Happy Easter - by John

Happy Easter, dear friends and family. We celebrate Easter in a slightly different climate of course. Growing up, I always remember Good Friday to be a gloomy, overcast and cold day, appropriate for the solemnity of the remembrance. Today has turned out to be a glorious, clear and warm day. We celebrated outdoors with hundreds of others this morning at the local High School stadium, it was a joint service of all the area churches, and it was very nice. It wasn’t particularly “Eastery”, as we didn’t sing any of the usual Easter songs and the message wasn’t focused on the Crucifixion or any other Easter theme, but none-the-less, it was good to celebrate as a community of believers.

These last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activities, as both Mom and Dad, and my Aunt Anne were visiting. Here's a picture of them cooperating to help Dad get a "just right" picture, on the edge of a thousand foot precipice! Better hang on tight!

Last weekend we were in Swaziland and did much shopping for original handicrafts and momentos, as illustrated below. We also had a chance to have lunch with our MCC Swaziland workers, Hlobi and Julie.

During the week we went to Kruger Park to see the wildlife. We weren’t sure if we were going to see anything, as at this time of year the grass if very high and the animals apparently retreat into the deep bush, but we were fortunate to see Lions, Giraffes, Elephants, Baboons, Rhinos and lots of Impalas, Kudus and other antelopish animals.

We have had a wonderful visit with Anne, who left last Wednesday. Mom and Dad are leaving Tuesday, and then things will feel quite lonely again.

Tech Note: The tower is finally up, complete with guy wires we fastened this week. Next step, getting a point-to-point connection to Nelspruit set up. Note that I'm the guy on the bottom. I did climb higher, but it's pretty scary!