Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Quick update

It is guilty until proven innocent here in Angola, along with, even if you are not-guilty you have to pay for something!!! Strauss was released today at 2pm, after much paper-pushing! It was a long night for him, it was very hot and humid last night, and he was shut up in a room with no window...! He looked very tired when he dropped into our house. The family will take it easy this week, although Strauss must come in tomorrow and do some more paper pushing to get his truck back from the police. This has been a very stressful week, so please continue to pray for all of us as we recover! We will probably head out to the beach on Saturday and meet up with some other missionaries who are coming from inland. I cannot express how much we have appreciated all of your prayers! Please continue!
God Bless,
Charlene

Monday, March 27, 2006

This has been a VERY busy week!

This has been a very busy week.

Monday I went to DEFA, because we had some hope that they could deal with our visa process! Well, they could not!

Tuesday, Pete went to Lubango for the farm, and I called on a couple of guys from the church to help with our visa renewal (another $300 US down the drain).

Wednesday, Strauss and Sanette came into town and Sanette took me out to a restaurant for a pop and a talk… she wanted to encourage me… what an encouragement she was. On the way out of the restaurant we happened upon a man from E. Germany, he was setting up tent next to the restaurant in a campground. We introduced ourselves as did he, and we told him a bit about the farm and told him that Pete would be going out on Thursday if he would like to go, he was interested!

Thursday, Pete picked up Andreas and took him out to work on a fence that they are building around the lake at the farm (to keep the local cattle from tramping all over the place, and hopefully to keep them out of the gardens). On the way home, Strauss followed them into to town to do some errands of his own, and before he could head home he had to go to Mwambo. While there; a girl ran out at the truck and hit the side, flew back and broke her neck and died instantly. She was an 11 year old girl who lived way out in the desert and apparently was not familiar with cars. Strauss then came into town and sat at the police station wanting to get in touch with us, but they would not bring him to our house, or allow him to drive up and let us know what was going on. Finally they went and contacted the pastor’s wife who lives just a few houses away from the station. We were then notified and Pete ran down right away. Pete came back home and we got ready and picked up a letter from Strauss for Sanette and we ran out to the farm. When we arrived Sanette was standing in front of the vehicle with it running and the headlights were not working! All the workers were standing there with her, and the boys! We let her read the letter and then we went in while she got some stuff ready for Strauss to stay at the police station for the night. Then we headed back into to town with 2 of the boys, so they could see their dad and spend the night at our house.

Friday, they moved him from the police station to a jail and the process began. What a process it is. Nothing moves quickly. The girls family had already buried her and so they were given some money to help with expenses and whatever else. Then they went back to Virei. Strauss waited all day for his process to get on with… finally at 3:30 (after the bank closed) they said he was not guilty but would have to pay a $1000 fine (which they call bail…). So he had to stay in the jail over the weekend!!! If you don’t bring the prisoners food they only get one meal a day and it is made by other prisoners! Mmmm! So we took meals to him, and Sanette came into town with meals for him. OH, during the day I took the boys to the beach to get their minds off of things, and I was hoping to catch Andreas (as they were supposed to go on a camping trip on Friday afternoon). He already had his stuff packed up when I arrived so I explained the situation and told him he could feel free to camp in our yard, which he did.

Saturday, first we went out to the farm and took out our generator because on Friday the farm generator had burst into flames and burned one of the workers. Then between visits to Strauss, we took Andreas to the beach, got stuck (oh I mean “delayed”) and just as we got out a fellow from a lodge down the beach that Andreas had met on the plane into Angola, came roaring around the corner. We talked for a bit and perhaps Andreas can get a ride from Benguela to Luanda with him on Friday.


Sunday, we took breakfast to Strauss and then went to the early service, both of the girls sang in the choir. After church Sanette informed us that our generator toasted also! Theirs is working now, but ours is fried! Afterward we took a group of young men to the jail to sing to Strauss but they would not let them sing, but they could go and visit. Sanette and the boys had a picnic lunch with him, and then we took supper to him. Andreas made us two wonderful meals while at our house (so we took Strauss leftovers on Sunday night). Took Andreas out to the airport and he flew to Benguela.

Monday, the process started for Strauss’ release, and what a process. WAITING… more WAITING… and more WAITING… and guess what they didn’t get the papers finished until just before the bank closed. So now he has been moved to a prison, and there he waits until the process is finished. We are praying that it will be tomorrow. We’ll try to keep you posted! We have been without power for 4 or 5 days now, so we had to take our meat out to the farm.

Needless to say some days and some weeks are more frustrating then others… this has been a very difficult week… not only for us, but for the Joubert family!!! We are still very unsure as to what will happen when we go out to renew our visas in Oshikati. If they say no we could be there for a month trying to work things out!

WE appreciate your prayers… both us and the Jouberts!
I must run, my battery is almost dead and I must get to the café!
God Bless,
Charlene for the gang!!!

Friday, March 17, 2006

Container coming our way...

SHIPPING CONTAINER

There is a container being shipped over here to Angola shortly (for another missionary) and my brother is going to pick some things up for us to have included. Just a couple of the things we are in need of over here are tires and batteries for the truck. If you would like to help out financially you can mail a check to:

Ron and Marge Knightly
19-14th Ave S
Cranbrook, BC
V1C 2W9

Also Talitha is flying home on April 25, she will be flying on her own but her connections are decent with little time spent in airports. So we are very thankful for that! Please pray for her (and us as we will be experiencing the first of our empty nest syndrome!) as she travels. If you are interested in helping financially with her ticket home you can send to the same address above.

We have not figured out what is happening yet in regards to our visas, but we are looking into some alternatives… however if things do not work out and we cannot get our visas renewed in Namibia in April we may end up staying there for a longer period of time and make an application through Canada using DHL! Much more of a hassle and much more expensive… but God knows what is going on and we are trusting him for what is about to happen in our lives! However, in saying that, we do appreciate your prayers on the matter, and the encouragement through emails and phone calls! We’ll keep you posted on the process as soon as we know anything!!!

Thank you all for your prayers!
Blessings!
Charlene

Monday, March 06, 2006

We've hit a pothole

Thursday, March 02, 2006
Well, we will have to see how God is going to work all of this out for good... as you know we must have our visas renewed each month, in the process of renewing visas 'many' pages are used up in our passports (especially when they are carelessly stamped right in the middle of the page and leave no room for another visa renewal or two to be put on the same page!!!).
So we need to get new passports and we need them to be back to us within 30 days maximum... in order that we can make our next renewal! Now that is just part of the problem... ordinarily it wouldn't take too long as it is sent to Zimbabwe and printed right there at the embassy BUT as of the middle of THIS month they will no longer print them there, they will send the process to Canada where it will be printed and then sent back, as they are beginning to issue machine readable passports!
Oh that's not all... the last group of people to get their visas renewed in Oshikati were told that they would no longer be able to renew visas in Namibia. What does this mean? Well it means that God will have to do a miracle for us... either in getting us the work visa (the application has been in Luanda since December 2004) before our April renewal, or work some other process out that we can renew from IN country. Otherwise, the renewals will need to be done in the country of origin (for us CANADA, for others Germany, others the US, etc!).
I must say that I have spent a good deal of the day shedding tears and thinking about packing our bags... it has been a very discouraging day! However, we KNOW that God is faithful; we KNOW he has called us here, and we KNOW that he loves us and cares for us, and we KNOW that he will work all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose... so we MUST trust him that he will sustain us through yet another trial and difficulty!
We are thankful to those of you have been diligently praying for us, supporting us financially, phoning us, emailing, and sending out care packages! It is truly uplifting and encouraging knowing that there is someone thinking of us! For those of you who would like to phone us our number is 244 924 028 396 if you do not have an overseas plan: dial 10 10 925 011 before our number and you will pay only "39 CENTS a minute" for the call! That's less than a cup of coffee at Starbuck for a 5 minute call! :0) However do not become discouraged if your call doesn't get through the first time, we have had terrible cell service in the last couple of weeks, but it was much better yesterday and today! If at first you don't succeed try... try... again!
I must get to bed as I have a lot to accomplish tomorrow. Although it is difficult to get through we will trust that there will be sunshine on the other side of this dark cloud. Speaking of dark clouds, there has been some rain in Angola... thank to those of you who have been praying!
God Bless,
Charlene