Thankful Thursday

1Cor 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

A new year is upon us. Certain terrible things have happened-thinking of Haiti-and consequences are continuing to work their woes on that country.

What makes my country special? Yes, things are bad here, but not nearly as bad as places where natural disaster occur on a nation-wide scale.

A national survey was conducted in which 1 out of 3 men claims they’ve raped a female. How did I manage not to ever be raped-the ‘groping’ seems so minor when I think of the total devastation that occurs because of rape. And thinking of that, remember that teen I said was raped in her home country, is here in SA and is now pregnant because of the rape?

She’s been going for counselling and she herself was ‘strengthened’ by the fact that it could be worse. One of the girls in the group session was gang-raped is pregnant AND caught the dreaded HI Virus. How have I escaped such trauma?

More importantly, what am I doing with my life to bless those who’ve been hit hard by the devil? How am I a positive influence? What will I do next year to remind my sisters and brothers that more than a hope of a criminal conviction, we have the hope of the devil being bound forever. How will I remind them that we’re one year closer to the end of all sorrows? How will I LIVE in a way that testifies that I truly believe that Jesus is coming soon?

Today, as I look back at the past, I am thankful that a better tomorrow is promised. Better than anything I could ever imagine.

Mommy fatigue

Ever have those days where you have so much to do but your body won’t play along and you just want to collapse into a heap on your bed? I’m having one of them.

I know that as the children get older, they’ll have more responsibilities. They already have more ‘chores’ than I did at their age. I think i only started making my bed when I was 10 or older. They wipe their tables after eating, help with the dishes (rinsing..) I know of parents who mollycoddled their children and it hasn’t turned out very well. Some of these kids are plain lazy, even as adults. I think Dr Phil used to refer to them as ‘moochers’ or something like that.

And so, I share this quote. Knowing that though i appreciate the children at every stage of their development, I do look forward to the time when they’ll not only be more independent, but will help out a bit more. I just pray they never lose the strong desire they have right now-I have to deal with a lot of begging from Eliora “Mommy, can I sweep/mop/wipe./vacuum.?” or from my son “I’ve cleaned the bath.”

The truth, in all its important bearings, needs to have a much deeper hold upon all who have to do with the training of our youth. Parents are to work skillfully for their own children, helping them while they are still in the home to gain a fitness to work as missionaries for Christ when they leave the home. The children are to be taught to be faithful in labor. They are to learn to relieve the weary mother, sharing her burdens. The elder children may greatly assist her by helping to care for the little ones. And the younger ones may learn to perform many of the simple duties of the home.  {7Manuscript Releases 17.1}

PS Just to be clear

My previous post might come across in the wrong way. I do plan to listen to the Sabbath School programe and be blessed, I do plan to teach the Kindergarten class and give it all my might so the children are blessed, I do plan to worship God and be blessed, I do plan to fellowship with the other members during our usual fellowship lunch. I do plan to be edified by the afternoon session.

But I will SING hymns very conscious of how REAL the words are. How great my desires is for Jesus to come NOW.

Tomorrow won’t be a happy Sabbath

I get extremely moved by hymns. And right now, little Angela is suffering the effects of chemotherapy. (in case you missed it, Angela is a 4yr old girl who came from Zimbabwe for free treatment-parents unemployed -who had retinoblastoma, her cancerous eye was removed and started chemo this week.) She’s vomiting, has a sore jaw and a sore throat. They’re giving her 3 drugs, and the side effects apparently (after a little search on Google) kick in from the 7th day and recovery comes at about day 21.

I’m not really sure her parents understand the gravity of the side effects. i think the amount of vomiting she’s undergoing has shocked them, they’ve taken her back to the hospital this morning. Last week my husband warned them that she’d probably lose her hair and that it may be better for them to remove her long braid extensions before that happens, that maybe the shock would be greater when watching herself go from ‘very long hair’ to bald. Her dad gave me the names of the drugs they’re giving her, one causes infertility, I wonder if that affects even a little child who hasn’t reached puberty. Hmm.

Anyway, back to Sabbath. I am in charge of Children’s Ministries and I was getting used to translating our English into a mixture of Ndebele, Zulu and Xhosa-she doesn’t speak English. My children love her so much, they hate leaving church because they have to be parted from her. Last Sabbath Eliora was so excited “Mommy, Angela can say ‘yes’ now!” So, I doubt she’ll be there, in fact I’d tell my friends not to allow her to come even if she miraculously got over this terrible bout of vomiting and head pain that started today. Not seeing her will make her suffering even more real. And as I said, hymns tend to move me, even without any specific turmoil in my life. Thinking of he r tiny body battling these poisons will not be nice when singing hymns about God wiping away all tears etc. Such promises become more real and URGENT when you know someone who’s going through intense suffering.

She’ll undergo more chemotherapy and I read that it only gets worse with each successive treatment. I feel so sad for her parents and our friends that they’re staying with. Watching little ones suffer is the hardest thing to do.

ETA: She doesn't have any traces of cancer in her blood or bone marrow nor in the orbit from whence her eye was removed. The chemo is for " just in case"...The doctors say they may have made her dosage too high so they've given her anti-nausea meds and after 3 hours of observation, she'll go back home.

Back to school

I’ve been admitted into the Honours degree for Counselling Psychology so now I can truly believe that my undergrad degree is done. I did mention in my last post about school, that I still felt like there was a sword hanging over me, as if they’d tell me there was some requirement I hadn’t satisfied yet.

So here I am, already studying. and working on assignments The Postgrad degree brochure names the textbooks for each 'module and informed us to buy the textbooks as soon as we were sure we are going to do the course because of how heavy the load is. The advice was also to take a maximum of 3 courses per year. I’m no superwoman so I’ll follow that advice. And anyway, even if I’d wanted to finish this coming year, I wouldn’t have been able to because they are going through a transition and there are 2 extra compulsory courses that we have to do but they haven’t implemented yet so will only start it in 2012.

You should have seen how excited I was that I really was done! The kids caught the ‘happy bug’ and started laughing and jumping up and down too LOL. Black graduates are nothing ‘new’ NOWADAYS, but for my family (both maternal and paternal) it’s a huge deal, it’s new.They see in us, the opportunities they were denied and for them, the ultimate sign of freedom is as proper and as thorough an education as the minority has been able to gain just because of a lack of dark pigmentation (barring of course, financial difficulties and an inability to get scholarships.)

Note, I’m not saying that those without degrees are uneducated or ‘ignorant.’ Who needs a degree to make money? and feed their family?  Who needs a degree to raise their children well? To be a good parent, citizen, spouse? There are many people skilled at using their hands, people gifted with the necessary smarts to make it in this world. But it means a huge deal to those who never had the CHOICE. And so for my parent's’ sake, I’ll plan to attend my graduation. I don’t see the point of all the pomp and ceremony. But I’ll do it for my parents. They sacrificed to send me to ‘good’ schools and even though I don’t plan on having a career right now, (No idea how I’ll fit in an internship when the time comes!) I know they did it so I could have a brighter future than the one they had. Plus they’ve made it pretty obvious that it’s a huge dream of theirs.

Don’t blame the Mama

There’s a stereotype that ‘pastor’s kids’ are so over-protected and strictly raised, that it’s inevitable that they will rebel and break all the ‘rules.’ How does that explain the ‘easy’ parents whose children also grow up to ‘break all the rules?’

On the other hand, there’s also the situation where if  child goes wrong, the parents, mainly the mother, is blamed for not raising the child well. The verse from Prov 22:6 that says “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  is used as proof that perfect parenting guarantees a non-rebellious youth. While that may be true, it’s NOT universal. Children do rebel, look at Absalom and Solomon. And it has nothing to do with how they were raised.

I look at my life. I was a ‘pastor’s kid’ but when I look at the standards I have, versus the standards they have, he definitely wasn’t strict. So there goes on stereotype. Same is true of other pastor’s kids.  also know of other non-strict parents whose children have gone totally wayward, even by worldly standards. And I know of ‘strict’ parents whose children stayed in the truth. Nothing is concrete. We have freedom of choice.

So next time you immediately assume that a child wasn’t raised ‘well’ and THAT is why they are going astray, don’t. Of course if you know the family, that’s another issue. And also, if you see a child going astray and you assume it’s because the parents were overly strict, don’t. There could be a mother and father crying every night, wondering where they went wrong, when in fact, they didn’t go wrong at all. Rather pray with, and encourage them.

Why do I blog? Why do you?

Nappyheaded Black Girl asked a question similar to this and she’s the one who inspired this post…

When I began, it was all about the hair. I wanted to share with my South African sisters who don’t have access to shea butter, cocoa butter, african black soap etc that it’s still possible to be as healthful as possible without relying on shampoos with SLS. I’ve realised though that I haven’t spoken about my hair regimen in a long time. I also blogged about natural hair because it’s not the norm. We don’t have dedicated ‘natural hair salons’ like some folk do. We have swallowed the lie that natural hair is totally impossible to maintain, that it doesn’t grow…

And that’s because part of my aim has changed. I started talking about some South African issues, about our time with a mission centre in Tanzania..and people started reacting to the ‘normal’ everyday stuff. So I decided to just blog as a way to share the peculiarities and similarities of our life here in South Africa.

Family members started reading it, as well as friends who aren’t here, and then the blog morphed into a sort of journal and general ‘news’ report on our lives-for their sake, and for my own.

I also realised that there aren’t many Christian blogs written by Seventh-day Adventist homeschooling mothers in South Africa. The resources we have here are very limited when you compare them to the resources bloggers in the US have (I say the US because that’s mostly where other Christian blogs are based.) Not only that, but though we’re bound by homeschooling, my principles are VERY different to these folk abroad. So I blog in order to inform my African sisters who are also into modesty and health and who don’t own their own homes, don’t have gardens to plant in, don’t even have good CHristian currucula in their own land etc. That’s actually another aspect I’ve neglected on this blog. Oops. Speaking of the health aspect-ingredients for a lot of online recipes just don’t exist here in South Africa. And some you’re just unable to substitute. So I’d been attempting to share some of the vegan life using our own foods-as requested by some sisters.

I also continue to blog for the sake of my young church family members. I like to encourage and remind them why we believe the way we do.

So you see..There are many reasons why I blog. And trying to fit them in on one blog becomes very interesting. Going through this has made me realise that I’ve actually neglected some aspects.

Went to Cango Caves recently

Brief stop on the Outeniqua Pass

Inside the Cave

Interesting rock formations

They call this ‘the Bridal chamber’

Stalgmite meets stalactite

 

These were just a few…

Lessons from the Toilet

A few Sabbaths ago, my husband walked out the gents’ just as my son walked in and walked into a stall. As he was going up the stairs back to the service, he hears my son saying “Daddy.” He thought “He’s probably just acknowledging that he saw me.” He heard him again “Daddy!” sounding more insistent. He slowly went back down the stairs. Again, the shout “DADDY!” and the church member who was in there asked “Are you ok in there?” My husband walks in, wondering if he’d locked himself in the stall.

He says “Yes, Bukhosi” and the boy says “Daddy, I love you!”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could call God just as insistently to tell Him we love Him? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we weren’t ONLY insistent when things are falling apart? Wouldn’t it show Him how much we appreciate His presence in our lives?

I hope I remember to call my ‘Abba’ just as insistently and just as loudly..ALWAYS.

Finally,all my exam results…

And..YEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! I am done with my undergrad degree!! As I thought, it was a bit dicey when it came to one Sociology paper BUT I got 4 distinctions for my Psych papers.(There I was worrying that I wouldn’t get high enough marks to do my Honours degree.) which means…I now need to decide whether to register for my Honours in Trauma Counselling or in Pastoral Counselling.

I am typing this but I haven’t told my husband yet. I am so excited, but scared that they’ll tell me it’s all a mistake and I’m not done yet. LOL.

I would work towards a Masters in Counselling but  I’d need to be on campus for lectures 4 times a week, which doesn’t work. Means I could charge double for consulting sessions, ha ha.But I’m perfectly satisfied with whatever I can do that will still allow me to homeschool the children.

Whew…Seriously, I think God whispered the answers to me because I was clueless for most of the last one (As I said, I hadn’t even glanced at most of the textbooks for the last one) and I guessed for the penultimate one. He deserves all my gratitude. It wasn’t me, it was Him.

Still scared they’ll tell me I’m not graduating though!

The Christian Mother-John Abbott, 1833

Back to my ‘Monday Mommy Quotes’

Think not that you can go in one path, and induce your child to walk in another. You must not only "point to heaven," but "lead the way."

The first thing to be done, is for a mother to give her own heart to God. Become a Christian yourself, and then you may hope for God's blessing upon your efforts to lead your child to the Savior. We do entreat every mother who reads these pages, as she values her own happiness and the happiness of her children, immediately to surrender her heart to God. Atoning blood has removed every difficulty from the way. The Holy Spirit is ready, in answer to your prayers, to grant you all needful assistance. Every hour that you neglect this duty, you are leading your children farther from God, and rendering the prospect of their return more hopeless.

You wanted a pic of my locs…

 

You know who you are…

LOL

Well, here’s one. It’s about a month old, I remember because I re-tighten my hair at the start of every month and this was the first time I put it in pigtails. so that it’s out the way when I latch. Was just testing to see if it’s possible. My husband came home and was kinda shocked, LOL. It had been YEARS since I put my hair in pigtails, even when it was long, pigtails weren’t exactly my ‘go to’ style. And yes, I was excited that I could divide my hair in less than 3 ‘tails.’ Maybe this time next year I’ll have a fully ‘functioning’ ponytail LOL. (I can get it in one but a few locs come out here and there and there’s basically 4 cm of locs in the ‘tail.’ Looks a bit silly.) See below!

The picture below was taken on the 4 of December last year..and the one  below that, was taken last month.

For the record. The only view of my locs are find  even marginally ‘ok’ is the front view. I guess it keeps me from being vain. Not that I believe people who like their hair are vain!! I just don’t think my hair looks beautiful. As long as it’s happy and nappy,that’s all that matters!

‘Wordy’ Wednesday

Time for hymns/songs that inspire, edify me.

In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face,
While the storm howls above me, and there's no hiding place.
'Mid the crash of the thunder, Precious Lord, hear my cry,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Chorus
Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more,
Till the clouds roll forever from the sky;
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Many times Satan whispered, "There is no need to try,
For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by"
But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise
Where the storms never darken the skies.

When the long night has ended and the storms come no more,
Let me stand in Thy presence on the bright peaceful shore;
In that land where the tempest, never comes, Lord, may I
Dwell with Thee when the storm passes by.