It's May! By the time you receive this letter I'll be
deep in preparations for my next trip to South Africa and I can't wait to get
back down there. Last May I spent two weeks in South Africa, but was only able
to spend a short time in Mafikeng and at North-West University. This time, I'm going for two weeks again, but
will be spending about nine days in Mafikeng.
I'm meeting four vet students from Purdue University in Johannesburg
where we are renting a car and then driving the four hours out to
Mafikeng. Thankfully I have plenty of
experience driving on the other side of the road from my time in Scotland!
Once we arrive in
Mafikeng we will be staying in an apartment owned by a member of the local
Baptist church. Throughout the nine days
we are there we will be spending quite a bit of time at the Dale Beighle Center for Animal Health Studies
small animal hospital to get to know
the Animal Health Technician students on rotations, teaching, sharing about the
Lord, and helping with staff Bible studies.
We also have a great opportunity to participate in a local AWANA program
which is just getting started. Finally,
we will be spending time in the outlying village of Lokaleng assisting with the
Sunday church service, going door to door, and hopefully showing the Jesus
film.
There is also a
chance that we can get out and do a couple vaccine clinics for dogs and cats in
the rural villages and maybe host a cattle health day for deworming, vaccines,
tick control, and general check-ups.
These types of events not only help control disease in animals, but also
help reduce disease risk for the villagers, since many diseases, such as
rabies, are spread by animals.
After we finish in
Mafikeng, I'll be taking the vet students on safari for a few days so I thought
I'd share a few photos from my trip to South Africa last May so you have an
idea of what the area is like.
Please pray for us
as we travel that we would all stay healthy, that we would form beneficial
relationships with those we meet, and that God would use our hands and our
words so share His love and good news to everyone we encounter.
