taken by beauty

Some days I am absolutely amazed at the beauty around me. even in the dry leaves of a tree, beauty abounds. What a wonderful gift to see beauty in the dry sticks of life. Now of course the challenge would be to see beauty where there seems to be none.

June's data

What a land of contrasts! It is good to be home after an extended time away. It is with great enthusiasm that we return to “our posts”, knowing that we know that we know that God goes before us. He prepares the way, we have no doubt.

This was the sunset that welcomed us back into South Africa, yes it’s the same sun all over the world, but this is where Rita appreciates it the most. The air is cooler in the grip of winter and it smells just so – as it does in the winter on the Highveld! A huge influence is , of course, the ‘grassies’ – Veld fires.

On the home front – Well things slowed down as was expected but nothing seems to have fallen apart which is also generally expected! It is good to be able to entrust certain tasks to capable people and know that they will get done, maintained etc. (Well in most cases… ) Years ago, when Jean-Pierre would go away for any amount of time, it seemed that was the time when geysers burst, electrics failed and other interesting things took the opportunity to ‘happen’.

On the work front – Returning from South East Asia brought some real truths home regarding our work. China needs a completed packaged deal as far as discipleship teachings etc. are concerned, but we are questioning whether we should be the people to give it to them. In the mean time we are encouraged to work and package the new course materials. Jean-Pierre met up with some people from the US Centre for World Mission and OM among others during the last two weeks to discuss the furthering of materials used in the course etc. There is a possibility that he might need to attend a course soon. We will keep you posted as soon as we know the details.

On the youngstas front - Dorianne returns to Uni after a mid- term study break. She is still trying like crazy to get into the freelance market as a colourist/illustrator. Jordan will be starting his exams soon, Micaela is doing okay. She seems to be getting rather frail, but in the long run, she is healthy enough. Rita still gets great joy out of time spent cuddling her.

Thank God for His strength and mercy

We praise him for good health and warm log fires this winter.

We are grateful for His grace – we camp on it daily. We are so thrilled that He goes before us, and even more thrilled that he wants relationship with us.

Keen to get the finer details of the course completed (First Draft) and hope to see it launched soon. Will keep you updated as to the details of when that happens too.

Praying that God’s hand is oh so very visible in your daily life.

Till next time

Here, but nearly landed!

Amazingly we have been back in SA for two weekends and still feel as if we need to land properly!
The weather is a whole lot more to our liking, as the hot mugginess was starting to get to us.
The sunsets are back where they should be and the grass now burns in the late afternoon, as it should in winter here in our land. How patriotic one wanes when one has missed the things of 'home'.
Some interesting facts that arose on this trip..
--The church as we know it is changing... it is no longer about institutions, rather it is about Peoples.
--God goes before His own
--Carrying a lighter load makes things a whole lot easier....
On that note... off to gym she goes!

so far... so good

March left us at the airport in Johannesburg about to embark on a journey – in more ways than one. Our itinerary was rather loosely set up, but we were trusting that God would sharpen it as we went along. Is it not amazing how God never disappoints?

He certainly had a tighter itinerary than we could have ever worked out for ourselves. We spent a quick time in Thailand, just to be able to get visas for Vietnam and China, then went to Cambodia to see some missionary friends there. Following a brief time there we travelled by bus to Vietnam. Vietnam welcomed us back with open arms and encouraged us to stay a while longer there. (This was due to a couple of different reasons) This is where we also applied for a new/temporary passport for Jean-Pierre as his was filling up rapidly with visas and stamps, stamps and yet more stamps.

We finally met up with Friends who ushered us in to China to many places, meeting many people there. It was an extremely successful time, and encouraging too, as we had confirmed to us repeatedly that what we are doing is what the world needs right now, so… back to working out the details as soon as we return home. Details of this part of the trip remain vague for obvious reasons. Leaving China did not go quite as planned, but, “Thank you Lord, that Jean-Pierre had a new passport”… and we ended up slipping in through Laos to go back to Bangkok, which is where we catch a plane for home. At the Laos border, the young fella in uniform at the immigration went on a stamping frenzy and filled up pages of passports that previously JP did not have! Yahweh Knows!!!

Laos was rather beautiful, quite hot and very humid. A pity we didn’t see more of it. But we were literally, just passing through. The roads are horrific, and the bus trips were rather hairy to say the least, but we never got motion sickness! VICTORY! It is with a great sense of achievement that we can get off a bus and look at menus as to what’s for dinner!

Finishing off in Bangkok to spend weekend with Missionaries from SA.

About to meet up with Deon, Corne and boys to spend the day with them. Please think hard as they are looking for a house in Bangkok and are using this weekend to go househunting!

Now we wanna....

Get home.

Feel the cool of winter.

Debrief.

Get cracking on the course material which will be starting in July.

Hug our kids.

Both Dorianne and Micaela had birthdays while we were away.

Hug our kids again.

Both Dorianne and Jordan have colds and flu right now.

Hug kids again

cheepcheepcheep...kwawk

A time to change countries…

You know its time to leave when the towels are this big and fluffy in our.....

Decor to die for accommodations!

When a boquet of chickens is more common than flowers...

and the 'BEFORE" and

'AFTER" pics have nothing to do with blemishes or weightloss!

A leetle concerning was the part at the border crossing where firstly Mister’s passport seemed to be causing much talking in afore mentioned foreign language, to such a degree that Rita’s passport proceedings were put on hold till Mista’s were agreed upon by all parties. Only for Rita’s passport , while being scanned, started illiciting certain unpleasant beeping noises, Turn passport to another page, scan again – beeps again. Some rather frantic looking around, twisting passport into yet another position only to receive the same ‘orrible “DENIED” beeping noise! Mister came back from the bus, to see what was keeping his sweet missus… to find her grinning rather stupidly with relief as the passport was cleared to leave the country.
Okidoki…. So now with hindsight… we understand the REAL purpose for Jean-Pierre receiving his temporary/emergency passport.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, and lack of communication, knowledge of language and plain not understanding… we find ourselves in LAOS! Which in itself is not a bad thing considering the absolute breathtaking beauty and dramatic weather of the place. What is important to note however that is at the border…. TWO pages of passport gets used by short guy with black hair on a stamping bonanza with a pad of ink!.. Both red and black in colour if you need to know.
What is amazing is that there is so much beauty, a huge amount of forestry, incredibly dramatic

skies, hardly any bits of road…. Etc.

So yes, a

wonderfully new and unexpected experience. All in trying to get back to Bangkok, in time to see some good friends and to get a plane home.
The bus trips are absolutely treacherous, so we still covert your thoughts! But as long as one is prepared to watch was once was a road for twelve hours straight, one will, hopefully, not spend that time hanging out the front door with motion sickness! Another thing to consider while doing these trips are the continual cheep cheep cheep noises coming from the aromatic back of the bus where one is able to find EIGHT boxes of chicks! Then somewhere along the way, with the sun beating down on us we stop to wait another twenty minutes or so at the edge of a track waiting. Waiting for what exactly we know not… due to language thing, right? Anyhow, breathless and dusty hanging on to a sack, grass twine still in her hand a woman boards the bus. It wasn’t long before we all knew what took her so long…. A woeful Kwaaawwk , kwawk, kwawk emitting its origins from the depth of the sack put us all at ease as to the new passengers. (basically, we imagine it took her twenty minutes or so to catch the feathered, unwilling passengers.) But certainly the beauty that surrounds us makes up for the inconveniences. The fatigue that sets in passes as soon as one has had a bed to lay down on(minimum6 hours)… alas, that is after somebody’s husband has run around trying to find the bus that dropped us in the middle of a town that was still harboring that somebody’s bag! – in English. Rita’s bag stayed on a bus from lantern to Laos! What a blessing there were five men (with the help of whatever it was they had been drinking) bundled Jean-Pierre into a truck and set off in search of a bus together! With Success!














The end to another interesting day of the journey.

The road pictures above are the MAIN road travelled into Laos!!!
THINK ON SUCH THINGS!
pleeeeez.

naxiland

This is the bus on our way from Da Li to Lijiang....

My sweet Giant

His Sweet Giant's btm! Leeeeetle squashed, nevermind, its only a four-five hour trip!

The dancers at their peak!

The home of the Naxi is something to behold.

We have seen much and travelled far but the sadness we experienced upon seeing this culture as it is today was very real. It is still awesome to see how much they love to dance and sing, that is something in their culture that I doubt will ever go away. Both men and women dance with great enthusiasm every chance they get. They are proud of this particular part of their heritage.

The Matriarchal hierarchy is not as apparent as in the former years, slowly but with certainty the men are rising up and taking the place of leadership in the communities. Though the rest of the Lantern folk still relate the Town of Lijiang as the “Men’s Paradise”. The women are still the really hard workers, that has not changed.A great amount of poverty is apparent all around us, and seeing this, understanding that is not simply a physical poverty but probably the results of a spiritual one, makes one understand the amount of work needed here.

Rooftops in Old Li Jiang Town .Water punctuates each intersection in the Old Town of Li Jiang - whereas in the new town... you gotta watch out for those bothersome holes in the ground with shlooshing who knows what flowing past!

As in most places here, the “teaching / Learning of English” is rampant! At every chance somebody wants to practice what they already know of English and get as much more of the language that they can. So … lotsa talking!

images and impressions

seeds seeds and more SEEDS

Each day gets punctuated in SOME way with seeds. Spices, flavours and aromas follow us at every opportunity.

Well he did say he was off to take a Zuma shower Vietnamese style....
Looking at this picture, makes me, and probably a good 60% of South Africans think he qualifies to run for the presidency. All he needs to do is purchase a "get out of jail free card" and voila!

Passing through the markets is a mixed emotion experience, guaranteed! Tomatoes, chillies and green beans are so safe!

Laundry day in the hostel.... I do hope they will supply another dry towel or two for our cold water shower... this one has absorbed all the wetness from the clothes.

Have no idea what these are... but they taste so yummy, unfortunately washed/or not in who knows what causing the JP and Rita to do the trot!

"If I can't wear my helmet without a motorbike, would this qualify?"

hot spot

An old cormorant fisherman with his birds on a bamboo raft

lotta hot spots

A slow day at the office!


NOT tomatoes.... HOT SPOTS!


The beauty of the place in the late afternoon... fortunately the aromas are not able to travel through cyberspace.

This what is called "green peppers", so when ordering a dish of "Chicken cooked with green peppers".... need I say more.... refer to the picture caption of the 'wax berries' and trot...
wot?


Very pretty - true! The noise of the celebrating frogs that lived to see another day! Oh yes, I did mention the fact that it is with mixed emotions that one visits the market place, didn't I?

Egg plant the size of skinny carrots, go figure!


Still beautiful and serene, well that is when you manage to get a shot without a motorbike, scooter bicycle or screaming child getting in front of the lens.

A lot of our day gets taken up with whats on the menu.... where it came from, what it was fertilised with.... you get the picture.

my pretty

english englishengisheshhhh

Here in Yangshuo, teaching English is a tourist pastime. So with great enthusiasm, Jean-Pierre and Rita sit down a 'teach English'. It is wonderful to spend so much time chatting with our new friends. There are a large amount of local tourists here as the country is so vast and to leave the country is very difficult for the nationals, a very popular holiday destination.


At the end of a long day of "English teaching/learning"

Joy in the Train


Baby Club Members in Nanning- 'V" for VICTORY!

Jean-Pierre spent many hours 'Speaking English" to this man.

It is with great joy and excitement that we have met new friends here. One often tends to forget that saying "Strangers are just friends you haven't been introduced to yet". This has proven to be so true.
There has been some, but not too much actual sight seeing, but we have met some wonderful new friends. Alucia keeps showing up in the most unexpected places!
She has been taking care of so many of the 'little details' too. We have decided to keep her on as our travel planner! She knows exactly what we require and sees that we get it even before we have thought of the next place we want to visit.

huh?

A good start ......... no one at the border was able to speak English and there were no signs even written using our alphabet.

We bought a direct ticket from Hanoi to Nanning 5hrs by bus to the border.

A further three hours on the bus after the border. The two buses are not the same. Due to the volume of people the bus company keeps track of you by hanging a label around your neck. I now know what it feels like to herded like cattle. As you can see there is nothing we could read and no one to explain the process. The only thing left is to hope that they know what they’re doing.

With so many buses moving about the best way to keep track of your bus is by it colour. None of the writing is readable to us. (oh yes... and on the other side of the border it was GREEN)

Want to sell something here’s a good place to advertise. Sorry no English please!

Must say very threatening to walk around in a city where you cannot read any signs and no one around seems to understands a word of English except ‘hello’!

At least I understand this one, now to get my paws on a car!.

All of a sudden you become aware of the power of branding (logos & fonts). Wow I never knew a sign could be so reassuring.

Coulda hugged the fat guy!

Yes you guessed it this is a police car, question is how did you know?

This is our ticket to Guilin ok so we can all figure out what date and even what time. Only thing is who would like to guess which number indicates the platform. Fairly important when you’ve only got ten minutes to get there and no one around can speak your language.

In Yangshou, being a tourist town, some English is spoken but even here don’t count on the translations. It becomes very evident, if mistakes can be made with major signs like these then anything printed could go very wrong at any time.

"Well the boss said it had a circle and a stripe, can't find the stripe, so I'll just use the circle" Little did the signwriter fella know that the stripe on a circle made a 'P' and without it the store became a SOECIALITY SUPERMARKET

Say what? must be really healthy this one... gimme more fries!