I spent the first three days in Pretoria, South Africa resting after the long flight. The details of those days are detailed in my last post. You can read it here. As we prepared to move Josh, Mindy and the rest of the Mason family down to Mossel Bay we were praying that the Lord would give us a safe trip. Josh had rented a Toyota Avanza to drive down to Mossel Bay. However, Josh was concerned that it would not be big enough to carry Josh, Christian and I, along with all of the luggage. When we arrived at Avis they did not have the Avanza so they upgraded the vehical for free. We ended up driving away with a Chrysler Grand Voyager. It was also a diesel so we got fantastic gas milege.
When we loaded the vehicle it was the perfect size. All the luggage fit and we still had plenty of room to drive the 12 hours to Mossle Bay. The trip was very uneventful, just like we hoped it would be. Here are some pictures of the drive down.
The landscape was not what I thought South Africa would look like. I was thinking there would be savannah with large broom trees. I was hoping that I might spy a giraff or two. No such luck. Howerever I did see a couple monkeys and several thousand sheep. The landscape looked suprisingly like…Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Our route took us through a high mountain desert region called the Great Karoo. The temperatures reached 107 degrees that day. We stopped long enough to take one picture than we ran back to the van to stay cool.
Upon arrival in the Mossel Bay area the one thing I noticed was its beauty. Like many coastal cities it is very green. Colorful buildings littered the coast. Busy people scurried around tending to the tasks at hand. In pretoria I was a little concerned about safety but in Mossle Bay all my concerns seemed to fade away.
We drove up several steep streets to our destination, an apartment occupied by DeWald and Ginez Lourens. They are friends of Josh and Mindy’s from Harvest School in Pemba, Mozambique.
We exchanged the customary pleasantries then we ate dinner. After dinner the power went out (something very common in South Africa) so we went to sleep. The next morning we got cleaned up and headed to a local coffee shop overlooking the bay for breakfast and WiFi.
Josh researched rentals and made some calls while Christian and I talked and I acted like a tourist (taking pictures and commenting on the beauty of the place every few seconds). After all the calls were done we finished up breakfast and headed into a neighboring town called George to return the rental van. After returning the van we headed to the beach while we waited for a response to the inquiries about the rentals. Josh and I began to discuss how we felt God wanted to use us in Mossel Bay. While we were talking we looked over and saw this.
God’s timing is perfect and God is definatly doing a great job of getting my attention.
While we were at the beach we got a call from an real estate agent stating that she had a home for us to look at. So we made our way to the house. Upon arrival it was clear that the place was not going to be child friendly. So we retired to the Lourens residence. I am currently sitting at the table typing this blog post as the awesome smell of dinner drifts through the apartment. DeWald and Ginez are taking great care of us.
Stay Tuned More posts to come!!!
