Down the coast to Port Elizabeth

The drive between East London and Port Elizabeth is breathtaking! The land becomes rolling and beautifully green, everything bursts forth with life and color. We followed the coastline watching many of the rivers flow down into estuaries and the rolling waves of the blue ocean beyond. We stopped to play in the water at Prince Albert and sun Charms. We saw our first zebra on this drive and these odd hills that we suppose must be ant hills. There were thousands of them!

East London and Port Elizabeth seemed more “American” to us than other towns we’ve been through in South Africa. I think this is because the contrasting areas of affluence and poverty are more separated out instead of being interspersed close by. After getting lost for a while, we finally ended up at the home of our new friends Eldonn and Margie. Margie is the cousin of a friend of ours in our church in Durban, so it was great to finally meet her. We were provided wonderful accommodation in their lovely home and the kids loved playing with their dog Tammy. It was beautiful weather and we enjoyed their gardens as well. It was so fun to find a natural health friend in Margie and we immediately began chatting about supplements, foods, tai chi, yoga and all those things that I love to discuss! We ate like kings and queens and loved the wonderful fellowship all weekend.

Cameron went to visit the Bible Education Centre and met Zwelahke who runs the outreach center. He was very impressed with the way that Zwelahke would paint pictures with his words of the Biblical concepts he was trying to convey. The Xhosa and Zulu cultures are very visual in their learning, so this was awesome to see in action.

On Sunday we enjoyed church with the Port Elizabeth members. I taught a fun group of children during Sunday School. We discussed Stephen’s stoning in the book of Acts and how amazing that must have been for him to see heaven open and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. We then discussed the ways that we have to endure hardship in our lives and how, like Stephen, we must make a stand for God when the time comes. It was interesting to run into another child that was homeschooled here. She was very bright and full of things to say! Cameron gave the exhortation talk and fellowship was enjoyed by all.