Happy Spring or Happy Fall!

As you celebrate the coming of spring in America, here in South

Africa, many are taking the day off to celebrate Human Rights Day

which is associated with apartide in 1994. I guess if this is the

first day of spring for you, since our seasons are opposite it would

be the first day of fall here. The weather has been fairly warm - I

think yesterday it was 80 F before 10 a.m.

Last week several of us went to a village high school to pass out

Gospel books and invite them to our Sunday village service. I had my

camera with me, so I asked my cousin if it would be alright to take

some pictures (some areas it isn't that safe to take out your camera),

and she said it would be fine. The students loved having their

pictures taken, and many would find a friend to be in the picture too.

They all have to wear uniforms - this village school's colors were

yellow and black. They all looked very neat and orderly in them.

Something else I got to do for the first time last week was do a

personal Bible study with my Aunt at the neighbor's house. I said I'd

go as long as I didn't have to read in Afrikans - everyone laughs at

me when I do and say it sounds more like German! I brought my English

Bible and tried to follow along as well as I could.

Note on Testimony...

When I did my last post at an internet cafe, I feel like I posted too

quickly and should have edited some things that might have seemed

confusing. I want to say that hopefully nothing that was posted about

methods of redirecting the elderly seemed negative. Personally, I feel

bad about the times I could have redirected better way( as I was well

trained to do), and not resorted to making something up that was

untrue. Just wanted to clear that up:)

Salvation Story

Hey Everyone, I just sent this email to my family and I want to share it with you all as well and hope that it is a blessing to you!

Last night I made a big decision, a decision that has taken me a long time to make, but I am so thankful that it's finally made! Let me give you all a little background first, before I tell you about last night.

For the last few years, and maybe more than that, as you well know, I have been wrestling with doubts about my salvation. Did I really say the right things, did I know enough, was I sorry for my sins, etc. It was very easy for me to brush them aside and get busy with work, classes, church activities, texting, and everything else. I would stay up late and get up early so that I would be too tired to have to lie awake and think about eternity. That's probably one of the reasons that I picked up extra shifts at Grand Haven - I didn't have to worry about anything convicting me there, and also there wasn't any time to "be still and know."

You might say "But you had the evidence of a Christian life, Lydia. How can you explain that?" Well, first of all, man looketh on the outward appearance, and only God could see how hard and wayward my heart was. During so many of Pastor Kobernat's messages I would feel the guilt of my sin weighing heavily on me, but was able to ignore it by running around after the service to talk to this person or that person, special music practice, nursing home service, or sometimes helping on the bus route.

When I felt the need to be truly saved coming, I would always try to pull out a memory that I do not have

of me praying a prayer as a five year old not wanting to die in my sleep and go to a burning Hell. It always

worked before, but the other day, I really listened to my heart, which was saying "Even if I didn't really get

saved, God knows that I was sincere, and I'm so good, He wouldn't possibly send me to Hell if I thought I

was saved." I was totally shocked when I realized that I was actually trusting my own goodness to take me

to Heaven. Shouldn't I have known better?

God has been using many things over the years to bring me to this point, but here are just a few of the specific things that God has used to draw me to Himself the past two months:

- Uncle Jerry's messages on sin and salvation. I thought that since the messages were aimed toward the unsaved or newly saved Africans, I wouldn't be able to learn anything from them. I needed to hear the teaching from the book of John, and really listen this time.

- Grading the correspondence courses on the books of John and Romans. It was getting harder and harder for me to ignore the clear plan of salvation, and the fact that I still needed it.

- Drew teasing me about not being saved. Although Drew didn't know it, God really used this even though I didn't like it at the time. Drew and I had a really great talk this morning as I shared with him about getting saved, and after I thanked him for teasing me, he shared his salvation testimony with me too, which was a great blessing.

- Aunt Debbie sharing her testimony with me several weeks after I arrived, little knowing how much the affect her words were having on me as I listened. This morning she told me that she had been praying for my salvation since I got here, which I was very surprised and thankful for to God.

-The recent salvation of Mrs. Connors. This was a very great instrument and encouragement for me to make my own decision to get saved.

-The book Hinds Feet on High Places, which I am still reading. I realized that I was like the main character, Much-Afraid, and needed to be delivered from my fears.

-Derek asking about what we had been getting out of our Bible reading lately...."Um, nothing. I can't even remember what I read much less something I learned and applied." He also mentioned a young man back at their home church who everyone is praying for to get saved. I thought, "Wow, he must not be very good at hiding it...like me."

So, last night, I was trying to read my Bible at the desk in my room, I just wanted to settle the matter, and told myself that if Juli's light was still on in her room, I would go talk to her. It was about eleven p.m. and the light was still on, so I went in and told her that I had been having trouble not really knowing if I was saved or not. She showed me many verses, and at eleven forty-five, I knew what I needed to do. I confessed my sin to God, and asked Jesus to be my personal Savior - I want to live for Him and Him alone now, not the way I think others around me expect me to live.

There are so many things that need to change in my life, but God is already working on me, and I am willing to be worked on:) I am so glad that I no longer have to do things in my own strength and be a "faker" to those around me, and hope that you will rejoice in my decision with me from that side of the ocean. As Dad once said, "Some people will miss Heaven by a mile, and some by a ruler." I am for sure, 100%, that I will go to Heaven someday, and not miss it by a mile or a ruler. Now we can share the same birthday, Dad!

I love you all so much, and am thankful for everything leading up to my salvation that God has been using to bring me to Himself.

~Lydia

Kruger National Park & African Pics

Early last Friday morning, Juli, Dy, Bethany, Uncle Jerry and I hopped in the kombi and headed for Kruger National Park. We left the house a little after 5am, when the sun was just about to peak over the distant mountain ranges. It wasn’t light enough to read, so I drifted off to sleep during the two hours it took to get to the park.

Once inside the park, we met several ladies driving away from a watering hole. They said that there were a few elephants back there, but that they were very aggressive. So we headed towards the watering hole:) We saw about eighteen elephants playing beside and in the small pond, but when we climbed up in to a hide nearby, we realized that there were many more elephants (and they didn’t bother us at all).

Although Kruger is 20,000 square km (about the size of New Jersey), you aren’t allowed out of your vehicle except for certain places where you can get out at your own risk. It’s probably because of all the lions and leopards roaming about, not to mention the wildebeast, cape buffalo, and rhinos (which are said to be the most dangerous of the big five). We didn’t see any rhinos or leopards that day, but here’s a list of what we did see:

~22 vultures

~53 elephants

~MANY impala (I stopped counting after eight large herds)

~1 rock dossie (the Bible calls it a conie)

~9 giraffes

~ 25 cape buffalo

~ 6 hippos

~1 martial eagle

~11 water bucks

~Over 90 wildebeasts

~47 zebras

~20 Chacma baboons

~3 horn bills, one with a snake in it’s mouth!

~14 warthogs

~4 common reedbucks

~1 male lion

~ 8 kudu

~Lots of franklins

~1 bateleur( hawk-like)

~3 vervet monkeys

~1 red tail hawk

~4 maribou storks

~2 turtles

~5 glossy ivis

...as we`ll as many smaller birds and insects including the Lilac-Breasted Roller, African Hoopoe, Cape Glossy Starling, and the Giant Kingfisher.

The land was typically a marula/knob-thorn open tree savanna with delagoa thorn thickets, except for the riverine areas which had larger trees such as the Ebony Jackal-berry and the River Acacia.

My aunt let me borrow her binoculars for the day, and I had a fun time using them out the backseat window of the kombi and yelling “STOP!!!!!!!!” whenever I saw an animal. My favorites were the zebra and the impala, which are both common but still very beautiful animals. The impala’s horns can grow up to 50cm long (20in), and normally will be found in herds of about a hundred, which we definitly saw while we were there. Zebras graze with the impala or wildebeast so they can have more protection from predators. The zebra is also protected from enemies by grouping together so that the enemy is confused by their stripes and can’t pick out single zebras.

Well, that’s all on Kruger for now. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Pool Side Baptism

Last Sunday I was able to watch the first baptism since I've been in

South Africa. Following the afternoon service in Polokwane, we all

went out to my Aunt and Uncle's house where Alfred was baptized. It

wasn't a usual baptism - the small congregation gathered around the

bright blue pool surrounded by a high brick wall draped with palm

trees and colorful flowers. The sun was still burning hot, so I'm

guessing that the water wasn't so bad either. As my Uncle and Alfred

(the man getting baptized) stepped into the pool, we sang a hymn, then

bowed our heads in prayer. Alfred is from Zambia where there is much

more water than SA, so he's a good swimmer and not afraid of the water

as many native Sotho people here are. Anyway, after the baptism,

everyone went inside for a time of fellowship and Pizza:) One of my

new friends from the church in Polokwane is a sweet lady named

Michelle. She is English, and has a great sense of humor - so much fun

to be with.

We visited Kruger National Park last week, but I really want to post

pictures from there, so I'll wait to post about that until a later

date.