Another Critter!

There's a part of me that loves the adventure of living in the bush with the variety of birds and wildlife and trees and plants - the sounds, smells, sights, and sensations are so much more than in the city.

Well, a couple of nights back, we were able to add to the 'sights' on our list.....as we saw for the first time what is called a 'Baboon Spider' - a type of Tarantula.  He (or she) was certainly the largest spider I have ever seen!

As you can see from the photo, the span of its legs is wider than the length of the door hinge - so he is about 11cm across!  That ain't no small spider!!!!!!!

And yes they are poisonous - not deadly, but pretty nasty.  But thankfully getting bitten by one is probably not a daily concern as they live in burrows in the ground normally and only walk about at night and I have absolutely no plan to put my hand near one!  And although he was right by our back door, he was on the outside of the door and was way too big to fit under the door.

In its own way, I think it is actually a pretty 'good looking' spider as far as spiders go, with those black and white strips on his legs!  What do you think?

Surprise Goodies from 'home'

Christmas this year for us has lasted months!

We have had one of the best Christmases ever for receiving Christmas cards and they continue to arrive until just a couple of weeks back....

And then we even had a Christmas parcel arrive 2 weeks ago too!  It was a box of surprise goodies from the Sunday School of our home church in Australia.

Parcel's from home are always great to receive and all the more when it is a collection of the unexpected!  This parcel was just amazing - there were hand towels embroided with Jesus Loves You, a water bottle with socks inside, a special pencil case with a spiritually encouraging message on the outside, hand made bookmarks by the kids, and of course a special Aussie food treat!!!!......Minties and Fantales!!!!!!!!!!! - with enough to share around with our friends here.

Special treats from home are always such a 'pick-me-up'.  To know that someone back home was thinking about you enough to take the time and spend the money to send a special 'with Jesus' love' package tells us that we are not forgotten - and not forgotten also assures us that they will be praying for us too.  It is such an encouragement.  It is also just fantastic to be sent somethings that we miss from home as well like those Minties and Fantales!

So I thought I would put on the blog some other things that we 'miss', so if anyone else is thinking of sending something and wonders what is best to send, you don't have to ask and ruin the surprise!!

- Vegemite (always at the top of the list!) - in the tubes

- Malted Milk powder

- TimTams (especially the dark chocolate or double choc ones)

- Organ Gluten Free products such as:

 Wildberry Dinosaur cookies

Breakfast Os with Quinoa or Wildberry

Multigrain crumbs with Quinoa

Multigrain crispbread with Quinoa

All purpose Pastry Mix

Savoury Biscuits with Rosemary

Gravy Mix

Wild Raspberry Fruit filled biscuits

Any Pasta

- Minties

- Massel stock Ultracubes (Chicken, Vegetable, Beef) the ones that come in a 105g box

- Arnotts Milk Arrowroot Biscuits

- Arnotts Malt-O Milk Biscuits

- Arnotts Chocolate Coated Teddy Bear Biscuits

- Fantales

- Freddo Frogs

- Macadamia nuts

- Herbal Essences shampoo/Conditioner - Classic Normal Hair Shampoo and Classic Normal Hair Conditioner (must be wrapped in glad-wrap and bubble wrap and put in a couple of snap-lock bags for packaging)

Another African Sheep - of a slightly different kind!

As I think I have mentioned before in this blog - I collect sheep.  It was a 'collection' that started after hearing Bonnie Thomas speak at a conference I was at about someone she knew who collected sheep - to remind her that she is just a sheep - and Christ is the Shepherd.  The Scripture is full of analogies between Christians and Sheep, and then there is the great picture that Jesus is not only our Shepherd but also became the Lamb that was slain - for us, for me.

So at a point in my life where I didn't collect anything, while some others might have collected teddy bears or 'cow things' or 'pig things' or 'rooster things' or even tea pots, or tea spoons or whatever else, I decided that if ever I began collecting something, I would collect sheep.  Some time later I found a small hand painted brooch in the shape of a sheep, bought it and pinned it on the coat of a little teddy bear my brother gave me shortly before going to Bible College.  Once others started asking about the little sheep brooch, and heard the story, I began to receive 'gifts' of sheep in various forms from time to time.  Cow, teddy bear, pig, rooster, frog, cat, dog, 'stuff' was easy to find, but with sheep 'stuff' being pretty rare it seemed whenever someone who knew me (not least my wonderful husband!), found something 'sheep', they 'felt compelled' to buy it and give it to me!  Over the past 20 years my collection has expanded somewhat.  I now have 'sheep' from across the globe.  I have pottery sheep, wooden sheep, fabric sheep, a small beaded sheep, real lambswool sheep, sheep on tea-towels and on mugs and on bags and salt shakers, rugs and quilts, and books about sheep.  Many people have suggested that the only sheep I lacked, was a real sheep!  I was actually offered one, at one time, but had to turn it down, as where would I put it?  

Well just a couple of weeks ago while in South Africa I was gifted an African sheep!

It is life-sized black-faced African sheep (one of those that look more similar to a goat from a distance that make the Scripture passage of separating the sheep from the goats, more meaningful)....but it is a hand made sheep, made in the African style of beads and wire!

I couldn't even begin to imagine how many beads have been used to make this sheep!  It really is a work of art and very, very well done.  The contours of the body are perfectly shaped. And the beads are done in little zig-zag loops to give the look of it being 'woolly'.  It even has a cute black tail!

It is big enough for my 3 year old grand-daughter to sit on - but I'm not going to let her as I don't think the wire framework is quite that strong - but that gives you some idea of the size of it.  It will serve as a holder for my hat for now.

So the joke in our home at the moment is 'there's a sheep in the house'!!!

But it is another real reminder to me, to remember what it means to be a 'sheep' and what it means that when I remember that I am just a sheep I am more ready to remember that I need a Shepherd and that Christ is the perfect and Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep.

As we soon come to another Easter time - this sheep is also a good reminder to me of the real meaning of Easter!

A Gentle Reminder

As I turned over my daily devotional calendar today these words looked out at me:

That's the difference between Jesus and us.  Jesus focused 

on the ultimate result rather than the painful process.

Too often, we get bogged down en route.  The battle

 in which we're engaged hurts us so badly that all

 we can think of is stopping the pain.

I had only hours earlier been talking to the Lord about the health trials we are both trudging through at present and seem to have been weighed down with for the last few years to one degree or another.

As we come up to Easter and ponder on the realities of Christ's death and resurrection, this really hit home to me...."For the joy that was set before Him...he endured the cross".  In His deity He knew the eternal purpose of His mission, but in His humanity he ENDURED the cross.  The word endurance is not linked with a gentle walk in the park or even momentary or low level difficulty and pain - this is about pushing through the pain barriers, pressing on when he would have felt he couldn't go on.  I think about how he must have felt when the cross was laid on him to carry when he was already exhausted and in searing pain.  We could ask ourselves why God didn't arrange for someone to intervene earlier than they did to remove that added pain upon pain.  But Jesus knows what it means to not understand his Father's way of accomplishing His purposes, but yet press on knowing that His Father does know when to intervene - and the Father did give him a short reprieve before be had to bear the worst of the cross.  God does know what is 'enough' and 'too much' for our humanity and Jesus does know what it is to ENDURE in our humanity but in trust of our Father, to the end - till the task is finished!

And we too take courage in the one who is our STRENGTH to ENDURE - till the task set for us is finished!