7.28.2007

Arrival in South Africa - Pretoria

After more than 24 hours of travel, we've arrived in Pretoria South Africa where we are staying with a local pastor and his family. His wife is in Brazil leading a team of 10 missionaries. Stephanie Brockett was on our flight to DC, we snapped a few pictures and wished her a great trip as she is heading to Europe for the next two weeks.
Our flight was pretty good. They have personal entertainment centers on the seat in front of you that offer games, movies. music, TV shows...etc. They even have these sweet Nintendo type controllers. Very nice. it was a total of 15.5 hours from DC to Johannesburg, so you can imagine there were a couple movies watched and many games played. I particularly liked the logic games, which made me feel good about sitting down for more than 15 hours. They made my brain feel good at least, the hind end was a little sore.
We narrowly missed an opportunity to exchange our direct flight to Joburg, for a roundabout...England to Joburg. The payoff was either 400$ or a free round trip ticket on South African Airways. Dangit. Considering we have an overnight in Joburg, it might have been nice to re-route through England in exchange for another $2500.00 ticket. What do you think?
Apparently Joburg is a dangerous place. There are lots of muggings, carjackings, and Willie, the pastor, his house looks bombproof. His neighbor has metal fencing that resembles hundreds of vertical SHARP spears, along with 5 electric lines, never mind the razor wire. We are not in the ghetto either. Willies house has steel bars over ever window, all doors and screens are locked separately - add steel bars too. His place has been broken into 3 times in the last year.
Willie and family speak English and Afrikaans, a derivative of Dutch and German that has been spoken here is South Africa for the past 300 years.
Started reading John Eldridge's book "Wild at Heart", midway through chapter two...a very good book so far! No, I haven't read it yet, despite it being quite old. It has great things to say as to the way we were designed as men and the passions of men's hearts. (He even mentions women's hearts too)
There is still a great sense of expectancy as we head to Malawi tomorrow. Once there we embark on an 8 hour van ride to Mzuzu where we will be getting dirty with building and working in some schools.
Please continue to pray for us as we travel, also that we may be changed!
Dankie - Afrikaans for Thank You

7 comments:

Jenn Sanders said...

Good to hear from you Jon. Will be praying for continued safety and smooth travels. May God use you guys widely.

Peace & love - Jenn

Linger said...

"Once there we embark on an 8 hour van ride to Mzuzu where we will be getting dirty with building and working in some schools."

Amen to getting dirty!

Anonymous said...

Glad you made it safe, Jonny.

Although, your bass is missing you.

Ashby said...

Dear Jon,

If you don't update your blog and tell us about what you learned on your trip, I am probably going to stop talking to you, as well as begin spreading slander about you around the church.

Sincerely and with love,
Ashby

Angie said...

Dear Ashby,

How you make me laugh! But alas it is true that most of us would like to hear more about the trip.

Unknown said...

Dude, Jonny...

Did you bring back an African disease and give it to your blog?

Cause this baby is just about on the brink of DEATH.

Let's shake things up.

I feel a rumblin' inside me.

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.