Thanks for visiting our blog. Amazingly enough we are finally entering something on it so that you know we really do exist! My wonderful brother has pushed and prodded and I think now given up that his sister and brother-in-law will ever get around to ever writing anything on the wonderful blog he created for us. (The website is also his work on our behalf [hope you have checked it out too!] and is still a little under construction. It at least gives you some idea of what life is filled with for us here in Botswana.
Sometimes I don’t know where the time goes. They say time goes fast when you’re having fun…yes we are having fun…but I’m sure the other version of that is ‘Time goes fast when you live in Botswana’. We were told, and I reckon its true, that everything takes at least 3 times as long to accomplish here as back in OZ, so I guess that is where the time goes. Anyhow, sometimes, it certainly seems like the day is gone and hardly anything has been accomplished! Just like…I was all organised and had all the washing done, and on the line. Afternoon came I brought some clothes inside that were dry but most of them were still a little damp (we have finally been having an end to the dry weather with humidity up from 25% to 50% and lower temperatures (around 30 celcius). Then we had guests arrive and I then was distracted and forgot about the rest of the clothes….until…it was dark and I opened the back door to go and feed the dogs. I walked outside and smelt smoke….and remembered…the nights are becoming cooler and so folk are having fires in the evening now…and yes all the clothes smelt of smoke! So the next day….time to wash everything all over again!!! And this time I remembered to bring them in, in time. Guess that is where some of the time goes…along with a lot of other things.
Before I run to hang out some other washing for today….some of you have been following the saga of our vehicle – the Pajero. It has spent much of its life with us in the “lame” category, due to one part after another failing and then certain mechanics failing to fix it properly and that leading to other problems as well as the initial problems having to be re-done! It is good to have our “old” (previous) mechanic back in town again, and it seemed that slowly it was coming back to semi-health with just a couple more repairs to be done. But alas, a top up of steering fluid a few days back revealed a completely empty reservoir and a very messed-up pump. Our mechanic went to the Mitsubishi agent to be told that pump alone would cost P17,000 (AUD$3700)! He then went to the wreckers and they had one for P7000 but it was in worse condition than ours!! So he decided to get a few odd parts, dismantled it himself and re-built it for us for P2000 which he graciously did by not charging for the great part of his full day of labour on our vehicle! (good mechanics are charging about P400+/hr labour here). But he warned us that the better pressure in it now may reveal a leak somewhere else!! And guess what? It seems that maybe it has. Then, on another Pajero issue, the slight improvement we had from putting fluid in the gear box (after a previous mechanic assured us he had checked that and it wasn’t the problem), seems to have also now ceased helping the issue. So, once again it is virtually going no-where and is sitting in the garage…..and so are the 20,000 Challenge Newspapers that were to be delivered this week!!! We are hoping to be able to have someone else with a suitable vehicle be able to help us out with Challenge Delivery – but that takes some arranging!
Life is never boring here, that is for sure. Time is not something I (or Andrew) can say we have any extra of, so how often this blog will be updated remains to be seen (look how long it took to get the first entry in!), but we do endeavour to not leave you to starve for our news!
In closing, we are so absolutely thrilled and full of praise to our God for the amazing timing of all that has happened in the last couple of months. Many ministry doors have flung open, and we are seeing some wonderful changes in the lives of several folk we are counselling/mentoring as they seek to allow God to shine His word into their heart and reveal issues that they did not understand or see before and as there is repentance toward God and forgiveness toward others and a realisation of how deeply our human pride runs,yet the amazing grace of our God running deeper still, they are knowing a freedom in their lives that they have never known before. As more folk also have access to the resources and are reading for themselves, God is speaking into hearts and lives are being changed. Praise Him.