Two Trips to South Africa
This past December, Jim and I travelled to Cape Town, South Africa for two weeks. Our main intention was to visit our friend Fritz van der Lecq, who we met in 2004 when he came to the Wheaton Graduate School as an international student. It was a wonderful time together, as he introduced us to his family and friends, took us around the area, and spent many hours discussing life in South Africa over coffee. While there, we also checked out the University of Cape Town, as Jim was accepted to a graduate program in education, to begin in July 2007. Jim's interests in the program were confirmed - heightened! - so we are continuing to pursue the opportunity to move there for 1-2 years as of this summer (or... winter, in the southern hemisphere). There are a lot of logistics to work through before then, however, so you can pray that the Lord would guide and provide! If you'd like to see 'some' photos, check out our google photos page. If you're wondering how long the flight is to Cape Town from Chicago is .. the answer is 20 hours. We also took a second 'trip' to South Africa last weekend, via the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, who is hosting the showing of the play "Amajuba" (through 2/11). This play is a realistic and true telling of childhood in South Africa in the 70s, 80s, 90s, during the turbulent last years of apartheid. Songs were interspersed with the narratives of the five actors. It was very moving, and a good reminder of the power of story to communicate strong emotion and the importance of childhood experiences in our psychological development. (Did you know South Africa has 9 national languages? We heard at least 5 during the play.)
Well, not exactly our new toy but we couldn't resist posing by this MINOR 1000 when we saw it at a nearby village shopping area. [I think the Morris Motor Company in England manufactured the Minor 1000 from 1956-1971.]
Well, fam, the good-byes have officially begun. Jim and I both had our last days at our respective jobs this past Wednesday, and then we promptly sold our car on Thursday! We posted the ad for our car about six weeks ago but hadn't had any interested buyers until this week. On Tuesday a woman looked at the car, and by Thursday afternoon she had purchased it from us and very excitedly drove away, leaving us with only the memories (our first car as a married couple) and the I-Pass and the license plates. "I love this car," she kept saying. I guess we really are moving now! As our time in Wheaton is drawing to a close, we are thankful for how the Lord has taken care of us here the last three years - from grad school to employment to housing to deeper friendships - and how He is helping us close out our time here - selling our car and paying off bills and leaving our jobs on good terms and re-visiting favorite places and people to say good-bye. So the countdown to Cape Town begins (June 26)!
There's a lot to do in the brief time left before we take off - including getting visas, leaving our current jobs, doing a couple of trips to see family, packing (how do we have so much stuff?), organizing our finances, and saying good-byes, so pray that all the details would come together smoothly and that we would continue to have peace about this decision. We are eager to see all that God has in store with this new adventure, and hope that we will be challenged and grown in new ways as we live and study in this place. More details to come soon!