we are thankful for our missionary family that God has provided.

As a prayer request, this Mon-Wed Sally and I are heading back to the mountain village of Ha Thaba Bosiu along with MAF pilot Melvin to meet with villages affected to hold a 'pitso' to discuss the impact of the proposed airstrip and health post. Once again we will be traveling via 4WD then horses to get there. Monday will be a 'pitso', with Tue/Wed a mobile medical clinic. Pray that the people will see and hear the love of Christ in all that we do. I'll post after we get back.

Cherry Festival MTB Race and Christmas Carols

Saturday we got up at 5AM to head over to Ficksburg, South Africa (about an hour from Maseru) for the annual Cherry Festival Mountain Bike Race. We went with friends and colleagues Justin and Amanda Honaker and Bryan Eygabroad (MAF Missionaries).

I've been biking back and forth to work and doing some weekend rides for fitness and in an attempt to train. Justin and Bryan convinced me it was time to join them in the race.

We'd had three straight days of rains which made the race one of mud, mud, and more slippery mud mixed with an assortment of things from the fields and farms. I was hoping I didn't slip, slide, and fall off as one part of the race trail but us through the middle of a farm complete with various cow related obstacles.

I did the 20km race (my first MTB race) and the other two guys did the 40km. All in all there were close to 200 racers. Sally and Amanda saw us off on the race and then went into town to enjoy some cherry related delights and some coffee to warm up. The three of us completed our races. I think I actually gained weight on it from the rain and the amount of mud caked on my bike.

It was a great group of people to ride with and the scenery was beautiful. After the race and some photos, we ended up taking our bikes and our selves right into the lake (dam reservoir) to attempt to get the majority of the mud and other debris off ourselves and bikes. We followed that with hot off the grill boerwors and cokes and then headed back towards Lesotho. We stopped at Constatias to get some fresh cherries, some cherry jam, and a sheet of home made peach fruit roll up. It was just plain fun.

After cleaning up and a short rest, Sally and I went back across the border with Mike and Sharol Shutts (MAF Missionaries) to the Ladybrand Dutch Reformed Church for the annual Christmas Festival of Carols program.

It may seem a bit early for this, but we've been told that in Southern Africa the whole area shuts down for about a month surrounding Christmas/New Years holidays.

The program was a combination of Christmas music performed by the Free State Symphony along with three choirs. The music was great, with the audience joining in for

three of the songs. We especially enjoyed the last two songs - Silent Night and Oh Come All Ye Faithful - as we sang parts of the songs in English, Afrikaans, and Sesotho. It was a fine way to end the day.

Audio Bible and Fresh Graves

I returned to Matsaile Village Health Post on Thursday after almost two months. Had a couple of things I wanted to check on since our last visit. One was our patients, and the other was the state of the audio Bible player I had left behind with a young man.

A few minutes after arriving in the village we were greeted by the area chief, Morena Tsepo

(Morena = Chief). He was quite concerned that we had not been coming, but was very happy to see us. We talked a bit about the concept of expanding the runway to make it possible to land both directions as well as the idea of building a health post structure at the runway in order to better serve the 7 villages. He pledged his support which is crucial as he is the chief-of-chiefs in this area of the mountains.

I was quite concerned about our patients as there are a number of people there with hypertension, diabetes, and mental health issues that need their meds on a daily basis.

Basically there are two options when we can't get there; go with out, the other is to walk about 4 hours crossing a river to get to a health clinic (Matebeng Village). It is quite interesting as this health post probably has the most elderly people that come to the clinic (an old man is called 'Ntate Moholo' and an old woman 'Nkono') and almost all have osteoarthritis (old age arthritis). They love to get what is the equivalent to BenGay cream along with their ibuprofen or panadol. I knew with our not visiting that many would be suffering.

As it turned out, some had left early that morning to walk to Matebeng as they had lost hope in our coming as we had failed to come three times before. But others were there and more came once they heard and saw the plane. As always, the people were very grateful for o

ur coming and providing this service. Our team that day was myself, a nurse, and a pharmacy tech (the one pictured). The nurse and I saw 53 patients that day, and Mabakoena

('ma-ba-kwey-na') dispensed meds to each of the 53. We enquired about those with chronic illness and were told that some went without, and others had made that long journey - basic

ally an all day walk to and fro. We are really thankful to be back flying again. After seeing the patients I had a good talk with the area chief - Morena Tsepo. We talked again about the concept of lengthening the gravel runway and building a clinic structure at the runway to serve the 7 villages.

But hey, what about that audio Bible thing? It is called the Proclaimer.

It's a battery powered MP3 player that can be charged by its solar panel, hand crank, or electricity. I had been bringing it and playing it for those waiting to be seen in the clinic. I had decided the last time to leave it in the hands of Ntate Tsupane,the young man that looks after the empty shell building that we use in Matsaile village. He shared with me that he loved it, was listening twice a day, and others were also listening to it. By the way, it contains the New Testament in Sesotho. Unfortunately, the OT is n

ot available in audio form in Sesotho. His friend (Shadrach) decided he should crank it as I took the picture. As many Basotho in the mountains can't read (or find it difficult to read the rather old Sesotho of the Bible), this tool is really valuable. In case you're wondering where it came from, there is a cool organization called "Faith Comes by Hearing" that gave us 6 of the units. I have shared them with our other colleagues in the mountains and they are now getting them as well. If you'd be interested to learn more or perhaps help them, please visit the web site (www.faithcomesbyhearing.com).

Well, the one thing I was not expecting to see when I got back to Matsaile were the 6 fresh graves, one being a child's. I found out that day that there was another one to be filled on Saturday as a village member had been emergency evacuated from Matsaile the

week before but had died at Queen II hospital in Maseru. His body was to be flown back there on Friday (MAF flies caskets as they can remove seats from the plane to fit it in). The six fresh graves were a stark reminder of the fact that

40-50 Basotho are dying every day just from HIV/TB. I don't have the details on what these six died of but you can be sure that HIV/TB had a part in some of them. The more sobering fact was that some of them may have died with out hearing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a push for me to work harder on language learning so I can clearly share the hope of Christ in their heart language.

As I was finishing with the last patient I heard the plane pass over the village. Melvin was able to land safely and so we began the 20 minute walk to the airstrip. Ntate Tsupane, Ntate Shadrach and 4 village health workers accompanied us as they always do, helping to carry the medical supplies, and as a gesture of kindness. The last photo I took reminded me that there are still 'dark clouds' on the horizon in Lesotho, as the King of Light is not yet shining in all areas of the mountains. That's part of the task that God has given Sally and I, to be light in Lesotho in such a way that people will see the good works and glorify God (Matthew 5:13-16).

Oh yeah, Sally is now out of her half-cast and now is doing exercises to get mobility back in her elbow. We go back to the orthopedic surgeon on the 25th. We continue to thank God that her arm is getting better each day.

Thanks for praying for the Kingdom work in Lesotho. We are so thankful for the support we have to be able to be here, to the thousands of faithful members of SBC churches that give each week to the Cooperative Program and to the annual Lottie Moon offering; and to those of you from other churches that help support us.

Daily by His grace...

Inside Out Safety

Sally and I just finished two days of training with the MAF Lesotho team. The seminar taught by Mr. Kent from MAF-USA was entitled "Inside Out Safety" and had the purpose of helping us as a team to identify factors that affect safety in our individual lives and in our aviation operations. The title was catchy as it reflected the content of the materials that were focusing on internal issues as well as external factors that affect safety.

We did some fun exercises in small groups to teach us better ways to listen as well as communicate. You know how you can have someone talking to you and before they even finish you have ten questions or 2 solutions to what they are talking about going through your mind, and you miss the point of what they were really saying. Easy to do, but a hard habit to break...

I especially enjoyed the seminar as it took a completely reverse way of looking at safety as compared to the usual aviation safety seminars that begin with rules and regulations and standard operating procedures. This seminar started by looking at our inner self, how even our spiritual life has a definite affect on safety. How the ways that we treat (or mistreat) others affect safety. He then built from the inner self to the team dynamics, to the aircraft and its systems, to procedures and operations manuals to the overall system. I found it refreshing and challenging as I could see how important little things like really listening is. In aviation we all listen and repeat back critical information (like when the tower gives clearance for take off), but we need to use those same skills in how we interact with others outside of the airplane.

It was so cool to see the value that MAF places on family units in overall team and operational safety as all the spouses were required to participate in this seminar. It is a first to see that at aviation safety training, but so right. I think we all benefited from the training and we certainly enjoyed the fellowship time together.

The apostle James was right when he penned the words

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." James 1:19-20 ESV

Be safe!