October 2019 - Pizza makes great bait!

Pizza is wonderful bait for catching university students!  Never fails!  We went through 50 pizzas over two nights to feed almost 80 final-year animal health students.  As part of the CVM short-term mission trip I host each year, we offered two Tuesday evening review sessions last month with pizza working like a charm.  It is always fun to bless the students not only with academic help, but also with good food and lots of laughter.  This year, the students requested topics including hematology (evaluating blood cells) and round cell tumors.

On the Saturday in between, we offered extra-curricular suturing practicals for a portion of the class.  This is a skill that isn’t included in their course, but it is always a big hit.  They really enjoy getting the chance to learn how to handle the instruments and perform a few simple suture patterns.  I usually pick up trotters (pig’s feet) at the local butchery as the skin isn’t too thick or difficult to use and utilize donated expired suture so there is no cost for the students.  One year several of the students took the trotter home afterwards for a stew!

Having the team visit was also a good excuse to organize another rabies vaccine outreach with the students and the local SPCA.  We visited a village about 10 minutes south of Mahikeng and had our busiest clinic yet!  Nearly 100 dogs vaccinated in just 4 hours.  We even had to send the van driver to bring more vaccines!

All-in-all, the two weeks of the short-term team flew by.  This month, our Acts 29 witnessing team students are preparing for our spring break outreach, which will once again be in the country of Lesotho.  We will be joining with a local ministry for the week in serving children head-of-households and encouraging Christian college students toward campus evangelism in the capital city of Maseru.  What is my most important responsibility for the outreach?  Keeping the team supplied with cookies of course!  At least, that is what the students tell me :)  Good thing I’ve got 10 pounds of Costco chocolate chips in my fridge!  After all, chocolate chip cookies work almost as well as pizza!

Aug 2019 - Change!

Change! Sometime good, sometimes not so good, it just keeps coming.  Thankfully, for the last few months the changes have been good.  One of my goals for the year was to change up the way we run our practical exams at the end of the term. Previously, each student had four 10-minute stations to complete, which also meant each examiner had 10 minutes with each student.  It worked OK when we had 50 or so students (8+ hours), but this year we are at 81!  My hope was to change to a practical with 20 stations and 3 minutes per station.  We ran 4 groups of students though and were finished by lunch!

Most of the stations allowed the student to work on their own doing drug calculations, identifying parasites, writing prescription labels, etc.  The others had staff members to evaluate the students making blood smears, preparing fecal exams, taking owner histories, and restraining stuffed animals.  Although it took more time to set up, all the work was worth it.  All the staff and the external examiner seemed to think it went  really well and allowed for a fair and accurate evaluation of the students skills.  Even the students seemed happy :)

Secondly, after several years of figuring out logistics, we are getting a few horses and a donkey for our program.  I’m very excited to be around horses again and hope they are ridable!  Initially it was organized to get horses from a research facility associated with the vet school, but I was getting sketchy answers to my questions about these horses, so I decided to go see them.  So glad I did!  They were completely wild!  There only human contact was being run through a shoot and groomed a few times a year.  They were also only 2-3 years old.  What a disaster that would have been for teaching horses!  Thankfully we are now working with a large horse rescue who has several mild mannered and well-trained horses available.

Quite a bit of work was needed on the stable block at the university farm, but we are nearing completion and hope to have the horses arrive by the time you get my next letter.

We are also changing the name of our witnessing group to better represent the goal of the program.  We were Acts 1:8, but are now Acts 29. Focused on making disciples who make disciples rather than on just sharing the gospel.  We even have the T-shirts to prove it!

A final fun change has been the addition of 4 chickens to my family here in Mafikeng.  A friend at church built me a small coop and, just as it was delivered, other friends were moving and getting rid of their chickens, so the timing was perfect.  Interestingly, due to the difference in light here during the winter, the chickens keep laying even without a light in the coop so I’m getting 3 eggs a day. I foresee lots of omelets and quiches in my future.

Signing off here in chilly Mafikeng!  Enjoy your warm summer weather!

April 2019 - Greatly Blessed

God has blessed us greatly this year!  We have a wonderful group of new students who have joined our Acts 1:8 witnessing training program and many are also attending the home church at my house on campus.  My living room has been full each week with 10-12 students. Somehow, all the muffins I make vanish within minutes!

Acts 1:8 students during Wed night training.

To start off the year in our home church, we watched the new movie of Richard Wurmbrand’s life in Romania under communist rule, Tortured for Christ.  His organization, Voice of the Martyrs, have also produced a six weeks study based on his life and wisdom and using scripture to examine our relationship with Christ and others.  Each study focuses on a different aspect, and the students have found it challenging and encouraging. Seeing how God uses the suffering of His martyrs to grow His Church helps us to see a different side of suffering and how we can pray for those experiencing persecution.

Studying God's Word during our home church

This evening we looked at the underground church and read about the early church in Acts.  We discussed the importance of meeting together frequently and our responsibilities in the church; both our local church and the universal church.  Should we choose a church based on a worship style we like or a good preacher or should we rather choose a church where we can serve and bless others?

In between Bible studies, witnessing training, home church, and the clinic, I decided to try camping at a local, national park.  After borrowing a tent and sleeping bag, I loaded up the car and headed out to Pilanesberg National Park.  It was wonderful being out in nature for a few days and there were plenty of opportunities to practice my photography skills.  The tent even survived a crazy wind, lightning, and rain storm, although it did end up a bit wet inside.  I was worried the tent pegs would pull out and I’d go rolling across the campground!  Hopefully, I’ll be able to do more camping over the next few years as it is an inexpensive way to get away.

Feb 2019 - Furlough Finished

My first furlough/home assignment is complete and I’ve returned to South Africa for my second three-year term with CVM!  Seems like I should feel like a real missionary now :) But I must admit, I don’t feel different.  I still feel like a regular person doing a fairly normal job to the best of my abilities and seeking to share God with those I meet.  And that is just the way it should be!  Those of us living overseas in full time ministry are just regular people, working hard, facing difficulties and frustrations, and taking pleasure in the small joys of life.

Spending three months in the USA has been a blessing in many ways.  Seeing my family and even much of my extended family, visiting with old friends and catching up on their lives, speaking to groups of vet students, and meeting many of my supporters that I’ve never had the pleasure to meet previously has been refreshing and encouraging.  The continuing education conferences that I attended have also given me food for thought and I’m looking forward to introducing new ideas and techniques in the clinic here as well as working out new client communication training for the students in the Animal Health program.

This year we will have the largest final-year class since I arrived with over 70 students (last year we had 55).  Fitting those students into 6 rotation groups will mean large group sizes and reduced contact with individual students.  Please pray that the Lord will provide opportunities during each rotation to get to know the students and move beyond the large group sizes to individual relationships.  Please also pray that I don’t go crazy trying to corral and organize that many students!  The clinic is going to be bursting from the seams!

Aside from the clinic, I am also continuing with the weekly student Bible studies and would appreciate your prayers for the fresh new first-years; that they will find joy in spending time with God and in His word.  The Gestring’s and I are also praying for the Lord to direct committed students to our Acts 1:8 witnessing training program.  Several of our long-term students graduated last year so we are eagerly looking to who the Lord will bring along new this year.

A few other prayer points for the year:

·       Continued peace on campus!  We have been blessed with two peaceful years and pray for a third year free of protests and riots

·       The new Compulsory Community Service veterinarians (new grads) have arrived and started working in the clinic.  Please pray for them to grow in skill and knowledge as I mentor them throughout 2019.

·       Safety of students – a large percentage of our Bible study students have been mugged or assaulted when walking to the grocery store.  Please pray for their physical safety, especially when off campus.

·       New financial supporters are needed for my next three years.  In order to meet my budget and continue serving at North-West University, I’m praying for an additional $800/month.  Several of my past supporters have been unable to continue for this second term so there is a current monthly deficit to fill.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support over the past three years!  I look forward to sharing with you, over the next three years, what else God is going to do here in Mafikeng, South Africa.  The adventures await!