Fall, Falls and Falling

While April showers bring May flowers at home, here autumn is arriving and leaves are starting to fall! Early mornings and evenings are colder now, but a hot cup of rooibos tea is the perfect remedy. 

The days are still quite warm though and perfect for adventuring! I feel so blessed to have gotten to do quite a bit of that recently.

The end of March and beginning of April held adventures with my sister, who came for a visit. It was so lovely getting to spend time together and share South Africa with her!

While my sister was here we went to a waterfall, that just a couple weeks ago I was able to revisit, this time helping chaperon a group of youth.  

Returning to the same spot, but with such different company, and getting to see the same beautiful flow of water, reminded me of God’s consistency. Things may change, ok, things will change, but the Lord remains constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and he offers living water to all who will come to drink.  

“Jesus answered…'Whoever dinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’” ~ John 4: 13-14

More Falls: 

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going with a group of friends on a hike to Tugela Falls (the 2^nd highest waterfall in the world, right here in SA). It was a fun hike/a bit of a climb, to get to the viewpoint.

The little arrow, that points to the dark spot on the rocks, is pointing out the falls

It turns out at this time of year the falls isn’t much more than a trickle, but it was a very long trickle. And the whole area was so beautiful!

Then just over a week ago I got to visit another falls, this one is called Sterkspruit. The hike was much shorter than to Tugela (and the falls too) but there were such breathtaking views! 

Thanks to my friend Julia, for standing right on the edge to take these pics!

As I’ve been getting to spend more time out in the beauty of creation, I’ve realized just how much my soul has longed for it. Recently, the days at work have been very long and filled with lots of data entry. I’m glad to be able to help with capturing data, but getting away and just being captured by the beauty of the Lord’s handiwork has been so good! I’d been thirsting for quality time out-of-doors, and it’s a delight to get to drink it in! And it’s an even greater delight to know that the same God who made this beautiful world, made and deeply loves the people in it.

I’m thankful that not all of my most recent work has been data entry. In April it was a joy to be able to put on another camp/retreat, this one for primary caregivers (mostly mothers, grandmothers, and aunts) of children who are HIV+.  

Catching waterballoons at camp! Thanks to Thembalethu's new Peace Corps Volunteer for taking this picture. 

To be able to support some of those people God made and deeply loves, dear ones who spend their lives supporting others, was a gift and a lot of fun too! During the camp, one of the things we talked about resilience.  Life can throw some really hard things our way; there is sickness, pain, suffering, and injustice.  But instead of letting the hard things flatten us, we can stand firm on the Rock when the storms come. 

When we fall, when we fail, when life is hard, when we make mistakes, when we’re alone, when we’re afraid, when the future is unknown, the One who makes the colors change in Fall, the One who’s made most spectacular waterfalls, will not fall!  I’ve been reminded again and again these last few months of the Lord’s perfect faithfulness.  In all, He remains faithful! (2 Timothy 2:11-13) And so, as I think about my remaining time here (which is going crazy fast!) what I want to do most is spend my time falling…falling more in love with Jesus. He is the One who loved the world so much He was willing - to come, to say “Your will be done,” to die and pay the price for all who have sinned, for all who have fallen short, for me and for you.  I want to love Him more, to love what He loves, to love as He does.

“Beloved let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 

~ 1 John 4:7-11

Travels, Toil, and Trust

There are some places that have grabbed my heart and not let go. Rwanda was one of them. After 4 years away, it was such a blessing to return to visit last week. Many things had changed: new buildings built, roads paved, streetlights installed, children grown…and yet it is the same too.  There were still goats running across the road in front of traffic, the avocados were still huge and ridiculously cheap, and the land of a thousand hills was breathtakingly beautiful!

  

But the best part of all was seeing old friends.

 “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.” ~1 Corinthians 1:4 

How true this verse is of my dear friends/family in Rwanda. I truly thank the Lord for them! Getting to visit reminded me of what an incredible gift my two years there was. Besides catching up, it was lovely to spend time together in the Word and in prayer and just talking about what God has done. Such a sweet time!

Rwanda isn’t the only place I visited since my last blog post.  As most things shut down in South Africa during the holidays, including Thembalethu, I was able to spend Christmas through the New Year in New Zealand visiting friends and attending a Bible conference and exploring a bit.

With Heather and Peter at Purakaunui Falls 

That's me, standing behind Kitekite Falls

Being in New Zealand was such a blessing of fellowship and encouragement and I returned to South Africa refreshed and very thankful for the time. The author of Hebrews really knew what he was talking about when he said, “Encourage one another daily...” ~Hebrews 3:13

I was especially thankful for the refreshment, because things here have been busy, with trainings galore. These have included putting on computer training at a local primary school, teaching tomato trellising to Thembalethu’s gardener, and tomato sauce making to Thembalethu’s cooks, hosting another all day training for preschool teachers, doing lots of math tutoring, and preparing for and facilitating training sessions for new group of Peace Corps Volunteers. (There were lots of monkeys at the Peace Corps training site, which was fun!) 

Recent days have also included school uniform distribution, strategic planning for Thembalethu’s OVC program, leading a one on one Bible Study with a neighbor, and making the most of peach season with my host family, picking, pealing, canning, drying, and eating peaches from the trees that are growing in abundance all around our houses.

So, life has been busy, and I know the coming days and months will be busy too.  But when I left Rwanda I kept thinking of one word, courage. I’d forgotten how often I’d heard that word (said with French pronunciation) on my daily morning runs in Kibungo. As I ran one morning, I was quickly reminded as people called out “Courage!” as I went past. It is said as an encouragement, meaning keep going, don’t give up. As I think about my remaining time in South Africa, it’s a perfect word. It echoes in my head in combination with Hebrews 12: 1 & 2 - reminding me to keep on going, to run with endurance, and to keep my eyes on Christ. These verses are life words! I’m so thankful that in the Lord, we have the greatest reason of all for courage. He is with us!

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” ~Joshua 1:9

I know this isn’t the clearest picture, but it was courage in action!  I took it in Rwanda and there is a man way up in that tree, cutting down branches for firewood. He had no harness and held on with one hand while he hacked with the other. It seemed like a crazy thing to do, but he didn’t fall and he accomplished his goal!  

So, as I think about the coming months, I want to be brave, to take risks, and to accomplish goals. But most of all, I want to cling tightly to the tree-the cross of Christ, for it’s only in Him that I can accomplish anything worthwhile.