new car!

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YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!  We got the new car.  I picked it up today before I got the kids.  After I picked the car up I went to get the kids and they all laughed at me when I drove up cause I looked so funny in that huge vehicle.  Ha.  It felt really weird driving that thing.  I felt like I was sitting on the front grill with a whole train behind me.  Very strange.  It is great though.  There’s so much space in that vehicle which will be great.  It’s just what we needed.

 

It’s been kind of nasty rainy again today.  Every once in a while it will start drizzling and just be like that for 30 minutes or so and then stop.  The cool thing though is that it’s like this for a couple days and then right afterwards it gets HOT! So I’m hoping that tomorrow it will warm up again and be nice for when the group gets here.

 

They should be arriving at 4pm here.  I’ll be going with Ronnie and Sybil to welcome them to
Port Elizabeth.  Please be praying for the safety of these people while they’re here and that their whole trip here goes smoothly. 

 

You guys are the best.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and support.  You are all legends and heroes to me! Love you all!

 

daniel

 

nice nice nice!

Oh boy, lots of stuff to write about!

 

WE FOUND A CAR!!!  Yesterday morning, Ronnie, Sybil and I went to look at a vehicle that we were interested in.  It’s going to be perfect.  It’s a Volkswagen microbus type vehicle.  It’s very big.  I will probably look ridiculous driving that thing.  Ha.  They’re going to sell it to us at a great price, for here at least.  We should have all the paperwork done and the car paid for by mid-next week.  The dealership is fixing a couple little things for us before we pick it up.  It needed 2 new tires and one of the windows was messed up somehow but they’re fixing that for us.  I can’t wait.  I miss driving the kids to school with everyone in the same car.  We’ve had to drive the kids in two cars to get them all there.

 

 I went to the squatter camp that we are going to be working when Schaun and his group get here.  I went there today.  I can’t remember if I explained what we’ll be doing or not.  We’re going to help a pastor by the name of Wiseman build some type of building so they can have church in it.  We’re going to pour a concrete floor and put up some walls made out of metal to keep the rain and the wind out.  Please be praying for us that we are able to do all that.  We won’t have much time to do it because the group is only here for a week and will only have a couple days to work there.

 

After I went to check-up on all that stuff, I drove a few minutes down the road to a town called Seaview.  It’s a really small town but it is right on the coast of the ocean.  It’s a beautiful town!  If I were to move here, that’s where I would want to live.  I pulled up right next to the water and just sat for a few minutes admiring the long, beautiful coast that was lit up by the glowing sun.  The were some clouds also off in the distance that just sat right above the land, the coast, and the ocean, white as could be they did an amazing job of accentuating the horizon.  There were a couple guys and a lady parked a little ways away but they saw me sitting there and came over to say hi.  We started talking; his name is Dave, very nice, very funny guy.  The other man there was with his son.  His son is 11 years-old or so but Dave said he was also deaf and dumb.  The funniest thing about Dave was that he was probably a 40-45 year-old guy and was really drunk.  I should also mention that it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and he was still drinking from the night before! Haha!  We talked about how beautiful of a day it was and how wonderful the town of
Seaview is.  He gave me a few examples of how peaceful and quiet the town was but I won’t relay those stories to you. Ha.  I love people so much.  They’re definitely the best part of God’s creation.  There are so many different types of people, from different parts of the world, with different beliefs about life.  That’s what makes people so beautiful!

 

Anyways, it’s been a beautiful day and weekend thus far.  Mama made it to
Cape Town and is supposed to be coming back tomorrow evening.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she stays till Monday if not Tuesday.  We’ll see I guess.

 

Love you all! 

 

Daniel

 

All Better

Hello folks.  Thank you all for your prayers!  Mama has recovered from whatever she had.  She’s been sick for the past 3 or 4 days and is now smiling and happy again.  I’m so excited. 

She is going to be leaving tomorrow morning for
Cape Town.  She has a daughter there and is going to be visiting her for a couple days.  Her daughter had a child not to long ago and they said they’re having some problems with the kid.  Mama doesn’t think they know how to raise a kid or anything like that or even what to do if she gets sick so she’s going down there to see her and her grandchild.  She’ll be taking Lilitha also.  They’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning and will be back Sunday evening.  Lilitha doesn’t know yet so she’s going to be extremely surprised when she finds out.  Every time Mama goes out of town, Lilitha is always standing in the drive-way sad and the whole time she’s gone she asks me when she’s coming back.  Mama thought she would surprise her.  I’m so glad they’re getting this opportunity to get away.  It will be great for them. 

We still don’t have any news yet about the car situation.  Our mechanic friend has been keeping an eye out for one for us and he told us yesterday that he saw one we might be interested in.  It’s supposed to be arriving in
Port Elizabeth today or tomorrow, I think.  It was bought from out of town and was intended to be sold here.  Hopefully we’ll get the first look at it and decide if it’s the right thing for us.  Please be praying that it will and that if it’s not the one that God will bring the right one to us…soon!

 

Daniel

 

(p.s. thank you all for the supportive comments on the last blog (except miss Anne Jackson)! haha.  Some of those made me laugh really hard!)

 

Ouch

WOW! My self-confidence was shot today.  Shot in the face! 

As I was taking Sister to the bus stop this afternoon, we pulled over so Sister could pick something up that she saw on the road.  As we were stopped, there was a woman that asked Sister for a ride.  She told her that she needed to ask me.  I told her “sure, no problem.”  As we were driving towards the bus stop, Sister and this woman started laughing.  I asked them what was so funny and the woman proceeded to tell me that she thought I was a woman when she asked me for a ride and even when she got in the car.  She said I was so “pretty” and “beautiful” that she thought I was a woman!

I dropped the woman off first and as soon as she left the car, I turned to sister and asked her “so I look like a woman, huh?”  She started laughing and told me that I “don’t have a guyish looking face but a kind of girly face.”

On my behalf, I don’t know where they got this assumption.  I haven’t shaved for a couple days and have some whiskers covering the bottom half of my face, I have a v-neck t-shirt on, my black eye-glasses, my hair is, I guess, kind of long, still short though, and I have my lip ring.  Granted, some girls have lip rings but definitely more guys than girls.  And also, my voice sounds like a guy.  At least I thought it does, I hope it does!

I guess it’s not too much of a surprise.  A year and a half ago, when I had my really long hair, a woman asked me if I had a wig on cause my hair looked so “pretty.”  Last year, at a youth camp, I heard from one of the youth leaders that the girls said I “have sexy ankles.”  These things that these girls have noticed are NOT the things that guys want to be noticed for. 

I’m a little depressed right now.  Definitely going to have to spend some time in prayer tonight; asking God to build my self-confidence back up because it is definitely gone right now.  ANY words of encouragement about this “topic” are most definitely welcome!  Haha!

 

daniel

 

16th of October

Hello folks.  We had a great weekend!  Saturday I took the Xolelwa, Khanyisa, Atho, and Phumlani to the beach (still have a small car so can’t get everyone there right now).  The water is still FREEZING but the sun was nice and hot. 

At one point while we were there I told Phumlani to run into the water and tackle his sister Xolelwa and as he was running toward the water he overlooked the big whole that was dug out of the sand right in front of him.  His right foot went straight into it and he fell flat on his face.  Probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.  He was laughing too so I didn’t feel so bad about pointing and laughing as hard as I did.  Everyone that was even remotely close was laughing at the site of him running full out and then straight into the sand.  Hahahaha!

Not too much going on here.  This week is going to be rather slow.  Mama has arranged to go out of town on Wednesday for a few days.  She’ll probably be gone through the weekend.  Schaun and the group coming from Westside will be here next week on Thursday so I have some things to get set up before they get here. 

We’re going to be helping some people, in a small township about 10 minutes away, build a church.  We’ll have to pour a concrete floor and everything so we’ll be renting the cement mixer and getting all the cement and everything for that.  We’ll also be having our once-a-month feeding day in Markman that the group will be able to be involved with.  It should be great this month.  There are a couple women from the church here that are going to help make some food also and I think with the group that comes with Schaun, we should have some games and just an overall fun time.  I’m sure hoping that more people come this time.  We had approximately 100 last time which is amazing but I’m a pretty big dreamer and I want to see more than that.

We’re still looking for a vehicle.  We had a couple leads for a little while but neither of them worked out.  Both just weren’t what we are looking for.  We need something big and has good gas mileage.  Not the easiest thing in the world to find.  Those two things don’t usually go together but we’re trusting that God will bring us the perfect vehicle.  Your prayers are more than welcome, they’re needed!

I love you all and praying for you continuously throughout the day that God is growing you into the men and women he created you to be! 

 

Daniel

 

 

Aphelele

Hey guys.  I know I wrote just last night but I thought we had a good day here so I wanted to write again.  I miss you guys. 

Not too much went on today.  Not much usually does the day after the child sponsorship day. 

Yesterday afternoon when I was picking up the kids from school, Auntie Mandy, Lisa’s teacher, told me,  “we would love to have Aphelele come by and spend the day with us tomorrow (Thursday).  So this morning, we got Aphelele all dressed up with the other kids and took him school too.  Right when we got there he jumped out of the car and ran all the way across the school yard into Mandy’s arms.  It was so cute.  He was absolutely thrilled to be going to school with the “older kids.”  After school was over we picked them up and he still had a smile on his face.  Mandy invited him back tomorrow also.  She thinks it would be good for him and would help him learn his English better.  He really wants to learn English.  He’s really trying to, you can tell.

Siphokazi is getting so close to saying my name.  It’s not very clear.  It’s more of a slurred “Donnel” type thing than Daniel.  It’s so cute though.  Every time she sees me she says it. 

Anyways, I just wanted to tell you all about Aphelele and how excited he is that he gets to go to school again tomorrow.  He came home today telling us all how much he loves Auntie Mandy. 

Hope you guys are having a beautiful day!

Daniel

 

yeah baby!

Yay guys, Yay!  Again, God blessed us today.  Forgive me for not informing you and not writing to you about today asking you to pray for us.  I was going to write on her last night but as I was sitting in my bed reading, I literally fell over asleep and didn’t wake up till morning.  I slept the whole night in my clothes with shoes and everything on.  But what I was going to tell you was that today we did our sponsorship program with the 15 extra kids.

We got there this morning, just like every month around 9:30.  Yesterday, we went around Motherwell telling all the new folks that they were now sponsored and needed to arrive today to pick up the food parcels.  I wasn’t sure if everyone was going to get the news or the instructions to come pick it up.  We couldn’t go to all the homes so we went to the kids’ school and gave them a letter to give to their parents to tell them to come.  And what a blessing, they did!  It was absolutely chaos cause when I got there some of the people were already there waiting.  The store didn’t have the parcels all prepared yet so I was trying to help them and at the same time take care of the tons of women / mothers that were calling to me waiting for their food (hungry women = something you don’t want to mess with!).  With the extra people added to the list, I will definitely need an extra hand on the days of the sponsorship.  Mama was upfront with Brooke directing people to come to the back of the building to pick up the parcels so I was by myself.  In the past that was fine but things are changing and getting bigger, going to need an extra hand now.  Overall it went well.

I’m so excited that this still went well today.  We doubled the amount of kids this month from 15 to 30 and that’s a big jump for us.  It shows us that whatever we are doing, we are on the right track and we’re doing it the right way now.  God is going to continue blessing our work and continue to grow the program more and more!   I’ve talked to Traci, the woman who coordinates the sponsorship program from the states, and we both think that by December, we could have over 60 + sponsored.  That would be great!  I would be so excited for that. 

Keep praying guys!  Praying that God blesses what we are doing and more importantly that he joins us in this and works along side us with what we are doing.  In the end, though we all want the glory and the fruits from our work to be an offering to God. 

 

Daniel

 

 

just crystal posting more pics from daniel

the kids and Daniel trying to catch baby ducks to care for them

As you can see i was putting some of the ducks in my jacket pockets because i ran out of hands. 
I didn’t really think though that it was probably pretty scary in there.  I soon realized that and
also that when ducks get scared, they poop and pee everywhere.  My phone was covered. And of
course, when no one hardly ever calls, some decided to call right at that moment!  Pretty ironic
don’t you think?

Siphokazi’s 1st birthday.

the kids around the table – little Lisa wearing Daniel’s glasses.

beach day

Hello folks.  It’s been a good week so far.  Last night Phumlani and Xolelwa had an awards ceremony at their school for academics and sports and all that good stuff.  So Phumlani, Xolelwa, Khanyisa, Atho, Sino, and I all went to it with them.  It was a rather boring ceremony because most of the things that were being awarded were for good grades and all that stuff and unfortunately Phumlani and Xolelwa did not have that.  They gave each student in the school a character trait that best described them.  Phumlani’s was meekness and Xolelwa’s was generosity.  I think those were pretty good.  It sure would have been better though if they had done well enough with their grades so they could have been rewarded for that.  It was really boring sitting there for an hour and a half watching other kids that I don’t know getting awards. 

Today, I took Phumlani to work and while I was out I noticed how beautiful and hot it was today so I went back, picked up the younger kids and Brooke (cause the older ones went last night to the school thing), and went to the beach.  We were there for about an hour and a half but literally, within the first few minutes, Aphelele decided he didn’t want to get in the water and had to go pee (This is the beach.  Why would a city put bathrooms at a beach when you got the ocean right in front of you?).  Because Lisa saw how scared of the water Aphelele was she decided she didn’t want to get in either and wanted to go back to the car.  This all happened literally before I even had my shirt off.  Needless to say I wasn’t too happy.  Quite the opposite, I was very frustrated.  This happened last time I brought Lisa up here by myself.  She’s afraid of the water, screams when she sees a dog, whether they’re big, small, or miniscule, she always screams.  She’s always having to pee and doesn’t understand that when you’re at the ocean…you just go!  I think I was in the water for 20 minutes maybe.  It’s weird because when I say I’m going there and ask them if they want to go, they say yes.  Every time.  I told them though that, after today, this is the last time, for a long time, that they’ll be going to the beach, no matter what.  I don’t think they really cared though.

Well, I know this is short but I promise more after the weekend’s over!

See ya guys!

daniel

long entry

hey guys.  i had one of the best nights of my entire life last night.  considering the circumstances it appears that i had an awful night but you gotta look at the outcome of everything. 

i went to bed a little late last night, still not feeling well and still having a hard time to breathe well.  after a lot of garage dwelling laughter (laughter from all of us that live in the garage), i finally got to sleep at 12:30 or so.  before i move on, i must include a quote from Phumlani.  “My bums are so small it looks like i only have one.”  Hahaha! i’m just going to leave it at that and make your mind wander, trying to dream up some reason we might be talking about that.  oh and i also found out that Phumlani likes to pray when he’s pooping! Hahaha!
ok, back to the night.  like i said i went to bed probably around 12:30 and then at 3:45 i woke up unable to breathe.  i took some more medicine, drank some water, blew my nose trying to clear my head and then layed back down.  couldn’t go back to sleep.  i layed there for half an hour or so and started getting frustrated that i just went to Ronnie and Sybil’s room (cause they’re still gone), made some nice hot, soothing, and tasty rooibos tea, popped in a cd and tried to clear my head.  i had to try and be quiet cause Phumlani and Brooke were sleeping just next door.  within minutes, i was in such a relaxing state.  i just sat there completely motionless.  then all of a sudden i started mouthing the words and actually listening to the music.  i entered into the deepest worship with God i have had in a long time, maybe ever.  i was just sitting there, finished the tea, put my hands in the air and just started crying.  as i’m writing this now i am almost brought to tears again.  i just completely broke, everything inside of me just dropped.  all the feelings of being sick, the desire for a spiritual, emotional, and physical companionship, all the thoughts of what i’m doing here, all the thoughts and feelings of those i love at home, everything.  i couldn’t take it anymore.  everything inside of me was hurting.  i was in complete awe of God.  totally overwhelmed by his glory.  from 4:15 to 6:15, 2 hours, i sat there listening to the music (even when the cd had ended i kept playing the songs over in my head), hands in the air, knees pressed against the floor with my face burried in the couch, completely in the presence of God.  the prayers that were coming from my mouth were not from me.  i couldn’t have said those words more passionately and more heartfelt if i had planned out what to say weeks in advance.  after everything cooled down and the sun was up, i went outside and saw the beautiful sun.  God’s way of showing us the light of the world.  it wasn’t the most beautiful sunset with all the colors of red, orange, and purple in the horizon.  it was thunderous, mighty clouds overlapping the sun.  absolutely beautiful strong.  again proclaiming God’s glory.  

the day from that point never really slowed down.  got some sponsorship work done before the kids went to school, went and test drove a vehicle, went grocery shopping with Mama, picked kids up from school, took Phumlani to work and Sister to her bus at 4:30, just before that we spent about half an hour running around our property trying to catch all the baby ducks.  we were afraid that they were going to die too so we caught them and put them in a little chicken hut thing we have.  the babies were easy to catch but the Momma was a different story in itself.  probably the funniest thing i’ve seen in a long time.  2 or 3 of us fighting off the geese who were trying to help the Momma duck galantly save her babies from the mean humans while 5 or so others, including Norenti, were trying to chase down the Mom.  she kept flying off but eventually we just surrounded her and guided her right into the chicken hut.  Success!

i’m feeling pretty crummy right now.  everytime i think i’m starting to feel better, everything just turns south.  whatever congestion i had is moving into my chest now.  i feel completely weak. 

Sybil called this morning and said the Ronnie’s mom died last night at 9pm.  they sounded a little sad at the time but said that it’s a good thing and they’re glad she doesn’t have to struggle anymore.  i think she was 96 years old.  she very peacefully stopped breathing right at 9.  so they’re going to be there till the end of the week is my guess for the funeral.  they probably won’t be back till Sunday at the earliest.  keep praying for them please!

thanks guys for everything!
daniel