Two weeks!

Sho! So it's two weeks tomorrow until I come home! It is going to be very weird because even now I can't imagine being anywhere but Durban. It will be so odd to not come to be with the rest of Hope Church on a Sunday, so weird not to be living alone, so different not to be able to just drive straight for the beach, or the hills, or the Botanical Gardens. In nine short months I have pretty much become a South African - maybe not 100%, but more than I think even I expected to.

In the next two weeks there's a few things going on and a few things to get sorted, such as:

• Today someone will finally come and assess my car that was damaged over a month ago! When that's done I can get rid of the scrap, which I've found out is costing me no small amount to be stored where it is (for the first two weeks I couldn't get enough of a straight answer out of the insurance company to be able to work out that they weren't really doing anything about my car, just going to pay out as and when I send them the bills - though not for storage, of course! Speaking to the guy this morning there's a significant amount of money that I'm being charged, but not much I could do but grin and bear it from the time I found out what the state of play was). Anyway, so hopefully that can all be turned around and I can get the money paid out to me before I leave. Might need to open up a SA bank account after all, if they don't like sending the money to someone else's account.
• Today I will also get a quote for shipping some of Mandy's remaining things back home. I'll bundle a few bits and bobs in there too, but it's just another thing that's got to be tied up before I leave.
• This weekend we're going to be having our KZN regional camp called Faithful. Our three churches are coming together for what looks like it's going to be a great weekend. Please do pray for God to be on us in remarkable and miraculous ways. Also pray for me that I would have a much needed encounter with God before coming home where He speaks clearly and gives strength and vision for what lies ahead.
• I'll be having to start saying goodbyes real soon as students go back home, and just others that I won't see for one reason or another. It's going to be hard, but I hope to make them as significant as the people I'm speaking to have been for me.
  
• On my last Sunday I shall be preaching, and I need to finish writing that quick time. I'm going to be speaking to Hope Church about the subject of "hope" - what hope is, what our hope is, what lack of hope the world has, and what hope should produce in us. I "hope" (there's one sense of the word that's probably the furthest from the Biblical sense of hoping in God, but that'll be part of the sermon!).

It'll be hard to do until I'm back home, but I'm hoping to get my mind in gear for that a little more in these next two weeks. There's a whole lot of uncertainty with most things though, especially with teacher training not really being a proper option until next year some time. I'm just praying God will help me to be ready to handle the move and to have ears open to hear where He's guiding next. One thing's for sure, I think it'll be a hectic road!