Baby Noma

Here is my good friend Emmelinah with her grand-daughter Nomalanga or Bright shining star which her name means. But as usual she is known as Noma, Baby Noma to me, as I am already friends with another Noma and one Noma is enough. Sitting with them is Jennifer on her tablet and as always Emmelinah is full of smiles.

Primitive Thanksgiving

There is something primitive about sitting around a fire in each one of us. I can only imagine this deep down warm fuzzy feeling stems from a time when our ancestors sat around a fire pit in a cave under an enormous starry sky for safety and warmth.

So on this cool summer’s evening, a group of friends gathered around a brazier for warmth and to give thanks to the Lord our God for a hard year that was full of ups and downs, but a year that God was in control.

This year has surely flown past, as we once again find ourselves at our year end dinner. For me this year was a hard one and I give thanks that deep down I can lean on the knowledge that God is in control even when my life seems out of control and heading for that crash test wall with dummy me strapped inside. My second thanks is for my son Matthew. It is his birthday today and I thank God that he has turned out to be a wonderful young man.

After our primitive yet very important giving thanks around the fire, we sat down at a well decorated table for our year end meal. Breaking bread with friends and family is a highlight in the year for me, knowing that I belong.

Howzit

I was on my last Howzit duty for the year at BBC today. Quite a few of the congregation are already on their summer holidays or about to. I will be in town for next week and a half before heading down to Sabie and Nelspruit. After a few days there I will be heading to the coast after all the summer rush has left. Here is Lynda and Emmelinah at BBC this morning.

Four Generations of Sibanyoni

Christmas is just about upon us and many people are heading for holidays or heading back home to family from the big cities. Emmelinah, a good friend of mine, needed a lift home to Middleburg about 2 hours drive away after working as a migrant worker in the big city of Johannesburg. The local taxis tend to charged way too much when the commuters arrive with tons of stuff bought over the working year. So naturally I was not doing anything important, offered to take her.

Arriving at her house in Mhluzi, the township just outside Middleburg, we were greeted by Emmi's mother, daughter and two granddaughters. Emmi went straight to her youngest granddaughter Bonani only a few months old whom she has never seen and just held her and smiled. It has been a tough year for Emmi but those who know Emmi, will know that she has this big smile which can light up a room and now holding baby Bonani she simply smiled and smiled and smiled from deep within.

I was fascinated being among four generations of women, so with baby Bonani sleeping I took the opportunity to take a photo of the women. From left to right, Hope (Hilda's daughter), Emmi (Johanna's daughter), Hilda (Emmi's daughter) and the gogo (respectful Zulu way you call an old woman) Johanna.

While driving back to Johannesburg, I was thinking about these four women and how the traditional way of life has changed so much for gogo Johanna to her great granddaughter Hope. Hope of a brighter future for her family. It reminded me of a traditional Zulu story normally told by the old gogos to the great grand children about why people must grow old and die. I cannot do it any justice as you need to tell it in a long interesting story way around the fire teaching the children but here goes.

After God created the all the things in the heaven and earth, he stopped and looked around and was greatly pleased with what He saw. Especially with the first man and woman as they were the most like himself. But after a while God noticed that the man and woman kept getting injured. They would heal but most of the time the injuries left scars. After many years their bodies started looking old and tattered. It was time for new bodies.

So God summoned the chameleon and instructed him to urgently deliver a package to the man and woman. So without delay the chameleon set off to find the man and woman. While searching the earth for the man and woman, chameleon stopped at a large river to rest and quench his thirst.

While resting, the snake happened to come to the river to drink. After greeting each other, chameleon asked the snake if he had seen the man and woman because he had a package to deliver to them from God. Now the snake didn't like God and was bitterly jealous of man and woman so he schemed up a plan to make sure that the package wouldn't get delivered to the man and woman.

Working on the chameleon's good nature, the snake invited chameleon to come to dinner before going on his urgent errant for God. Thinking that there was still plenty of time and not wanting to offend snake, chameleon relented. Snake's wife had cooked up this huge feast of sumptuous food and utshwala (traditional Zulu beer) and was honoured that chameleon could join them. After the feasting and drinking, chameleon eyes began to droop and was soon asleep.

While chameleon slept, snake gently took the package from chameleon and opened it. Snake and his wife were happy to find new skins in the package because when their old skins wore out too quickly from slithering along the ground and now they could change into new skins when theirs got too old.

Now when chameleon woke up and found that he was tricked. The new skins were meant for man and woman but now the snake and his wife had the new skins. Chameleon was very sad that he had let God down and didn't know how to face God again. So he hid away from God by moving slowly in the leaves of the trees and changing colour to camouflage so God would not find him.

And that my friend is why we grow old.

Sister Emmi

This year has glided past so fast that I am not sure if it really happened. It is nearing the end of my fifth year of this blog with this being my 1766 post with 18089 page views. In numbers terms it is not a lot but you must bear in mind that it did start off slowly. Today is the start of the final month before Christmas which means one more pay day till then, as Emmelinah (shown above) said today, that she is not looking forward to Christmas this year. Emmi continues to amaze me, although it has been a hard year for her, she still has a smile for me and something nice to tell me. The cherry on top of today is that Nyasha gave birth to a lovely baby girl this afternoon at Olivedale. No name yet but Moses well let us know soon.

Happy Birthday Emme

Today is Emmelinah's birthday, hip, hip, hooray. I remember not long ago our home circle group went down to the township of Mhluzi outside Middleburg to celebrate Emmelinah's 50th. They had pitched this small marquee tent spanning the entire street outside Emme's home. What started as a smallish party ended up having the entire neighbourhood celebrating with us whities in a black township. It was I remember a special day but today was once again special. We had a wonderful birthday dinner at the Sims' home in Bryanston and Emme brought some of her lekker cupcakes. Happy Birthday Emme :-)

Start of Home Cell

Home cell started off this year the same way it ended last year, with a supper at Sandy and Andy's home. This year for me will be a year of re-building after such a terrible last year. Here is Emmelinah having a whale of a time tonight and what a good way to start.

Happy and Sad

Today we welcome Leigh back to South Africa although she is only here for a holiday and will soon return to sub zero temperatures of Sweden. While it is great to have Leigh with us for a short while it is also sad as we have to say goodbye to the Chapman family (Lad, Crystal, Square, Wyatt, Crusoe and Parker) as their Swaziland mission work has come to an end and will return to the States tomorrow. In today's photo are Leigh, Emmelinah, Crystal and Lad.

PTS

Johannesburg has been trashed again by the striking municipal workers. Things are getting better on the home front but the stress of it all is taking its toll. At our home cell group Francis and Emmelinah were feeling cold but I was falling asleep due to stress and simply the lack of sleep.

Hej!

Leigh surprised us this evening when she popped in for home cell. Here she is sitting next to Emmelinah and as you can see she looks a bit sun kissed or is that blushing? Leigh is down on holiday from Sweden for two weeks visiting her parents at Sedgewood in the Western Cape and of course us here in Joeys.

Parties Abound

While the world celebrated the inauguration of America’s first black president, we launched our home cell group meetings for the year with a lovely dinner at the Sims. I must say that Petra’s baked cheesecake was scrumptious. Here is Florence, Poppie (Karen) and Emmelinah who have just shared a joke. Okay pass me sum mor cheesecake.

Party at Mhluzi

Emmelinah celebrated her 50th birthday party today at her home in Mhluzi, the township outside Middelburg. A group of us traveled 2 hours from Johannesburg to reach the party. Emmelinah had put up a tent in the street and had decorated the tables beautifully. The invited guests were seated inside one tent and the food was prepared in the other. The entire neighborhood arrived and was seated outside the tent. Emmelinah was escorted into the tent by a singing procession similar to a wedding. After speeches the lovely food was served. I must say it was wonderful day with the entire community celebrating Emmelinah’s birthday. I had to choose a photo out of over 300 that I took to represent this day which was not easy.

Beauty for Ashes

Hey it’s Friday and my last weekend home alone. What can I do? Well to kick it off I had to pick up Thembi, Emmelinah and Francis up after the start of “Beauty for Ashes Women’s Conference”. They had managed to catch a taxi there but had no lift back. While I was driving them home, they were all babbling like young girls, telling me of their experiences that evening. I am sure they will be talking about it for a long time to come. As a matter of fact, they are planning next years one.

The cell

Another rushed day. It seems that I am wanted everywhere. The last visa was picked up today and just 2 more sleeps until we leave for our holiday. In the evening I went to home cell and we took photos to send to Maia in Bulgaria. So here is from the front left to right Denise, Petra, Rob, Leigh, Sandy, Sarah and Francis. In the back you can find Mike, Andy, Karin, Emme and Joanne.

5036 Mhluzi Ext 2

The Easter weekend is here. After packing, we left to pick up Emmelinah’s sister Lindiwe to drop her off at Emmelinah’s house in Mhluzi, Middleburg on our way to Nelspruit. Theresa, my sister who lives in Nelspruit, had just completed a course in Krugersdorp and drove with us in convoy. We arrived at 2 hours later in Middleburg to find Emmelinah holding her granddaughter Nondunisa and standing next to her mother Johanna waiting for us. Emmelinah was so happy to see us. We left soon afterwards for Nelspruit and took another 3 hours to reach our destination. The second half should have taken only 2 hours but because of a roadblock and lots of road works near Belfast the trip took an extra hour.

Three Missionaries

Maia, Ruth and Emmelinah