Spinning

2015 has begun with me spinning. School commenced on the 12th of January and I have not stopped working ever since. The first week our friend Salome Jones passed away suddenly. It was a shock. She went to the doctor on the Monday, by Wednesday she was admitted to hospital and she died the Friday morning. The following Saturday we attended her memorial service. It was the most beautiful service I have ever been too. Truly dying in Christ the service was filled with hope and beautiful memories. What a legacy she left. It made me think of my own DASH - the line in - between that appears on a tombstone. We are born and we die. What matters though is what is between those dates, the life we lived, do we make it count. The next week school began for students. I can truly say I had the worst day of my entire time on 26th of January at Silikamva High. The year had begun in a rather peaceful manner and I was just beginning to think this amazing calm was unusual. I was right. The folk in the township only woke up a week late and they started coming down the hill in their droves demanding a place for school, insisting they had applied! Being my third year at Silikamva it was much better as I took no nonsense, but it did not alter the madness. And to add to the madness the school was without electricity for three days. SO I would deal with the chaos of the day and then go home at night utterly exhausted and then do the work I wasn't able to do in the day. In the midst of all this my mom took ill and needed a blood transfusion and an emergency operation to remove a tumour from her colon. It was also my last week at Silikamva. I quickly made arrangements to fly to Johannesburg on Wednesday. Met with my new Prinicpal and arranged to delay my start by a week so I could get back to finish up at Silikamva. Manic it has been!!!! When God spoke to me in early January about two words for 2015 BREATHE and GRACE I did not quite understand what He meant. I thought it was about my change of job, I just needed to breathe and walk in His grace and trust Him that I am making the right choices. When all this happened with my mom I literally had to breathe deep, hold back my tears and get on with the business of being there for Mom. Encouraging her before surgery. I arrived at 12h30, we literally had half an hour together before her premeds kicked in. She fell fast asleep. I had managed to laugh with her, hug her, and play her the Kari Jobe song Healer before she drifted off into a deep sleep. Surgery began at 3pm. My sister and I sat at the hospital cafe having the first food of the day on Wednesday, trying to have a sense of normality. We felt better after having something to eat. We were both exhausted and then went to sit outside theatre. After about three hours I decided to go buy some biltong and water ans some sweets in case it was going to be a long night. I just sat down when we saw another person being prepped for theatre. We got quite excited because the surgeon had said he hoped to remove the tumour with keyhole surgery which would take about three hours but if that failed he would cut and the surgery could last up to six hours. Thomas the porter came out as he promised and told us mom would be moving into recovery. Glynis and I were very happy. Our prayers had been answered, Mom was so scared of being cut. This was good news. However when they wheeled mom into recovery and she was so out of it, my heart skipped a beat. Wednesday was a very long night. When we left the hospital, leaving mom in ICU was not nice.She kept holding my hand so tight i had to literary pull away when we had to leave. Glynis and I got home and we both just started working. I think that is how we both just coped. We kept busy out of necessity. I was busy with Cemis for the WCED which is due Monday and my sister was busy with month end reporting. We sat across from each other furiously working away on our laptops till well after 1am. Before we went to bed we called the hospital and they reassured us mom was okay. Thursday was crazy we were only allowed 3 half hour visits. 11 - 11.30 3- 3.30 and 7 to 7. 30. Each time we went through Mom seemed a little stronger. By last night Mom was moved to a surgical ward and had started walking again. Still in a lot of pain. But walking and talking even cracking the odd joke. Relief swept over me. Today I will spend entire day, until I fly home at her bedside. I will arrive at the hospital about 10.30 and stay till four. I got permission from the nurses. It is my last day with her. I have to fly back to Cape Town tonight. My heart is still spinning, I hate the thought of leaving her. This is when living far away is difficult. But I will just BREATHE and continue to walk covered by His GRACE. My mom has aged a lot in the past year. She is incredibly thin. But she is strong. I will continue to encourage her. It is going to be a long road ahead for her, and in true mommy fashion she is going to want to rush ahead and get back to work. We will have to help her to take it slow, to know she can trust her children to provide for her, to care for her. She will find this difficult as she is very independent, and self sufficient. Please pray for grace for her. God has shown her so much favour and we continue to trust Him for a good result from the histology report which we will have by Monday.

Thank you friends for all the Facebook messages, whatsapps and emails.And Skype Lisa Binos Gair. I value your prayers and support. C.S.Lewis said "Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of Omnipotence" So we will continue to PRAY without ceasing....

What I Do Matters

2015 - Far from the Maddening Crowd

I welcomed 2015 in around a campfire in a place called Beaverlac. We went camping! Yes me, I went camping with family a friends. I am not a camper, but I had decided that I could do this. My son Jesse had booked for us and a group of our close friends to camp at Beaverlac for 2 nights. So off we went armed with a borrowed tent and a borrowed blow up mattress, lots of food and a good attitude. WOW what an amazing experience! My husband, older son Jason and daughter Ashleigh stayed only one night. They saw the new year in with us on the 31st and then drove home the morning of the 1st. Jason had to work and well the other two decided 1 night was enough!(Diva's) What a beautiful place. It was full of people camping, but we found a spot and set up camp. It was so relaxing, so peaceful. Beautiful pools just a 10 minute walk from our tents.

I will admit next time I go I need a better mattress. We ended up borrowing a single blow up mattress instead of the double one, so my son used that and we had to use a make shift one from Avril's car boot. But besides uncomfortable sleep, the experience was glorious. I woke on new years day went to the main waterfall pool and spent time worshipping and singing to my God. It was just me, and nature and I was alone so I could sing at the top of my voice. I watched the sun rise it was beautiful. What an awesome way to enter 2015.

I felt like I had been away for about a week. it was only two days. Thank you Avril for the idea and to Jesse for acting on that idea and making the bookings. I loved seeing the new year in with our friends. and Jeremy Schuster for the inspirational thoughts around the scriptures. You missed your calling dude, you should be running a church.

I look forward to 2015 and all that it has to throw at me. With God, grace and friends I will embrace the challenges.