Massive storms this week - what do you do in a storm?

 

I feel like we have been hit with by many storms in the past week or two. First there was our own Covid-19 scare, which sent us all into emergency mode. While in the midst of that crisis baby Prosper’s mother came to us with a belly full of puss from the C-section, requiring an emergency trip town to be opened, cleaned and then sent back to us for medical care and a lot of TLC. After two weeks of care she returned to the hospital to be closed up. Now for the real emotional and spiritual healing to begin.

 

Ian and I really needed a break and while the borders to South Africa aren’t open for tourism (third wave about to hit us here), we were able to cross to visit our Zimbabwean stone carver friends in Johannesburg. Artisans all over Africa have suffered terribly as tourism is their only source of income and all tourists have stopped touring.  We were first approached by some literally starving artists in Eswatini, begging for our help. That gave us the idea of commissioning them to do beautiful hand carved jacaranda wood products that we can ship to the U.S. and sell on the Khutsala website to help them feed their families, and support Artisans of Eswatini, not just Khutsala Artisans. That product will be available at www.khutsala.com in August.  Since we were going to ship a container we thought we could buy and send some stone carvings to help those friends out too. So we paid $116 for Covid-19 tests, booked a nice hotel and left Eswatini while we still could.

 

Then the second storm hit. Ian got really sick the second night in Johannesburg with a very high fever and head ache.  OH NO!  Was it Covid? I automatically assumed that it wasn’t (I’m an optimist and we have been SO careful), but now-a-days we have to assume that it is Covid and seek testing and treatment. Ian could hardly walk, but he got up and into the car and we headed for medical attention in downtown Johannesburg, a city that we don’t know well and that I NEVER drive in. THAT was a long day. Hospitals here are in Covid crisis so only allow people in who are being admitted. Travel clinic wouldn’t see us without an appointment, which was impossible to make as they don’t answer their phones. So we ended up at a laboratory for blood work. Our doctor in Eswatini also suggested to test for malaria as high fever is a sign of that.

 

I am happy to say that both tests came back negative and Ian crawled back into bed for the next two days while his body fought off whatever needed fighting. Being in a foreign country, in a city that is not the safest from a crime standpoint (lots of car jackings) and the South African strain of Covid-19 made for a perfect storm for me. I am not a worrier, but what if it was Covid and I was in the same room as him? How will we complete the work that we had to do while here? How long would we be stuck in South Africa with an unknown illness? But the Lord kept reassuring me and reminding me of Joshua 1:6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

 

Not only was He reassuring me in my fear, but reminding me of why He has us in Africa in the first place.  Why on earth should I be afraid during this storm?

 

Then there was the literal storm on that was raging at the same time, but this one was back on Project Canaan. In a period of only one hour an angry storm ripped through the property causing a lot of destruction and fear. Marble sized hail pelleted the ground and piled up like small snow banks and remained in six inch chucks 12 hours later (IN AFRICA!). Here is just a small part of the reports we received from our Managers:

 

·      Estimated that 2 inches (50mm) of rain fell in 20 minutes taking our dams back up to their fullest ever with both dam spillways were overflowing again, but no damage to the dams.

·      There was a power surge on the power lines that fried the control board on the generator so everyone on Project Canaan was without power until that was fixed many hours later.

·      2 electrical poles fell at the dairy

·      Lots of trees fell on the electrical fences around PC and are still being removed and repaired

·      Water reservoir tank cover at the lodge was shredded by the wind

·      Greenhouse down pipes were blown from the gutters.

·      After getting the power up and running they discovered that we were out of water (278 children and 100+ adults with no water) and are still working on solving that issue today

·      An estimated $50,000 in damage to crops and fields, but no animals died

·      Almost all the shade netting at the schools and all children’s campuses were torn, shredded or destroyed

·      Damage at our house to the roof, lots of trees down, but house-sitter Nokwanda and the puppies are all okay.

·      Water seems to have come in to closed doors, windows and roofs all over the property

·      No people were hurt, and everyone prayed for protection through the storm

 

 

And in the midst of this third storm Ian and I were safe and sound in a hotel in Johannesburg while the rest of our incredible team on Project Canaan managed through the crisis, no doubt prayed as they went and then the sun came out. I can never say enough good things about our staff and volunteers at Project Canaan. I will give a big thank you to Denis in particular as he is the Maintenance Manager and is responsible for organizing and/or fixing all things that break. Walter our head Electrician is always there to fix any and all electrical problems and works tirelessly to keep us with light and clean water. Thank you to all the other people who helped at each and every step of this storm. We love you all.

I have attached photos throughout so that you could see a bit of what happened at Project Canaan, but be sure to watch the video at the end where Farm Manager Maganda shows us the ice chunk from hail at the greenhouse the day after the storm.

 

 

It’s Saturday morning and Ian is up and feeling much better. He will have some breakfast and then off we go to run all the errands that we had planned for the week. 

 

God is good, all the time and we give thanks in the knowledge that He is with us during the storms; surgical storms, Covid storms, fear storms, driving through Johannesburg storms or rain and hail storms

Joshua 1:7 goes on to say, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”

 

Live from Johannesburg … thankful for our hope through the storms of life.

 

Janine