ANZAC Pavolva

As Aussies living overseas, we very much enjoy the occasions on which we are able to have a conversation with fellow Aussies.  It's good to hear the Aussie accent, to relax and not have to explain "Aussie" words!  This year, so far, has been a rare 'feast' for us, of Aussie fellowship.  So far we have had 14 other Aussies in our home in 2012!  We were even able to share ANZAC day this year with another Christian Aussie, who has recently arrived to lecture at the University, in Emergency Medicine, along with my mum who is visiting for a few months.

With a combination of home-made Anzac biscuits, some meat pies and a Pavlova, for a few hours our house became an Aussie corner on the edge of the Kalahari! 

It kind of makes me stop and think how 'comforting' our 'home culture' can be for us, and how sharing time with someone else from our 'home culture' can be such an encouragement....and that's on a temporary and earthly level.  But our times with other Aussies were also times of sharing with other "Christ -ians". So not only was it sharing of 'our home culture' on earth, but it was sharing our spiritual 'home culture' of heaven - or at least a taste of it, since it is a culture that none of us have fully experienced yet.  Being in Christ, not only gives us opportunity to enjoy fellowship with those of our same earthly culture, but those of the same heavenly culture......

And that's why tonight we will share a meal with our Botswana daughter and her husband who is from Zimbabwe, and enjoy equally rich fellowship, as we desire our home to most of all be one of Christ's little corners on the edge of the Kalahari!

Sailing in the Desert!

  

Its so easy to have a preconceived idea of what its like to be a missionary, so much so that even as missionaries we can be 'surprised' at some types of ministry God brings across our path.

One of our more recent surprises has been Andrew's opportunity to go sailing!  We certainly never thought that part of serving the Lord cross-culturally on the edge of the Kalahari Desert would include afternoon sails on a little colourful 'Cat'.  But it has!  God is full of surprises and unexpected blessings.

Shortly after we first arrived in Botswana, I remember noting a sign on the side of the road at the edge of town that said "Gaborone Waterfront"!  Coming from a situation of living by Moreton Bay in Queensland where the 'waterfront' to the Pacific Ocean was part of my life, I was more than a little intrigued as to what a 'waterfront' was doing in a desert!

Well, now I have visited the 'Gaborone Waterfront' on the Gaborone Dam water's edge several times.  I have even been to the Gaborone Yacht Club and watched the glorious African sunsets across the water.  It is one of the most relaxing places to be in this dusty African 'city'.  Its even better when I get to watch my hubby out sailing with one of the businessmen he mentors.  You see, you never know,  when the Lord opens a door, where He plans on taking you.  When this businessman asked Andrew to be his mentor about 6 years ago, we didn't know that down the track, he would buy a sailing boat and then invite Andrew to join him on the dam.  Never did Andrew ever envisage having a mentoring session on a sailing boat, out on a dam, at the edge of the Kalahari Desert. .......and nor did I envisage lying in a recliner wheelchair watching my hubby having a mentoring session on a sailing boat!  ......but more about me and the wheelchair some other time.....