For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body...

When was the last time you attended a service in which someone was baptized? Do you remember? Was it significant enough to you to be memorable? Have you been baptized? Do you remember that day and that service? What was required of you? Did you spend a Saturday in class to learn about this sacred ordinance? Were you asked to give your testimony to your church?
I have heard many stories while I have been here about different baptisms, about damming up small trickles of water to form a pool, about climbing down into a hole to chase away snakes, about having watchmen diligently look for hippos and alligators, about being surrounded by frogs in a puddle. I have not personally experienced any of these, but on Easter Sunday, I witnessed the most beautiful baptismal service I have ever attended.
There are around fifteen youth from Lyndhurst who have made the decision to be baptized, but this is somewhat of a long process for them. They must get up early one Saturday morning in order to attend a class on baptism. They learn what it is all about, what it means, why they are doing it, and what is the significance among other things. They are also required to write out and practice giving their testimony of what their lives were like before Christ, how they came to know Him, and how He has changed them. Only after they have completed the class may they be baptized.
Normally the church baptizes those who have completed the class on Easter Sunday, but because there are so many youth this time, they chose to only baptize five at a time, so the first five were baptized this past Easter Sunday. They each sat on one side of the stage as the service began and remained there as Pastor gave a sermon. Finally, though, it was their turn. Aunt Joyce gave them a blessing from their parents, and then Life walked across as the first candidate. He stood boldly before the church and gave his testimony and then walked down the few steps into the water where Tad was waiting for him. They went through a pledge together, and then he was baptized. When he came out of the water, the congregation sang, “He is Lord,” as one body. The look on his face was priceless; he was triumphant and joyful. When the song was finished, he turned around and walked back up the steps where Themba was waiting to wrap him in a white sheet. He walked into the water with his normal clothes on, but now he was wrapped in a new, clean whiteness. The rest of the boys followed him in the same manner. First Nico, then Bile, Iswamo, and Jaime. Each went into the water with their normal colorful clothing, and each walked out to be wrapped in pure white.
Tad has given his heart and soul to the youth at Lyndhurst and was given the privilege of baptizing each of these young men. He smiles a lot, but I have never seen his smile so wide. He was just like a proud father baptizing his sons. As he brought each one up out of the water, he gently wiped the water off their faces and wrapped his arm around their shoulders to hold them close as the church sang. I wonder what it would be like to see Paul and Timothy together. I wonder at the joy and pride Paul felt for him. I believe I saw what that might have looked like on Easter Sunday morning.

Prayer Requests:
That our Bible study on Thursday nights will grow and God will use it.
That I will get to spend more time with the youth during their break.
For the youth who have been baptized and who will be baptized – that they will grow in their faith and stand firm.

Side Notes:
South Africans like to eat with their forks in their left hands and their knives in their right hands.
If you put your knife and fork together on the plate, it signals that you are done eating.
If someone says, “They didn’t pitch up,” it means that they didn’t show up.

Taxi Survival 101

Picture in your mind a nice yellow cab with the driver sitting in the front seat. You sit in the back, and there is some type of divider up between you and him. There is a meter that tells you how much you are going to have to pay. It is a set amount depending only on how far you are going. You are the only passenger in the car unless you are traveling with someone you know. There is plenty of room for you and no need to be touching anyone else in the cab. Now completely discard this picture and erase it from your memory. It is nothing like a South African taxi which is not really a taxi at all. It is more of a small bus or large van with many people on it. The driver is allowed to charge you whatever he wants no matter how far you are going…you should hope you get on a nice one that is cheaper. Getting on one is a whole other story. To even ride one in the first place, you must know what sign to flash them in order to get where you want. One finger for one direction, three fingers for another, and a strange wave to get to the mall. Once you are on it, you will likely be sitting half on top of at least one person while someone crams in next to you. You also must pay close attention and be able to yell, “Next robot!” in order to get off at the correct stop and not be carried to some crazy place. You must be a member of the taxi mafia in order to drive a taxi, and if you do drive, you better not steal another driver’s route or else there will be serious consequences. All in all, though, the taxis are not that bad and are pretty good at getting us to the largest mall in the southern hemisphere, Greenstone.
Mary (a volunteer here) and I were on our way to the mall a couple weeks ago on one of these lovely taxis. On this particular taxi, you had to shut the door just right or it would not stay shut. A man climbed on and began complaining to the driver in another language about his “raggedy” taxi. The driver then proceeded to make the man depart from the taxi because he took offense to the attack on his “raggedy” taxi. Once the man’s feet were planted firmly on solid ground, the driver yelled, “I don’t see your taxi anywhere!” as we sped off. I must admit that it was quite entertaining!

Prayer Requests:
Our Bible study group on Thursday nights that the five girls who came last week will return and that my roommates and I will find guidance on the right curriculum.
The youth that they will begin to talk less and listen more on Friday nights and Sunday mornings.
Our team that we will be able to work together effectively and plan for the upcoming three week holiday for the youth.

Side Notes:
If you say, “Excuse me,” people think you want to talk to them, and they do not move out of your way. They simply stand there waiting for you to say something.
If you say, “Sorry,” it means you want someone to move out of your way.
I saw a sign the other day while riding through a neighborhood that had a large exclamation point on it and below it said, “Are you being followed?”
There is also a sign for KFC that says, “KFC 1 km back.” In other words, you passed our restaurant and we would like for you to turn around and come back.

Mrs. Liz and a Band of Four Year Old Robbers!

I am sorry to report that we have been robbed! We returned home on Saturday afternoon to discover that our door was unlocked and our living room light was on. We had turned this light off before we left that morning. Something was wrong. Someone had been in our house! As we were trying to decide if we should go in or not, a few of the young girls met us at our door to tell of the crime that had been committed in our absence. A few of the four year old boys in our complex had managed to squeeze in through our window. Once they had decided we were not home, they made it into our fridge and ate our grapes and taste tested a few other items including my cheese which they left half eaten after deciding they were apparently not up to par for their likes. On their way out, they left a trail of grapes and a small crowd of witnesses to tell of their deed! They are currently serving probation of indefinite length which bans them from entering our home at any point in time even if we are here. They are, however, welcome on our steps anytime they like.

“So where we were on Saturday?” you ask. Well, we were at another braai! Mrs. Liz and Mr. Kenny are a couple who live in our complex along with their son Gary. We have invited people over two weeks in a row now for prayer and Bible study, and Mrs. Liz is the only who has shown up both times. She and her husband love to cook and used to cater for a large company, but now they just cook for people who order individual meals. Our first meal, however, was free, and for those of you who know that I do not really care for Chinese food will be surprised to know that I had the most amazing chicken chow mien a few weeks ago. They are supposed to teach us how to cook like they do before we leave. Mrs. Liz is Coloured, and Mr. Kenny is Chinese. They had a very difficult time during Apartheid because they were not allowed to live in the same areas, but they persevered. Mr. Kenny and Gary care nothing for God, but Mrs. Liz professes to be a believer in Christ; however, she is not currently attending church anywhere and cooks for a woman on Sunday mornings. She has been worried lately about money since the large company they worked for had to down size, but she told us after the braai on Saturday that she was thankful she no longer had a job because if she was still working, she would not be able to spend time with us. It was a very humbling experience. It is difficult to imagine someone being happy about being unemployed because it means that they can spend time with you.

Prayer requests:
Mrs. Liz: that we will be able to encourage her in her faith.
Mr. Kenny and Gary: that they will desire to know Christ.
My roommates and me: that we will have patience and love for the children.
Our Thursday night Bible study: that God will use it as a time of encouragement and teaching for those who do come, and that He will bring people to it.

Side notes:
We have an old geezer living in our attic, but he is very quiet and well behaved. I like him a lot. He makes life very pleasant and cannot be found in Tanzania.
A geyser (pronounced “geezer”) is a hot water heater. Our geyser produces water hot enough to cook chicken straight out of the faucet, and I don’t have to heat water for my tea.
If someone asks you if you have anything in the boot, they want to know if you have anything in the trunk of the car.
If someone is talking about a bonnet, they are talking about the hood of the car. The hood is that part of the convertible cars that folds back.
Tad was taking us home one night and Teddy (the Tadlock’s teacup poodle) was riding in his lap. Teddy accidentally honked the horn. Tad exclaimed, “Teddy! Keep your feet off the hooter!”
To hoot means to honk the horn.

Mr. President and the Board of Trustees

The past week has been fairly busy especially for our supervisors who have been participating in the Central Eastern Southern Africa Leadership Team (CESALT) meetings. There were probably over one hundred career missionaries in Johannesburg for this conference. These people have given their lives to serve the Father, and I have given but a few months. Yet, they all wanted to meet my team and me, so we went to the conference on Tuesday night for worship where we each gave a short testimony of what God has been doing in our lives since we have been here. They decided that was not enough, though, so they invited us to dinner. These people have given everything to serve the Lord, but they wanted to meet us. Pretty crazy, I think. We also met Dr. Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board.
On Friday, we were invited to tea with the Board of Trustees (the people in charge of appointing missionaries and spreading out the money…yikes!). Again, these people were really excited about talking with us, and they were increadibly nice. We answered many questions about the HandsOn project. They are attempting to decide what about this first project is good and what to improve. They are also assessing whether or not people are supporting or willing to support student missionaries and how to get young adults who are no longer in school involved. I hope that we did a good job stressing the importance of HandsOn in each of our lives and the great things that God is doing through it. After all the discussion, each of the trustees picked one of us and prayed for us. It was a great experience.

CESALT Side notes:
Missionaries like to eat….a lot!
God even allows LSU Tigers to be on the Board. (That one is for you Pat…haha!)
There is a woman on the board who graduated from Henderson.
One of my supervisors lived in Arkadelphia last semester.
Arkadelphia is must be a pretty good place to come from if you are headed to Africa.

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

Many people are under the impression that to be a missionary you must go somewhere and simply suffer. It is no fun. Only suffering. They are wrong. A couple of weeks ago, my team and I went to Pilanesburg Game Park. In other words, we spent two days enjoying God’s increadible creations of elephants, giraffes, water buck, springbok, wildebeest, warthog, rhinoceros, kudu, hippopotamus, impala, other various grazing and browsing animals, tons of birds, and even a few lions in their own natural environment. Our fearless leader and tour guide was John Paul who took us on several private drives. We were able to watch the sunset one evening in an open air vehicle and watched a large male lion enjoy his kill. John Paul said he was a bachelor because he was still there eating alone the next day. We located him by the smell of the previous night’s dinner. The next morning we got up a little before 5:00 am and saw the sunrise and then followed a lioness down the road as she led us to her small pride that we were able to watch across a beautiful lake. The only animals we did not see were the cape buffalo, the leopard, and the cheetah. It was an increadible experience that I am very thankful I had the opportunity to participate in. God is good.

A few safari side notes:
There is a difference between grazing and browsing. There are advantages to both so I haven’t decided which one it would be better to be.
Browsers have small mouths and pick leaves off trees. It is good to have the small mouth of a browser in some instances. The Black Rhino is a browser.
Grazers, on the other hand, have large wide mouths and eat the grasses of the fields. I would like to be a grazer of God’s Word eating as much as I can. The White Rhino is a grazer.
White rhinos push their babies in front of them much like the White races carry their children in front. Black rhinos make a path for the babies through the trees so that they can easily follow behind them much like the Black races carry their children on their backs.
I can’t remember which grazer it is, but one of them (springbok or kudu I think) has a white ring around its rump. They say that it was the first animal on Noah’s Ark, and the paint on the toilet seat wasn’t dry yet.
Impala is pretty good meat.