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(Letter from Elder and Sister Harms)

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Dear Family,

As you know, last Saturday was the Big Day: The Pan-African Helping Hands Day for which we were working and preparing for that and so we didn’t get a P-Day that week. Therefore, since this weekend two couples from outside our area were in Cape Town to see to their callings and had the day free we all took a tour bus ride all around the Cape Town area. It’s always great to see other couples and discover that they are experiencing all the same issues and challenges that you are and that you’re not alone in the world and that you are normal after all.

The bus was a double decker and the top was open-air. The day was perfect, no clouds (I actually got a bit of a sun burn) and the bus took us all through the historic Cape Town center, out to The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (one of the top 7 in the world), on a walking tour of a shanty town (township), around a couple of the bays (so very spectacular). Cape Town is indeed one of the most beautiful places in the world and it’s tough to be assigned here, but someone’s got to do it.

On Saturday, we had been planning for a couple of weeks to attend a interdenominational lecture and festival sponsored by the South African Bible Institute, which we felt like we should attend, given our public affairs calling and all. Then, as we pulled out the map to see where it was, we learned in was quite a ways out in Kalk Bay near Simons Town. It was a small college, beautifully situated looking right out onto the ocean. The day was their annual open house, but this one was dedicated to the 500^th birthday of John Calvin, the great French reformer born in 1509 if you don’t want to do the math; the public was invited to view booths touting various Christian groups. We visited all the booths, took all their literature, explained why were in Cape Town and just generally got the name of the Church exposed a tiny bit more.

Now if you had a free Saturday afternoon and were out on the beach what would you do? No, we didn’t go surf boarding or swimming, but we did do the proper tourist thing and explore on the rest of the way around the Cape. It is absolutely beautiful. Blue-green water, crashing waves of foam, a winding road that follows all along the coast.

We stopped at a small restaurant and ate lunch and then eventually drove all the way out to the historic Cape of Good Hope. (Check it on a map).

By the way, on the way there we spotted our first group of baboons milling along the roadway.

We are learning to enjoy ourselves. The best times are always mixed with work, sometimes stressful, and then wonderful experiences that you look back on and say “wow”. That was really neat. We hope we’re learning how to get the name of the Church exposed, making friends with people and leaders of other faiths and the “core opinion leaders” that can help the Church if they have a good impression of us.

We love you all and miss being with you, but we’re happy we can be here in the Lord’s service.

Elder Harms/Dad/Grandpa, etc.