We were so thrilled to meet our Melissa at the airport on December 16! She really does love travel, and especially travel to South Africa. Much of our time with her was spent preparing for the orphanage project, but we were able to add some other fun adventures such as:
A night in a bush camp with game drives in the evening and morning;
A trip to the Rhino Lion park where there is an amazing creche (nursery) with baby white tigers,lions, and other baby animals which you can actually pet;
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| (The camera got us pretty close to this lion!) |
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| (We really hope these two white tigers get to like each other before they get much bigger!) |
An afternoon at the Apartheid Museum, to name a few.
A lot of our time, though, was spent wrapping packages and preparing for our trip to the orphanage on Christmas morning. We attended a Christmas morning breakfast with the young elders from our mission, and were able to listen to President Dunn's (our wonderful mission president) Christmas message. We were sad we had to leave before "Jo'berg's Got Talent", got under way, a program delivered by none other than our Elders from the mission, but it was time to leave for the orphanage in Meyerton (about an hour away). The following are just a few of the pictures we captured in order to share our experience there.
The children were so amazing! We first handed out their individual new pj's and outfit, packed into a zip loc bag with their name on it. We then had to help put the clothing back into the right bags and collect the bags, so that we could hand out presents. One little girl was so excited about her new clothing that she just didn't want to part with it until we explained that she would be getting a wrapped gift just for her to open. At that point she covered her mouth with her hand and giggled, I think, with the joy she felt for her good fortune. As we distributed the presents, the children were so very patient, and as they opened theirs, they didn't wait long before sharing it with another child who hadn't received a gift yet.
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| Elder Warr has always been able to intrigue children with his sewing mime, and these were no exception! |
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| He certainly had their attention! |
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| Time for presents! |
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| A new baby doll for this little girl. |
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| Santa just knew that a jump rope would be part of the perfect gift, but had no idea how well she already knew how to use it! |
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| A poster drawn in Portland, OR, at a babysitting night our Peter and Thomas held to earn money for the project. Now it is halfway around the world in Meyerton, ZA! |
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| TWO new cars for this cutie!
As you can see, we had a wonderful time providing some Christmas surprises as well as necessities for these children. We were also able to donate some food staples and treats. Our children and grandchildren contributed more money than we were able to spend, so Lynn and I are going shopping this week for school uniforms for the 33 children in school...a new experience for us!
We are so thankful for the blessings we are feeling as we serve here. There is hope in the eyes of people who find themselves in very trying situations! They are cheerful and they are optimistic. We find that as we get to know them better, many even enjoy teasing back and forth as if they don't have a care in the world.
The school year begins mid January, so we will be back to involvement in the Seminaries and Institutes, and we look forward to it!
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