SOUTH AFRICA...Here We Come

I got a wonderful 7-page letter from missionary Marcia Gustofson last night.  Marcie serves at the Durban Bible College and invited me four years ago to come visit her.  Little did I know when I accepted then that I’d leave a chunk of my heart behind.  I’ve felt those heart-strings tugging all four years…and this week Dan and I made a commitment to return to the land and people I fell in love with on my earlier trip.

Our plans are to leave Buffalo on July 2^nd and return on September 7^th, allowing me to teach all eight weeks of their third term.  Dan will help me with the choir… how could we not allow him to bless them with his magnificent voice?  He will also play “handyman” and work on several projects they are already lining up for him.  I will work with the choir, teach a “Music Foundations” course (all about theory…guess I should be honing up on that), and teaching something along the lines of “Leading Worship and Music Fundamentals”.   Just thinking about it makes my heart race with excitement.

While Dan and I are taking responsibility for the travel costs of the trip, we’d like to open up the opportunity for our friends and family to also participate.  There are so many needs at the small college, and any gifts we receive will be directed to those needs and to helping provide cost-of-living expenses while we are staying with Marcie:  i.e. food, utilities, Internet, gasoline for travel.  Marcie will be our hostess, our tour guide, and most of all our sister and friend during the visit.  Some of the school’s and area ministry needs that have been shared:

V  Student support:  scholarships, textbook purchase, living supplies

V  Children’s clubs supplies: paper, crayons, scissors, tape (these currently are out-of-pocket expenses for directors and missionaries)

V  Books and Bibles for the college

V  Special events support (I know that while we’re there the school will be leading a missions conference for local churches)

V  Building supplies: cleaning supplies, paper goods, office supplies

Having visited the school, I can ensure you that your investment in this small college will have eternal value.  DBC originally started to train Indian pastors, the 2^nd largest people group in South Africa.  They now train Africans, Indians and Coloureds (yes, this is a separate people group there).  They have trained 98% of the Indian pastors in South Africa. 

In a country that has the highest crime rate in the world, the highest rate of AIDs in the world, and an incredible system of misinformation being shared with the people of the land, there is an need for light to shine in the darkness.

Will you help us return to Durban Bible College with not only our expenses taken care of, but also a significant gift for the school?  I made a promise to Pastor Sundrum Thomas four years ago that I would find a way to provide a financial blessing to the school.  He said at the time that I was the first person to visit from the U.S. that had asked what the school needed and not just what the missionary needed.  I’d like him to see what happens when many band together with small gifts.

FYI…a gift of $20 in American money will become 150 Rand upon exchange.  I’d like to take 10,000Rand to the school…which means we need to raise $1,291.30.  That means we need 65 people to donate $20 each.  I know that some of you may be interested in donating more…thank you.  But understand that no gift is insignificant.

We are asking that all gifts be mailed to:

Sawyer Evangelical Church
777 South Kendall Road
Bradford, PA  16701

If you are interested in providing support for Dan and I, please mark your check “Mission Trip Support”.  If you are interested in your contribution going directly to Durban Bible College, please mark your check “Durban Bible College”.

There are not words to express the incredible joy and excitement I feel about the opportunity to return to this beautiful country to be with the incredible team at Durban Bible College.  We would also ask that you let us know that you would be willing to be part of our prayer support.  We are putting together a team that will commit to pray for us during preparation time and while we are on the field.  This team will receive weekly communications from us to let you know what’s going on in our lives and how God is revealing Himself. 

I realize this is a long “blog”…but there’s just so much to share and so little time to share it.  If all goes well, we’ll be on a plane headed for South Africa in less than 65 days.  I have a lump in my throat.

Please pray for us.  We have music to choose, lessons to write, packing to plan, arrangements to make for our two cats and our fish, Buster the Beta (I should blog about this fish someday…he’s been with us for over two years…I’ve NEVER had a fish last that long…and he has a personality…okay…a different blog).  Prayers requested for our children and grandchildren also…two months is a long time away…and 8,000 miles is a lot of distance between us.

Thank you for being our friends.

For pictures from my last trip, check out

http://www.myspace.com/283661031/photos/10151367#%7B%22ImageId%22%3A10151366%7D