Braai

So we had our first students braai at our house on Friday night, and 15 students came! We were really excited. The food was great (South African style, I'm really learning to LOVE it!) and the fellowship was great too. We are going to start a bible study with them on Fri nights. Most of them commute from about an hour away, (from university) and come home on the weekends, so Friday night it is. Not many of them seemed as excited about a bible study as they did the braai, but we are hoping they come when there isn't just free food! :) I only know that about 3-5 of them are believers, and all of them grew up together at HBC, and they NEVER hang out together. They've all got seperate lives, and seperate hearts, it seems. I am really really looking forward to knowing them beyond what subjects they are taking etc...

So today was a rainy Saturday . . .and Clint and I spent the whole day painting our living room cause our carpets are disappearing on Wednesday! Under the nasty stained carpet is WOOD FLOORS!!! I am so excited. Turns out all the homes built in the 50s here have wood floors underneath 70's carpeting. No more pink walls and nasty carpet for the Archer Abode!

Prayer

Clint studying in his office

We are starting the book of Colossians this sunday, I am SOOOO excited!

So I've been convicted lately cause our church is SUPER big into corperate prayer. There is a prayer meeting before the evening service for an hour, and most of the whole church goes, then there is a seperate women's corperate prayer meeting on Thursdays, and then at every bible study on Tuesday night...again, corperate prayer. Its really cool. But its something I've struggled with my whole life. I always feel like I'm praying TO the PEOPLE listening, rather than to the Lord. I'm not talking about praying for someone specific when your meeting with them one on one, or even in a small group, I love praying for others in that way. Even at SCV it was great praying for one another.....but the large group that sometimes is full of people I don't know freaks me out. I've had to overcome my fear pretty quickly, cause it comes up 3 times a week now. So I've been trying to see if scripture talks about corperate prayer...and it does! When Jesus appears to them in the upper room, what are the disciples doing? Praying...together. The word also says to pray for one another, and pray without ceasing. So...my fear goes against scripture! So I've been praying BEFORE I go that I would pray to the Lord, and not be afraid of man.

Luther

I think in heaven the first couple I want to hang out with is Martin and Katie Luther. On one of the shelves of our church’s media centre was a book to loan called "Martin Luther had a wife." Curiosity struck me by the title, and I’ve been reading it non-stop ever since. I don’t think I’ve laughed out loud so many times reading a book before. Martin and Katie were a really funny couple…here are some of my favourite quotes so far:

Luther: "All my life is patience… I have to be patient with the Pope, I have to be patient with the heritics, I have to be patient with my family, and I even have to be patient with my wife Katie"

Luther: "But think of all the squabbles Adam and Eve must have had in the course of their 900 years…Eve would say "You ate the apple" and Adam would retort "You gave it to me!"

"In the monastery Luther had been accustomed to being secluded, but Katie wouldn’t stand for that. According to one story, he once locked himself in his study for three days until Katie had the door removed. Innocently, Martin asked as he saw Katie in the doorless doorway "Why did you do that? I wasn’t doing any harm"

Luther: "Before I married, no one had made my bed for a whole year"
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CLINT’S CONTRIBUTION:
Ok, so I officially recant for mocking all those annoyingly ignorant Americans who asked me over and over (as if a national memo had circulated conspiring against me) if in Africa we had monkeys in our gardens and animals walking in the streets. Last week my Timberwolf-Alsatian puppy and I had equally incredulous looks on our faces as we met our first vervet monkey. Yes, we were in our back garden, where I have also seen a snake and innumerable frogs 9a la Exod 10). A day later I had to rescue our kitten from the hungry glare of a crested eagle who was opportunistically perched in a tree in our front garden. And I once had to swerve from our main road to dodge roaming cattle. Taking a walk with a congregant on a golf course I saw several species of deer and was warned about crocodiles in the water traps. One would swear we were living on a Hollywood set for Tarzan. In Africa we think nothing is real unless Hollywood acknowledges it in a film. In LA people think what Hollywood represents is reality. I don’t know which is more bizarre: that Americans think there are animals in our gardens, or that there actually are animals in our gardens!

FYI, for those of you who know Jesse Johnson, or Diedre Shannon, they both got engaged on Sunday. What a coincidence.

The Plauge of the FROGS

Clint's most dreaded, feared, and hated animal on the planet: FROGS

Population of FROGS in the Niednagels back yard: 2-3 per Bible Study

Number of FROGS that were put down Clint's shirt in his lifetime: 2

Population of FROGS in the Archer's backyard everyday: Approx 30

Population of FROGS in Durban: Innumerable

Sound of FROGS on any given night in Durbs: 300 Decibels, for sure

FROGGY prey for Starbucks: Priceless

"But if you refuse to let them go, behold I will plauge all your country with FROGS" Exodus 8:2

Ick

Our first Braai

The guy that Clint has been meeting with on a weekly basis (His name is Brian, 19 years old) repented and gave his life to the Lord yesterday!!! Our God is sooo great! This guy had grown up at the church, and even knew that he couldn't understand the Bible until he was saved, so he asked Clint to pray for him since the only prayer that would be heard by our Lord from an unbeliever would be a prayer of repentance. He definately knew that you had to count the cost beforehand, so he took 2 weeks to count, and repented last sunday night!! So exciting! :) So if you think of it please pray for Brian!


Clint's mom got Clint a Braai (African version of a BBQ) for his birthday (on the 9th!) So he cooked me dinner for Valentines Day! (sooo fun!) Valentines Day is SOO commercialized here in South Africa. I think I saw more red hearts then I did Christmas trees in the malls, crazyness! But we had a great table for two in our back yard. And we had South African Boedevorse (i have no clue if I'm spelling that right or not!) It's this awesome spiced sausage that you cook over flames, yum. There is something cool about having holidays in different seasons. Valentines Day was our hottest yet!

Clint cooking dinner! :)

My exuberant joy that Clint cooked me dinner, and Clint's joy over finally being able to braai!

Our "Table for Two" in our back yard :)

For God so lo V ed the world,
That He gA ve
His onL y
BegottE n
SoN
T hat whosoever
Believeth I n Him
Should N ot perish ,
But have E verlasting life." - John 3:16

Handyman Clint

So Clint has never used a drill in his life. And our walls are made out of BRICK (not American wood walls!) So how do you hang pictures in a Brick house? DRILL!!! After drilling all day Saturday to put up curtains that Clint's mom made for us, we know our house couldn't ever possibly burn down. Our house isn't built out of "wood, hay or straw"thats for sure. It's closer to the "gold or precious stones" its so hard. I think we almost broke the drill.

Before: 10am Saturday (kitchen window)

After: 10pm Saturday (dead on livingroom chair!)

So we are out for Clint's birthday this last Thursday, at the #1 rated restaurant in South Africa, which is across the street from our house. And Clint gets a phone call that Geneva is barking and running around at the "parent night" at the preschool next door. So we had to stop our dinner to get her out! Yikes... We've considered an electric shock collar fense. But all the pet shops look at us like we are mad, and one lady told us that they are illegal in this country. NOT SO! We finally found one! But I think we are going to try the more "humane" effort first, and build a proper fense. We did our investigation, and found where she gets in! She creates alot of sermon illustrations for Clint, that's for sure. Although today we found another reason why she goes into the preschool. A family of MONKEYS lives next door! Don't picture cute little monkeys, these things are HUGE!!!

BTW, thanks for all the suggestions for kids songs, I got some really fun ones from all of you! We did "Praise Ye the Lord, Halleluia!" this friday and they loved it!

We just introduced "Jesus I my cross have taken" to the main worship service, yea, a song I know! :) If anyone knows any good websites with worship music (like the actual piano music) let me know. We are trying to introduce some new songs to the sunday worship too!

The Drive to Durbs

Driving from Joburg to Durbs 6 hours in the rain!

So our "non attack dog" Geneva doesn't attack strangers, but she does attack defenseless pre-schoolers! We have a preschool right in front of our house, so she slides right through the fense like it wasn't even there, and walks right into the kids classes. Clint and I spent like 4 hours putting up a better fence, and she still got through! ARRGGHH! :) I think we will have to make like James Bond and find a secret plan of attack. "Dun da da dun dun dun da dun da da dun dun dun." To be continued...

Grace Missionaries in S.A.

Group Photo of all the GMI Missionaries and TMS Graduates in South Africa 2006

Grace Church Conference

Clint and Andre

Kerry, Me and Nicole (Kilwa Andersons girlfriend!) standing infront of our thatch roof rooms!

All the girls from Grace who are now in S.A. (13 of us!)

So this weekend we drove 6 hours to Jo-burg, then 3 hours to just below Polokwane, to go to a conference with all the TMS, GMI, and TMC grads in the country. . . only to drive 9 hours back the next day. It was definately worth the drive! I never knew south africa was actually that beautiful until driving through it. When you go by plane, you get morphed out of one city and plunked in another, but this was 18 hours of pure Africa! I actually saw monkeys in the streets, like people ask us... "so you live in africa, are there monkeys in the streets?" and i can actually say "yes" now.

But it was SOOO great to see all the people from Grace that live in S.A. The Mack's just moved to S.A. to start a Biblical Counseling program, Tim and Michelle Cantrell just took one of the biggest baptist churches in S.A., and to hear of the TONS of other amazing things that the Lord is doing here was so great. Nicole (who is from Capetown) was saying its so weird to hear all the graduates talk about how they miss chocolate chip cookies, and ranch dressing!!! (Which were at the conference for us). Ahh chocolate chips. Yum.

But the coolest part was praying with these likeminded people, and being a part of making strategic plans for how to best effect South Africa for the gospel. It's really exciting! And just seeing guys like Andre (Clint's old roomie) made it feel like home again.

Ok, on a weird note, who can give me the coolest kid praise song they know?!? I need help with ideas! :)