My Time Is In His Hands

5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Do as David did, put your future into His hands. Don't look to anything else, ... David said here, he said, "My time is in His hands." You notice here in the Psalms where we read it in 62, "My time is in His hand. He's my Rock." What is He? "He is revealed to me. He's the revealed Truth. My time is in His hands." Amen. Oh, my. There you are.
My time belongs to Him. I am His. I'm in His hand because He holds the time. I don't know what the future holds, but I know He holds the future. So He Who holds the future holds me...
I just put myself in His hands, walk like David did, "My time is in His hand," knew that God held the future. David didn't know what the future was, but he knowed God had the future. I don't know what the future is, none of us do. But we know He holds the future.

Br. William Branham - SHALOM 64-0112

South Africa's National Anthem

The Anthem includes five of South Africa's 11 official languages. The first stanza is in isiXhosa and isiZulu; the second stanza, Sesotho; the third stanza is in Afrikaans and then the last in English.

The Journey Home

Our journey back home after our wonderful stay in the Bushveld was lovely in itself. We drove up the Abel Erasmas Pass and through parts of the Blyde River Canyon which is really scenic. There is SO much to see and do in this area but we only had time for a couple of stops....

Roadside stalls are scattered along the main road in places. They normally sell different kinds of fruit and nuts that are in season. Oranges, naartjies, litchis, avocado pears and bananas are the most popular at the moment. We bought a box of avos to take home to Gran. :)

Other stalls sell handmade crafts and curios.

By now we were high up on the escarpment and we stopped at WonderView (this is the highest viewpoint in the area at an altitude of 1730 m) and God's Window (below).

Both viewpoints have incredible views, you can see for kilometers kilometers. As the area is in the mist belt you actually need a clear day to really appreciate the view. Unfortunately we were there quite early and there was still a lot of mist around but the views were still very lovely.

We then worked our way back to the small town of Sabie and went for a lovely walk through the forest to the Lone Creek Falls.

It's such a beautiful place! Pictures and words can't begin to describe what it was like being there! It was so refreshing as well, especially with the spray from the waterfall blowing on us! There were so many birds calling and lots of huge different kinds of butterflies fluttering around.

The riverbed is very rocky...

 Rachel walked through it to get to the other side. You can't see it on the photo, but there were butterflies dancing all around her. The soft afternoon sunlight coming through the forest really made this a beautiful scene!

Well, this is the last post on our weekend away; we really had a wonderful time and we thank the Lord for making it possible and for travelling mercies, safe-keeping; and all the special moments!

Spoor and Footprints

On Sunday we were up at sunrise and after a quick breakfast snack we set out for a walk.

There is a walking trail that can be followed that makes a circle through the reserve. As we were pressed for time we didn't follow this but instead stuck to the road and then went off into the bush along some game trails and then worked our way back to the rondawel.

 Although it was already quite hot, it's lovely being out early. We had a great time and came across all kinds of interesting things as well as a lot of spoor of animals that had walk in the road and we added our footprints to theirs. :)

In the picture above you can see the hoof-print of a giraffe. We followed the spoor for quite a while until it went off into the bush near a small dam.

Giraffe

We also came across this little paw-print that was probably made by one of rhe smaller wild cats or a civet.

We met up with a lot of warthog families. They look and act so funny, but are so cute! :D Warthogs often use termite mounds to sleep in.

The highlight of the morning came just after we passed this small waterhole and came across a family of Aardvarks ouside their burrow in a large termite mound.

Aardvarks are nocturnal animals and also very shy so it's not often that you get to see them. They all disappeared round the other side of the mound the minute they saw us (didn't know they could move that fast!). Sadly no chance for a photo but the picture underneath will give you an idea of what they look like. It was really special to see them!

Although there are Leopard, Cheetah, Wild Dog and Spotted Hyena in the reserve we didn't come across any of them, but did see some evidence of 'meals' some of them had, like this half-a-ribcage.

Here's a picture of Mom bring up the rear - it also explains why so many of the photos of Rachel and I are taken from the back! :P For Mom walking in the bush is like reading a book of the area. She notices everything - from the different patterns on the tree trunks, to tiny insect trails and nests and she enjoys it all so much. But this means she's always lagging behind and Dad is always stopping to wait for her to catch up. :) Rachel and I are then usually in the middle. The three of us usually do a lot of back-tracking because  Mom is often calling us back to look at something she's found. We don't mind at all though as whatever it is, it is always interesting. :)

You often come across little antlion burrows in the sand. At one place there was a group of really large ones.From the largest creature to the smallest, God's creation is so incredible!

We were all sad when it was time to end our walk and our stay. After we had packed up everything we we went to hand in the rondawel keys and had a long fascinating talk with the reserve manager.

We then left to slowly make our way back home. We just can't wait to go back to the reserve again. Hopefully by then the rains would have come and the bush will be lush and green.

Showers of Blessings!

It's raining!!! :)
As I'm typing this I'm listening to the wonderful sound of steady rain and the almost constant roll of distant thunder. We've flung open all the doors an windows, there's a wonderful coolness coming through the house and the smell of damp earth and a mixture of flower scents. We aren't the only ones rejoicing - you can almost "see" the plants drinking up the rain and the birds are bathing on the damp leaves or in the puddles on the ground. Winter's drought is broken - even the weather sticker on the side of my blog is showing a background of rainy weather at this time so it must be quite widespread! :)

How we thank the Lord for His wonderful showers of blessings - outside and inside, and most of all in our souls!!

There will be showers of blessing: 

This is the promise of love;

There shall be seasons refreshing,

Sent from the Saviour above.

Refrain: Showers of blessing,

Showers of blessing we need:

Mercy-drops round us are falling,

But for the showers we plead.

There shall be showers of blessing,

Precious reviving again;

Over the hills and the valleys,

Sound of abundance of rain.

There shall be showers of blessing;
Send them upon us, O Lord;

Grant to us now a refreshing,

Come, and now honor Thy Word.

Refrain

There shall be showers of blessing:

Oh, that today they might fall,

Now as to God we’re confessing,

Now as on Jesus we call!

Refrain

There shall be showers of blessing,

If we but trust and obey;

There shall be seasons refreshing,

If we let God have His way.

~ Daniel W. Whittle

Fun Drives and a "Burglary"

Late on Saturday afternoon we went for a drive through the reserve where we were staying.

 Jess and I had a good view from the back of the bakkie though at times we had to do quite a bit of ducking to avoid branches overhead and on the sides and so that we wouldn't be 'punctured' by thorn trees. :P

We saw quite a lot of different animals like Impala, Nyala, Warthogs, Grey Duiker, Giraffe, three majestic male Kudu with incredibly long horns, also lots of different kinds of birds. Unfortunately we couldn't get very good photos of them and many darted off before we could even point the camera in their direction.

Small herd of Impala

Termite mounds are a favourite home for many animals. They make burrows in the mound. The Dwalf Mongooses we came across had used one for their home. We couldn't get a picture of them as they went scurrying off into the burrow so quickly! Here's a picture though of what they look like - they are so very cute! :)

There are a number of hides in the game reserve, this one overlooks a small dam, there was a family of warthogs having a mudbath at the edge of the water and they weren't too happy about being disturbed! :)

Driving back to our rondawels we didn't know just what was waiting for us!... We opened the front door and got a shock! In fact, at first we couldn't believe what we were seeing....We'd seen a similar scene when our house was burgled - things were lying all around, one of the window screens had been ripped off the windows, our suitcase was lying open on the floor!! For a minute there we were really depressed to think that such a thing had happened here - that's until we saw the naartjie peels lying all over the place! :D The "burglars" were the monkeys!! They are so clever- they had actually lifted up the insect screen on the window and got in that way. They obviously had quite a time going through everything, even opening our bag, the little terrors! There were paw prints all over our parents bed so they must have been jumping on there. The dressingtable cloth also had paw marks on it and the mirror had 'smudgy' marks, ( I wonder what they thought of their reflections?)  :)

They inspected the bathroom and opened the soap wrapper - there were dirty little finger marks on the white soap. The funniest thing of all is that they had actually used one of Dad's hankichiefs to put the naartjie pips in - yes, they really did that!! =))

Well, they gave us a nice lot of clean-up work to do but we were all laughing through it, imagining just how they must have been carrying on. Naughty, clever creatures!

One of the culprits with his "spoils" ! :P :D

The end of our two packets of naartjies. :P

 Late that night, after our braai we went for a night drive. We didn't really see much but it's quite an experience being out there in the dark. And it's really dark! At one stage Dad stopped the car and switched off the lights for a few seconds, it was just blackness all around, we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces. We couldn't see anything! How much we appreciate the light then and how thankful we are for the Light of God's Word!

A Lovely Place

It's always lovely being out in the bush and we were excited to arrive at the game reserve were we were going to stay at for the weekend. It's a really lovely place but there has been no rain in the area for months and unfortunately the Spring rains are late so everything is still very dry and the trees are only starting to put out new leaves. You can actually "feel" how nature is waiting for the first rains. The bush looks so dead and dry now but you won't believe how it can turn 'green' overnight after it rains!



I volunteered to open and close the gate :P

Our little hide-away in the bush.

The rondawel where Rachel and I slept, it also has an open-plan dining room and a small, fully equipped kitchen. Very nice! :)

Dad & Mom's bedroom in the other rondawel - the two rondawels were connected with a short passage.

It was a terribly hot day and we really appreciated the pool! Rachel was in first, as usual, and then I joined her a bit later.

Mom took this picture just as I was about to splash the water. : P 

We had "spectators" - a small troop of Vervet Monkeys - they are quite 'tame' and VERY naughty as we will tell in another post!!

There is a small boma at the back of the rondawel. There is no electricity - the lights and geyser, etc runs on solar power - you can see one of the solar panels above the boma.

The boma

That night we had a braai outside in the boma. There were a lot of scurryings of wild creatures going around outside it. At one stage Rachel and I had to go back to the kitchen to get some water and we saw a pair of bright shining eyes in the torch beam in the bush just behind the pool, but we couldn't see what animal it was. Rachel wanted to go plunging into the bush after it but I wouldn't let her - was afraid it might be a leopard or something!

S.A.'s 'national' meal - Braaivleis. We had a great time sitting around the fire, chatting together, listening to the night sounds and star-gazing. Besides our fire and a gas-lamp there was no other light - it's total darkness out there and you can just marvel at all the stars in the sky!

After a wonderful, wonderful day it was so good to have a shower - we only used the cold water as it was luke-warm anyway - and then it was off to bed. It was terribly hot though - I got up a few times to splash cold water on my face - (not that it helped) - and then I had to reapply the mosquito repellent. :P
But all that didn't matter, it was just great to be out there! :)