30th September 2011

Bit of a cruisey day today, Kathy was up early however and helped Catherine in the bakery making bread that we have now become accustomed to. Creighton was on cooking duties and did a marvelous job helping Sindile in the kitchen and served up a beautiful lunch with a special Apple crumble desert.

The ladies went off to town and went on a shopping expidition to buy supplies for the Creches. They had a great time and found many items for the children. They bought educational toys and games, puzzles, toys such racing cars and trucks which added up to approximaely $500. They are still to go back and buy books and other resources. They got lost and ended up having lunch at Wimpy's restaurant which meant they missed Creighton's famous Apple crumble. They had a wonderful time.

Most of the men went for a drive to the township and looked at a chicken farm located in the middle of extensions. This one has been set up by a company that sponsors and trains locals to run the chicken enterprise. The farm is located on a church block. See photo.

After lunch the men started to do various jobs, Barry was teaching Raine from Finland to weld, Tim, Leighton and Zac continued to work and service the mission vehicles, Creighton worked hard in the garden with Sims, Erle had a sleep and Andrew did some maintenance to the Bilbe college huts.

The weather turned nasty with a brief dust storm and a fresh cool change.

We are all getting on amazingly well and teaching the WEC missionary's some of Australia's finest sense of humour. We are having a lot of fun and giving plenty of stick to Ruben the German who has no idea of our accent and Emma from Ireland, who sounds more like a Pom who makes the best cups of tea and has great sense of humour. Sue, from Perth, is coming round to the Dubbo way of doing things! Ruth, who is Raine's wife is now extremely rich as we have all paid our money! She is thinking about going on an extended South African holiday.

We are slowly buying all the Springbok rugby jerseys that are being sold at the traffic lights for some great bargains. Not sure why they are so cheap but we aren't complaining.

After the dust storm a flock of Ostriches flew over the compound and into the magnificent South African sunset, an amazing sight!

The chicken farm.

Andrew enjoying his lunch.

Andrew and Zac worshipping at the Zimbabwean church service.

The ladies being helped to pack the toys and educational games in the car by the parking attendant.

The incredible sunsets (Very similar to home but the smog makes it extremely red).

29th September 2011

Just to pick up from yesterday before the elelphant killed the power, Linda, Andrew and Leighton went with Carolyn to the Creches to visit. The first creche was a very moving experience, it was located deep in one of the township extensions in a very poor area. Their were about 8 kids from 10 months to 6 years old in a little and very cramped area. Andrew and Leighton upset one of the little ones as they walked in, (Carolyn later told them in the car that he probably had never seen white men before) .The teachers have done an amazing job with the curriculum that WEC have created and the kids sang and danced and demonstrated a lot of the curriculum which they have learnt. It's difficult to describe the area, dirt lanes, corregated iron roofs, and buildings built from every available material known to man. The teachers gave us a drink with the cleanest glasses I have ever seen and served them on a beautiful silver tray. They were extremely generous with their time and the kids showed us their dance moves for the upcoming graduation.

The two other creches were in better areas and the children were very happy to see white people and they sang some Colin Buchanan songs and demonstrated what they have learnt with counting, shapes, colours and alphabet. They are really advanced for pre-school.

Creighton decided to create more work for everyone when he took out the fence while ploughing a small block, Leighton took over to finish the job Creighton started, only after they both fixed the fence! While on the farming scene, Erle and Tim dug holes in the garden with Sims for 3 hours, while Leighton and Zac put in a brief performance before being called away for other jobs. Erle and Tim are still recovering!

On the ladies front, Kathy and Carolyn went and had coffee and bought supplies, Merilyn worked in the bakery making beautiful bread, Sue helped in the kitchen and on top of all of that we had a lovely birthday celebration for Akhumzi.

 Barry had a very productive day and fixed one of the missions cars. Peter, Barry, Andrew, Zac and Tim then took it for a test drive to town, had a coffee and cruised some of the shops.

At night fall most of the group attended a church service that the bible college were running. It was a great time of fellowship and beautiful singing, hard to describe unless you were there but just fantastic enthusiasm and passion in the service. We were very popular at the end with many photos being taken and sharing, the majority of the congregation were from Zimbabwe. The sermon was on 1 Kings 18:42 .

Some say that just before night fall they saw a number of Hyenas and Leopards circling the compound, I don't personally know but that's what they say.

29th September 2011

Tonight is a short post due to the team attending a Zimbabwean church service and a big day of physical work by all except Aunty Kath who had coffee with Carolyn.
The power is struggling. We have already had 1 blackout due to the Elephant next door throwing a log against the electric fence and there looks like more blackouts on the way. Will update more in the morning.
Zac.

28th September 2011

The women have spent 2 whole days sorting and cleaning out the creche resources library. Creches here are more like daycare come preschools. Boxes have been prepared to distribute to 4 different creche libraries which cover 30 creches in the local area, and to after school homework centres.
The focus of the WEC ministry has changed recently from providing and running creches to training the local women to run the creches themselves. The creche ministry has multiplied as local women have caught the vision for it. A number of these women have taken an oversite role of all creches in their area. This is testiment to the hard work of Carolyn and her team.
Today Zac, Sue and Merilyn visited 3 of these creches. They were impressed by the children's cheerfulness despite the simplicity of their setting and the children were extremely excited to perform songs, dances and bible verses for them. There were up to 40 children in a room the size of a single garage.
Kathy went to a hospice for children with HIV and AIDS. This was a home setting with groups of 7-8 children in each house with a house mother. There have been 219 children through the hospice. You can find more information about this on www.lambano.org.za.
Linda helped prepare a tradition African lunch of paap (maize), spinach and beef stew. Creighton and Peter, who was in the know and doesn't like paap, stayed in town and had fish and chips without the rest of us knowing.
The women also did what women do best, solve problems, provide solutions at local, national and internation level.
The men did a bit of manual labour in between smokos.
Quote of the Day:
In reference to finding Creighton. Kathy, "Speaking of dead weight, where is he?"
We heard there was a huge amount of rain in Dubbo today, praise God. There hasn't been any here so when the herd of wilderbeast stampeded past there was a lot of dust.

Linda, Merilyn, Tim, Zac, Kathy, Creighton, Andrew, Leighton, Barry, Sue and Erle.

Linda, Sue and Sindole serving up the paap for lunch.

Linda and Kathy doing some manual labour.

The boys having a well deserved smoko.

27th September 2011

Today began with Erle leading our devotions and singing and then we had a meeting and prayer time with the whole WEC Johannesburg team. This consisted of an open time of being able to share with the group of what they were thankful for and praising God. We then had a time where anyone could say their prayer points which Carolyn wrote on the whiteboard. Then we were broken up into groups to pray for the different points.
After this the work kicked off again with the blokes continuing with the ceiling in the garage and they managed to finish all the battons and get 4 sheets of gyproc up before the sun went down. Creighton and Barry fixed both the push and ride on lawn mowers. Barry got stuck in to fixing some car troubles on a number of vehicles on site and Zac repainted the tanks ready for the new WEC logo to go up. Creighton and Erle made best friends with Aerostart and got the tractor going.
The ladies did whatever ladies do, I'm not really sure but I'm sure it was important.
Today was quite warm with some of us getting a little sunburnt. It is much like Dubbo here except for the wildlife, like the giraffes that were eating leaves from the trees over the back fence.
Quote of the Day: Leighton, "You can't just dump and run Merilyn!"

Zac, Tim, Andrew, Merilyn, Sue, Kathy, Creighton, Leighton and Erle. (Linda and Barry have retired for the evening).

P.S. Things not to send to missionaries:
- Bulk Santa's helpers bibs
- Bulk foot files
- Bulk robot bunnies that contain a warning that they are not suitable for children.
- Broken toys
- Worn out clothing

Kathy and Creighton's luxury suite

Sue and Sindole preparing lunch for the crew

Zac, Creighton and Leighton fixing the ride on mower deck.

Commitee meeting to determine what the next step is in fixing the tractor.

Screwing battons to the ceiling ready for gyproc sheets.

26th September 2011

Day 2

Zac was last up, bleary eyed- a typical uni student!
Meeting- Intro to WEC, we had finished bible study and prayer by the time Peter finally joined us.
Morning- guys went shopping while the women stayed behind to work hard. Guys restrained themselves from buying guns (Erle wants to compare prices first).
Tasks completed so far.
- septic drained
- mower fixed
- car fixed and sold
- creche library sorted
- storage container cleaned out
- drains in large house cleaned
- float in cistern fixed
Creighton quotes:
- "She always says no to me, no matter what it is."
- "Tim's only a pretend Australian. You don't become a Australian until they do something good."
Lots of gagging and dry wretching while cleaning out the sewerage pipes and septic. Creighton and Zac especially!
In devotions a rousing rendition of "Wild Thing"
Countryside looks like Central West NSW except a lion wandered past the front gate this morning.

Linda and others.

P.S. Erle ONLY went to town TWICE today. Hoping for three times tomorrow and keeping an eye out for clearing sales.

The team (minus Merilyn who is behind the camera) at Johannesburg Airport.

Digging up the sewerage pipes.

The girls sorting out the library.

Push starting the car that was sold.

25th September 2011

Well, our journey has begun and what lies ahead is a little unknown but that creates excitement, anticipation and a little wariness!
The flight over was quite enjoyable with good company, lots of movies and more food and drinks than you could poke a stick at. Although the flight was good it was nice to finally land in Johannesburg after 18 hours sitting in an aeroplane seat with all 11 team members still together, amazingly!
We met Carolyn and Peter at the airport and they took us to their home for breakfast, which to us felt like afternoon tea considering it was about 3.30pm Australian time. Much like the flight over they put on an amazing spread!
After having time to catch up and chat with the Campbells they drove us out to the WEC mission base where we met their team, all of whom are extremely friendly and welcoming. And yet again too much food for our BBQ lunch!
It's now 3pm here (11pm Aussie time) and we are off to try and fix a blocked drain that resulted in some minor flooding to one of the team member's houses this morning. Only the first of many jobs we will attempt over the next 2 weeks. Wish us luck!
Please continue to keep our team, the Campbells and their team in your prayers as we work together on this journey. Pray that we may develop our relationships as a team and with God over this time and may we have our eyes opened up to the things God is going to show us in the coming weeks.
God Bless.
Zac.