Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today & forever

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I posted something here, so thought we'd give a little update.

This has been a time of sadness thinking about Peter's Dad passing away last Monday, and grieving as we work through many memories. Peter has been in regular contact with family members by e-mail and phone this week. Dad's funeral service is scheduled for Monday, Nov 22, at Christ Church, Queensburgh, in Durban, South Africa.

Peter has written a eulogy incorporating memories of Dad, and has sent it to be read at the funeral. In some ways this was a good process for him, though he shed many tears as he composed it. We had always planned that Peter would definitely go out to South Africa in the event of his Dad's death, so it has been hard to understand why it has come at such a time when it is absolutely not possible. However we can only fall back on trusting the Lord's timing and will in this, as in everything.

We are so blessed to have a Heavenly Father who remains the same yesterday , today and forever. Our emotions change as various circumstances come our way, but it is comforting to know from God's Word that He is our refuge & strength, and His steadfast love never ceases.

We are now so happy that Peter's Dad & Step-mom could visit us in June last year (2003) for three weeks. Our children enjoyed "connecting" with them, and in fact, it really was the "first time" meeting them. (You see, the oldest four were very young when we visited South Africa last in 1994 , so didn't really remember too much of them, though they did have a few vague recollections. The youngest three had never seen them.)

It has never been easy to be so far away from family, but we are thankful for telephones, mail and e-mail to keep contact. Our children have 15 cousins in SA and would love to be closer to them and get to know them. Recently they have been e-mailing some of them trying to give a written picture of their day to day life here. Some of their cousins have e-mailed back, and have shared their lives & their experiences, also. Our children were interested to hear of their South African cousins learning the Afrikaans and Xhosa languages at their schools.

Peter has hymnbooks & Bibles in some of the South African languages and sometimes reads & sings for our children. The strange sounds & "clicks" usually bring more laughs than reverence!

We are all enjoying having Peter home and he is progressing slowly but surely. Everything seems to "be on track", according to what the surgeon had predicted. Peter cannot sit longer than 3 minutes on the side of the bed, and not at all on a chair. He can walk slowly, even walking out on the front veranda in the sun for a short period each day. Half an hour seems to be his maximum at being up, and then has to return to bed. He is still not able to negotiate stairs. That will come with time. The surgery site is still quite bruised & swollen (which they warned us would be the case for a couple of months).

The days have been beautiful , but we hear winter is coming next week. Fortunately we have a large house for Peter to walk around in. He is resting up very well these first few weeks so as not to undo anything!

Thanks for your interest and prayers.
Dorothy