"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Cor 15-58

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday’s, Seasons Greetings…

2010 Christmas Card

Mm-hmmm…Did you know?

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me.  What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?

This week, I found out.

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.-

-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Monday, December 13, 2010

Continued from part 5 of 5

In my blog series I didn’t have any pictures to share with you of the work the Eye Team’s being doing in South Africa. This is an excerpt of what I wrote, “And we have the Eye Team (no pictures available) working in another province – the Eastern Cape. They will be going to 3 locations training both surgeons, surgical nurses and the eye care workers.” I now have some amazing pictures to share…Woody Hopper MS screening Optom, screening eye patients before proceeding to the slit lamp machine. Eye surgeons making their rounds with the POST OP patients.  Next day after cataract surgery.  (l-r) Dr Richard Newsom-UK, John Rae-MS SA director, Dr Glenn Strauss,, Dr M.L. Bhala-SA . Dr Strauss compared the SA surgeons method of cataract surgery to the MSICS method.  They could see a dramatic difference between the two different methods.  MSICS had the best results.

Post Op cataract patient returns to the recovery ward. Close up of cataract eye during surgery. Patient eye being stitched up after having lens inserted. Dr Richard Newsom-UK retnal surgeon performs surgery.

Our doctors are nothing less than miracle workers! They are amazing!!!!

“Trust in the Lord, lean not on your own understanding…” Prov. 3:6

Praise be to the Lord!

Love, hugs and prayers!

Carol XOX image

Printed in a South African Newspaper

The picture is when we arrived to the port in Durban and were being escorted by the tug beside us.

Durban Arrival Newspaper Article

XOX

Monday, December 6, 2010

Thanksgiving - American or Canadian?

BOTH!

First we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving outside in the
Amphitheatre and carved up some delicious steak with all the trimmings (steak trimming that is). :) There was no poultry to be found anywhere which quite honestly was fine as it was the best steak ever!!! Our Canadian group had a great time of fellowship and all agreed we have a lot to be thankful for in our lives…

Jesse & John Barbecuing (Braii)                    Carving…Nari carving our Thanksgiving turkey Jesse & John cookiing our braiii (1)mmm – we all ran and got our French pressesJohn multi-taskingBodum brewed Tim Horton's coffee…                       2 choices of dessert (bars) :) 

 

 

 

 

                                     Patriotic Moment…Bess & Alisia                         16 Canadians (Debra not in picture)The Canadian living at Appelsbosch during Thanksgiving

Secondly, we celebrated American Thanksgiving in our dining room at Appelsbosch. For the most part Thanksgiving is celebrated by Canadians and Americans, so the Americans very graciously invited the whole crew and called it ‘International Day of Thanksgiving.’ It was a much more traditional meal and there was turkey that was carved by the chef (Jesse at the end of the Canadian Thanksgiving table). There was all the trimmings including pumpkin pie and apple crisp….yum, yum it was delicous….

Shelly's Pics - American Thanksgiving Nov. 2010 Shelly's Pics - American Thanksgiving Nov. 2010 (2) Catherine on the left (chaplaincy)decorated the dining room for dinner. Roses (dining room manager (right) along with others  helped. The table runners were made by the Academy  Art students.American Thanksgiving 2010b American Thanksgiving 2010a

 

 

 

 

 

Yummy, just look at that              Table above filled with final         plate of scrumptious food                   Angel to Mortal gifts  

As you can see we are all taking advantage of being able to use candles – ahhhhhhh!      

American Thanksgiving fell on a couple of other celebrations that we were having…they all were relative to Thanksgiving and added a Thankful dimension to the day.

For 2 weeks everyone at Appelsbosch was an Angel and a Mortal. It basically worked like this:  you put your name in a hat and pulled out another name. The name you pull out is your Mortal and you are their Angel – get it?  Everyday for 2 weeks you give something to your Mortal to let them know they are special and you are thinking of them. Now the thing is, you don’t know who your angel is so all of this is being done on the sly and you get to ask other people to deliver or sneak around yourself to stay anonymous. It was a ton of fun and honestly really, really nice to know someone is thinking about you specifically and what you might like…in addition of course to being prayed for over and over again by an angel - imagine…! :) At dinner on American (International) Thanksgiving we revealed who the Angels were and gave our last gifts to our Mortals. Coincidently, my mortal was also my angel; I love the irony of that and I don’t think anyone else’s Angel was also their Mortal! Some of the things we did for each other was to give scripture verses nicely done on the computer or with special penmanship, had people sing to us, give thoughtful little gifts of wine,  or tea, or pop, and yes, of course chocolate, candles (since we can use them at Appelsbosch – it’s been such a treat to have candellight at night), flowers etc. Most sentiments came with a little note…IMG_0002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And just to top of the day, we in the Academy had our monthly ‘Spirit Day’ and the theme this month was ‘Holiday.’ One could dress up as any type of Holiday or as something that represents the holiday. We invited the entire Appelsbosch Crew to join along with us.  I was an Angel …:)              Carols Spirit Day - Holiday 002

 

Yes! That is a halo on my head…hee, hee, hee!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we all had a super nice and memorable ‘International Thanksgiving!” Tree of thanks

Apparently, we all felt very blessed as you can see by the amount of leaves (cross pollinated, ha, ha) on the branches of the Thankful tree!

I never forgot for a moment how thankful I am for each of you in my life and thanked God for you (twice)! LOL

I pray that God gave each of you Blessings through the year that you could count and be thankful for!

 

 

          image                                                                                              May your troubles be less, 
Your blessings more, 
And may
nothing but happiness 
Come through your door.

Mag God Saam Met Jou Wees!              (May God be with you)

 

Love as always,

Carol  XOX

50 and still celebrating!

June - November it’s the birthday that never ends…

SAWUBONA!

Do you all remember my roommate Gabriella well she remembered how much I like butterflies and what they represent, sooooooo she found “Butterflies for Africa” about an hour and half away from Appelsbosch in a town called Pietermaritzburg. She arranged everything and took me there for my 50th!!!
We went with 3 other friends as well, had a great day and the place was fabulous; here’s some pics….

Carol's pics of Pietermeritzburg & Butterflies for Africa - 6 November, 2010Butterflies

            Carol's pics of Pietermeritzburg & Butterflies for Africa - 6 November, 2010 (201) 









 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol's pics of Pietermeritzburg & Butterflies for Africa - 6 November, 2010 (200)

 
Carol's pics of Pietermeritzburg & Butterflies for Africa - 6 November, 2010 (198)



Wow! Who knew?


Some other creatures that delighted us (that’s a pod on the right)

  Birds


Carol's pics of Pietermeritzburg & Butterflies for Africa - 6 November, 2010 (45)

Bird Nest




Different views around the place 

 

 

 

My favourite pond flower :) (the coffee shop served a scrumptious spinach quiche)

It was a great day and we made some wonderful memories in this country of fun, friendship and BUTTERFLIES!!!!

This was definitely a much nicer memory than the flying ants (termites)…

Mmmmm, I wonder if this is the end of my 50th birthday celebrations??? LOL

IMG_0005 Good thing I have  a room large enough for this card–lol!

Liefde (Love),

 
Moi

image XOXOX
P.S. Thank you Gabby…
image

You’ve asked for it to go on my blog…

so here it is…

Hi everyone,

Greetings from the Republic of South Africa!

How are you? How is life at home? Are you being challenged to grow and stretch in your lives? That is one of my prayers for each of you. I also pray your relationships with the Lord are transforming your lives and if you don’t have a relationship with Him; that he is softening your hearts to know him – you all know into which category you fit into!  I pray that each of you will have and has a growing desire and passion for His word and that the Holy Spirit reveals to you personally what the Lord almighty wants to say to YOU through it!

God says in  2 Corinthians 5:17 17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” When I think of all of you in my life and how each of you got there, or how broken my life once was, or what a miraculous journey I’m on now helping the vulnerable and needy in a far off land, and more often than not experiencing a “peace that surpasses all understanding;” I think  to myself, how did I get here? When did I become so blessed? How did I get such a  caring and loving family? How did I get the amazing and loving friends that I have in my life, how come I was entrusted with various  special roles to care for  children in my life? The answer is simple – He says, “ I  took  you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you….’You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  And how did this happen? “ I trusted the Lord with all [my] heart, with all [my] mind, and with all [my] strength  and he has kept his promise!

Is life as a Christian always easy? No! In fact, it is often hard because in difficult situations I am called to stretch and be more like Jesus and not respond to hurt, denunciation, gossip, invisibility or rejection with like attitude, but to love others including those that make life difficult! As a very dear psychiatrist sais to me more than once “find peoples innocence, and than you can find a way to forgive, understand  and love them!” Or as God puts it, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” I’m called not to worry; although I try, it is hard not to - I do worry…I worry about you all forgetting me, I worry about enough donations, I worry about my aging Mother, I worry about how long I’m called to leave everything and everyone I love behind, I worry about becoming a grandmother and not being there, I worry about how I’m perceived by people which so often  different from my heart, I worry about the milestones I’m missing in my loved ones lives, I worry about those that I love that don’t know the Lord yet! But yet God says, “Trust in me and lean not on your own understanding.” So I do! With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength!

I don’t know exactly what brought on this outpouring of emotions to surface in this email. Maybe, it is because today I am feeling extremely humbled by all that God has done for me; the way He has prepared the way before me, how He has forgiven me my sins and wrongdoings, how He gives me the strength to stand up to my persecutors and how He brought each of you into my life: who push me, love me, encourage me, challenge me, support me, stretch me and pray for me! I know that the best thing God ever did for me was to answer my prayer to die and allow me to be reborn in Christ! I hope that each and every one of you know that I love you from the bottom of my heart and  miss you terribly! Having said that, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world right now, in this moment, because I know I am where the Lord of my life wants me to be and when I go to sleep at night I am filled with joy for having been in His will and continue to seek His will each and every day!

I know there will be a time for me to return home, but for now that will only be for visits in June/July. I hope in the process of me fulfilling my calling you will still have room for me in your lives. I await your emails, comments and letters expectantly and receive them with delight!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!  2 Cor. 13:13

Your friend, bestfriend, daughter, sister, mother, godmother, aunt, aunty &, leila! ♥                                                                                                     Love and hugs!!!!

Carol xoxoxox

P.S. A slight testimony to go with this blog since I’ve received a whole gamut of responses from the above email…Hee, hee

Before I wrote the email above I had prayed and asked God to give me an email that I could send to everyone. Hmmm, when I finished writing it, and then read it I through, I thought, “I can’t send this email; for sure everyone (my non-Christian/agnostic friends and family) will think I’ve gone over the deep end into ‘bible thumping world!’ So, I started going through my address book and picking out the preferred few that would receive this God-given email. Well, the Holy Spirit prompted my next thought which was “ oh sure, you ask God for an email you can send everyone, but you don’t like what He gave you so now you’re going to pick a chosen few?????” Soooooo I put my finger over the send button and voila there have it…literally! I sent it to everyone in my address book (I hope I remembered to use BCC when I did it?). And that my friends is not the whole story… a few (3 to be exact), of the emails I got back were to tell me that my email came at a time of deep personal need for reasons I’m not at liberty to share with you all, but wanted you to know. One of these people I had not heard from in a very long time!

Please let me remind you with the love of a Sister in Christ - Sometimes we need to be reminded of "WHO" is REALLY in control. He is omniscient and omnipresent and He knows what we need before we do! He uses us to be there for each other and when we listen to Him the results are God ordained!!!!!! If for no other reason than for my couple of friends whom were blessed by the above letter, I am truly grateful for the inspired email from God.

Doesn’t it make you think that if little nobody Carol could get a word from the Lord for her little group of friends when they’re in need that the disciples and authors of the Bible could get the words from the Lord that would “teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteuosness,” so that His children would be cared for and be able to  build relationship with Him! Just a thought…image There you have it!!! God loves you and so do I!!!!

image Carol  XOX