It is 7:48am. I have tossed back and forth in bed for an hour. Do I get up and run, do my leg work? Should I get a blog done, just to practice typing? Maybe check my email? We are so spoiled.
We were met this morning by pictures of our new niece, Sydney Amira Anderson. She arrived one day ago (July 3), all 8lbs 3 ozs of her, after 24 hours of strain. Good work Michelle, congratulations Steve (Linnea’s brother)!
It is drizzling outside our windows and I am looking forward to experiencing the fourth of July in South Africa! We will barbecue later. I wonder if there will be any celebrations here, because the way I see it, doesn’t the free world owe their independence to the United States?
We got a phone call yesterday, the voice in the phone was unmistakeable, so familiar, but I just could not place it. The male voice asked for me, I said “yeah, who is this?”. “Bernie!” came the reply.
I was caught totally off guard, I did not even think he had our phone number, and he and my sister were supposed to be in Malawi anyway! They are on a two week mission trip with a group from Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA. But, they had missed their flight and were stuck in the airport in Johannesburg overnight, and were wondering if we could get together. We said we would see what we could do.
I looked at a map, eyeballed the distance, and thought we were less than an hour away! (two inches on our map, about 50km?) So we looked for rental cars, buses, taxis, but none were available. If it were just me, I would have hitchhiked. As we were still trying to make plans, Shay and Kent pulled in. They are the couple who are taking care of us at the moment, and we asked them what would be the best way to get to Jo-berg. They listed the options we had already tried and mentioned that it was a four hour drive. Hmmm….that changes things. (We need to get a smaller map!)
According to our map, we are only 50 kilometers away, we got told not to trust the map, and there are some pretty rugged mountains between us and them. So we told Becky and Bernie maybe on their return we could get together.
I am so excited for my sister and my brother-in-law to be doing this trip together. I pray that a whole new world opens in front of their eyes, that the joy of the Lord will fill them, and as Kent says, once you do one trip- you are hooked! At the same time we are in Africa, my parents, Gary and Nancy, are with a youth group doing a trip to the Dominican Republic. I think that is really cool.
So I ask the readers of this to pray for Steve (for sensitivity!?) and Michelle (for recovery!) and Sydney (for blessings), pray for Becky and Bernie that God will blow them away over this time, and my parents for safety and patience with the kids.
