Car and Crate

Hello family and friends;
God is awesome!!
We have some very good news! Life is not about material things, but we're very thankful for some pretty "basic stuff" that God's provided for in the last little while. I will simply post what I wrote on Sept.11
                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                      Sept.11 2009
Blessings to all our family and friends.
God is so awesome!! Isaac, Colton and I use the time to pray as we’re walking to school in the morning, and yesterday I prayed that the Lord would in His “almightyness and all powerfulness” miraculously provide a vehicle for us. At lunch, which is 1:00 P.M. here, Isaac and Colton came to Primary school as always so we can walk home together. Isaac had some very good news. Chrissie Chapman had told him that she had been thinking that it doesn’t’t make sense for us to have to walk so far to get to work/school/events, so she is blessing us with the use of her car!!!!!!!!!!!!  When Isaac told me this I could hardly stop thanking Jesus.  This may only happen in a few months, as Chrissie wants a car from Japan to replace her current one, but even the fact that this is the plan is comforting. Walking to and from almost everywhere is so tiring and hot, and very often we walk the 20 minutes to and from at least twice a day, sometimes three times.


So we didn’t post this till we got the car…….. WE GOT THE CAR!!!!!!!
And it’s got AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!! Praise JESUS!!
The King’s School is filling in one tank of gas per month as Isaac uses it for school related things a lot, and for personal use gas we’re trusting the Lord, as this wonderful surprise isn’t in our budget.
This really opens the door for more ministry opportunities, which we’ve been praying about for some time.
We also received the items from in the crate. Back in February we had ordered bed and bath linens from Sears and drop shipped it to Vernon BC, which is where Pastor Ray and Maryanne’s home church was filling a crate to be shipped here. Our church put a bike in there for each of us, which is a blessing, and also a bunch of tools for Isaac to use. Isaac still doesn’t have access to the tools, which is frustrating, but there are storage issues that are beyond Pastor Ray or our control. It’s just the African way. The crate arrived in Bujumbura at the end of August, was tied up in customs for about 2 months, and then a few days after it’s release Pastor Ray and Maryanne went to Canada unexpectedly for three weeks for his dad’s funeral, so upon their return we finally got our long awaited stuff. Wow, it was like Christmas opening the boxes!!! We now have real pillows - down pillows - my neck and shoulders still almost cringe at the thought of what we were using before. You should have seen and heard Colton rejoice when he saw his bike in our living room, fully assembled!!! Isaac had brought the bikes home when we were at school in the morning, and we hadn’t told Colton. That was fun!
Colton can, however, only ride the bike a little ways on our street so he’s in sight of our guard. It’s not safe for a ‘mzungu’ boy to go out by himself, especially on a nice bike. So the only time he can venture out is if we go with him. After we had gone out a time or two on our bikes, it occurred to me that I’ve never once seen a female riding a bike in Burundi. There are bikes everywhere, thousands and thousands - it’s a cheap mode of transportation, however, there seems to be an unwritten rule that it’s only for the male gender. Females commonly sit on the rack on the back as bikes are used as taxis very much, but they never ride themselves. We’re accustomed to many comments and stares when we’re out and about walking, but people do a double take when they see us on our bikes.
The temperature  “dipped” down to 24.8 degrees in the last week during the night 2 times. Till now we had not seen it go below 25 once, and I tend to watch it quite closely. Laugh all you want, but we felt cold.
Speaking of temperature, it’s almost unbearably hot in church most of the time. It’s got a tin roof that offers shade, but seems to intensify the heat; combined with the bodies of 7,000 people worshiping and dancing, the heat is stifling. I was curious what the actual temp. is in church, so I took our little digital thermometer to church in my bag a few Sundays ago. 33 degrees on the nose!!! And, that particular Sunday happened to be probably the coolest we had experienced. And keep in mind, it doesn’t last only a tidy one and a half hours, but at least three and a half hours, very easily four. In all honesty, the thought of not going to church some Sundays is  pretty strong, but then when we think of the powerful move of God and the way we are encouraged and touched by the Father, we can’t stay away.
A question we’ve had through email is whether people can send us stuff. Absolutely! You can send it to:
The King’s School
Box 1560
Bujumbura, Burundi
Africa
We have no school today, it’s a Muslim holiday, so we’re about to go, I mean drive with our car and not with a taxi or walk (awful grammar, I know) to get some supplies.
Please continue to pray for Ramona and family.
We love you, and thank you all very much for your continued prayers, emails, and words of encouragement.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
The Froese’s