Update

It is wonderful to see that God is in control!
We contacted our friends in Swaziland (neighbouring country about 6 hrs drive) and they are going to set us up to work in the "Good Shepherd" hospital in Siteki.
We hope to start work there in about 10 days- so much for my concerns about the red tape of registration (preparation for Kenya took over 5 months) etc- his approach is "start work and register later".
Still lots of details to sort out but we have peace and are excited about the opportunity. Jono is a very good friend from medical school and has been working in Swaziland for about 15 years as a missionary in general medicine with a special interest in opthalmology and performs many cataract surgeries under the sponsorship of the CBM (Canadian Blind Mission) who pay for the lens implants.
Samaritans Purse actually offered for us to go to Kijabe Hospital just outside Nairobi (this coming Monday) but we thought it was prudent to hold off for a while to see what happens in Kenya. There is still the possibility that we will eventually get to Kenya, but we will take one month at a time and see what happens.

Will update as things progress.
Thank you for your prayers.
David, Lynne, Robyn and Tim

Hi all
Brief update. Due to the ongoing unrest in Kenya we have again postponed going into Kenya and are now looking at other options as there may not be a resolution of the problems for a while.
We are presently staying with Mom and Dad in Hibberdene and within the next couple of days will have some important decisions to make. We will update as soon as we have further news.

David and Lynne and family

At "Bathplug cave" in Cobham
With our friends David and Shaz in the Underberg. Do you see Bonny??
Sunset in the Underberg.
Look carefully at the directions- this is for doglovers who go running with there dogs...
Tim and Grandpa on the beach

The family at "Dolittles Farm Coffee house" in the Underberg.


At Castleburn Timeshare in the Underberg. Robyn "loves" to hike!!!

With Granny and Grandpa at "Happy Wonderers" in Scottsburgh
Tim Quadding on David and Shaz's farm in the Underberg
Hiking at Cobham in the Underberg
View of the river in Cobham.


Sorry- still havn't got the hang of this blog thing. All the pictures are all out of sequence. Will improve with time.....

So much has happened since our last update.

After much consideration our flight to Kenya was delayed until 4^th February- there has been ongoing unrest in the country following the recent elections where there are allegations of unfair “rigging” of the results. We are anxious to get there but need to be patient.

Lynne joined us safely at the timeshare hotel in the Underberg. We had a very relaxing time with Mom and Dad. It was a bit cooler than the coast which has been terribly hot and humid.

We met up with some friends Shaz and David who live out on a timber farm in Underberg and ended up staying on with them for 3 nights which was lots of fun- Tim and Robyn got to go Quad riding, there are 7 dogs and a pet pig and sheep just to mention a few of the other attractions.

We then returned to Hibberdene to spend more time there with Mom and Dad.

We are becoming more aware of the changes in South Africa- apart from the continual feeling of danger when one leaves the “safety” of home, the newest development has been the advent of “load shedding” which I believe has been happening since mid Dec. It appears that there has been insufficient maintenance of the power generating plants leading to 4 of them being off line (the most recent being a nuclear plant in Cape Town), coupled with a rapid expansion in development requiring more power: together this has outstripped the available power and the solution has been to simply rotate power outages around the country. Practically what this has meant in the last 2 weeks are 1-2 power outages per day lasting 2 hrs each (typically from 6-8pm).

These outages affect the cities equally- this affects businesses as well as the traffic lights which then affects the flow of traffic. On the news tonight, some tourists were stranded on Table Mountain after a power outage (and some trapped in the cable car for 2 hours). They had a generator but something went wrong.

This is expected to carry on for the next 5 years as it seems it will take that long to expand the power generation plants….

Yesterday we were in a shopping mall when the power outage happened- the store owners now offer flashlights for you to browse the shop with!!!

Tomorrow we will head to Durban to see my Aunt for her 80^th birthday and then to visit with a friend.

The news reports are beginning to look more positive for Kenya- it appears that the leaders are beginning to talk to one another. It will still be months before things can be worked out but if we can get to Kapsowar safely, it appears that it has not been directly affected by all the unrest.

---------

This is now a few days later- have not had internet access. Saw my aunt and cousins and have spent time with our friend in Durban and are now back in Hibberdene. Have just heard from Mom and Dad of the new developments in Kenya with more unrest and possible breakdown in the peace talks.

Please pray for us and for Kenya. We will need to decide by the end of this week as to what we will do. We trust in God to make His way clear to us.

We are otherwise all doing very well and missing you all.

Lots of love

David, Lynne, Robyn and Tim

Brief update

Hi all
Due to the recent unrest in Kenya, it was decided to postpone our travel to Kenya until 4 Feb.

We are obviously anxious to get to our destination, but have to wait for things to settle.
We are learning to wait on God for His plan- as it happens I have been working through a daily meditation by Andrew Murray called Waiting on God which has been very appropriate!

Will give you a more thorough update soon.

Please pray for Kenya and for us.

Thank you

David and Lynne

This is in Howick with Davids Uncle and Aunt and Cousin and Lynnes Mom
Lynne and her Mom
"Beauty" a little girl who went around Howick with us (she befriended Robyn)
Howick falls

I am writing this from Hibberdene down the South Coast of Natal – Lynne is back up in Howick visiting with her Mom and the children and I are visiting with my Mom and Dad.

We will meet up again with Lynne on Monday when we all go to a timeshare in the Drakensberg (a range of mountains here in Natal- very beautiful).

I have just received a call from Samaritan’s Purse to say that they feel it is safe for us to continue on to Kenya on the 21^st with the only change in plans being for us to fly from Nairobi up to Eldoret and then being met by the hospital transport at the airport (we were planning on using ground transportation as we have too much luggage for the flight). Unfortunately the line was very bad so I was not able to ask much in the way of questions.

I believe that the inauguration of the new president in Kenya takes place on the 15^th Jan so there will likely be more demonstrations at that time.

We are obviously a little anxious about all of this, but we know that God is in control.

Please continue to pray for peace in Kenya and for our safety.

Also please pray for Lynne as she spends time with her Mom.

David

Sorry
This is being done in a hurray from dial up:
will get better as I get more practice.
David

From South Africa

Hi all

Just a quick update to let you all know that we are healthy and well.
Arrived safely in SA with all our luggage, managed to get over the jet lag after about 1 week. We got to see the sights of Pretoria including the “Zoo” and “Wondercave”.

Have just spent the last 10 days in Lydenberg with Lynne’s cousin Rex. There were 25 people for Christmas all staying in his house and in tents in the garden. Was great to meet cousins on Lynne’s side. It was a very relaxed and ‘laid back’ time helping us to unwind.
Our highlight was staying for 3 days at the “Shack” where Lynne used to go with her family for Christmas each year when she was Robyn’s age-generated a lot of fond memories for her.
We are now heading down to Natal to spend time with our parents for the next 2 weeks before we head out to Kenya.
Hopefully once we are in Kenya we will have more regular access to the internet so will be able to post more frequently.

You may have seen that the recent elections in Kenya have stirred up some trouble.
We are waiting on God for guidance in this regard: we know that He has been in control of everything thus far so know that He has plans for us that will become more apparent with time.
Our travel tickets do give us the option of postponing our arrival in Kenya if that is God’s plan, although we only have to make this decision up to 24hrs before departure so we have time to watch the developments.

Please pray for peace to return to Kenya.


Love
David, Lynne, Robyn and Tim