January, 2006

Happy New Year (Frohes Neues Jahr to our deutsch Freunde) to our friends around the globe. We had a very busy November and December before finally settling in with a little relaxation time over the holidays. God has been blessing us “Big Time” and we’d like to now share it all with you.

MINISTRY NEWS
During November, in addition to our normal ministry schedule, we were blessed with several American visitors (Dana Mitchell, Larry Sherman and Janet and Alan Hoffberg). In addition to that, we had to handle two separate Namibian real estate deals. This was extremely stressful for Lon since he was unfamiliar with the Namibian legalities of such transactions. Learning how to transfer large amounts of money internationally without incurring excessive bank fees was also a new challenge. But God is both knowledgeable and capable of such matters and all went well. Once again, Lon’s worries turned into God’s faithfulness and in the end, he was left wondering why he worried so much in the midst of it all.

December was a month of much travel and hosting German friends. We first traveled to Botswana for the wedding of our good friends George and Zil-lee. George was Lon’s faithful assistant for our first few years in Namibia. It was a long trip across the Kalahari Desert, but we arrived safely and had a wonderful time celebrating with them and Lon performed his first Botswana wedding ceremony. What a joy that was. African weddings are much more colourful and lively than American weddings. The wedding party comes dancing in, which sets the stage for a wonderful celebration. We also traveled twice to Swakopmund to preach, teach and counsel. Our close friends Markus Liebold and Jojo Knobloch from Lüneberg, Germany arrived early in December and stayed with us for a month. While they were here, they became engaged while camping at Spitzkoppe and we were able to celebrate with them and plan their September wedding in Germany (Lon is also performing their ceremony).

After the returning from all of our travels, the purchase of the property near the squatter’s camp was successfully concluded and deed is now registered in the name of Hope for a Better Future Trust (HPABFT). Pastor Thomas and his family were able to move onto the property in time to celebrate Christmas there.

This afternoon we began our first Hope for a Better Future Trust planning session. We discussed possible projects for 2006. Our long-range plans for the property are to show the love of Christ in practical ways to our neighbours in the camp who otherwise see mostly despair. Some of the projects we are considering for 2006 are: opening a Christian community center, hosting evangelistic events for the community, starting a brick-making project, growing vegetables, expanding our skills training efforts, opening a craft/coffee shop, building homes, and lots of other possibilities yet to be explored. We will also take great delight in repainting the billboard on the property. It now advertises Sam’s Tavern and Tafel Lager Beer. In the future it will declare the glory of God and hope for the community. One big need for 2006 is a business manager to oversee the administration and accounting for all of these enterprises. We will not get far into any of them without a business manager. We are praying that God provides this person in some miraculous way, similar to how He provided the property.

Over the Christmas holidays, several German volunteers of Youth for Christ Namibia and two Namibian guides were involved in a serious auto accident in the Namib Desert. The vehicle overturned several times yet all 11 passengers miraculously survived. Praise God for that, but several are still in the hospital with serious injuries. There are many insurance issues still outstanding. Please pray for these families.

We just received news that Linkie, a friend and teacher at the Vyf Rand Project School mysteriously died in her sleep the other night. This is quite a shock to all of us who know this young lady. She was a dedicated, loving teacher and a wonderful Christian influence in the school system. She will be greatly missed by her friends and students.

After performing a wedding and preaching in Swakopmund this weekend, we head to Capetown for two weeks. We will be buying much-needed ministry supplies that are not available in Namibia and trying to find new marketing outlets for Work of Our Hands products. We will also be strengthening our ministry connections with our South African ministry partners. Okay, we may also spend a few minutes enjoying the splendor of Capetown and Table Mountain and praising God for his creative artistry.

PERSONAL NOTES
Our big family news is that our youngest daughter, Jamie, has graduated from nursing school, has been hired as a pediatric ICU nurse at a Denver hospital and is engaged to be married. Her fiancé, Bobby DiCroce, works for the Colorado Rockies while completing his university studies. You’ve gotta love a son-in-law who works for a professional baseball team. Jamie and Bobby will marry in early August and, yes, of course, Lon will be performing her ceremony too. Being a Daddy Pastor is a difficult assignment and cannot be accomplished without shedding lots of tears.

The purchase transaction for our home was finally completed and registered the week before Christmas, only a few days before the Deeds Office closed for the holidays. So we celebrated a quiet Christmas with Markus and Jojo in our new home. It is wonderful to finally have our own homestead again after three years of constant transition (5 moves on two continents with a few mandatory exiles thrown in for added excitement). It is a wonderful blessing that God has given us. When you think you are sacrificing for the Lord, he gives it all back and more. Such is the love of God poured out on all who trust Him completely. And as we prayed, the exchange rate peaked just before we transferred the money. Praise God for that. It has been going back down ever since.

We must share with you a short story about our trip across the Kalahari Desert. The Kalahari is not a normal desert (as in sand, sand and more sand). It is filled with lots of scrub bushes and animal life. Normally it is arid and quite desolate, but we traveled it during the rainy season and the bushes were green and beautiful. We renamed it the Kalahari Garden. Once, when we stopped by the side of the road to make coffee, we were deluged by a driving rain and thunderstorm. We never expected to be freezing cold in the middle of the desert during the daytime. But we were and we loved it. Big adventure. But the most dangerous part of the desert is the animals in the highway, especially after a rain. They drink the water puddled there. You constantly have to slow for cattle, donkeys, guinea fowl and an occasional kudu crossing or congregating in the roadway. We successfully avoided all animal obstacles on the trip to the wedding,

BUT on the way back, we encountered a suicidal guinea fowl. It crouched patiently in the bushes by the side of the road and at the critical moment bolted in front of our truck to complete its death wish. We complied and scattered its feathers to the four winds. Jojo was driving and she was mortified … the first time she had ever killed anything. But before she could properly absorb the horror of having caused the demise of this creature, Val screamed: “Turn around, turn around, I want the feathers. I want the feathers!” Val had been jokingly asking Lon to hit a guinea fowl for months since the feathers make wonderful decorations on craft projects. So we returned to the scene of the crime. We had been giving a ride to a Tate (uncle) and I asked him if he would like the meat. I told him that Meme (auntie) Val wanted the feathers. He cocked his head, looked at me quizzically and asked: “Waarom?” (Why?) I’m sure he thought, “White people are such strange creatures. You can’t eat feathers.” But he gladly plucked the bird and everyone was happy. Well, everyone except Jojo. She was still trying to assimilate her new identity as a stone-cold killer. Finally, she decided it was okay since she made three individuals happy: the suicidal guinea fowl, Tate’s family and Val. That must be a good thing, right? And so the story ends happily. The next day the bride and groom hit a kudu on the same road, but miraculously the only damage was to the vehicle. They survived with only a crushed windshield (windscreen), a safety glass shower and we’re sure that the local villagers enjoyed a huge kudu braai (BBQ) that evening.

Pet Update: Panda is back to dining inside, this time in the living room. The other morning there were bird feathers all over the floor and Panda was sleeping with a full tummy and a smile on his face. Bo still thinks it is a hoot to crash full-speed into visitors (he weighs 25kg, 50+ pounds) as in invitation to play. So when you come to visit us, bring body armor. Notice I didn’t say “if”; I said “when.” We are busy trying to train him, but as all social workers know, the dog has to want to be trained.

CHURCH DISTRIBUTED UPDATE
During our trip to Capetown, we will be connecting with several Northland friends and ministry partners in the Capetown area. One such ministry led by Cassie and Jenny Carstens is in the Kayamandi Township near Stellenbosch. This ministry focuses on Leadership Development and Community Transformation and we hope to learn from them as we develop similar projects in the Vyf Rand community. Cassie and Jenny visited Northland last year as chaperones for a South African children’s choir.

It is such a blessing to participate in connecting God’s church world wide.

ON THE HOMEFRONT
Thanks to all of you who sent us cards during the Christmas season. Christmas is a hard time to be away from family and friends. It helped to receive cards, emails and phone calls from you. We really appreciate you for making the effort to stay connected. We’d also like to remind you again about Skype.com. When you download the Skype software, become a Skype user and list us as one of your contacts (our Skype name is “longarber”), you can call us in Africa for FREE and for us it is just the normal cost of a local call. Thanks for those of you who have signed up already. We hope many others will do so as well. We love our work here, but at times it can be very lonely.

slice of african life
KEYS – This month we’d like to talk about keys. Keys are very important in Africa. Everything must be locked or your belongings quickly sprout legs and disappear. You have locks on your doors. You have locks on the iron grill that protects the locks on your doors. You have locks on the gate that protects the lock on the grill that protects the lock on the door. And on it goes. Most of the keys are still the large, bulky skeleton keys. And the keying concept of “one key fits everything” has not arrived in Africa yet. So we thought you might enjoy a photo of our keying system. These are the exterior keys to our house. The interior doors also have other keys which are not shown here. Even the refrigerator and closets have keys. We are over-run with keys. But we love it … a slice of African life.

African life is filled with folk lore. Oral story-telling that is passed down from one generation to another is built into the culture. Many of the tales are about animals. In an effort to keep our newsletters fresh and interesting so you will keep reading them, we would like to share one of these stories with you each month. All cultures have Creation tales and Africa is no exception. The Bushmen believe that Creator made the earth and its plants and then thought up many animals to fill it. He struck a baobab tree and out popped the animals he conceived in his mind. As they emerged, he gave them names and assigned them a place to live. The last animal to pop out was man. But the story we’d like to share this month is the tale that explains why lions roar. Long ago, lions quietly stalked their prey, which made them doubly dangerous. All the other animals agreed that it would be safer if lions were noisy. It was the hare who figured out how to make it happen. He found the lion resting under a tree and told him that his brother was very ill and needed him at once. The lion quickly agreed to follow the hare. The hare led him in circles around the bushveld until lion tired and stopped for a nap. With the help of the honeyguide bird, the Hare found a bee hive and stole some honey, which he strategically placed on the paws and head of the sleeping lion. When the bees discovered the theft, they angrily attacked the lion. The lion was stung so many times that his soft voice swelled to a thunderous roar that could be heard for miles. And his voice changed forever. You see, he became proud of the sound and the power of his roar and the other animals were grateful for the warning. The lion thus shows us all that it is our pride that weakens us.

This story is summarized from When Hippo Was Hairy: And Other Tales from Africa.” If you would like to read the full version and lots of other African folk tales, we highly recommend this book. ISBN: 1-86872-456-5

FINANCIAL SUMMARY
Here is our financial summary of our funding for 2005:

$ 50,329 2005 Giving
43,872 2005 Budgeted Need
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$ 6,457 Balance in Ministry Account

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Thank you all very much for helping us pursue and sustain God’s calling for us in Africa.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When giving through Northland, make sure you designate “Lon and Val Garber” on your envelope or attached note. Otherwise, your donation may not be credited properly to our account.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: The home we purchased is from the proceeds from the sale of our home in America. We did not use any ministry money for this purchase.