Singing His Praises!!!

The Saturday started like a pretty normal Saturday.  We slept late…and I mean late.  I got up and dressed and cleaned up my makeup bag (that’s not very normal but it needed to be done).  I finally roused and moved into the living room around noon … a bowl of Rice Krispies (with ants … sigh … also something I don’t normally do).  Caught up on e-mails and Facebook.  Was resting in the bedroom and reading my Nook (on my Droid).  And then the day changed.  The knocking at the door indicated that Julian had arrived (we’d thought we were going to have to “fetch” him but he came straight to the apartment).

How good to see Julian again…smiling…eyes sparkling…the same good looking young man I remembered.  I love watching him around Marcie because he’s so attentive to her needs and treats her with such respect.  They all dined on small portions of leftover Dorito casserole from last night and then we all loaded up and headed to the beach. 

And now we do things that we cannot do in the United States.  Dan and I waded in the Indian Ocean today…till the waves came in and soaked my pants up to the thighs.  Then we went out for supper at the “Chicken Shack”.  Sounds like a roadside stop, but it was a very nice restaurant.  Here we did two new things.  I ate a biltong, feta and smoked chicken pizza cooked in a wood-burning stove.  There are not words to describe this sort of delicious.  And while we dined we watched RUGBY…the Natal Sharks vs the Gauteng Cheetahs.  It took only a few minutes to figure out the most important parts of the game…they can only throw the ball backwards…a “scrum” looks like a huddle, but they’re nothing alike…and scoring is almost identical to our football.  It looks a little crazy watching them move down the field sideways because they’re running forward but looking backward for teammates.  Fascinating game and the Sharks came from behind to win, thrilling all the other diners in the restaurant.  Julian came home to spend the night and go to church with us tomorrow and we spent about 30 minutes singing hymns together.  Julian’s also been regaling us with stories from past “practical” trips of DBC…a “practical” is a week-long mission trip.  Loved the story of going to use the facilities (read that outside with no buildings) late one night.  It was so dark he could see nothing.  He dressed (it was cold), grabbed his flashlight and moved 20 meters away from the buildings (as required).  He said he had undone all the snaps and buttons when he heard a sound in the bushes and thought it was one of the guys following him to play a joke on him.  It was branches rattling.  He told them to leave him alone and then the sound changed to a loud grunt!  He said he couldn’t grab his flashlight quick enough and race back to the building.  Once inside he grabbed a spotlight, shined it out the window and saw the biggest, blackest pig he’d ever seen!  He didn’t venture out again at night.

Yesterday and today have been restful, peaceful and enjoyable.  This is what I think I love most about visiting a new place…new experiences.  There’s so much joy when Christians get together…we’re automatically family.  Julian was a student when I was here four years ago.  He’s now teaching in a small Christian school, enjoying investing his life in his students.  He’s still just as friendly and nice as I remembered him being.  We’ve been invited to midweek services at his home this Wednesday…I’m looking forward to seeing his parents again and introducing them to Dan.

Thank you, Lord, for memories and new experiences and the joy of fellowship with family.  Thank You for the blessings of this day.  Prepare our hearts to hear from you tomorrow.  Search my heart, O Lord…

I have a lot of work to do tomorrow and Monday to prepare for this week.  Please pray for me to buckle down and remain on task.