Saturday morning, March 17 – one day after our return from South Africa

Blogging is a delight of my daily life – and on occasion I missed my laptop during the past seventeen days (February 28-March 16). Blogging is how I journal my thoughts, photos, and life.

• On occasion Kristen and I said, it would be fun to have our laptops along and see our pictures in larger form rather than on cell phones and cameras. However, we knew it was best for our vacation that we did not have them with us. 🙂

I know and believe that God expects us to take breaks from our usual routine of life, because Jesus did that now and then. We all know the saying, “If you don’t come apart from life now and then, you will come apart.”

• A well-planned vacation revives your soul.
• It should also give you a continuing education.
  • We learned about Muizenberg, Cape Town, and the surrounding area during our stay in Muizenberg.
  • We all earned a degree in Wildlife Preservation and South Africa after spending eleven days with Phil and Kate de Koch on the 12,000 acre wildlife farm they lease. They both studied Wildlife Preservation and are a wealth of knowledge about the people, politics, land, birds, plants, trees, animals – almost anything about their homeland of South Africa.
  • We especially enjoyed suppertime when they told us some of their life-stories. Some of them were funny and others were hair-raising.
• Vacations teach us to trust God – especially when something doesn’t go as planned.
  • Kristen and I said to each other, “God has this”, several times when our trip or flight connection appeared to be in jeopardy. If you connect with us on Facebook, you received prayer requests from Jere at least twice when we were in airports.
    • Because of your prayers and God’s faithfulness – He took care of us each time.
    • He went before us, beside us, and behind us every step of the way.
      • There were a few thorn bush scratches and pricks from being in African bush country. 🙂
      • Neither Cerwin nor I had even a minute’s worth of not feeling well. That’s not bad for a couple of old folks.

I continue to marvel at how God put this trip together for us.

• The trip became a dream for Jere and Kristen when their daughter, Jana, prepared to go to Muizenberg, South Africa, with a Youth With A Mission team – a six-month-hands-on Bible study and training course on evangelism.
  • She thought about going back to South Africa and going through a similar course as a team leader, then go to Bible college there, but at this point she plans to stay in the USA, work at Fox Meadows Creamery and apply at Lancaster Bible College for training in counseling. Her passion is children at risk. She expects her term with YWAM will give her credits toward LBC. Join us in prayer as God directs her future.
• As Jere and Kristen began to plan this trip, they decided to take their other four children and invite us as well.
  • After talking to YWAM leadership, it was decided that going at the end of her term was best as it afforded us time to spend with Jana (even bring her along home), meet her team, and see some of the sights of South Africa.
  • The team is too busy for satisfactory parent visits during their six month term. We met other parents who chose to do the same thing as us.
• It was probably in January 2017 when Jere and Kristen planted the dream in our hearts – when they asked if we were interested in going along. We didn’t even have to pray about that, as going to Africa has been a dream of mine since I was a child. Cerwin has often dreamed about a hunting safari in Africa. However, neither of us even thought it was a realistic dream, so satisfied our hearts by watching African safaris and documentaries on TV.
  • My dream began as a child, probably because my uncle and aunt – Bob and Anna Mary Hess – were missionaries in Nigeria. Anna Mary is my mother’s sister. I think my admiration for Bob and Anna Mary began when they asked me to be a flower girl in their wedding. 
  • As an eighteen-year-old-teenager, I contemplated going to Africa as a missionary, thinking that may be what God was calling me to do – partially because our church had a strong outreach in Nigeria and my heart was in mission work.
  • However, I was dating Cerwin at the time and being a missionary in Africa was not part of his life-plan. He wanted to be a truck driver – a driver of a big rig. At the time he worked in a stone quarry driving a dump truck.
  • When going to my dad for advice, Daddy replied, “Mother and I appreciate Cerwin and believe he is the man you should marry. I believe that God will fill in the details of your desire to serve Him if you continue in your relationship with Cerwin.”
    • That was the best advice I ever received from my parents – other than following Jesus. Because of Cerwin, God led us to Transport For Christ – a mission outreach to truck drivers – a ministry we both love and have been with since the late ’60s, as volunteers, as staff, and now again as volunteers.
  • Thank you, Daddy, for the wisdom you gave me that day in 1962. I wish you and Mother could know that I did get to go to Africa. 🙂
  • I told Jere there were times that I felt like I was traveling with Daddy because he has some of Daddy’s mannerisms and was sitting in front of me most of the time during our safari through Kruger National Park.
• When Cerwin and I visited the Great American Outdoor Show at the Harrisburg Farm Show Complex in February 2017 – about a month after knowing we were going to South Africa – and Cerwin was checking out some USA hunting outfitters, I decided to visit some of the South African safari and hunting outfitters. I had time before the first show began in the Small Arena, so talked to several, learning to ask correct questions and finding out information about hunting and photo safaris. I think I talked to 4 or 5 and brought brochures and information back with me to the Small Arena.
  • I wasn’t sure if this was in Jere and Kristen’s plans, but decided to present this information to them.
  • When Cerwin met me in the Small Arena for the afternoon show with Jim Shockey (big game hunting professional), I told him about the things I had learned. However, I wasn’t sure that any of the outfitters met our needs as a nine-person family: Jere, Kristen, Josh, Jana, Ian, Jared, Jesse, Cerwin and me.
  • After Jim Shockey’s program, I asked Cerwin if he wanted to go with me to meet the outfitters I had visited. He liked the idea about learning more, and I wanted his input before we presented the idea to Jere and Kristen. However, each one was busy with customers, so we walked on – still looking for an outfitter that met our needs.
  • We eventually met a young couple – about Jere and Kristen’s age – that we decided was probably the best fit for us. Most of the others seemed a bit large and commercial.
  • Then I looked across the aisle and said, “There is another South African outfitter.” That is when we walked up to Phil and Kate de Koch of Bosbok Safaris. They were talking to someone else, so Cerwin and I looked over their photos and noticed our friends – John and Joyce Wagner’s family – on some of them. We knew they had gone to South Africa, but had not yet talked to them or even formulated a plan for the trip. As soon as we talked to Phil and Kate and pointed out that we knew John and Joyce – we knew we had found our “home” for a safari. They even had photos for us to take to John and Joyce. (The photo below is when we met Phil and Kate in 2017)
  • After giving the photos to John and Joyce the next day, we put all other safaris out of our mind. They said, “Phil and Kate will not disappoint you.”
  • Next we presented the idea of a safari to Jere and Kristen. They loved the idea, soon got in touch with Phil and Kate, and learned that they love doing safaris for families. They usually take up to 8 people, but were okay with 9.

Jere took it from there and planned the entire trip. By October of 2017 the itinerary for the trip was set. Jere did a fabulous job with details. Triple AAA did the airline scheduling because it is difficult (almost impossible) for one person to plan an airline trip for 8 people traveling to Cape Town and 9 people returning from Hoedspruit – and get seats together – or even on the same flights.

~~~

Now that I have done the introduction, I will sift through my 5,869 photos – day by day. I haven’t looked at them yet, just downloaded them from my camera cards.

• I will be posting as I have time – hopefully a day at a time. There may be some days where there are too many photos for one entry, so I may divide some days into two or three entries.
• Buckle in your airplane, Uber, and safari vehicle seat belts and prepare to come along.
  • Come to think about it, we didn’t even have seatbelts on most of the safari vehicles, so you may have to be prepared for some bumpy, free-wheeling through South African bush country. 🙂