Another Day
Hello all!
It’s been a normal week so far, nothing out of the ordinary yet. Except for yesterday, Phumlani had a doctors appointment to see a dermatologist that Jennifer had arranged when she was still here. Jennifer has a nephew who is around 6 years old that has a disease called Neurofibromatosis (NF). This disease can cause a tumor to grow throughout your body wherever there is a nerve. Many complications can come from this disease, like: blindness, deafness, disfigurement, and the list goes on an on. Neadless to say, she saw many of the same symptoms that come from NF on Phumlani. She was pretty sure he had it but wanted to make sure by getting the approval of a specialist here in Port Elizabeth. The guy agreed too. He said he had no problem diagnosing him with NF, meaning that it was pretty clear that he did. I think one of the most noticeable problems from NF that Phumlani has right now is a learning disability. He is struggling to get past what would be 7th grade in the states. He’s 18 years old now and I know that he didn’t understand a word the doctor was saying. The only thing he heard was that if he were to get married and have kids…everytime he were to have a child, the child would have a 50% chance of receiving NF.
Like I was saying above, Jennifer’s nephew has NF and she, whenever she can, runs marathons for him. And now that Phumlani has it, she will be running for him as well. The marathons are set up to help raise money for further researching NF. In light of his disease, she would like to get a team together for him (possibly called “Team Phumlani”) that could run or walk for him. There is a marathon in Phoenix that she will be apart of that if you raise enough money for the research it is free to be a part of. She wanted me to ask if there is anyone that would like to be a part of this or maybe help in another way, to contact her. You can do that by emailing her at jenniferc@everestkc.net. If you would like to talk to her on the phone, email her first and she will give you her phone #. (I don’t want to give it out, cause I forgot to ask if that was ok : )
The weather here is nasty. I’m tired of this cold. It is absolutely freezing. There is no central heating in any building in South Africa. I put my coat on in the morning and don’t take it off until I go to bed. I’ve even thought about wearing it in the shower. The power was out for a couple hours tonight. I probably would have been in bed by now, oh well. So much for that.
If you all could pray that I get some rest over the next couple days, I would really appreciate that. Ronnie and Sybil approached me today asking me if everything was ok. I guess they noticed that I was just dragging along and didn’t seem ok. I think i’m just drained, physically drained especially, but also mentally, and spiritually. I’ve just been battling a lot of things spiritually, that’s normal for me though, and been growing more than you could believe. I’ve been reading a book by Max Lucado called “In The Grip of Grace.” It’s a great book. I’m really enjoying it. Anyways, prayer’s good, confess everything to God cause he already knows and has forgiven us! He’s that good!
Goodnight folks!
You’re my heroe’s!
daniel
God’s SUCCESS!
What a great two days it’s been! Yesterday went wonderfully. Mama and Sister got up really early to get the food started cooking and ready for the big day. Oh and it turned out, with the bread and eggs, the egg business gave us 300 fresh eggs and the bread guy gave us 50 loaves of bread. I think the egg guys are going to be donating to us on a regular basis of every two weeks or so. We’ll see. We want to have a bunch of businesses like that willing to donate large quantities of food on a regular basis. Especially in the future with wanting to move into Markman and become a valuable part of that community, it would be great to have the support and partnership with some businesses that could do that!
Anyways, we had a great day. I had been praying all week that the weather would be decent enough for us to not worry about people being afraid to get out in the rain to come and get some food. All week it was rainy, cloudy, fog, and mud everywhere. When I woke up Saturday morning at about 6:45, I stepped outside with my eyes closed and my fingers crossed. God answered my prayers. For the first time in a week + there was sunshine and clear skies. It was an absolutely beautiful day!
There weren’t quite as many people as I had hoped but I think that’s a good thing. I was hoping for 200 people and we had 100. It was ok though, probably better because we were able to give the people enough and not have to be worried that we would run out before everyone got some. ¾ of the people there were children. They were so much fun. Mama wanted to have a time to pray and talk to them before we gave them the food and they were sent off so she had a friend of hers get up in front of the 100 or so and speak for 10 minutes or so. I couldn’t understand anything she was saying but it seemed like they were following and agreeing with her cause I kept hearing “Yes” “Amen!” and “That’s right.” After she spoke Mama stepped up and prayed for the food and that it would nourish our bodies. She thanked God for providing the money and the supporters too. The cool thing about the people here when they pray is that lots of the time, they pray in songs. Mama told me “we’re going to pray and then you can get the food.” All of a sudden a woman in the crowd started singing a song. They sang a few songs; most of them had their eyes closed with a child in their arms. Cool sight! I will have a few pictures up soon so be looking for them.
I want to say thank you to all of you that helped make yesterday possible. It truly was a good day and God was glorified through it all. Yesterday was just the beginning, the starting point, and we still had 100 people. I can’t wait to see how many people come just based off word of mouth from those that got fed a good meal. Thank You!
This morning at church I saw something pretty cool. I was standing in front of my chair as the church and I sang “Lord Reign In Me.” As we were all singing, I looked over towards Aphelele, the new boy that’s with us (i was looking because you have to keep an eye on that kid or something really bad could happen in a matter of seconds), he was sitting on a chair listening, trying to understand the words that everyone was singing because he doesn’t know English yet. But all of a sudden I saw him look to his left, to his right, and then raise his right hand in the air. He was sitting there, trying to do what the other people were doing, raising his hand to God. I was touched by that, seeing that little boy raise his hand to God. A few minutes later I looked over again and he had put his hand down but now he had both arms, 90o angle, with both hands out facing heaven. Again, seeing what others were doing and trying to do the same thing. It was so sweet. He’s such an adorable little kid. Every time he sees me, he screams “DANIELLLLLL!” It is the coolest thing ever. Then he runs up and like most little kids, throws his head into my crotch, wrapping both arms around my waist. As painful as that might sound, I love it every time he does it. This home wouldn’t be the same without him here. He brings so much laughter to us here. Today, we were watching some show on TV, all of us sitting around the room, I was on the floor. He walked by me and I thought it would be funny to yank his pants to the floor. When they hit the floor, he didn’t even flinch. He didn’t turn his head; I don’t think he even blinked. Until he realized that we were all laughing at the fact that he didn’t know what was going on, he started dancing around with his pants still on the floor with his shiny Lamborghini yellow underwear flashing us all.
I hope you all were able to see God’s great blessings to you today!
Daniel
more pictures
Here are some more pictures from Daniel!
Holy cow!!! (i know how you love hearing me talk about holy cows dad!) Today just blows every other day of existence out of the water for me. Actually it doesn’t, but i sure does come close!
7:15 Wake up
7:20-8:10 Take kids to school
8:10-9:30 Type two letters for donators and deliver them in less than an 1 1/2
9:30 Take Mama to pick up friend for meeting she had in town at 10
10-12 Sit and wait for the guy to show up at his office for the meeting
12-12:30 Had a good meeting with good results
12:30-1:30 Get birdseed for the useless birds we have and get back to the house to swap vehicles
1:30-1:33 Ahh I got to sit for a few minutes
1:33-2:15 Pick up kids from school
2:15-4:45 Help Mama get ready for her other meeting today, talk to random workers at our house, make sure Phumlani had his shirt tucked in before he got in the car for work, miscellaneous things
4:45-5:45 Took Phumlani to work, answered Mama and Brooke’s cry for help as their car broke down in Motherwell…not the safest place to be when that happens
5:45-8:10 Realize that because the car is so stinkin old, it overheated. With no way of fixing it but to just try and let it cool off, we sat in the car and twiddled our thumbs, bought some rope, decided i was going to pull Brooke in the car all the way from Motherwell to the mechanics house (A LONG WAYS). After making it on the highway, up the hills, through lots of lights, and a few bumps into the back the car i was driving…we made it there
8:10-9:15 Leave mechanics, drop Mama and Brooke off at our place, get back in the car, pick up Phumlani from work and come home
9:15-11:22 (present) Eat dinner, realize i haven’t taken a shower in two days an decide i can blow it off another 2, try and type a ton of emails, and type this lovely update for you!
Pretty impressive huh? Overall it was a good day. Surprisingly i’m not that tired. Mama and i decided we’re alike in that when our bodies are exhausted, we can’t sleep and we become restless, which is what has been happening to me. I haven’t been able to sleep well. I keep waking up multiple times throughout the night and spend the entire day yawning.
If you read my last blog, you saw that we had a meeting today with the counselor of Markman. We’ve been trying to see him so we could get a chance to talk to him but he’s been avoiding us. So we decided to go to his boss, the “chief whip.” That’s his actual title. It’s pretty appropriate to because when we told him who we were and about our problems with this counselor, he called him up, while we were still sitting in his office, and started going off on him (at least i think that’s what he was doing. i was only able to catch a few words he said in English and a few that i know in Xhosa). It was really funny. Nobody likes to have their boss yell at them or tell them how they’re to do their job. It was as if the Chief Whip was a dad and the counselor was his 4 year old son. “Who’s your daddy? Who’s your daddy boy?” I so wanted him to say that!
Anyways, he arranged for Mama and the counselor to meet tonight and that’s where her and Brooke were going when the car broke down. They were right around the corner from the meeting place when the car broke down so Mama went ahead to the meeting and i came and helped Brooke with the car. With no progress of starting the car and you don’t want to leave a car there overnight, we had to find a way to tow it back to our mechanics home. He lives 15-20 minutes away from where we were, at normal driving speeds. So we knew it was going to be a long drive. The first attempt we had of towing the car snapped the rope in 3 places. We tried again to tie it better and make it stronger. It worked. The entire way back we were driving so slow. Brooke, i think, bumped into me once on the highway and then when we stopped in front of the guys house, she ran the car underneath the back bumper of the SUV i was driving. She was doing so well too. The rope between the two cars was probably only 10 ft in length. There were a couple hills and a bunch of lights that i was praying LOUDLY to God to help us make it over and through, allowing the cheep $4 rope to be strong. He did though. He is amazing. To give you a better example of the path we had to take…it would be like driving from Metcalf and 435 to the Midland exit, then over to Shawnee Mission Pkwy, then all the way to Monticello and to my house right off 49th and Monticello. That’s the kind of drive i’m talking about. So now you will understand what i mean when i say i was sweating way more than normal about making it there in one piece.
I mentioned also that our mechanic is the guy that said he wanted to donate a bunch of food. So when i was dropping the car off at his house tonight, he told me to stop by tomorrow at 11 to pick up the food he was able to get donated. His friend in the egg shop is donating 2 boxes of eggs. Each box has approximately 350 brand new fresh eggs! yeah that’s right! and as i’m leaving his home, i’m to go to the bakery that he knows the owner and the owner is going to give us 50 loaves of bread! Again, yeah that’s right! That means if we have 200 people we can give them each a quarter chunk of a loaf! that’s really good! oh, i’m so excited. And with the donations that i have been receiving from some of you, we will be able to feed more than 200 for sure. Tomorrow i’m going to go get all the food and tomorrow night Mama and Sister are going to start cooking. WOOH! two more days like today and i’ll be OUT! Won’t that be great!
daniel
Well good morning, afternoon, or evening, which ever one this reaches you at. I hope your day is fabulous and as wonderful as mine has been!
The day started off kind of rough. I got up a little groggy and still tired, to take the kids to school. We got one of the vehicles back from the shop after getting a whole ton of things fixed and the mechanic that did it was such a nice guy. He truly helped us out on the cost and everything. He even brought the car to us when it was finished. Don’t you wish the mechanics would do that in the states?
For quite some time now we’ve been having some trouble with a city counselor here. We’ve come to him to in some ways ask his permission and to also get him involved with what we’re trying to do. He’s been a pain in the butt though. He has tried to avoid us, told us that we could never see him, that he didn’t want us in his area, and so on and so on. He’s a younger guy and Mama thinks that he just wants the land we have leased and is trying to get rid of it so he can use it for his own desires. This guy really is making things difficult for us. Anyways, we finally got in touch with his secretary and we stopped by her office today to drop off a couple letters and show some pictures of what we have been doing. Pictures of us delivering food for the child sponsorship program and stuff. She suggested that we come back tomorrow and catch him while he is in the office so we can kind of corner him and get the chance to at least explain ourselves. God willing he will be there and will listen to us. We just don’t want to go ahead and start building or whatever and have him come in and just for fun, start making things difficult for us. It would probably become very unsafe there if we were to do that. So the plan is to go back tomorrow morning and talk to him. Hopefully God will soften his heart and he’ll want to join us. It’s a huge bummer just because we are trying to help the people that he was elected by and now we can’t because of him.
This afternoon i was talking to Sybil and she told me that the man that was fixing the cars also owns a bakery. Ronnie and Sybil told him about this Saturday and how we’re going to be going into Markman to feed the people like i told you about a few posts ago. I think he loved the idea because he offered to donate a whole bunch of bread to us. I think he’s even going to do it each month which will allow us to feed more people! Then, on the way back from this guys house, he called Ronnie and Sybil on their phone saying that he also had a friend who owned a company that sold eggs or something and they have a whole bunch of eggs and batter we can use to make scrambled eggs and everything. This food alone will be able to feed a lot of people. Ronnie and Sybil said we need at least 12 dozen loves of bread. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get more. God is soooo good! How sweet is that? Things are happening. GREAT things! It’s so cool to see God at work and working through us. What started out as a simple little idea of feeding some people on a Saturday afternoon has turned in to: every last Saturday of the month, probably feeding a few hundred people, and with that many people being fed, the counselor dude will have to get on board. So many people will see what our goal is and will help us. Credibility, which is HUGE and very important when trying to work here, will be gained also. WOOOH! I’M SO EXCITED! For those of you that have helped already with this “day of feeding”……Thank You! I can’t wait to see how it turns out. It’s going to be amazing!
You might have been able to see from my last post that i was going through a rough week. Some things i thought i had already gotten past and wouldn’t have to worry about anymore, but turns out i was wrong. This summer was great. I loved every single person that was here. But now that i’m here, alone again, i am craving just a hug from my family, friends, and loved ones. My heart and body ache for them. Like i was saying also that everything seems so emotion and that’s because i’m feeling so passionate about what i’m doing here and at the same time torn between that and wanting some affection from those in the states. What i realized though is that my mind was so focused on those things, wanting to come home and sad that i can’t see you all, that it was becoming a huge distraction for me. I spent a few days non-stop just thinking of ways in how i could come home earlier. I was missing the life i had before i came here. But it’s not my will that i’m here for. It’s not my will that is to be done. Matthew 16 something “For whoever wants to find their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” How perfect of a verse is that for me to read while i’m thinking about all this stuff. Perfect timing again God! I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who wrote me emails or wrote comments on here telling me that you are praying for me, whether you woke up in the middle of the night and felt the need to or you were driving down the road listening to Danny by Elton John and thought of me…either way, equally appreciated! Thank you guys!
I love you all and i do look forward to the day i can see all your smiling faces again but for now…this is where i’m supposed to be.
daniel
Have Your Way
This is a song that I was listening to today. Emotionally, my mind and heart have been going crazy lately. This song was great for me to hear. It’s amazing how God speaks to all of us. Even when we’re struggling and at rock bottom, he stil wants to speak to us. This is just one of those ways. I was going to highlight the parts that applied directly to me and then I looked over the entire song once more and realized that the whole thing was for me. Specifically for me! I just wish I could play it one here for you. It’s a beautiful song!
In my own strength I’ve tried
To live a holy life
Struggling till the end
Then you find me on my knees
Praying God forgive me please
And I’ll try again
So when will victory be mine
I’m running out of faith and time
To live on a mountain top
It takes more than a will to climb
Have your way with me
Let your strength be what flows from me
And let the blood that ran down Calvary
Run through me
Oh Lord have your way with me
It seems like self never dies
The harder I try
It comes back for more
There are times I lose this fight
Before the battle has begun
And your blessings must wait once more
Though this flesh is what covers me
Holy Spirit take control of me
When I want to give in
Don’t give up on me
‘Cause where grace abounds
Is where I want to be
Please be praying for me my friends. I don’t know what to as you to pray for. Just pray that I am following God. That God’s will may be done and not my own!
One Door Shuts, Look For The Next Open One
One Door Shuts, Look For The Next Open One
Well guys. It didn’t quite go like i had hoped it would. I went to Shoprite this morning and, first, got all the parcels accounted and paid for. 14 total! Then I went to sit with Charl for a few minutes and talk some business. He’s such a good guy. Very understanding. Before we had even gone into the store, i asked Mama to pray for the conversation we were going to have and for Charl that God would prepare his heart for what he wanted to do through him, and also that Charl would be thinking with his heart and not his mind. I told him about all the ideas and concerns i was having. He listened and then chimed in with his response. About the delivery process…he said he wouldn’t be able to assist in that without it costing money. Shoprite doesn’t even have it’s own transportation but use a truck company to deliver to the store. About the set price of parcels in the future, they said that would be very difficult to do also, for obvious reasons. He said he understood why i would want to see if that could be done but from his position as a supervisor, that probably won’t be able to happen.
So needless to say, it looks as if God has closed the door to the ideas i was having. Instead of getting frustrated and giving up, Mama and i searched for some other ideas in the back of our minds (which isn’t a very difficult search). Next month we are going to try a different approach. One we were trying to avoid but figured we might as well give it a chance. What I’m going to do tomorrow is type up a letter to give to each of the sponsored children and their families. The contents will say that “we are needing to try a different angle on the delivery process of our Child Sponsorship Program. We have been having some difficulties and are trying to make it as easy as we possibly can, most importantly for you, and for ourselves as well. We are asking that, on September 12th, you who have been receiving food parcels, to come and pick them up at the Shoprite in Motherwell and find transportation for the parcel and yourself to get back to your home.” At first, I didn’t like this idea because i know it will be difficult for a bunch of the people to come and get the parcels and get them home. Many are too far to walk and the parcels are too large for any one person to carry. Anyways, we’re going to give it a shot. If it works out, than that would make the process even easier for us than Shoprite delivering the parcels to us. I know that God is going to make the right choice for us and i think that’s what he’s done. He knows what’s best and i’m even more excited to see what happens. If i thought that was a great idea and God has something better for us, than how great will his plans be? Wooh! Very cool!
Keep praying guys! We’re not giving up and God for sure isn’t!
I want to make a request. I am curious to see who is reading this blog on a regular basis. What i want to ask is that any one who is reading this right this second…please leave a comment. Just say “hi” if you don’t have anything you want to say. I don’t care who you are, if i know you or not, just say something. I want to see who God is reaching out to.
Thanks guys! Love to all!
daniel
oh i’m excited!!!
Hello you beautiful people. I’m so glad to get to write you right now! Last night i had every intention to get on and tell you about what was to happen today and to ask for your prayers. Fortunately, the way things ended up working out today, i can now do that.
Today, i was scheduled to go to Motherwell and deliver parcels. Before we were going to do that i was supposed to go and talk to the supervisor of the grocery store we get the parcels from. I had told him that i would like to sit down with him and talk to him about the future and about the plans we would like to see happen. God has been very gracious to me, allowing me to hear his voice more clearly and his direction for me and for the Child Sponsorship Program (CSP). Over the last few months of the CSP running, we have been able to see some things that we have been doing wrong and ways in which we could change them to make it better. The delivery process of the parcels has been a pain in the butt. We’re definitely in a trial and error stage and i’m just praying that God will allow it to be a trial and success stage very soon. One of the things that i wanted to talk to the supervisor of the grocery store was that very topic. What we have been doing is taking the parcels ourselves to the people’s house. As wonderful and more personal as that is, if we ever want to grow to sponsoring hundreds of kids, that won’t be possible. So we need the help of Shoprite, the grocery store. We went there today to talk to him and to pick up the parcels and they were just so busy that i suggested that we come back tomorrow. That way we would have time to sit down and discuss some things and not be rushed in delivering the parcels. My hope is that they will be willing to deliver the parcels for us. Mama Gladys currently has some land leased that has plans of a community center being built on it very soon. The best thing for us would be to have Shoprite deliver the parcels to that land and the people come and pick them up themselves. It would give them some responsibility in coming to pick up the parcels themselves. I truly feel that this is the best way and that God has opened up all the doors to get to this point. I’m not worried one bit that it will happen but i am somewhat unconfident in myself with bringing the request to Shoprite. I really need your prayers right now. This is just one of the things I plan to bring up with him. Others include: a set price for the parcels, donating food to us on a regular basis, and also wanting to hear what they would like to see happen through our relationship we’ve built and their expectations of us. I have complete faith that if this is the right thing for us, which God will make it happen no matter how poorly i present it. Just pray that I am confident in myself and that I am prepared.
I have been reading Matthew the past few days. I wanted to share this with you all, just something that i loved. Matthew 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” Lord, bless the tree that we are trying to plant and grow that its fruit may be good. May we be recognized by the good we are doing and that people will receive because of it.
Please be praying for me my brothers and sisters, that I am devoted to being obedient to Christ. Matthew 12:50 “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Oh and i wanted to share that I have gotten many replies to the last post (if you haven’t read it, PLEASE do so). So far we have gotten the money for the first month and more. The joy of your giving is overwhelming me. Thank you all for that! Please continue to keep giving! Never stop because God will never stop working miracles through the smallest of things we are obedient with!
Thanks Family!
Your son and brother
daniel
Time to get moving!
What’s up my friends?
It has been a crazy busy past few days. Starting Friday till now. Since i got back from Uganda i have been asking God to renew the passion i had when i first got here, to instill in me a passion to see change. And he has been doing that and sooo much more. I have felt on fire and eager to see what God is preparing me, Oceans of Mercy, and Port Elizabeth to become. Something that i have realized since i got here in March is that God is desperately needed here. Port Elizabeth is truly lacking in a relationship with God. People are searching and desire that but don’t have any knowledge of what joy that can bring you. I truly see a revival happening here soon. I see Port Elizabeth becoming one of the most spiritual and Godly places on earth. The question is how do you get to that point? What would you do if you were in my shoes? Wanting to help, wanting to motivate people to see God’s love and God’s desire to see each and every one of his children following him is what i’m feeling right now. Well, because we’re just mere human beings, completely useless in every shape and form, we need to allow God to do the miracles. All we can do is make ourselves available and then be obedient. This is so cool!!! Mama Gladys has a spot of land just short of an acre in Markman, which is where we want to do the majority of our ministry and reach out to the people. That land in the future is going to have a community center on it. On the weekends we will have services there for everyone in the community to come to, during the week people will come there when they need help, counseling, whatever. I can’t even comprehend what God will do through that place.
Unfortunately, some greedy people here that want to make a profit out of everyone are slowing us down. They are making every single thing more complicated for us. In the meantime, i was thinking that why don’t we start feeding the people, physically and spiritually. On the 26th of August, the last Saturday of the month, we will be going there around noon and will be planning on feeding at least 200 people. We currently lease the land so we can do anything we want on it, well not anything, but we CAN feed people. It will be a great opportunity for us to reach out to the people, get a chance to meet them and them us, and to have a good time showing God’s love. I mean, that’s what Christ did, he fed his people. So that’s what we’re going to do. God has been giving me so many more ideas and some dreams of ways in which to serve but for now, this is what we’ll do. I was thinking about it and I want to provide an opportunity for you all to help with this. Don’t get me wrong either, it’s more than that, we NEED your help. It costs less than $100 to feed 200 people, to put food in their stomach, and possibly give them another day on this earth. I can’t express to you how great of an opportunity this is for us, as believers, to show Christ’s love to others. God has called each and every one of us to serve, to feed God’s lost sheep, filling them with his word and love. I want to challenge all of you to be obedient to God. I’m not going to put pictures of starving children up here to guilt you in to doing this. All i know is that after being here, in South Africa, for 5 months now, i have realized how many people i could have helped in all the years i lived before coming here. Being here has shown me what i can do and has stretched me beyond beliefs to care for God’s children. I pray that he is doing the same with you, this very second! I know he is and I know WE CAN DO THIS! Together, let’s feed these beautiful people.
For those of you that were reading Jennifer’s blog as well, before she left she had been going to a small village about 10 minutes away. She had made some relationships with some wonderful people there. One of which was an older woman, her age i don’t know, but she was very sick up until the last time Jennifer saw her. The day after i got back from Uganda i went there to check up on everyone there. I was talking to a woman by the name of Linda who has AIDS and is pregnant with a child. Anyways, she told me that the woman, the older one, she died last Monday, a week ago today. This woman was so week that she was bedridden and had no one to watch after her. I actually don’t know if the woman had AIDS or not but she died with no one with her and no family to know that she had even died. It’s so sad to see something like that. Linda told me that because she had no family, she didn’t know if they were even going to have a funeral for her. I just wanted to share that with you folks who might have been wondering about her. My dad got a chance to meet her while he was here. He was helping Jennifer attend to her on one of the last days he and Jennifer were here. Life becomes soooo much more beautiful when you see something like that. When you see how short life can be and how much better and easier we have it.
Please be praying for me. Be praying that i continue to hear God’s voice and more importantly that i listen to it and am obedient. I wanted to tell you guys that it has been a blessing to share with you my struggles, my joy, my excitement, my adventures, and my sorrow. To be so vulnerable and know that people are praying for me has not only made me grow but has made me trust and be more dependant on God. And because of that i am indebted to all of you. I pray that you are able to have the same burdens for these people that i do. I pray that you all become as excited as i am to see the future of this city change. God is doing some great things here, and i can feel something even bigger coming.
Thank you all for the commitment you made to join me in this journey. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without you!
If while reading the above you became excited and felt a sturring in your heart to help with this feeding of the people, PLEASE email me (dgcox_1@yahoo.com) so i can tell you how. We will be doing that every last Saturday of the month and some day would like to be doing that every weekend if not every day. I pray that you guys are seeing the dream that i have for this place!
Love you all!
daniel
hello and welcome back everyone! i am finally back in Port Elizabeth and in the swing of things again. I got back late last night from Johannesburg. On the 29th my dad, Schaun, Joel Houser, and myself all went to Uganda. We were going there to survey another childrens village in Kampala, Uganda. That is where i wrote my last post from. After the first few days we all went up to a town called Gulu. It’s where a lot of civil wars and child abductions have taken place. It was an amazing place. We met a boy there by the name of Moses. He told us of his story and background. When he was younger, his brother and him were abducted and forced to join the military. When people got abducted, they would be forced to do things so that if they ever went back to their village, they wouldn’t be excepted. What happened to Moses was awful. The “bad guys” told him that he had to kill his brother. They put a gun in his hand and forced him to kill his own brother. Unfortunately he did. He actually didn’t tell us that story. Another person that knew his story did. He didn’t want to talk about it.
After all that, we decided to go back to Johannesburg a couple days earlier. We got there on Friday and stayed there till Monday, when i got back there. Saturday was my 21st birthday. We were checked in at a bed and breakfast and went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. We went to one of the most amazing restaurants in the world called Carnivore’s. I’m sure you can tell what kind of place it is. Alllllllll meat. Allllllllll you can eat!!! Lamb, Crocodile, Springbok, Rhino, Chicken, Beef, Venice Balls, and sooooo much more! It’s the best place ever, best experience too. That same day we all went over to Schaun’s brother’s house. His name is Greg. We went over there to watch the South Africa vs. Australia rugby match. It was my dad’s first rugby game. It was actually quite a bit of fun. It was just like watching a Chief’s football game. Everyone got excited, we were all drinking cokes, chewing on some beef jerky, booing and yelling at the referree for missing a call. All that fun stuff.
Well, i’m back in Port Elizabeth, everyone that was here with me the past two months is gone. It’s weird going back into a room that was once filled and noise filled with excitement to now quiet and stinks because of the latest rain falls. Last week Port Elizabeth had some pretty horrific rain. Within two days it rained 130 inches. I think I heard that it was a total of 1 meters worth of rain. Some roads with the slightest dip in them are now flooded with up to 4 feet of water blocking you from one side to the other. One intersection that is generally very busy and partially on a bridge, collapsed with a truck falling in with it. There have been people killed too. It’s just crazy here. Because of the blocked roads and collapsed bridges, it took me an hour to get the kids to school today when i typically takes 10-15 minutes. Big difference.
to Jennifer and the boys…the kids wanted me to tell you how much they miss you. we are all agree that it’s not the same without you guys here! Love you Jennifer, Joseph, James!
Today, make the choice to put your hope, faith, trust, and dependance in our loving God! Have a wonderful day!
daniel
