Happy New Year from South Africa!!!

Well, this will be my last post from South Africa. In less than an hour, we are heading to the East London airport to start our LONG journey home. We leave around 12:30 p.m. New Years Day(Tuesday) and don't get home until around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday evening!!!

The best to you all for a happy, healthy, and safe 2008!

Cheers from South Africa!

It was nice to meet Anthony Hodgkinson (left), and Hannes Marais (right), the workers in the East London and District field. That includes Steve's field in Fort Beaufort, which is a small town so they don't generally get this way for gospel meetings, just visits.

We were fortunate to be in Cape Town when Combined Union Meetings were going on...like our Special Mtg. Cape Town has 49 Sunday Morning Mtgs. so they split the mtgs. up. The first CUM was the previous Sunday. It was at the convention grounds and there were about 250-300 people. We met several of the friends. The workers do tea dishes after the afternoon mtg. Pictured: Benny Minnaar (front left), Henk Botha (back left), Patricia Rafferty (front right), not sure of the middle friend, and Grant Adonis (back right)

Here we all are, after hiking to the top of Cape Point, the little building you see at the top of the picture. Note the green sign behind us that says, "Baboons are dangerous and attracted by food." We didn't see any here but have heard they are very aggressive and will break into your vehicle to get food!

We went to Cape Point after leaving Table Mt. It is the southern most point in South Africa. The water is a beautiful tourquoise color and looks quite inviting but it's very cold. I was expecting the water to be warmer but it almost feels like the Oregon coast!!!

Here are the girls and I on top of Table Mountain in Capetown, South Africa. We rode on a revolving cable tram to the top then walked around to see the beautiful views of Capetown. It was a gorgeous day, so we were lucky since sometimes the tram is closed because of high winds. The next day (Sunday) it was pouring down raining and the 'table' was obscured.

The Barbury Coast lion that Rob shot, right after this picture was taken by Steve...and you know him, he was getting a bit aprehensive because they were so close.

This is a kalahari springbuck. It's the SA national animal, plus the name of the SA rugby team which took the world rugby cup for 2007.

Here is Rob's awesome looking eland. He shot it with a 30.06 at a full run.

Rob went hunting with Huntershill Safaris while Steve rode along and was his photographer. He got this nice Blesbuck. I think it's classified as an antelope over here in South Africa. Meanwhile, Nicole, Brynna, Angelina Schmidt & I had fun going on some game drives. We saw many different wild animals like zebra, rhinos, giraffes, warthogs, cape buffalo, hippo, lions, and several different antelope.

This is the same picture but with my brother Steve in it. He's been living in Ft. Beaufort for over a year. He's been gone from the US since May of 2006 but will be coming home for a visit in April of 2008. He plans to come back to South Africa to live as a permanent resident, that is if his paperwork goes through.

This is the Sunday night bible study in Ft. Beaufort, Eastern Cape South Africa. The young girl standing above me is Mitra Kolahi from Seattle, WA. Her fiance' is Reinhard Knickelbein, right behind her. They are planning to get married in Seattle, as soon as their marriage visa application is approved. They posted the paper work in Oct. It can take up to eight month for it to be approved.

This is Angelina's front yard. I love the palm trees. Steve said it would be quite warm (in the 90's) but so far it's been pretty cool, according to Nicole and I. It did get up to 85, tho'. I'll post more later and get some pictures of Rob and the girls and the people we have met.

My first cup of South African java to revive me after flying from Redmond, Seattle, Paris, Johannesburg, and East London SA

We needed a car for six but they didn't have one available. We ended up with this van for 12.

After thirty hours of flying, we finally arrived in East London, South Africa. My brother Steve picked us up and we drove for two hours to Ft. Beaufort where we will be based.