{"id":8084,"date":"2014-10-21T21:43:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T04:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pierfamily.com\/wordpress\/?p=8084"},"modified":"2019-08-21T14:27:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T21:27:00","slug":"richards-bay-2009-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pierfamily.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/21\/richards-bay-2009-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Richards Bay 2009-10"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through FaceBook we keep in touch with many of the people and missionaries that we have met and served with from around the world. This morning when I accessed our iPhoto gallery, it opened to pictures from our first mission to South Africa and each one brought back great memories but also some sadness.<\/p>\n

\"Aug<\/a> \"SA<\/a><\/p>\n

Mary with then president Malinga. You only have to look at that smile to know what kind of man he is. We had a great relationship. As I helped him learn his calling he started calling me coach. These children are from a creche that was renovated by Hafens and Bartholomews as they served in the area as senior missionaries.<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a> \"Mary<\/a><\/p>\n

This is one of my favorite pictures of my beautiful companion and her great smile. The skirt and blouse she is wearing were made for her in Jakarta when we served there. Neither Mary nor the young lady are smiling. Mary was teaching an English lesson to her mother and sister. Unfortunately we learned that the mother died some time after we were released.<\/p>\n

\"Aug<\/a> \"Oct<\/a>Elder Mokopotsa got a lot of practice repairing the tires on his bike. The elders would ride along the small trails that were shortcuts between areas and were often covered with broken beer bottles which of course punctured the tires. I tried to get them to walk there bikes when they got to those trails and that would probably solve their problem. I am afraid it did not take.<\/p>\n

The last picture is of the wonderful sister Nzama and her granddaughter who I never could get to smile. I must have a couple of dozen pictures with her in them and only one has even a hint of a smile. But sister Nzama’s smile made up for it.\u00c2\u00a0We were very sad when just days before we were to head home sister Nzama passed. We were able to offer condolences to the family but we were home before the funeral.<\/p>\n

So those are the memories I relived this morning\u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u00a6a picture is worth a 1000 words.<\/p>\n

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