Week 7: In which we have mixed success.

Hello all.

This week has been one of mixed success, as the title of this blog suggests.

In our lectures we've been learning about the Holy Spirit, which has been good fun and occasionally a little unusual. I don't want to frighten anybody, so I'll just say that we've seen God at work and leave it at that. It's been good.

Local outreach continued in Masiphumelele, and this week we started with a trip to a place that cooks and sells 'Masi Meat'. I don't want to call it a restaurant, for that is most certainly not what it was, but we did sit down and eat marinated pork off plastic trays. It was an experience we approached with no little prayer and anxiety, but it turned out to be delicious and tasty, with no unpleasant consequences. Success.

The group also had some excellent opportunities to talk to some of the people we met in and around Masi, with a couple of people receiving prayer for healing and a few more told a bit about Jesus. The time we've spent in Masi has been really encouraging, and it's becoming a high point of each week.

Steffen, MJ and I climbed Muizenberg Mountain. They are both much fitter than I am.

There have, however, been parts of the week that have not gone so well. I made a misguided attempt to grow a beard - it garnered mixed reviews around the base - but I realised on Friday that it seems my facial hair growth is inversely proportionate to my levels of self esteem. It is no more.

We had an excellent day yesterday, though. In the morning we went to the beach and had a proper crack at surfing, with, again, mixed success. I came close to managing to almost stand up, but mostly perfected a move I think is best described as 'dog on a skateboard'. We both came out feeling a little bit bruised and battered, but I think we stopped at the right time: when we got out I identified a bleeding graze on my torso. It was fine, but I keep remembering frightening statistics about how many gallons of water a shark can smell a drop of blood in. Nice Norwegian Steffen waited until we were out of the water to tell us that the Muizenberg bay apparently has the highest population density of great white sharks anywhere in the world. What larks.

This was on Chapman's Peak Drive. Beautiful stuff.

After surfing, Steffen and Kristina (his wife) took us to Chapman's Peak. I'm still not completely sure what part of which hill Chapman's Peak is, but we drove along Chapman's Peak Drive and had a refreshing drink at the end. Then, on the way back, we indulged in a spot of wine tasting in a nearby winery. Perfect.

Wine tasting. We hid the spitoon for this photo.

That's it for this week! Apart from that we've been given a few episodes of the current series of Downton Abbey to enjoy, so the blog next week might be a little light on content.

Lots of love to you all,

Sam and Heather

xx

MJ News: He will be going to India on his outreach. We will not. We're struggling to come to terms with our impending loss.