Swell, Transkei ministry & Home foundations

Hi all ye peepils !
Last week we had some major swells pull thru. All very good for the Billabong Pro, which I wanted to watch, but the conditions were so good, it ran immediately and was over by Sunday, while we wuz ministering at Mazeppa. More about that later.

This photo of Queensberry Bay ( the bay directly in front of our new home, henceforth QBay for the sake of my typing fingers) was taken from about 600m away. The sea was THICK with dolphins, below you can see one leaping out of the wave with joy because of the lekka wave ( or maybe all the fish in the water)

cropped & zoomed in:

On Friday, we went with a bunch of guys from the church to Mazeppa Bay in Transkei, via some badly eroded roads. The Colt enjoys them! Below is the 'church', an ex trading store which a local guy Eric has allowed us to use for meetings.

4 guys from Fountainhead church, Bloem joined us to check out what this kind of ministry entails. They are on the back of the bakkie returning to the 'church'....

..where the rest of us were leading a worship meeting...

with Pastor Welcome and myself providing some 'tunes'

The children here (some wearing beanies & scarves knitted for them by the church) are very sweet and not shy at all, preparing a song & dance item for the Sunday meeting

I taught a bit on Jesus being our very best friend, who wants the best for us, and loves to continually chat with us

One of the guys did a session on 'Farming God's Way' using biblical principles to increase crop yields dramatically. This was very well received by the community.

On the home front, our builders are 'cooking on gas'. Very organised, always on site, laying bricks alongside the workers. The foundations were dug, laid, and now the sides built up (because of the slope) in prep for the floor slab, which should be cast early next week

The view of progress this evening from our rented home above. Note the flat sea in contrast to the opening photos. Yesterday Sharon & I went to the fishing spot in Qbay and dived out about 25 sinkers. Maybe a few were previously strategically placed there by me, using only a rod & reel...

Love to y'all

Thanks for reading.

Bonus pic .. QBay yesterday evening. It's tough living here, but someone has to do it.

Exciting First Week

What an eventful but enjoyable first week here in paradise –oops, I mean Glen Stewart..

The rented house in now fully sorted inside, no longer tripping over cardboard boxes and wondering “where did we put that?” or “Sharon, where do you think the xxxxx is?” We even have the satellite TV working – so haven’t missed the soccer, although we watched most games with friends or at the church on projector.

Sharon inside - with kitchen in background

Have had meaningful times with the church at various meetings – feel fully integrated into the daily life of the body. Also, met so many nice folks in the complex here – no reason to ever feel isolated. Even fishing or surfing, everyone introduces themselves and chats – people have time for each other - I suppose it’s not possible to be more like that in crowded cities.

One evening in the week I fished with our Dominee (Graham) - caught nada, but lots of bites, early the next morning I caught 3 shad ( and a strepie which I used for bait) – of which 1 was fried brunch, and we smoked the other two – yummy!! I even cleaned them myself - no fishwife required.

As promised in last posting - Breakfast from 'On the rocks'

On Thursday morning – Trevor & Gerald Richter, our builders, arrived – and we spent the morning measuring and locating plot pegs.

Photo of Q-Bay point, with some distracting building activity in foreground

Eventually found the one important one – and by ‘tjila’ on Friday - yesterday, the foundation trenches were dug!

Cold front being sent up from you guys in CT tomorrow, but yesterday & today - warm berg winds, which made Queensberry Bay’s point go off – so after the workmen left at 3pm yesterday, I was in the surf, with my own professional photographer (and shark-spotter) Sharon, on the rocks. .

In the water also were local mates, including Brewer, another builder who lives here, who had also quoted for us. Somewhat different to Cape Town, company is always welcomed in the waves – I think maybe ‘cos it reduces the ‘being nibbled at’ probability ratio. Usually the problem is finding someone else to surf with.

Rugged coastline, looking NE from Q-Bay point.


On walking back home, we saw a local couple, Kobus and Joy, catch a nice sized ‘Silver’ - white musselcracker.

Kobus' 'silver'

Our pastor Graham was on the rocks with them and helped him land it. Graham’s comment afterwards “ Hey, did you see - I just pulled a fish out of the ocean with my bare hands !! - So much excitement I’ll have to change my pacemaker’s battery!”

Graham, standing next to Joy, after barehandedly pulling a fish out of the sea and putting it on Kobus' hook :)

That about sums up our week – so much excitement and activity - yet relaxed and fun.

This is home now..

The beautiful house we are staying in

By Night

Inside


Front Garden



Dawn view

On Sunday, at the nearby Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve, the annual Jikeleza festival was held, and our local Glen Eden Church held the Sunday service as part of the festival, in a beautiful outdoor setup.

Driving into town is a rural experience,

and with our close proximity to the beach, it feels like we are on holiday, waking up each day ‘in paradise’. So far, the weather has been great, Saturday was 30degrees with a light berg wind, today was calm and T-shirt weather.

I’m overwhelmed at the friendliness and openness of the people here. I met Nick Pike, the local fishing and surf reporter in the nearby Spar while I was shopping for a shad spoon, and that was when we went surfing together. So, I have survived my first Queensberry Bay point surf yesterday evening, with Nick & 2 other local guys, with shad jumping, dolphins chasing them, fishermen on the rocks nearby. The ocean is so alive, and I’m also glad to be..

Went fishing twice today, learning to tie knots, cast, and ‘do the knitting’, sorting out tangled line. I smell of pilchards, and although tomorrow will probably yield my first shad, I had plenty of bites, the sardines stripped off my hook. I’ve had good fishing mentors - Steve Moss, and fished with (our pastor) Graham Gernetsky this evening, who showed me how to secure a tasty pilchard onto a fat hook. One guy next to us pulled out about 5 shad in about 5 minutes, and another guy came walking down the rocks with a healthy +/- 60cm silver steenbras, I think it was. Beats the Tableview ‘fishing’ where I’ve never seen a fish pulled out in 20 years or so.

Also did some sorting out of our storage boxes in the garage, so now we can access those we may need, as well as being able to fit the surfboards, fishing rods etc into the garage. This evening, after the walking, fishing, yesterday’s surf and moving about 30 boxes around, my back is tired (tho not sore) and I’m as happy as a piggin. (a pig in mud)

Hope my next post is of a fat fish hanging out of a pan..

PS: Our cellular internet is dreadfully slow here, no 3G, just Edge, and even that is painful. I have applied for a landline & ADSL, but that may take a month or more. ( so please, no large attachments or junk emails.)

The Great Trek

Leaving the Cape, we had a leisurely drive as far as JBay, where we stayed with Muzz & Mish, had a wave with the dominee..

and watched Muzz doing his domestic thing.

Wednesday morning, en route to East London, we got the call from Ronelle, our conveyance that the transfer on the Cape Town house was through, and five minutes later!! an sms from Russell Inc, that we are the proud owners of an empty plot in Glen Stewart. God's hand in all this has been miraculous .. to think just 3 months ago we started marketing - and since then Everything - the sale, plot, plans, and all the personal interaction with buyers, conveyancers, removals etc - has been beyond what we could dream of.

View from our house

After our first night in the spacious rented house, we awoke to a beautiful dawn, with cooking waves off Queensberry point in front of us!

Tempting as it was, I had to wait for the imminent arrival of our furniture. Due to some confusion with another nearby delivery, it was only about 11am befor the offloading started, but then everything went quickly and smoothly – no damages, and we soon had our stuff installed.

Leaving Cape Town

Just 3 amazing months after putting the house on the market, we were moving. House sold to a wonderful family, a few weeks of packing, and we were A for Away. The tough part was leaving family & friends, knowing we would not see y'all as often.

Life Changers Church gave us a wonderful send-off, a picnic in Malcolm & Cecilia's garden, and on the Sunday, sent us off with encouraging words from God and prayer.

While this was happening, Afrovan from East London were loading up our belongings, and with help from Jen & Gus they managed to leave by about 4:30 pm that Sunday (27 June)

At about 5:30 the next morning, Sharon & I left, driving the Opel, the Colt with caravan, connected by 2-way radios.