Dec 2021 - Furlough Plans

Merry Christmas!  This is definitely my favorite time of the year, and I am blessed to be able to spend it at home in WA with my family.  You can pray that we will have a bit of snow while I’m home.  There is nothing better than sitting with a cup of cocoa and a good book while watching the snow fall. 

Back in Mafikeng, it was regularly in the 90’s when I left in late November.  I spent a good amount of my time in my one airconditioned room taking care of marking and finalizing the end of term reporting.  The last two weeks before I left were very hectic with a final test, written exam, end of term assignment, and the practical exam for the 106 students.

We also finished up our study of 1 & 2 Timothy and had an end of the ear braai with 19 of our Bible study students.   Next year we are excited to restart our Acts 29 witnessing/evangelism program with the students in addition to continuing the Bible study and house church.  It will be such a blessing to go out with the Acts 29 students again as we witness to others on campus.

In the meantime, my plans for the next few months in the US are filling out.  If you would like to meet for coffee or a meal while I’m in your area please let me know!

Dec 4-7 San Francisco/Sacramento

Dec 7-9 San Diego

Dec 10-11 Nevada

Dec 11-13 Colorado

Dec 15-30 in WA

Jan 2-7 Alaska

Jan 14-16 Real Life Real Impact CVM conference in Yakama WA

Jan 16-21 Orlando, VMX Conference

Jan 22-23 Atlanta

Jan 23-26 North Carolina

Jan 26-28 Minneapolis

Jan 29-Feb 1 Michigan

Please keep my travels in your prayers since weather and covid issues could easily derail my plans at any time.  Also, please pray that schedules will work out for me to meet up with those along my path.

Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I pray that this month will be a blessed time for you with friends and family close by.

Nov 2021 - Heading Home for Furlough

The spring term here at North-West University is winding down and exams start early next month.  The students will have both a written theory exam and a practical exam to pass in order to finish the Companion Animal Care II module.  And, as much as they are praying to pass, I’m praying to survive all the marking!  I keep trying to convince the students that it is just as much work being a lecturer as it is being a student, but they don’t believe me :)

The end of next month, I will also be returning home for my second furlough.  Barring unforeseen complications, I should be home for Thanksgiving with my family and will be in the US though mid-February.  This is my first time back in the US since my last furlough three years ago and I’m really looking forward to it.  Hopefully, I will have the chance to catch up with many of you while I’m home. 

It will also be wonderful to be involved with CVM’s Real Life Real Impact veterinary student conference again while I’m home in January.  The RLRI weekends are such wonderful time to pour into young Christian vet students and share in their excitement and passion for God and for veterinary medicine.  It dovetails so well with my ministry here as well!

In our student Bible study here in Mafikeng, we have been studying though the book 1 Timothy.  Paul does such a wonderful job in that book of encouraging and training the young Timothy in his faith and in his leadership role in the local church.  It has been an encouragement to me as well to never underestimate believers based on their youth, but rather encourage spiritual maturity regardless of physical maturity. Both with the students here and with the vet students at RLRI, walking beside them to help them grow in spiritual maturity and sharing their Faith is as much a blessing to me as it is to them. 

While home on furlough, my plan is to travel quite a bit around the US to catch up on my continuing education requirements, as well as meet with many of my supporters and friends.  Please keep an eye on my Facebook page for updates on my schedule, as I would love to catch up with as many of you as possible while I’m in there.  If I’m going to be in your area and you have time to meet up, please let me know!

I am also happy to share with groups about my ministry here in South Africa or on other topics.  If you would be interested in having me speak at your church, Bible study, fellowship group, or other event, please let me know so we can make arrangements. 

The easiest way to reach me is by email, Facebook, or WhatsApp (contact details below). 

Thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Sept 2021

 Winter is here!  Mafikeng has been in the grips of quite a cold snap the past few weeks. Temperatures have regularly dropped below freezing at night and only reach the low 60’s during the day.  I brought quite a few of my potted plants inside to keep them from freezing.

Although I really enjoy the cool weather, it is rather unpleasant when the indoor temperatures hit 49 degrees in the morning!  Thankfully, one of my cats always sleeps under the covers with me when it is cold.   It is like sleeping with a living hot water bottle and makes a huge difference in keeping warm at night!  He probably thinks the same.

Despite the cold weather, South Africa has been experiencing a third wave of Covid infections and it has been the worst so far.  Perhaps it is the delta variant, perhaps it is people getting tired of following the lockdown rules.  Either way, the country is back up to level 4 lockdown, which means no gatherings of any sort.  Thankfully, this has been primarily over the winter break so our ministry activities would have been paused anyway.  Hopefully, we will be able to meet again for Bible studies shortly after the new term gets underway.

One of our last Bible studies before the increased lockdown

Please continue to pray for our ministry:

·       That we will be allowed to meet in groups again in Aug so that Bible study and our home church can continue in term 2

·       That we will be an encouragement to students and challenge them in living out their faith

·       That students will prosper in their online studies and not get behind

·       That we would be able to source oxygen for the clinic to allow surgeries to continue

·       That covid would not lead to any clinic/department shutdowns in term 2

Over the winter break, I was blessed to have my parents come for a visit.  We traveled to Cape Town and Kruger National Park and then up to Namibia.  We were very lucky/blessed because Namibia is also experiencing very high covid infection and death rates, so locals were not allowed to travel, but foreign tourists were not restricted.  We adjusted our travel plans slightly to mostly stay away from the big cities, but we were still able to visit all the famous and beautiful locations.

One of our favorite stops was an area called Sossusvlei.  It is in the Namib desert and is famous for its red sand dunes which rise over 12,000 feet high!  We decided NOT to climb them!  There is also a valley amid the dunes which used to be an oasis.  Although it has been dry for 600+ years, the trees never rotted due to the extremely low humidity.  The area is known as Deadvlei and is very popular with photographers, where the black, sun-scorched trees against the white salt pan and red dunes provide stunning photo opportunities.

The beauty of Deadvlei, Namibia

What an incredible world God has created!  My soul resounds in praise as I see His glory reflected in His creation! 

May 2021 - Protests AGAIN!

Welcome back to the soap opera of teaching here in Mafikeng.  Student protests strike again!  Haha… catch that? 😊  Oh, well, perhaps it isn’t that funny.  Gotta laugh or cry though the way things have been going.  We started the academic year 2 weeks late due to Covid delays lingering from last year and now, due to the student protests and associated campus closure, we are a further 2 weeks behind.  Thankfully, there was no significant physical damage, although there was minor damage to the front gate of the university. 

This time, the students were protesting to allow students who have not paid all of last year’s university fees to be allowed to register for this year even if the debt is not cleared.  There were even calls for the university to erase all debts owed by students.  The protests are driven by various political groups on campus and were not supported by all students.  Unfortunately, all the students suffer from the campus closure.  Many were still trying to finish registering (federal student grant approvals have been delayed due to Covid) and are now even further behind with their courses. 

Since things seemed calm, I opted to stay in my house on campus rather than evacuate.  One of our witnessing students from last year even stayed with me one night until she could get off campus.  She was understandably concerned about staying in the dorm after students came around, knocking on doors, telling everyone they must go protest the next morning. The “or else...” was definitely implied.  When she tried to leave campus that night, security refused to open the gate, so she came to me.  We managed to sneak her out early the next morning before the protesting students came to force the gate to be locked at 7am.

Since the clinic was closed (no one allowed onto campus property) it was the perfect time to work on several lectures that I’m adding to/revamping for the final year companion animal course this year.  Two lectures on physical exams and two on applied pharmacology are finished and one on nursing care is almost done.  I even managed to write the multiple-choice test questions for those finished lectures and get the first test set. 

Please pray for us, that the university and our department would have no further delays. The current peace between the university and student political groups appears fragile and it would be awful for the majority of students if additional protests closed the university again. 

Now, for some very important news!  Christian Veterinary Mission (CVM), the agency I serve though, has long been a subsidiary of CRISTA Ministries, in Seattle, but has prayerfully decided to become their own independent non-profit.  This will occur at the end of the current fiscal year on June 30^th.  Because your contact details are officially held by CRISTA Ministries, you need to allow CRISTA Ministries to release your contact details to the “new” independent CVM.  Please go to www.cvm.org/optin to do so before June 15th if you want to continue to receive my pray letters and updates. 

For donations to my account, all will continue as usual until July 1^st.  After that date, you will be able to donate though the website (www.cvm.org) or send checks to Christian Veterinary Mission, 6817 208th St SW, Unit 5888, Lynnwood WA 98036-8777.  You can also call CVM at call (206)546-7574 for more information.  I will share further details for those with automatic monthly donations when I receive them. Thank you for your continued support!

With that said, please keep CVM in your prayers through this exciting, but stressful time.  I can’t even imagine all the logistics this change entails, but I look forward to what God has in store for CVM in this new era.  

March 2021 - What God's are you worshiping?

 

Students are back on campus!  Although the university is predominantly sticking with online instruction this year, quite a few students have returned to live on campus. Many have come because they don’t have internet at home or it isn’t reliable, others just want to be away from family, and some have practical classes held in person. Whatever the reason, it is great to be able to feel somewhat back to normal. 

Since South Africa has dropped back down to level 1 lockdown, we have started hosting a Bible study again at my house and the Gestrings are having a home church at their house on Sundays.

For our first Bible study of the year, we looked at Joshua 24:14-27.  Jeramiah instructs Israel to put away the gods of their fathers and the gods of the people around them and serve the Lord alone.  They were to be witnesses to each other of their commitment to serve the Lord and set up memorials to remember in the future.  These are such wise words, even if our “gods” look a bit different today. 

At the end of last year, we did a study based on the book “Gods at War” by Kyle Idleman.  He asks some key questions to help identify “gods” we are serving/worshiping in our lives that often take precedence practically, if not consciously, over the Lord.

• ·       What can you not imagine losing?
• ·       What causes your biggest disappointments?
• ·       What do you daydream about?
• ·       How do you spend your time and money?
• ·       What do you complain about the most?
• ·       What do you make financial sacrifices for?
• ·       Where do you run for comfort?

Our answers to these questions help us realize what is most important in our lives.  Where our time, money, and passion go, there lie our gods (or hopefully God!).  The study looked at 5 common gods who battle with the Lord in our hearts for our worship: pleasure, love, money, power, and self.

The beginning of a new phase of life (like a new year at university) is the perfect time to reflect on these questions, make changes if needed, and set up memorial stones to help us remember our decisions and commitments.

Jan 2021 - South African Surprises

 While speaking with my parents on the phone recently, I suddenly shrieked, dropped the phone, and started frantically smacking a 3-inch red centipede (poisonous) crawling across my living room floor. After disposing of the centipede and explaining the incident to my parents, my mom mentioned that the experience would be a good story for a prayer letter.  So, I thought to share a few short stories with you that are not “big” enough on their own to warrant a prayer letter.

To follow on with another insect story, there have been several crickets recently who have managed to find their way into my house.  There nothing like drifting off to sleep only to have a cricket start up just a few feet away jerking you back to awareness.  They are so loud! Sometimes, if they are in a different room, I can manage to ignore it, but when there are in the bedroom there is no options but to get up and start a midnight cricket hunt.  Of course, once you turn the lights on they stop making noise, so tracking them down is quite a challenge. 

This summer has been quite wet with over 400mm so far (15 inches).  You can often tell when a storm is coming because the wind will very suddenly start whipping through like crazy.  After 5-10 minutes it dies down and the rain hits.  Although we do sometimes have nice gentle rain, it usually pours with 2+ inches coming down in 30 minutes to an hour.  Then its over and the weather clears.  I love the rain, but it is quite deafening on my metal roof.

A few weeks ago, I heard someone yelling on the road that runs behind my house by the back gate of the university.  It seemed different than the normal noise of people walking down the road, so I went to look (keep in mind this is a small road with nothing on it for a kilometer or so other than the university gate).  There was a police unit marching back and forth and performing maneuvers!  March down ten steps, about face, march another few steps, right turn, etc with a drill sergeant barking out orders the whole time. After half and hour or so they loaded up in vans and disappeared. Weird!

One fun occurrence this summer is a pair of southern masked weavers who have been nesting in a tree in my yard.  The male weaves several houses and then the female choses her favorite for the nest.  They raised one family in Nov and now he is weaving new nests so they must be going to raise another set of chicks. I can sit for hours watching him weave the nests from grass.

Since it is time to renew my visa, I’ve been gathering the paperwork I need, getting the chest x-rays (to show I don’t have tuberculosis), etc. One of the quirky things about South Africa is the need for stamps (think rubber stamps with the date) to make documents official. All the copies of my passport, bank statements, etc. must stamped to prove they are “true reproductions of the original documents”.  It is a bit like what a notary would do in the USA. This is generally done at the police station and there is always at least a short line of people waiting.  I had to laugh this time when I realized the police never even asked to see the original documents, they just stamped and signed anything put before them.  The need for official stamps on everything reminds me of the American Revolution and the British stamp act that started it.  At least here, I don’t have to pay for the stamps with anything other than my time.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this random potpourri of life in South Africa.  When you hear from me next, we will be well into the first term and I will be able to report on how our activities are going.  Please be praying, both for our final-year animal health rotations as well as our ministry activities, that we will be able to resume in a close to normal fashion.

Dec 2021 - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  Although it is a bit early, I’m always excited for Christmas and celebrating what it represents.  Yes, I’m one of those people who start playing Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving.  Thankfully, between my own rather impressive digital Christmas music collection (thanks to after Christmas sales at the Christian Book Store in years past) and Spotify’s somewhat more limited offerings, I’m set to enjoy the spirit of Christmas all month.

Last year I was blessed with quite a few cool, rainy days during December and I did a lot of Christmas cookie baking as well as stolon and such for my Church’s coffee hour.  Baking has been one of my favorite stress relief outlets since vet school and at the end of the year here, once the students have finished exams in November and gone home, it is perfect timing.

This year, unfortunately, I may not be able to do so much baking.  For one thing, it is shaping up to be a very hot summer. For another, we may not be finished with the students until Dec 18^th.  With all the delays due to Corona virus we have been really pushing to finish before the end of the year. The clinic was closed another 3 weeks during this second term due to staff and student cases, so our already tight plans have been further compressed.  To finish out the term, the students only had 1 week per rotation instead of two.  Please continue to keep the students in your prayers as they are expected to learn the same amount with less time to do so (both for theory and practical skills).

One of the extra stresses this year has been taking over the lecture portion of the final-year small animal course. Usually I just help with the clinical portions, but the lecturer in charge of the module resigned early this year and I volunteered to finish out the year.  This has meant putting together quite a few lectures and tests.  Imagine having only an hour to cover all the clinical aspect of dermatology (skin), urology (kidneys/bladder), emergencies, fluid therapy, etc.  Yikes!  It generally takes me 10-15 hours to put together each lecture and then another hour to record the audio for it.  I have much more sympathy for my old professors now. 

Thankfully, we have been having some student Bible studies again on campus.  We are meeting at my house in the garden where we can be socially distanced.  Many of our normal attendees are not back on campus, but for the ones that are, it is a blessing to meet in person again.   I have also been taking students to my church on Sunday mornings since the campus student churches, that many attend, are still closed.  My new seven-seater vehicle is already being put to good use!

Before I finish this letter, let me thank those of you who have supported me throughout the year, either with monthly support or one-time gifts.  You are the reason I’m still here and able to continue teaching and ministry activities. 

As the year finishes, please keep my ministry in mind for end-of-year giving as that can provide a good portion of my yearly support.  Also, CVM has an awesome Animal Impact Gift Guide (https://gifts.cvm.org/collections/all) that allows you to give a chicken or goat or such to someone in need (though CVM) in the name of your friends and family.   It can be the perfect gift for those people on your list who are hard to buy for. 

Enjoy the Christmas season, friends and family (as much as you are able during this difficult time), and never lose sight of Christ, the reason for the season.

Nov 2020 - Contagious diseases

 Parvo, distemper, and rabies, oh my!  The clinic has been bursting from the seams with very sick animals recently.  Thankfully, only one suspected case of rabies (and it may be distemper instead), but we are seeing 2-6 parvo puppies daily and 1-4 cases of distemper each week.  Whenever we experience a season change from winter to summer it seems the infectious diseases hit huge peaks.  This may the worst year I’ve seen for distemper.  It is gut wrenching to see so many poor dogs suffering and so many euthanized when vaccines are essentially 100% effective in preventing these diseases.

For those who are not familiar with these diseases, parvo is a virus that causes immunosuppression and destroys rapidly dividing cells of puppies like those lining the intestines.  This leads to severe vomiting and bloody diarrhea, intestinal pain, dehydration, secondary infections, and often death.  Even with hospitalization, many puppies do not survive.

Distemper virus affects all ages of dogs and generally causes mild signs initially including vomiting and diarrhea, coughing, and eye/nose discharge.  It generally progresses to gradual weight loss, twitching/seizures, and fading away to death.  We do not recommend treatment, but rather euthanasia, which is difficult for most owners to accept.

Rabies is a fatal disease primarily transmitted though saliva and causes irreversible brain damage and death.  Any unvaccinated animal with sudden onset, unexplained neurological changes (twitching, seizures, changes in behavior, aggression, etc) must legally be euthanized and tested for rabies.  This is because if humans are exposed and not treated in the initial stages, it is fatal to us as well.

Although it is good experience for the students to see these diseases and learn how to recognize them, I hate dealing with the pain and distress they cause for both man and beast.

On the human side of things, we have had two confirmed cases of Corona virus (one student and one staff member) in our department, as of the writing of this letter.  Our department head is concerned that the department will be forced to close if we have further cases.  This could mean the students (final-years) cannot finish the term and would need to return next year.  Please pray that this is not the case; that we can finish out the term and allow these students to graduate as planned. 

Please also pray for the many in South Africa who have lost their businesses and/or livelihood due to the lockdown.  Tourism accounts directly or indirectly for almost 9% of the GDP and 10% of jobs in South Africa, so the effect of the lockdown was severe.  Although the borders opened Oct 1st, it will likely be some time before international visitors are once again filling the cities and safari lodges of South Africa.

To close, I’ll leave you with a spot of South African beauty.  In September I was blessed to be able to travel to the west coast where the desert blooms once a year.  Many in the area said it was the best flower season for 20-40 years, so it was perfect timing!  To see more photos, or to see the photos in living color, visiting the Google photo album I set up - https://photos.app.goo.gl/oKXwhX1MYqZnoEuq7.

Sept 2021 - New Vehicle!

Spring is rapidly passing through Mahikeng and summer is soon to arrive.  Temperatures have been in the upper 70’s and low 80’s although still falling to the 40’s at night.  In Seattle we had a saying, “Enjoy the Washington summer; all 10 minutes of it.”  I feel like the same can be said for spring and fall here in Mahikeng.  I’ve already put away my extra blanket, warm bathrobe, hot water bottle, and long sleeve shirts. 

In the clinic, we have finished the first term and have started the second term.  Hopefully we will finish by the end of the year so it doesn’t drag on into next year.  Since we were unable to do traditional written and practical exams, I assigned 9 short assignments for the final-year student’s end of term evaluations in the small animal rotation.  It all sounded good until I realized that meant grading 500 essays and 1000 calculations in two weeks!

Thankfully, there is usually a bit of comic relief in reading the student’s answers.  One of my favorites was a radiographic (x-ray) description of a fracture (broken bone).  The image showed a comminuted fracture with lots of small pieces.  The student said it was “a y-shaped break causing the bones to look like corn flacks [sic]”.  Oh grief, I was wiping tears from my eyes after reading that one.

One exciting change since my last prayer letter is a new vehicle.  My little Honda Fit (Jazz) was reaching the end of its reliability and, after talking with CVM and my missions co-workers here, I decided to upgrade to a 7-seater vehicle.  This means when we take students on trips (both mission trips and vet related outreaches) I can bring more students along.  It also gives more options for taking students home after Bible studies (it isn’t safe for them to walk home after dark).  Although finding a 7-seater was a big challenge during COVID since I couldn’t travel to the big city, the Lord brought the perfect one just 45 minutes away.  It is a 2018 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and it is huge! 

Having driven very small cars for the past 15 years, driving a big SUV will take some getting used to.  I’m still very nervous driving it in parking lots and I don’t look forward to driving in cities.  However, it is a much safer vehicle both due to its size and its safety features.  Since road accident fatalities are a big problem in South Africa, safety is important.  I was just looking at statistics as I write this and there were 38,000 car accident deaths in the US last year and 14,000 here in South Africa.  Since our population is only 1/5^th  of the US we have double the amount of fatalities.  But add in the fact that only 5% of the people in my province even have a driver’s license (versus 2/3 in the US) and the numbers are even worse.  Probability of being in a fatal vehicle accident here is about 1 in 1,500 vehicles by my rough calculations. Yikes!

On the COVID front, South Africa has passed 10,000 deaths and, if the tests are accurate, we are 5^th in the world for the number of cases (>500,000).  There have been a few cases confirmed in students and staff here on campus, but not many at this point. Local leisure travel is now allowed so I got away for a week while marking all those end of year assignments.

What a blessing it is to be able to rest peacefully in the Lord during these difficult and uncertain times.  Thank you for your prayers over the last few months. 

July 2021 - Lockdown Continues

 Lockdown continues here in South Africa, but it is being slowly being reduced despite exponential growth in the cases of COVID 19.  At the time I write this email, the number of cases has surpassed 50,000 (up 2,500 since yesterday) and we have not started to see a flattening of the curve yet.

During the current lockdown stage 3 (of five stages) all stores are now open for business and alcohol can be purchased for a few hours each day.  Cigarette sales are still banned. Travel between provinces is not allowed other than in a few cases where a permit is required.  Churches have been allowed to reopen as long as there are no more than 50 people, temperatures are checked, masks are worn, and a register is kept.

Here on campus, a percentage of students have been allowed to return (max 33% according to government regulations) and this includes our final year students in Animal Health because they need to finish their practical rotations.  Students in other years will not be returning until January at the earliest and teaching is to continue online next term.

Due to the interruption of the term during lockdown, the university is extending this term by a month and starting term 2 five weeks late.  At this point there is no news as to when term 2 will end (Dec? or carried over into next year?).  At least we have hard plans now and can start moving forward with students in the clinic.

Ministry activity will unfortunately be very limited for the rest of the year.  I’m hoping that when the lockdown moves down to stage 2 I will be able to gather with a few students here on campus for Bible studies in an outdoor setting.  There are a few of our Acts 29 and Bible study students who are still living on campus as their homes are in other countries and they were not able to get out of South Africa before lockdown started.  It would also be wonderful to pull in some of the final-year Animal Health students into the Bible study or have one separately for any who are interested.

In the meantime, I’m keeping busy with guitar practice, learning French with Rosetta Stone, baking (trying lots of sourdough recipes with the starter I’ve recently started), gardening, reading, crocheting, walking around campus, bird watching, and loving on my cats.

Please continue to pray for the students:

• ·       That those who are returning to campus will be safe while traveling back to campus
• ·       That those who are not returning will be able to access the internet adequately for online learning
• ·       That our witnessing students will have the courage to share with their friends and families at home and as lockdown eases further, perhaps start local Bible studies.
• ·       For God’s peace and comfort for those who have lost loved ones to COVID 19