First: Fun Vintage Photo!
We are about to swallow 2021 and bite off 2022! First, I want to jump back 23 years ago! My friend took this picture of me holding Gillmore. He popped in today... and mom snapped a shot in front of the same building. As you can see, it rained... and it has been raining for days.
Looking back to understand the road ahead
Looking back and pondering the word God gave me on 1 January 2021: I can say - it came true!
Maybe you remember that newsletter - this time last year I had an orchid that I rescued from someone’s rubbish bin, producing 16 perfect flowers in my room. Out of the blue, God spoke into my heart about 2021 and said: “I picked you up because I have chosen you and this year you will bear much fruit”
Then the provision slowly rolled in to fulfill the new task:
- One day I was saying: God, the load shedding in SA is driving me nuts - I need a good generator. I told no one but God. Within 48 hours, I received a 'random' financial gift - the exact amount of the generator and I did not tell a soul! That was a moment!
...then came in
- The big black sandbox for filming - It is like a big elephant in my house.
- The two Godox lights on tripods, like shining giraffes around the elephant.
- The software Dragon Frame 4 - compatible with my Nikon.
… thank God I already had my wonderful Nikon video camera.
This faithful camera has been on 5 continents including the Egypt desert sand,
scary Hezbollah territory, (maybe that is why the on-off Botton is frozen) and
in Thailand, it fell off an elephant's back, onto the cement jetty going into the river with a man trying to stop the other elephants from stepping onto it. It is a shout-out for Nikon ok!!!
January 2021 I could not even have begun to imagine that I would create 47 online verse by verse Youtube Bible stories by the end of 2021.
A strong part of the Word of the Lord to me concerning this was Luke 24
:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself :47 From now on you will re-tell this good news world wide.
and it is because of this that word to me, that I will continue filming Genesis n 2022 (I am on Chapter 13). Many figures will have to be drawn and cut but once again I will take it verse by verse, chapter by chapter at a time. Genealogies turned out to be fun and very insightful in the sand.
WHY VERSE BY VERSE?
There are 817 languages available through Faith comes by hearing - Most of these languages are for people who cannot read. How wonderful could it be for them to have some kind of visual to go alongside the audio Bible? It will also help with more reliable memorization and retelling of scriptures in villages. The way I am filming the short clips makes it easy to change them into another recorded language.
Penny visited me. The photo with the candles? Dreaded load-shedding - hence the generator! and it is to get worse apparently)
What a joy it was to catch up after one year. One of her many stories is that she is discipling new Muslim friends who struggle with the Old Testament. My hope is that the SBB videos will make the OT palatable - to us and to new believers.
Not only did I see Penny, but this amazing coffee came to me via the hands of one of my dearest friends Carin that I speak of often - she came to Stilbaai... and once we arrived in Stilbaai from leaving Cape Town airport our voices were gone talking!!
I grind my coffee fresh every morning and to see this specific coffee brand finishing... is kind of sad! Come back Carin... and remember more coffee next time.
DOG NEWS (of course!)
Looking for my shoes? I have never had a dog ... gunning for shoes! He is either sleeping in, or on one, dragging them to his doggy corner. He is a collector. He also sleeps in my hair every night. Basie has so much personality.
Three heart inner circle friends at one time - MIRACLE!
I was invited and flown to a town in Gauteng to do counseling. This does not happen often but when it does, I get to see how God the healer goes to work! This visit meant I could in one night connect with some of the closest and dearest people to my heart. Those friends who know everything about everything... Yet - by the time we connected I was so tired from counseling non-stop that I told Adrie, 'take me to the guest house now!" I was falling asleep at the table. When I boarded my plane to fly back to George the next day, a woman looked at me and said -"Did you drink pills that drugged you up?" I was like... I just sat with xyz and I am exhausted! I fell asleep when the plane took off.
Wow - I had no idea I had a flight coming up, so when the sudden invitation came, it was the same date Penny had to fly back to Gauteng - we ended up flying together. I was able to connect her with a connection she was trusting God for... It felt like such a God story! and... like the good old days... or good old years in Australia and Asia!
I cannot tell you about xyz but what I can tell you is that Jesus in the sand... climbing into the story of a child or a mom or a dad in front of me... always works. Children have a way of hearing God in their trauma and all I can tell you is - Jesus is amazing.
THE BED FOR MY BACK
THANK YOU for the anonymous gifts! I have no idea who those are that gave - I hope you see this not.
My bed arrived and all I can say is THANK YOU so so much. My back is really not doing good. It is a bit of a worry but I am doing all I can (like standing 50% of my flight to Joburg!) and doing special exercises... but the pain is a new constant, unfortunately.
&
Thank you to ALL and EVERY sponsor. To every prayer warrior that intercedes for me. One can only SEE how God is really looking after me. For every time you obeyed the nudge in your spirit prompted by His Spirit, I say thank you.
Keep sandboxbible before Him - especially as I will be digging into the Old Testament. May it bless you as you follow the stories on Youtube, helping you to "read" passages that you might have overlooked otherwise.
Staying a volunteer is what it is: obedience - but you're giving sure took the edge off every month.
ANTONIE FLOWERS
When I was 8 I lost a brother in an accident near Heidelberg after a long holiday in the Western Cape. As we drove into our smallholding, these purple flowers were all in bloom under the tree. From that day, 21 December 1984 we called them Antonie Flowers. When Penny was here I helped her apply for her new drivers' license in Riversdale. Outside the offices were lots of purple Antonie Flowers. I took some pics.
More special moments:
Massive storm brewing over Stilbaai. Thunder could be seen on one side.
Fun colorful flowers on my daily walk.
Burning like insane on a Chilly Popper (our once a month gourmet meal!)
Basie had his first haircut.
Afrikaans... ouma en koffie
My avo trees are flourishing - This makes me very happy!
Janco & Joshua sleepover in my house with Grandma! I love my boys.