1 April – Rian and Saretha visit us for a week. Their goal is to help us with developing the new coffee plantation.
3 April – We start planting the coffee beans. Saretha contracts malaria.
7 April – Rian and Saretha head back to Tete. I continue working at the clinic. Jannie heads to the local river to pack stones en route to the farm (Mwala Madzi).
8 April – Jannie tows a motor from the river. A local’s mule and wagon is used to assist the tractor. The job happened deep in the bush and takes about 5 hours. After a lot of effort and work, the motor is leaded onto a truck.
9 April – We attend Chandame’s church service. The scripture comes from Luke 17 verse 11 – 19 and we are thankful again for God’s grace in our lives.
10 April – Jannie contracts Malaria again. Every time he pushes his body to far, the virus re-surfaces again.
12 April – The mobile clinic from Vila Ulongue visits us and 400 women with babies are present. Babies are weighed and vaccinated. Pregnant women are also given special attention. The process takes the entire day.
13 April – One of the locals bring us a 4-month-old baby boy at 14:00 in the afternoon. The child is furiously ill and unfortunately passes away an hour later. The parents should have brought him to us earlier.
14 April – Susan visits Jenifer as she had a big operation. She looks good. Jannie starts building the shading for the coffee plants and finishes.
15 April – We leave Chandame at 4:00 in the morning back to South Africa. The mission is to fix a ambulance engine from Nkhoma missionary hospital and to pick up a bigger generator for Nkhoma mission station. This generator will help the 6 water pumps and water project at Nkhoma. On top of this, 2 hydraulic jacks are brought back to South Africa to be fixed. We spend the night in Lusaka, Zambia with Flip Lochner and Wilhelm Els.
17 April – We depart from Lusaka and arrive at Elephant Sands Botswana later that day.
18 April – We arrive in Kempton Park 19:00 and are welcomed by Andre and Rita Fouche.
19 April – Jannie does some shopping and a delicious braai is held with the Fouche family.
20 April – At 11:00 we visit Dr. Albe de Vreye for the recurring malaria virus we have. We receive new updated information about malaria. We visit Suky de Wet in the afternoon.
21 April – We head to Bloemfontein for the It’s Time conference hosted by Angus Buchan. A million people attend! We are joined by Manna Botha, Willem de Villiers, Chris Jonker, Calla and Hetta Botha and Saul.
22 April – At 13:00, the It’s Time conference starts. Before 13:00, praise and worship is done on a massive scale. To kneel and pray with 1 million people is indescribable! Some of the themes that stood out to me was God’s amazing grace and amazing love. “I am a child of God!” – And no one can take that away from me as a Christian. The holy spirit was dwelling among us.
23 April – We head back to Rawsonville from It’s time.
23 April – 14 May – We arrive back in Rawsonville and get to see all our children, grandchildren and friends. We head to church, partake in communion, and really experience the work of the Holy Spirit. Eddie van Dyk helps Jannie with mechanical work. Eddie seemed to like not being an accountant for a day or 2! Jannie also works on the ambulance engine and builds a trailer for the 30KVA generator to make it mobile. We also start shopping for Hennie Smit and Dr. Renier Ten Haar. We fix the Colt’s air conditioning and add a new viscose fan. We also fix the oil leaks on the Colt. Finally, the Colt is ready for the 4000km journey back to Chandame.
19 May – We head to Porterville to service Jaco’s bakkie. We also attend our grandchildren’s Rugby and Netball games on the 20th of May. Both Christian and Mia- Grace’s teams won!
22 May – Jannie continues working on the generator for the Nkhoma water project. Calla Botha, Stefan van Eeden, Chris Jonker and Willem de Villiers assist in this task and give advice when needed.
28 May – 2 June – We attend the Pentecost service at the Goudini DR Church. It was a special service and we were blessed to be part of a community of such strong believers. As special thanks to WJ for his theme and sermon on this day. God is a God of relationships! After the sermon, we are invited to friends’ house for a fantastic meal and socializing. A very special event.
3 June – We start packing to go back to Chandame. Jannie finishes the generator system and everything runs smoothly.
4 June – We depart Rawsonville and begin the long journey back to Chandame. After a long day’s driving, we stop and spend the night in Richmond.
5 June – We depart Richmond and head towards Kempton Park. In Kroonstad, we stop to check and balance the 2 front wheels as the Colt vibrates a lot when driving. Close to Vereeniging, we stop to change the left back tire. This tire was severely damaged and it was changed in the nick of time. We stop for coffee in Meyerton and arrive at Andre and Rita Fouche later that evening in Kempton Park.
6 June – Jannie goes shopping before leaving South Africa.
7 June – We depart Pretoria early in the morning but stop soon after departing as we need to replace a water pump on the Colt. We spend the night in Ellisras.
8 June – We depart for Botswana early in the morning and spend the night at Elephant Sands in Botswana.
9 June – We depart Elephant Sands to our next destination, Lusaka, Zambia. We spend the night at Flip Lochner’s home.
11 June – We depart at 5:00am for Nkhoma, Malawi. The road to Nkhoma is not an easy one to drive. Luckily, everything runs smoothly at the Malawi border post and we don’t have to open our luggage. We arrive at Nkhoma at 18:00, have dinner and go to bed early.
12 June – We wake up at 6:00, unload the bakkie and take the trailer with all its belongings to Hennie Smit’s workshop. We start the generator and it survived the trip. Everyone is happy, excited and thankful! Especially Jannie as he spent a lot of time rebuilding the generator. To celebrate, we head to Piet and Estelle for a cup of coffee and later that evening, we braai with Hennie, Elsabet and Dick Hollander.
13 June – We head to Lilongwe to repair Amanda van Saasen’s vehicle. She’s been without transport for the last 5 months and used public transport.
14 – 16 June – Jannie works on the Isuzu bakkie, the Pajero and the Honda motorbike. Amanda assists as mechanic.
17 June – We finish the auto motive repairs at 16:00. We have dinner with Frances.
18 June – We head back to Chandame.
19 – 20 June – We get back to work with our usual tasks at Chandame. The clinic is operational and mielies are transported.
22 June – We depart Chandame at 5:00am and head to Milange to pick up furniture and crockery that was donated by Ivan Stevens. We spend the night here.
23 June – After breakfast, we head back to Chandame from Milange. Arrive back at Chandame at 13:00.
25 June – Susan attends a sermon at Chandame. It was amazing! The women’s choir has grown from 6 to 18 members. The Sunday school choir also did a great job. Although a few words were lost in translation, the fellowship of the community is great. Jannie did not attend as he had to do a recovery of a vehicle in Agua Boa.
26 June – Wynand and Beaulah Theron visit us from Tete. We had a great get together. Unfortunately they had to leave early because their friend was in a motorcycle accident.
29 June- Jannie transports Vasco’s crop of mielies. He also transports wood and clay.
30 June – Jannie takes Pastor Antonio to Temba for a funeral of a little girl that passed away of malaria.
God Bless!
Susan