South Africa 1 Team

Clint and I drove down from Durban and just made it to see the SA team in Joburg at the airport, here's the team! :)

Sara, Kerry & I :)

It was so great seeing them! It's been over 6 months since we left the states, so seeing the team was like a breath of "home" away from home in Hillcrest. It's weird how now Hillcrest feels like home (so much so that I was sad to leave it when we visited Joburg) but LA is home too. I've been listening to Derek Webb lately from his latest "Mockingbird"...and these words have hit me "But my first allegiance is not to a flag, to a country or a man. My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood, its to a King and a Kingdom" and to quote Paul "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil 3:20

Joburg

So once again we did the 51/2 hour drive to Joburg, and got to see the STM team off at the airport and had a meal with them before their flight back to LA. It was soooo great to see Sara B. and Austin & Holly Swanson & Julie Peters. We were totally the loud Americans in the airport, especially when Clint mocked Sara about her wearing an American flag T-shirt in a foriegn country~ she said she now felt her trip to South Africa was complete cause Clint repremanded her about something (LOL!)

This is a photo from the drive, doesn't it look like the brown rolling hills in California? It was awesome to drive it in the daytime! It is ssoooooooo cold in Joburg compared to Durban, and everything has turned this browny color now that its winter.

When we were in Pretoria visiting Clint's parents I got to work at Clint's mom's shop: Baby Buzniz for a couple of hours. She does up nursery's and sells like anything your baby needs!



This was a humbling experience after realizing that EVERYONE in Pretoria speaks Afrikaans when they walk into any shop. I tried to fake it with all the Afrikaans Marietjie taught me. But I don't think anyone was fooled after someone asked me in Africaans "How are you?" And I said back in Afrikaans: How are you? (I was pretty impressed that I knew how to answer back) but she said (I guess) fine and you? (At this point I just stared with one of those blank...hmms. And called Clint for HELP!!!) I was humbled!!

After visiting Clint's folks Clint and I went on Tim Cantrell's youth camp where Clint was the guest speaker! There were about 40 young adults there, and we had a great time. Clint spoke on having a passion for: the church, the lost, forgiveness, and the word. (4 sermons) And then he had the priveledge of speaking at one of the largest baptist churches in SA (Tim Cantrell's church) what an honor!! :)

2 weeks till the Durban team arrives!!

Austin T. Duncan

Our first vistor to us from the States! Austin preached such an awesome sermon on Sunday, that we took him to see the crocs on Monday (I LOVE Mondays, our day off!!)

Having lunch with the "crocs" fear factor style: (yup, thats a croc right behind us!)

We had lunch in a croc pit, here is our mayo, and mustard, and yep, the crocs!!

Eating Crocodile, with the Crocodiles, they hissed at us once, and one had his eye on us the whole meal. (yikes!)

The Mighty Python

Before we held this guy, we saw a Black Momba, the 5th most deadly snake in the world, indigenous to South Africa. Austin made it go into a trance. The thing can stand 3 meters tall on its own!

Our church gave highest compliments to Austin when he pronounced "Umhlanga Rocks" correctly :) (ooomshhhlannga!)

Tagged

Hmm, seems I've been tagged, by j_run

Four jobs I've had:
1. Manager at Jamba Juice (it was fun, seriously!)
2. Assistant Photographer
3. Waitress (almost 5 years, at the same place, crazy huh?)
4. Admin Assistant at Clint's seminary TMS

4 Movies I can watch over and over
1. Little Women
2. Emma
3. Mission Impossible III (just saw it, but its one of my fav's)
4. How to loose a guy in ten days

Four Places I've lived: (I've only lived in 4!)
1. Chatsworth, Ca
2. Westwood, Ca
3. North Hills, Ca
4. Hillcrest, South Africa

Four places I've vacationed:
1. Maui and Oahu
2. Washington D.C. on 4th of July
3. Capetown, SA
4. London & Oxford

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Kitchen Confidencial
2. Alias (we're only on the 2 season here!!)
3. The Apprentice
4. hmm, there really aren't any other shows, unless they are in ZULU or Afrikaans!! We usually rent, or buy the series!

Four foods I love:
1. Guacamole (or anything with Avos!)
2. Toll House Choc Chip Cookies
3. Samoozas
4. Craisins

Four sites I visit daily
1. google
2. msn or yahoo news
3. blog/xanga
4. calvarybiblechurch.org (sermon downloads!)

Four Places I'd rather be (besides heaven!)
1. Yosemite
2. Leo Carillo beach
3. Oxford
4. East Coast in Autumn

Four Random things in my bag:
1. HBC Church Bulletin
2. Airplane ticket stub to Joberg
3. Caedmans Call CD "In the company of angels II"
4. Juice box of OJ (?)

Four things people most people don't know about me:
1. I would love to learn to play violin
2. I've never seen Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars (phtew on Sci Fi!)
3. I hate brushing my teeth, i only do it cause i have to. (Except with vanilla mint flavor, but they don't sell that in SA, nuts!)
4. I'd love to wear glasses, and everytime Clint picks out a new pair, I find the perfect ones, and sadly put them back, weird huh? :)

Four people I tag:
1. Kerry
2. Ben and Mel
3. Swearengerer
4. Heather's blog

Home of the Free

So you know how the bank Washington Mutual's slogan is "Home of the Free"? Maybe you never noticed that your banking is free in the states. Free Banking. What a novel concept in South Africa. I think if Washington Mutual opened here, all other banks would shut down. When we got here in December we signed up for a bank account at FNB, and they informed us of their bank fees. For EVERY transaction (charging anything on the card, taking out money, depositing money, writing a check, doing a debit order, online banking, even checking how much is in your account etc) they charge you 4 rand per transaction. (75 cents). If you pull money out of your account, they charge you 4 rand PLUS a percentage of whatever you take out. Yikes

So we went with a bank account that if you keep a certain amount in their account at all times, the first 35 transactions are free. Except for some reason, they messed up and have never paid us back for any of those free transactions. We went to the bank and complained. The bank said they were going to pay us back for all the bank fees incured this year. The grand total: 1,200 Rand. That is 2oo DOLLARS. So basically, everyone here is paying the bank aprox. 400 dollars per year to keep your money. Yikes. So next time you pass a billboard that says "Home of the Free banking" contemplate how cool that is. :)

The South Africa team in Johannesburg is here, and Austin is coming down this week to see us, woo hoo!

Random Thoughts and Photos

View of our church from the parking lot.
Autumn is here, and is soooo cold!! :) It snowed on the mountains about 2 hours away this week. We flew to Johanesburg for the South African version of the Shepherd's Conference and saw the snow from the air. For South Africa, there was TONS of snow on the mountains, it was beautiful, but disappeared within the week...its all gone now! It was great to see Dr. Barrick teaching at the conference, he was my boss at TMS, and Clint's professor.

And we got to see Kerry Drew! :) Part of our Cornerstone group (we are missing a few!)

These are some of the guys from our Cornerstone study: Adam and Steve are from England (Left two guys) and the guy with the striped shirt Brian is going to be baptized soon.
A few of the girls in our study.

This photo was taken when we got off the plane in December after 24 hours in the air. Yikes. I didn't even know the people who greeted us at the airport then, but now, 6 months later, they are a huge part of my life here.

This is where our bible study retreat is going to be in a month!
Clint's quiet time overlooking the view!

Sunday & our Elders & Deacons...

Our church from the back. They've added these funky green chairs cause there is no more space in the pews. The wall is blocking the right wing.

Clint preaching on the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The Deacons (L to R & top to bottom): Veon, Duncan, Gavin, Graeme, Burt, Mark, and Anthony.
These are the elders (L to R) Neil Swan, Glen Cherry, Keith Brown and Clint Archer.

New Families in our Church

These are some of the new members who have joined our church recently. I'm now taking "church photos" for our directory, so here are some of them! :) These are taken at church after the service.

Ryan and Jessica Slater (Matthew, and little Taylor)

Piet and Klaaje, Piet (Pete) plays the bass guitar, and he's hillarious! He makes me laugh every Sunday, he's got grandfather humor.

Glen and Tracy, and little Jason

Tracey and Anthony Done, and Sara and Matthew. Clint made Sara cry onstage last week during the childrens catechism questions, so everyone mocks him now.

Random shots:

Clint chatting to Kim & Veon

2 guys from our Cornerstone study: Arthur (left) and Brian (right)

I'm gonna try taking photos of Clint preaching this week...so stay tuned!

From the perspective of an outsider:

The hot and cold taps in S.A. are chasims apart. So this is me when I wash my face in the morning: Turn on the hot tap, start lathering. Wash face. Burn hands. Turn on cold tap. Relieve burning hands. . Rince face with cold water. Stare at hot water tap with distain. I have no idea how the locals do this. Clint says something about mixing the water in the basin, but really? Too much effort.
The keys here look like they are from Shakespeare's time. And there are keys for every room. So when you go to the bathroom, you get a key and turn it in the door. Its like you live in a castle. And your key ring has like, a million keys on it. And there are extra gates to every door. So if you loose your keys, well, you can't only not get into your house, but into your rooms too.

In SA this is a common sight. Now even on the gates around our house. :)

Cornerstone

Last Friday night at Cornerstone went really really well. Clint shared his testimony (in depth with the gospel) to the whole group, but the coolest part was that a girl brought 2 guys she met on the beach, who hadn't heard the gospel before. And a guy who was Catholic was there, and if you know anything about Clint's testimony, well, there was no doubt that it was clear the differences between Catholicsm and Christianity (grace by faith!) . And the two visitors, Darren and Ryan said they would come back next week. People were asking questions and totally understanding the gospel, it was great.

Afterwards we introduced Mafia to Cornerstone. They LOVED it. I think we played 10 rounds till about 11pm. There was yelling, and pointing fingers, it was awesome, they totally got into it after the first practice game. In fact, they couldn't stop talking about it. It really made our group connect, cause the 2 guys that usually come that are to "cool" to participate, were totally loving hanging out with everyone, and we went out for coffee the next night and those two guys were totally connecting with all of us, it was awesome. So the Lord uses testimonies, and Mafia, to break down barriers!
So, STM team thats coming, prepare yourselves to share your testimonies, and play ALOT of MAFIA! :)

Amamzimtoti

So after a crazy crazy week of Clint only seeing the 4 walls of his office.... we went away for a day to the beach Amamzimtoti. To bad one of the most hectic storms came in that day, but it was still beautiful!

Some prayer requests this week!

1. Pray for Clint as he has soooo many appointments with people this week, and still has 3 sermons to prepare!
2. Pray for our bible study Cornerstone. Half the students coming are Christians, and half are not. The unbelievers are starting to bring their unbelieving friends (i have no idea why, besides the grace of God!) So pray for them and their salvation. Pray also for us, and the "saved" croud as we share with them this Friday night. The Lord is really doing amazing things in these students lives.
3. Pray for one of our church plants that we visited today. The pastors name is Paulos and he was telling us how the struggle with AIDS in his community is huge. The main outreach they have is giving the gospel and then serving heathly food to AIDS victims (veggie soup & squash). They also are trying to raise up elders, as their church doesn't have any at the moment. Pray for him and his wife Nellie, their testimony and their witness in the community, that it stays strong!! Pray also for Clint as he will be preaching there within the month.
4. Also just a praise! We have been praying alot for friends, and there is a crowd that after every evening service has been going out for coffee afterwards, alot of them are from our Cornerstone group, so we are starting to hang out with people! Clint challenged this guy to mini golf on Sat, and schooled him properly at it, so now he owes Clint a months worth of after evening service coffee at Mug and Bean. :) Oh! Also, pray for me (Kim) as I am starting up a ladies Bible study in the book of 1st Peter, for wisdom!!

Much love -C&K

... and the Lord gives again.

Clint writing:
So when I first arrived I told Austin how much the Lord had blessed me. Everything here is amazing: Kim, home, church (buildings and people!), dog, cat, view, weather, etc, etc, etc. His response was "You sound like Job in chapter 1." Yikes. And how true, for my theme verse was really "The Lord gives.." and yes, it was completed a couple of weeks ago when some needy fellow decided that he desperately needed a HP Pavilion laptop with $1000 of Bible software on it in order to survive in this harsh, poverty-stricked continent. So the verse developed into "...and the Lord takes away..." but Kim and I were both blessed with His grace so that we can take no credit for it, but I can honestly say that our attitude was one of "...but blessed be the name of the Lord." And now, the circle is closed again, as in Job's case the Lord blessed him 10 fold. My new desktop makes my HP Pvilion laptop look like an overpriced paperweight. It's awesome. For the techies: 200gig HDD, 1Gig RAM, Pentium 4 3.2, and of course the ever-trendy flatscreen. All for less than the old HP. And on top of it all, we were greatly blessed by a finacial gift from our SCV family in the States so that we didn't even have to skip a meal or a commentary to afford it :) God is so good.

Still Clint here: The church is doing phenomenally well. I absolutely LOVE being a pastor! I have gotten used to preaching twice a week, plus Bible study with the youth (which God is blessing with growing numbers and interest). We are adding new members to the church every month, and are seeing tremendous spiritual growth among some longstanding attendees. Kim has been amazing. She has really blossomed in her ministry. People here love her, I mean really. She has been so cheerful and energetic for the Lord's work and she has made me feel like we made the right decision. Single guys: don't settle for less than a gal who will leave family and lands for the Gospel, even if that means Africa!

I find I have more time for ministry and reading and undistracted devotions than in seminary. So I hope that encourages you seminoids. The field is awesome, much better than seminary (which I also thoroughly enjoyed). But now I set my own assignments and reading schedule. Plus, the more you preach, the more you preach, which is why we got into this in the first place, right guys? What a privilege to soak in God's word all week and then unleash your heart from a solid pulpit to an eager, expectant crowd of disciples whose only cry is "Sir, we would see Jesus."

I miss USA in a soppy, good 'ol days kinda way, but I mostly miss my SCV family. It pierces my heart to think of my farewell sermon there, but I can't wait to see them all in March 2007 at Shepherds' Conf (Deo Volente).

Now to type some more sermons on my new 'puter. I'm lovin it.

Seasons

I don't know if you know this, but the seasons are opposite in South Africa. So right now its turning into Autumn, not Spring. The nights are getting colder, the stars are brighter, and the days are windy, not humid. Autumn is my favorite season. But what is weird is that...well, for instance, all the shops around Easter had "Spring" Easter bunnies and little chicks hatching and stuff. Chicks hatch in spring, not fall. And, for another example...around Christmas time the stores have snowflakes up and they sell fake snow and twinkle lights, but its 100 degrees out cause its summer. It boggles my mind.
One of my favorite parts of Fall is the pumpkin spice latte, and pumpkin carving contests, and all the Autumn leaves etc. Man, I miss Starbucks. Nuts! But, Autumn here has its own charm. The stars here are amazing in Autumn cause all the wind blows the mist away. You can see the ocean from everywhere you drive (seriously!) and all the ships and everything cause the air is soooo crisp and clean. I love fall.

Lost!

ok, so yesterday we get home, and notice that Starbucks, our kitty, is running around scott free, and there is no dog chasing after her. Hmm, this is a RARE occasion in the Archer household. We soon realized that the gate had jammed, and Geneva had escaped. Yikes

We spent ALL afternoon looking for her. Night came: NO Geneva. Morning came: No Geneva.
So I called all the vets and the SBCA (animal shelter): No Geneva.

We made these signs and put them EVERYWHERE in Hillcrest. I mean everywhere. And we prayed. Everyone told us she was probably stolen, especailly since she's still a puppy.

I made 35 signs, and the very very very last sign...I took to a vet in Hillcrest to put on their "lost" board today at around 3pm. The lady there said "I have that dog in my kennel" at the vet. And there was Geneva!! She was in the tinyest cage ever, but her whole body was wagging in excitement! We had been to like 10 vets, and the last one we checked, she was there! Our God is the best. It was so fun taking down the signs and people saying "aww, you found her!"

So needless to say, she is glad, and so are we, that she is back home chasing Starbucks around. (She's thinking about chasing her in this photo, can't you see the glare of excitement?) Although I don't think Starbucks is...

Week in the Life of Clint:

Clint's mission if he chooses to accept: 5 sermons in 6 days, yikes:

Pastors Schedule this week:

Tuesday: Prep for funeral service

Wednesday: Funeral, and Premarital Counseling

Thursday: Prep for Good Friday Sermon

Friday: Good Friday Service and Cornerstone study (17 pple came!)

Prep for Sun Morning

Sat: Prep for Sunday

Sunday: Preach it! 2x

Monday: Crash and burn

Our kitten is now a cat! Her nickname is "Niz" :)

So I've been studying the book of James, and this verse totally confused me cause right in the middle of chapter one about trials, he says this:

9 But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position;
10 and let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

So I looked it up, and Heibert (my favorite commentary) describes James's description of a rich man who while reaching out for the riches with his hands, he dies. It reminded me of the Pirates of the Carribean ride right at the end where there are these 2 skeletons pushing up a box of treasure out of the cave as you exit. So vivid. Right in the middle of storing up our treasures on earth, we die. So right after I'm feeling the full impact of this verse I am in the car with a friend to pick up her little boy from a birthday party. Its about a 20 minute drive through beautiful fields with horses, with trees lined up in perfect rows, and we end up at this house. Or mansion should I say. It had a 180 view out the front of hills looking out to the sea with one of those neverending pools and horse stables, and her house was...well awesome. And I was coveting it. And this verse was still on my mind, and it struck me right there that I hadn't applied it, even though I knew it!! At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you have an amazing garden with a 180 view of rolling hills. Its your heart the Lord looks at. And its harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. People here are rolling in the money, and right next door are people living in tin shacks. Its amazing. Materializm is huge cause it shows your status. And sometimes its easy to play the "in the midst of the persuit" game, as James puts it! But its all the Lord's anyway. As Paul would say "I am content with little and much" Amen to that! :)

Clint and I were massively impressed with the team spirit of "side afrika". . . good looking uniforms guys. :) Its so fun to keep up with photos from the crossroads website

So we finally, finally have DSL internet woo hoo! When we got here in December they said they could hook it up in March, and its now April 16th, the phrase "Africa time" is actually true. So, we will be quicker about responding to emails now!

Clint did his first funeral this week for a member in our congregation's son...baby Okuhle. So sad, the baby died after 2 months from Sids. it was soooo sad to see the littlest coffin ever. But it was soo amazing to see the faith of his parents. Neal and Nokwazi are such strong believers. People walked away saying they were so encouraged by their strength and faith in the Lord. About 90 people were at the funeral, half from our congregation, and half from their family who are unbelievers. The gospel was sooo clear. "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom"

baby Okuhle a few days before

Phonecalls

So recently I have been answering the phone for Clint to free him up so he can study. Since our home phone is the church phone, we get alot of funny phone calls from people that look up a Baptist Church in the phone book.

Typical phone call this week:

Me: Hello, this is Kim speaking
Phone: Hello is this Hillcrest Baptist Church?
Me: Yes, can I help you with something?
Phone: Yes, is your daddy, the pastor there?
Me: Oh, you mean my HUSBAND the pastor?
Phone: Uh, your Husband? Yeah.....uh, I wanted the pastor. Can I speak with him?

I don't now if they are picturing that all pastors are old, or if my American accent throws them off, but its happened 3x this week alone!

So these are the wooden floors in our livingroom! They just pulled up the carpet to reveal these beautiful floors! I am standing at our diningroom table (you can see the wooden chair) and looking out into our livingroom, the fireplace is on the left, and a door to the hallway and front door on the right. This is where our Bible Study meets, and where the Members meetings happen etc. We just bring in tons of chairs and move the couch back to hold everyone!!! We've had 3 meetings alone here this week, so needless to say, alot of moving of chairs! :)

Thanks for all your "updates" from you all in LA! We are feeling a bit less "homesick" today! The Lord is good, and His Word is ever sure, restoring the soul!

Mist

So Hillcrest has these days where you are literally walking around in a cloud. Its not cold at all, it feels like a beautiful day outside, but the mist rolls in in waves all around our house. This is in our back yard! Sometimes you can't even drive its so thick. Its so beautiful how it rolls in in waves. Makes you want to curl up with a White Chocolate Mocha and a good book huh?Our Misty Shtee house :)

So this week Clint and I have both been homesick. I don't know what it is, but we both really really miss Grace. So we've been feeling like the misty days where it suddenly rolls in unexpectedly. We've been fine. Really. And then all of a sudden we both miss home at the same time. I think its cause we've been listening to the Shepherd's Conference downloads. It makes you realize what you missed, and hearing all the voices preaching when you used to be part of the experience just soaking it up! Man ...Steve Lawson's sermon on Ezra was awesome. Actually when Clint's laptop was stolen he was more upset at the fact that I had listened to the Steve Lawson sermon before him and now it was gone!!

But the Lord has been doing some really amazing things here. I think 90 percent of the questions Clint gets asked here are about the charismatic gifts. Why do other churches speak in tounges? Are miracles for today? Most churches here are charistmatic, even if they are Baptist Churches. Take for example a church down the street from us named "His Church".... but it has a ......woman pastor. So everyone calls it "HER Church" tee hee. So when I miss home I think about all the people who desire a biblical church, and how in a small way we are effecting the kingdom for the gospel in this little corner of the earth.

Our cornerstone group is still going strong. Last week was a smaller group cause alot of people were at "matrik dance" or prom. But for those who came we talked about why evil is in the world if God is good. It went really really well. Thanks for praying!

Clint and Starbucks in our livingroom