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Email Updates - 2008, 2007, 2006Latest Issue - April 2008I think I am way behind in writing to you. We have not had an
internet connection at home for the past month, so I have not
kept up very well! March 2008We have safely returned from more traveling. We attended the
annual Ministers’ Week at Postmasburg in the Northern Cape. We
took the chairman of the Church of Christ Mission and his wife
with us. They came to our house on Friday evening and we
traveled to Kimberley on Saturday. We stayed the night there and
then traveled on to Postmasburg on Sunday morning. We arrived
just in time for the morning service. I think there were a few
sighs of relief when we arrived, as Michael was the preacher
that morning. February 2008It has been a while since I have written an email, so this will try to catch you up on our activities so far this year. We have traveled quite a lot already this year and there are more trips coming up. So far we have had safe, though not uneventful, trips. On the 6th of January we went to Umzumbe for church. It was a rainy, miserable day and no one came to church. We had communion and came home. On the 13th of January we took three of the ladies from Umzumbe to Estcourt for a funeral. The wife of the former minister there had passed away. When we first came to South Africa we often went to Estcourt and Mrs. Sithebe was very kind to us. She had a very difficult life and yet was always smiling and joyful. We will certainly miss her. On the 19th and 20th of January we went to the Eastern Cape for a church service. We picked up the minister and his wife and traveled about 2 hours on a gravel road to a very deep rural area. There was no electricity, but we had a great worship service there. On the trip home we suffered a vehicle breakdown which forced us to stay overnight with the minister and his wife. Diane and Mac rescued us the next day. We will write a report on that in the next South Africa Torch. On the 27th of January we were in Eshowe for our monthly visit. Although the attendance was small we had a good worship service. The elder invited us and two other couples from the church to lunch and we were able to have a good discussion about issues in the three churches in that area. Last weekend Michael traveled to Umtata . Two of the elders there are doing studies through South African Bible Institute and needed to write exams. South African Bible Institute asked Michael to administer the exams. He left Umtata quite late on Sunday and only arrived home after 1 in the morning! Tomorrow (Thursday) we will leave for Kimberley . The South African Bible Institute Board Of Governors meeting is Friday afternoon and Michael is a member of the Board. On Saturday we will also attend the graduation of the students from 2006 and 2007. Mac and Diane continue with a real “roller-coaster” life. At the beginning of January the doctors told Mac that there was nothing more they could do for him. Then later in the month he had scans and he was told that the cancer was gone in the left lung - though there is scar tissue - and that there was some scar tissue, but less cancer in the right lung. Also the tumor in the right lung was shrinking. The end of last week he ended up in hospital with gastroenteritis. Fortunately he was only in hospital overnight. However, this week he is very short of breath and the doctors did scans again. They think he has a lung infection or pneumonia. Continue to pray for Diane and Mac. Michael and I saw the doctor recently and we are both on some new medications. The doctor says it is just because we are “aging”. Actually, we are both feeling quite well. We are just suffering from the heat right now as we are in the middle of summer. We have been busy with routine maintenance at Umzumbe Bible Institute. We have mowed lawns and done a few more repairs. Last week in the midst of the mowing, Michael was asked to take a lady to the hospital because she was ready to deliver her baby. She had called the ambulance, but it hadn’t come and she was getting desperate. Michael will give a more detailed report in the next South Africa Torch, but I will just tell you that the baby arrived about 5 miles from the hospital!! Michael and Caryl December 2007, Christmas NewsletterFirst of all we want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2008! We wonder where the year went. Last year we were snowed in on New Year’s Day! We definitely won’t have that this year - though we have had a lot of rain recently. The National Youth Seminar went very well. The attendance was lower than we had hoped, but those who attended were blessed. It was held at Margate, which is only 20 miles from home, so we returned each evening and were able to sleep at home. Michael and I shared the responsibility for our small group with Simpiwe Mteza, a young minister, who was interested in getting some training and experience so he can be small group leader in the future. He did a great job. Another man sat in on our group as well. The youth we had in our group participated very well, so we really enjoyed our time with them. The last day of November the Smith family from East London came to stay with us. Phil participated in the National Youth Seminar and he stayed with the youth in Margate. Roxana and the boys stayed at our house, did school work (she home-schools), did some sight-seeing and took care of their two dogs. They stayed on for a couple of days after the seminar. We really enjoyed our time with them, but felt the time was too short, especially as the seminar took so much of our time. They have now returned to the United States to minister in Kansas. We spent a couple of days in the past week helping our son-in-law, Mac. He is the manager of Oribi Bible Camp. They are fixing up a couple of the houses on the camp site for use by families. We painted, repaired and helped out wherever we could. We are looking forward to a busy few days. We will be going to Eshowe this weekend. Michael’s brother and his wife (Larry and Marguerite) from Minnesota are here for a few weeks. They are staying with his sister, who lives about 30 miles from us. On Monday night (Christmas Eve) we will be having a Christmas celebration with all of them (18 people, I think). On Christmas Day we will be at Diane and Mac’s house with our children and some of their in-laws. I think there will be 23 of us. Again we wish you all a very happy Christmas celebration. May we all keep Christ at the center of our celebrations. Michael and Caryl October 2007We attended the annual conference of the Church of Christ Mission in September. As we had expected, things were pretty tense at the beginning of the week. Some of the classes were cancelled for the executive committee to hold meetings. When it came time for the reports, we just heard one excuse after another as to why there was no financial report. It has been about 5 years since there have been proper reports. On Friday the elections were held to choose the new executive committee. Some of the men asked Michael to serve as election officer as they felt he would be accepted as unbiased. He began by giving a devotional and encouraging the people to choose officers who would fulfill their responsibilities as servants. The election went very well and the result was that only one of the previous committee members was returned to his position. The spirit among the people seemed to improve as soon as the elections were over. Please pray for the new committee. They will be meeting soon to try to resolve some of the issues which have been causing problems. Michael and I participated with Scripture Union in a Life Skills course at Port Shepstone High School in October. There were about 250 students and 25 volunteers to work in small groups. It is such a blessing that the school is open to this Bible-based program. The end of the school year is approaching and the students are writing exams. Michael has continued to give a devotional talk each Tuesday at the rural high school, but the attendance has decreased from around 200 to about 50. The teachers are very discouraged because the school year was disrupted by a strike, absenteeism is extremely high, and there is a serious lack of discipline. We try to encourage the teachers when we are at the school. Please continue to pray for our son-in-law, Mac. The last time he had chemotherapy the doctor was thrilled to see that the cancer had stopped growing. However, within a few days Mac was in terrible pain and has now been admitted to hospital for pain control medication. He has been in hospital for about a week and will be receiving chemotherapy again tomorrow (Wednesday). It has been very difficult for Diane. She spends as much time with him as she can, but she is also trying to do some work at her office. Michael and Caryl August 2007Michael spent two weeks in Kimberley teaching one student at the South African Bible Institute. He was disappointed in the student, but felt that he made some progress in helping the school get better-organized with finances. A friend from Kimberley has agreed to help with the book-keeping. The weather was very cold while Michael was in Kimberley. He said he often saw ice by the road as he drove to South African Bible Institute early in the morning. He stayed with a friend, whom he has known since primary school days in the 50s. I chose to stay at home (where it was much warmer.) I worked on sorting out some old mission papers, filing, and putting some historical information on the computer. When Michael got back we took care of some of the office work that had been piling up. We made significant progress in reducing the backlog. Please continue to pray for Mac and Diane and all of Mac’s family. Mac continues to get chemotherapy. It really makes him exhausted. He sleeps a lot and doesn’t have the strength that he once had. To add to the drama for the family, Mac’s dad was retrenched because he wasn’t coping at his job. His brother, Oliver, came out from England to visit Mac and ended up helping their parents take care of business related to the retrenchment. Then Mac’s dad ended up in hospital for two days as he was not doing well. Oliver’s wife is expecting a baby next month and she experienced some problems while he was here. The family really feels overwhelmed by all of this. We continue to pray for them. They are Christians, but this is a very tough time for them. Yesterday we celebrated Mom Stanley’s 86th birthday. We took a cake to her before we went to church and then all of the family visited throughout the day. She got several bouquets of flowers and lots of cards. She keeps telling us that she thinks Jesus will come for her soon. Pray for the national church in South Africa. It is in a state of crisis. Too many people are more interested in power, prestige and position than in God’s Kingdom! We continue to pray that God will work in the hearts of men and women. Michael and Caryl July 2007The annual youth camp was held at a school in northern KwaZulu Natal. Attendance was especially good with over 125 attending. The classrooms were used for classes, meals and sleeping. There was a large hall for the worship services. Michael and I were hosted by a teacher who is a member of the church. We were well cared for. There will be more information and pictures of the camp in the next South Africa Torch. Mac, our son-in-law, has been receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatment for lung cancer, but the cancer is continuing to grow and spread. His doctor has done some more tests and is changing the treatment. Please continue to pray for Mac, Diane and the rest of the family. His parents and grandmother live nearby, and his only brother and his family live in England. Michael will be teaching a two-week intensive class at South African Bible Institute in Kimberley from 30 July to 10 August. Pray for him as he teaches and for his students. Michael and Caryl 13 June 2007
Please pray for our son-in-law, Mac, and for our daughter,
Diane. Late April 2007We are back in South Africa and are getting settled in. It is
great to be home again! Early April 2007Our time in the States is getting very short. We leave on the
11th of April, so have less than two weeks left. It is a busy
time as we pack and prepare to leave. January 2007It has been a busy month with a lot of traveling. Not only have we visited churches in South Dakota and Minnesota, but we also took a few days to enjoy a vacation. Although it is a strange time to do sight-seeing in the northern part of the United States, we spent three days in Western South Dakota. Michael had never see Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Black Hills, the Badlands, Wall Drug, etc. I had been there so many years ago that I had only vague memories of my visit. Since we were already in South Dakota, we decided to head on west and we really had a wonderful time. There was some snow, but it was warm enough that we didn’t even need hats, though we did wear our gloves while we walked the presidential trail at Mount Rushmore. It was a most enjoyable interlude. This year we were able to attend the Dakota Christian Conference and what a blessing it was. The messages by Ben Cachiaras were challenging and the fellowship was great. So far the weather in our travels has not been bad. We have
had some snow, but have been able to get to all of the churches
as scheduled. The end of January has brought us more typical
Minnesota weather – cold, snowy, and windy. Pray for us as we travel to visit churches in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana and Ohio over the next 2 months. Also pray for us as we make decisions about what to take back to South Africa with us. Caryl and Michael December 2006We have been busy traveling over the past two months and I
seem to have gotten behind in my emails. October 2006 SupplementShortly after we sent out our monthly email to you, we received word from our son-in-law, Sean, that there had been a burglary at Umzumbe Bible Institute. A lady who lives near UBI phoned to tell him that there had been a break-in. All of the doors in the office/library complex had been broken, the alarm system had been removed from the wall, and all of the rooms had been ransacked. On a more positive note, it seems that nothing may have been taken. We were surprised to hear that he computers and lawn mower were still there. We are waiting to hear from Sean if he can tell if anything is missing. Of course, we will not know until we return and see for ourselves as Sean is not that familiar with the things that should be there. We do not have burglary insurance so we will just have to pay for the repairs that have to be done. Pray for Sean as he has to deal with this in our absence. Caryl October 2006
We are well into our speaking schedule and it has been
encouraging to meet with people in our supporting churches. Over
the next few months we will do more traveling and will visit as
many of the churches as possible. September 2006Greetings from Southern Minnesota. We are happily settled in our home and enjoying country life. We have made applesauce from the apples that grow in our yard. We can hear the sheep bleating in the pasture across the driveway. We saw three deer out the kitchen window tonight. We have begun our travels and have booked almost all of the weekends until early December. We will be contacting other churches to arrange dates in the new year soon. Our initial speaking engagements have been in Wisconsin, but the next four weeks take us to churches in Minnesota. Then in mid-October we head out to Eastern Ohio for our first long trip. It has been great to see friends and family again. We have enjoyed our visits and times of sharing. The people at the Horicon Church of Christ have been very generous and are taking good care to us. We hear regularly from our children in South Africa, but have not heard from any of the African brethren and co-workers there. We do know that the annual conference will be held at the end of the month and we would ask you to keep the speakers and leaders in your prayers. Dina began work as a nurse at the hospice in Port Shepstone and Sean is looking into opening up an orthotics/ prosthetics clinic in Port Shepstone. They seem to have settled into our house now and it sounds like things are going well for them.
Pray for us as we travel and speak. If you have specific times
when you would like to have us come to visit, please contact us
by email or phone.
michael.stanley@venturenet.co.za or
caryl_stanley@hotmail.com August 2006We are getting settled in the parsonage at the Horicon Church of Christ, which is in a rural area just south of Truman Minnesota. The house has a bedroom, bathroom, office, living room and kitchen on the main floor. The upstairs has three bedrooms, which we just use for storage. The church people have loaned us furniture and essentials. They have been most welcoming and we have enjoyed our time here. We spent the first month based in Minneapolis and involved with family activities. We were able to participate in a wedding, a holiday, a cancer fund-raiser and a family reunion. We begin our visits to churches this weekend. We will be in Wisconsin and Minnesota in August, September and October. In November we will be in Illinois and Indiana (for the National Missionary Convention.) In December we will go to Oklahoma. We are in the process of arranging the schedule for the rest of the time. Pray for us as we travel and speak. We have discovered that the trunk of our car is a little small for our suitcases and display, but we are happy with our car. We got cell phones while we were still in Minneapolis - and now discover that we have no cell contact at our house. We have to drive about 10 miles to get a signal. However, it seems it will be better in most of the areas where we will be traveling. Michael’s number is 612-770-7921. When we are at home you can reach us at the Horicon Church of Christ. The number is 507-436-5232 and it rings in our house. We are in regular contact with the family in South Africa. Sean is handling our financial affairs there and we are all on a steep learning curve!! We thought we had everything in order, but we are all thankful for email so we can quickly deal with issues that come up. Pray for the churches in South Africa. The annual conference will be coming up at the end of September. We have heard that the venue has been changed since we left South Africa. We are not sure why that was done. Pray especially that there will be a revival among church leaders. Michael and Caryl July 2006We arrived back in the United States on July 14. It is great to be here and we have been busy since we arrived. It definitely was not our smoothest trip! We had trouble checking in in Durban because we wanted to check our luggage through to Minneapolis. The agent was having a lot of trouble so we finally asked her to just send our luggage through to Johannesburg and we would collect it and check in again. By then we were late so had to run to our flight. When we were seated and the doors of the plane were closed, Michael realized that he had left his DayRunner (a book which includes calendar, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) in the security tray. We couldn’t go back, but the flight attendant was able to confirm that it was there. When we got to Johannesburg we tried to have it brought up before we left at near midnight. Unfortunately, all the planes had already left Durban for the night. The flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam was not full, so we were able to stretch out a bit and we both slept. I suppose there were movies, but neither of us were interested. We were exhausted and really enjoyed just getting some rest. We had a full plane from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. When we were somewhere over the ocean they asked if there was a doctor on board. Later they announced that we were making an unscheduled stop because of a medical emergency. They said we would land at Goose Bay. Before we landed they told us to prepare for an emergency landing, but we didn’t land. Michael had noticed that he couldn’t see the wing because of fog or cloud. We were on the way down when, suddenly, we were climbing again. Apparently, the runway for instrument landing was closed for repairs and the visual landing runway was not visible. So we flew on to Gander and landed there. The emergency medical case was taken off the plane and we refueled before going on to Minneapolis. Fortunately, our family hadn’t given up on us, in spite of being about 2 hours late. We enjoyed a meal at a restaurant with 11 other family members before heading to Duane and Kathy’s for the night. Since we have been back, we have done a little fun shopping (like treats we haven’t been able to get for a few years) and some major shopping. We have purchased a car. It is a 2005 Chrysler Sebring. We trust that it will serve us well for the next few months. The Mission was given a brand new laptop computer with printer. It has worked hard for us over the past few days as we have taken care of some important mission work. Last weekend we attended the wedding of a nephew. We helped with the Groom’s Dinner on Friday night and Michael was invited to participate in the service on Saturday by reading scripture. It was so nice to be able to participate in this special family event. Tomorrow we leave for a week of holiday. We will return in time to participate in the Stillwater, MN, Relay for Life and the Stanley family reunion at Kimball, MN. Then we will begin visiting churches. We have a few weekends scheduled, but we look forward to hearing from you about when we can come and visit you. Please contact us at michael.stanley@venturenet.co.za or phone us on 612-770-7921 to arrange a date. Pray for our family and the churches we have left behind in South Africa. Also pray for safety for us as we travel here in the United States.
Caryl and Michael |
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