March Update

The last month has been full and evidenced by the length of this blog.   The month has been full of laughter, a few tears, full of hellos and see you laters; full of reconnecting with friends and making new ones; full of conferences, trainings, times of worship, reflection, prayer and teaching.   This last month has full of God moments, blessings, and little glimpses of God’s kingdom here on earth. 

At the beginning of March the South Field hosted a Training for 5 of the District Superintendents on our field.  (for those of you not fluent in Nazareneeze  District Superintendents are the leaders of the local pastors on a particular district.  They are responsible for a host of different things and are to be a pastor to their pastors. From henceforth they will be referred to as DS’s.)  It was a wonderful time together.  Below is a picture of our group. 

Immediately following our training there was a Leadership Conference for all the DS’s on our field (the Africa South Field) as well as the Africa South East Field and Africa Lusophone Field.  This event ended with an ordination service of elders and deacons from the South Field.  It was a blessing to be able to be a part of that event and for me (Beth) to be a part of the Elder’s who prayed over those being ordained. 

The ending of the ordination service signaled the beginning of the Africa Regional Conference, where delegates, missionaries, and visitors from South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissua, Mozambique, Sao Tome e Principe, Kenya, and the DRC, just to name a few, gathered for 5 days of worship, training, conversation, fellowship, workshops, etc.  The theme of the event was “Prepare the Way” for people to know Jesus.  One of the major themes of the event was sending African Missionaries to Africa and other parts of the world.  During this event I was able to celebrate my birthday with 800 of my African Brothers and Sisters and also found out I have an African Birthday Twin.  Below is a picture of Tintswalo who was born on the same day and year as me and is also one of the students in my class at NTC. 

Following the Regional Conference we were able to connect with Pastor Oboy and Tiny Pheko of Bokaa Botswana.  They are the local pastor of the church in Botswana where we had a team in October.  They were at the airport for several hours so we were able to spend some time with them.  Then we were able to greet a team that was coming in from the states and working with a partnership in Swaziland.  

On Saturday we able to attend the NTC – South Africa graduation.  It was a blessing to see the on-campus and extention students walk across the stage.  Pastor Robert Mashego the pastor of the church where we had our first W&W team was one of the graduates.  And it was neat to be able to be a part of that.   Saturday afternoon we had a birthday gathering at our house with cake and ice cream.  It was a fun time of fellowship together after a busy couple of weeks. 

On Wednesday after we taught our class at NTC we jumped in the truck and drove to Swaziland to join the team that was working there (the one we had greeted at the airport).  We stayed there until Friday and enjoyed our time together with them and our leaders in Swaziland.  When we left Swaziland we met up with some missionary friends and went camping and climbing in a place called Waterval Boven.  It was a great weekend to relax and enjoy good company, wonderful food, amazing scenery and some time to relax.   

This week was a week of catching up on work, emails, sleep, laundry and life in general.  It was nice to be home and have a slower pace for a little bit before our lives change again with the birth of our baby boy. 

Our little one is doing well.  He is growing and moving around.  With the events of last week behind us we are now able to focus on preparing for his arrival.   We both have project lists to keep us busy on the evenings and weekends.

We are blessed and we are thankful.  Our prayer is that we are a blessing to all those we come into contact with. 

Until next time, remember:  Who I am kidding I can’t remember what I am not supposed to forget I’m pregnant and was prone to forgetfulness even before that, so…until next time remember to not forget what you need to remember and if you are smart enough to write it down you should also remember where you wrote it down….