South Africa - First Day

We arrived to South Africa yesterday night at about 9:15pm. It was after 26 hours of travel time from Michigan to our final destination of Johannesburg, South Africa. Our flights were uneventful and went by faster than expected. Johan and Matilda (a local pastoral couple) picked us up from the airport and brought us to their home in Pretoria, where we stayed last night and will again tonight before moving to the camp grounds of the Sedaven Camp Meeting, where David will be speaking.

Today we awoke at around 7:30am, had a relaxing morning and a delicious breakfast. Then by 10am we were off to an appointment at the University of South Africa (UNISA).

David had previously been encouraged to check out their Ph.D in Systematic Theology program as they have a prestigious and world-recognized reputation as well as a very developed distance-learning program (no, we would not be moving to S. Africa for David’s doctorate), not to mention it is very affordable with the exchange rate of the dollar. I was able to sit in on the interview as well and enjoyed the experience. The department seemed to be impressed with David’s dissertation idea and by the end guaranteed his acceptance to the program! We are thrilled! It will be an interesting and exciting process from here.

Later, after lunch and a nap, we spent the afternoon preparing for the seminars and presentations at Camp Meeting.

I am actually considering helping David out with one seminar, but I haven’t committed yet. See, what happened was that another couple from Michigan (Dane & Vicki Griffin) were supposed to be here instead of us, but with Dane’s health condition (reoccurring cancer), they were unable. Instead, David and another Michigan pastor (Mark Howard) were asked to take their places. Here is the catch—Vicki Griffin is the MI Conference Health & Temperance Director, and was slotted to speak to Women’s Ministries and the Shepherdess about health! Well, they gave David two of her slots. Women’s health is not exactly David’s forte! However, he has been a good sport about it and has been trying to prepare something applicable. In the meantime, I kind of offered to maybe help him a little bit, if I could pull something together in time. I have actually wanted to put a presentation together on mental health, specifically on recognizing and changing our self-talk. I figured this was an opportunity to get me working towards this goal, but I haven’t promised I would finish it in time. We’ll see how it goes! I might be too scared to present it anyway. There are around 7-8,000 people who attend this Camp Meeting and I don’t know how large the women’s meetings will be. It just might be a little too large for my first presentation! =)

At any rate, our experience so far in South Africa has been very enjoyable. As expected, South Africa is more developed than Kenya and is leaps and bounds ahead of Mali. It seems I move a step up, in regards to amenities, each time I come to this continent. The home we are currently staying in has all the items expected in a traditional American house, including internet! Quite a step up from searching for internet with a satellite on a hilltop (Mali) and even from having to go to an internet café (Kenya).

Well, tomorrow is another eventful day! We just heard we will be leaving at 9am to meet up with Mark Howard and then go to a nearby game reserve and lion park! Afterwards, we will move to the camp grounds, where Camp Meeting will begin on Thursday. I’m not sure what the internet capabilities are at the camp ground, so this may be my last and only entry until we get back. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! I am truly blessed to be able to “tag-along” on this adventure!