sinclair sandy charlotte 1979 safrica

8/12/2019 Sinclair Sandy Charlotte 1979 SAfrica

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U S A d d r e s s

LULANOCHRISTIAN MISSION

TRAVEL FUND

5?^

Children l e f t to r igh t : Richard,Johnny, Michelle, Wayne Michael

March 20 1979

Dear Friends, Si5)porter8, Partners in Prayer,Hie largest single expense in the budget of any overseas missionaryi s the cost of getting him and his family from his home in the Statesto h i s home on the f i e l d cos ts thousands and i s most of ten anunbudgetet item as, fortunately, i t occurs only once every four yearsor so. Our last travel fund appeal was in April 1974, but that timehas rolled around again.Our home is now in the throes of packing and getting ready to leavein about 6 weeks time. Our plans are to sail from New Orleans, LAon a Lykes Line freighter direct to Durban which is only 80 milesfrom our home in Eshowe, Zululand. We do not have an exact date asyet as freighters are notorious for not knowing when they i d l l leaveexactly. But at 800. each w thought we had a bargain...we DIDtTwo days ago the ccmpany wrote me and said they had to increase theirfares frcm 800. each to 945 each. w Orleans to Durban. Naturallywe were dism^ed as this will add on 870. to our family's travel needs.However i t is s t i l l well below flying costs for our family of 1,039 each,The two younger children, Johnny and Michelle s t i l l t ravel half-fare.The ship i s always a relaxing climax to a hectic furlough l as t minuterushing aboul, giving us a time of enrichment and spiritxoal reneval beforearriving on th e f ie ld 3 weeks l a ter As they also feed and, house usfor that time we are able to save almost a month's normal l iving expensesand this is ^dlere we really ccane out far ahead...with our bunch of hungryboys especial lylAt the close of 1978 we had raised 3,048. for Travel, since thenan additional 560. has come in making a total of 3,608. today.Our total revised (since they raised the fares) needs are now 5,670.leaving 2^62. s t i l l needed as of now.Ve will appreciate any help you wil l be able to send ti s so that wewill reach this goal before the end of Apr il. Can we count on you?

Yours in Chris t ,P O Box 9851Phoeni x, Ar izona 85068 Sandy Charlotte Sine


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iMLMDCHRISTIAN MISSION

Sa.*u^ d^a e iy^SS^

Dear friends and partners^

Children l e f t to r igh t : Richard,Johnny, Hlchelle Uayne Michael

April 10 1979.

We are pleased to annoimce that ve have a new forwarding agent as of April 1st1979. She i s Virginia Beddow, who served as our f i r s t Forwarding agentfrcia 1965 mt i l 1972. She was an excellent forwarding agent then^ and wereluctant ly l e t her r e s t fo r these years^ inbetween then and now.Virginia comes frcm Terre Haute 9 Tndlana and the Maplewood Christ ian Church.She and Charlotte were childhood friends for the years Char lo tte spent inIndiana, and l a ter room mates a t Minnesota Bible College during thei rfreshman years Virginia i s a graduate of MBC with a Bachelor o f Ch ri st ia nEducation degree and la te r served the public schools of Gallon, Ohio as areligious education teacher in t he r el ea sed tijne classes there. Followingthat she served as Director of Christian Ediication for eight years a t theSouth Lansing Church of Chr is t, Lansing, Michigan. Virginia came toStandard Publishing In Clninnati in 1976 to serve In the Leadership TrainingDepartment. She i s also the ed i to r of SET and continues to t rave lwidely for Standard Publishing serving on the Xdeashop team and as a consultanton leadership t ra ining materials .Ve feel priviledged to have her back as our forwarding agent, and know tha tshe will do an excellent job as she did in the past . She wil l hII thefunds fo r our work and accordingly ve have opened a new box number nearStandard Publishing in Cincinnati, CMo for that purpose. This will be onlyfo r s i^por t and contributions and f inancial matters . The new address i s :

^ s Virginia Beddow, Forwarding agent,2QLDLAND CHRISTIAIf MISSION,P.O. Box 31072,Cincinnati, A5231.The old Arizona box number will be kept as our personal lega3^SA addressand we can sti l l be reached at that box see below as anoSidr forwardingagent wil l serve us here to clear th is box and forward to us In SouthAfrica as necessary . However, from now ca send a l l funds to the Ohio address.

God bless a l l of you,U .S . A dd re ssP . O . Box 9 8 5 1Phoenix, Arizona 85068 Sandy


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July 1979 ZULUIAND CHRIST LA N MISSION July 1979SANTd & CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,P.O. BOX i n ESHCWE 3815 n / I ruREPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA. (Dear Friends, Supporters, Partners in Prayer,We are a n safely back in Zululand, South Africa, again and this i s our f i r s t newsletter.Due to our move we skipped the J\ine nevrsletter, but here are the hectic events in ourl i v e s these p ast two months.May was packing month, and we moved out of our apartment June 1st I t was a hisytime as Richard's 6th grade graductton was on May 31st and June 1st was his li^th birthday, We moved the t rai ler to the house of Galen and Jeanette Puckett and continued topack our drums for shipment to South Africa. M/M Wilfred Dusek were also a great helpt o us a t t h i s t ime. We l e f t Phoen ix and went t o Mesa for the l a s t few hect ic days,where we also l e f t the t r a i l e r with C h a r l o t t e s aunt and uncle , MM Harold JonesCharlotte has many relatives in Mesa and ve had a s teady stream dropping in to say goodbyDriving to Chicago we stopped in eastern Arizona for a fer^ days aroiuid Willccx.Charlotte 's grandfather and grandmother are buried in Willcox and we never had vis i tedthe gravesite. I t was good to look up the sites of the children's roots on her sideHer grandfather was born in l85C and died in 19^42 an old-Timer from Arizona's earlyyears, a miner, many places he lived in are Ghost tovms today.After several more stops we arrived :n Deerfield, I I near Chicago where Charlotte'sinvalid s i s t e r l i v e s . Br:'t ' .:r-in-law Harry, Buz had Just suffered a heart at tack andwas in the hospital, but i s doing fine now. Another hectic round of las t minute armnge-ments faced us, Virginia Beddow, our Fom^arding Agent came up from Cir_ri.nnati and as atremendocu: help, especially helping lis and a ll our mountains of luggage to Chare feidthe afternoon of July 5th. In spi te of minor set-backs, we took off an hour l a t e on KIMairlines for Amsterdam. Flying eastwards during t he nor thern summer the sun only setfor hours. Arriving in Schiphol airport id.th our 15 ptoccs of checked luggage rot tomention II4 pieces of carry-on we looked quite a sighto Fortunately we wero able to putmost of i n lockers f o r the two weeks \io planned t o s t a y i n Europe. We had renti/d aVW camping unit and brought id.th us our sleeping bags,and 3 tents i n a suitcase pluscamping utensils and silVGrware The vehicle was waiting for us a t the airport , hut a l lwe could think about was sleep, as our minds wero s t i l l back on central daylight timeand was 2s00am. We knew of a hotel for missionaries- and ministers o^ly, and wentstraight there t o sle ep th e r e s t of the day. We spent an enjoyable two weeks oncan^jing tour of Holland, Germany and two days in Denmarko The VW unit made into twodouble beds, contained a stove and a sort of sink. The weather was cloudy and coolmost of the time, and we had several days of wind and rain, but a l l in a l l i t was a mostenjoyable time, especially for the kids, old enough to appreciate what they are seeing

Returning to Amsterdam we again flew KIM to Nairobi via Munich and Cairo, arrivingthe iifber an overtf-^ht flight at BrOOam. Carmon and Wllfrod Stride, friends fromLivingstone met us and wo spen'j an enjcyablc two days T-dth them a f t e r many yearsNairobi to Johannesburg was another DC 10 which we watched carefully for the li hourfl ight over the heart of central Africa. Meeting us in Johannesburg wore my two brotheisand Stu and Marilyn 6 ode and Cindi Elerick. The blast of the Transvaal winter hit usimmediatly, sono temperatures dipped to l5 degreoB F that night. After a couple of dayswith Stu and Marilyn Cook at their new Ala ^heia Christian Education Center now in theheart of Johannesburg's Hillbrov: d i s t r i c t wc boa rded our overnight t r a i n to DurbanMeeting us in Durban were I4ike and Caryl Stanley, and after a short few hours v i s i t wocontinued on to Gingindlova on the North-Coast ' t rain, then a quick change and on t oEshowo where we had a r e a l welcoming committec-o After loading a l l ou r luggage i n t o myold Mazda pickup we drove homo. There,friends had cleaned the hoxiso movodtho furnitureback in , made the beds, put food in the ' fr idgo, supper on the stove, and oach room hada bouquet of flowers i n i f from various fr iends . Since then a steady stream of v i s i t o r shas kept us busy

The children wore bought new school (or used) uniforms, two aro now in the EshoweHigh School. They s tar ted on Tuesday, half way through tho Natal school year whichbegan in Jarmary, but also a year back in tho grades they Just completed in ArizonaOur f i r s t Sunday wac down at our closest congregation to Eshowe, Ensingweni This i s


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ZULUL ND HRI TI N MlSeiON AUG 2 8 1979 ^ ^n / A.O. ISANDTI SlNCLAtM- po.boi it. mhow* P.O. Box 111,Eshowe, Zululand, 381^, South Africa.^ (\ . August 17 1979Dear Brethren,

I am writing this letter to those persons, classes and churches who have been mostclosely connected with our work in Africa over these many years, both in Zambia andnow here in Zululanii. We are pleased to count you as one of our faithful supportersand prayer-partners, and xdiile I must mimeograph this letter in the interest of time,plecaae consider i t a -personal one.We knew fo r c erta in we were back in the southern hemisphere when we saw the ad whichread: ...Eat yo\jr holiday turkey in cool comforfc, shop early and save now on airccaid-i t i one r s be fore th e Chris tmas hea t .The work is brigh t with promise even in these difficult times here in southern Africa,the Lord has cer tain ^ been good to us and the churches here. We are looking forward to resuming our Extension Leadarship Training classes again starting soon.The main problem we face right now is a familiar one to a ll of us in one way or another}that i s t he increased cost o f d riv ing a car. This may sound mundane on the missionfield, but in our extension program we cover a large area and i t is a huge problem todayYou will remember that in the past we brought o\ir paid-for vehicle to the field withus, getting i t in duty free in each case in 1966, I969 and 197ii, and they were aninvestment, returned excellent service, lasted the term on the field and in the caseof our original *66 Chevrolet truck lasted two full terms) and were in most casesresold for more than their original cost (the result of inflation here) which paid forour r eturn a ir fa res to the Sta tes at furlough t ime. We planned to do the same thingagain this time as we were eligible to get one vehicle into South Afcica duty freeagain, even going so far as applying for an import permit for our station wagon.However, novr all that is a thing of the past, the oil situation changed all that.South Afcica does not havB oil, and is boycotted by OPEC. Gasoline here is now 2.80per gallon, SA) per l i ter, and local rumor has i t that i t double, to over aRand a liter by the end of the year. That will work out to 9*^0 pQ^ gallon, thesituation is serious. The government wants to put an end to non-essential driving.In view of this, we must buy a vehicle that will be very economical to drive. Afterlooking over the local market we jgoncluded we must get a car that will average betterthan miles per gallon. The Datsun liiOY-SUX is claimed to be able to get an incredib3miles per gallon, admitedly professionally driven at South Africa s very low 70 KPH1^2 MPH) limit., but local people here in Eshowe even claim to get 90MPG on short runs.At current prices a full tank will cost l3l].20, but will give a range of 67^ miles, avery important factor for us missionaries who travel long distances on week-ends whena l l stations must be closed by law from Friday evening xmtil Monday morning.When we convert SA Rands to US dollars a new Datsun lijOY-SUX l\ door sedan will costabout 9,5814. including sales tax. Bank financing requires a down payment of 20^on a new vehicle, we would finance i t over 2 years and keep i f for four or more years.This is one of the lowest-priced cars in South Africa. The used car market is ful lof older gasguzzlers these days, nobody is selling economical used cars today. a1 have asked Virginia Beddow our forwarding agent to open up a special vehicle fund toprimarily raise the necessary down payment of approximately $1,200 and all funds received will be applied to this Datsun. I am also attempting to sel l my old 1972Chevrolet l e f t in Arizona and th i s wi l l also be appl ied to th i s purchase .We covet your prayers in this matter, and we do need your financial assistance too atthis time for this project. Make your gift payable to Zululand Christian Mission,(tax deductible) mark i t Vehicle fund and send to Miss Virginia Beddow,P.O. Box 31072,Cincinnati, OH h$231


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^^ imnrTtyp t ' HAUGUST 1979 SANDY S SAYINGS ^ .JTOOUST 1979ZULULAND CHRISTIAN MISSIONSAIDY AND CHARLCTTE SINCLAIR,P.O. SCK 111, ESHCSWE, ZULUIAND, 581^Republic of South Africa. 8/31/79

Oear^Friends an d Brethren,The month of August went by so fast we hardly noticed i t go,except I marked another milestone on th e 23rd, but at this time we don t really want toremember birthdays to o often. I t is also the last of our cool dry winter) months aidalready we have had' several thunderstorms and probably due fo r another one this a f t e rnoon, i t is already unseasonably ho t a ga in t od ay .

The change in climate affected most of th e family, almost a ll of us have had theflu, and Wayne has just returned home this morning from the hospital where he spent 3days, mostly for tests and under observation, however the doctor reassured us that therewas nothing sinister lurking somewhere, bu t a virus of some kind got him down for a lmost t h r e e w e e k s .

Vie were n o t i f i e d t h a t our shipment of drtuns had arri v ed in Durban aboard theNedLloyd IQjigston whichsailed into Durban on Aug 11 direct from Los Angeles,Unfortunately however, i t preceeded my documents,which th e agent in Phoenix kept to olong, by a couple of days which messed things up fo r a week. I ha d to make two tr ipsto Durban by train hours, 80 miles) to get their arrival sorted out. Again th eRSA customs were good to us and no t a cent was charged on any of our things. Ihvingno vehicle, I had to send them up to Zululand again by t r a i n , an d i t will be anotherweek or two before we see them again. However, they are a l l here an d in mint conditionwhich i s th e main t h i n g .Also made a t r ip to Ulundi, c a p i t a l o f KwaZulu f o r my Zulu permits. I vras informed t h a ttemporary permits are no longer issued an d would have to wait for my missionary permitsto be issued from P ret ori a, which might take three or four weeks a t the ear l ies t . Thisi s a n o r m a l r ou t i ne mat t e r o v e r he r e .We began to meet with our African ministers in th e area and enquire about the state ofth e churches, nearby and farther afield. Most of i t was very good news, seme of i t wless than what we had hoped. Some of the old quarrels between some leaders s t i l l go:.on. Several ' leaders we had taught before have now left us , some might be returningwhen they know we are back and I hope to persuade others. The s p i r i t of independanceis very strong and i f a leader gets into disharmony with his fell o w p reachers he oftensimply opts ^o go i t alone. At this moment I know of only one certain loss, which outof Ijl congregations left on their own for over a year^is a good record.On the p os it iv e s id e, one of our nearby men, Gaiphas NcAnana, has started two new groups,and has an impressive list of those he has baptized, iVcluding a good number of men.One of th e churches meets in a village only accessible by walking for se feral hours.Gaiphas is one of oxnr best preachers and we w i l l be writing more of him in the future.Coming back to familiar scenes, you are always struck with any changes that have occuredsince you lef t many of these changes are no t noticable to people who s ta ye d th e wholetime. A sense of pervasive pessAmiSLL seems to be prevalent, especially with th econtinu..ing Rhodesian non-settlement settlement. As of now, Rhodesia will be known onlyas Zimbabwe i n s t ead o f the hyphenated Zimbabwe-Rhodesia w hic h has been short l i v e d .Things are very quiet, but many people especially in Zululand express a long-rangeconcern f o r th e fu tu re as Zululand is t ech n i cal l y about 3 whilic and getting l ess . S t i l lthat 3 exert an economic influence way out of proportion to what their numbers alonemight s \ : ^ g e s t .Next month is the Annual Conference of our African churches from a ll over South Africa,t h i s year held a t Barberton in the E. Transvaal almost due north of u s . V e plan toat t en d , possibly stopping in S w az il an d a l on g the way.


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SEPTEMEER 1979 SAWS SAYINGS SEFTHJffiER I979ZULUUM CHRISTIAN MISSIONSANTIY & CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,P.O. BCK m ESHOWE ZULULAND 381^,REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, OCTOBER 1 I979

Dear Friends and Brethren, Yesterday was the last day of September (thirty days hathSeptember,..)and it turned out to be an unusual Sunday, First of all it was not raiing,secondly I started out for Mtubatuba (call that Nbhtoobahtoobah) with the intenlHionof seeing Isaiah Siyaya unannounced, Siyaya has decided to leave the churches of Christfor independancy duo to personality conflicts in the churches around Mtubatuba, but Ia m told me might decide to stay i f I talk things over -with him. He is one of our bestpreachErs and a former student of mine. On the way I stopped to sec Alfred Mathinjwa,and found him home i l l and his wife had been taken to a mission hospital by ambulanceon Friday apparently at ded:h's door according to Mathenjwa, After discussiigthe situation I fel t i t best to take the entire church to the hospital for services there.This we did, and the patients in the ward there wore very happy we had come. Many knowthe hymns and Joined in . Wo only l e f t well into the afternoon so i t was to bo Mtubatubaanother day, Mrs Mathcnjwa, while still very sick was much better yesterday^ but wepostponed the starting of Charlotte^s womcn^s meetings unti l she i s bettor,) - -Talking about hospitals, last monthWayne was in the Eshoi-rc hospital, (he is now fine)but on one cventfia day this month Vth) Mlchigjle fell out of a trea and broke her arm,a n d ^ i c t o d picked up the wrong end of a hot poker that had been l e f t in th o f ir c andtaken out moments before, buring hi^ ha^d sovoroly. So i t i-jas back to the hospital againGood thing i t is nearby, Michelle emerged the following day >jith hor ana in a castsupported by a sling and Richard -vzith a hand swathed i n bandages Later he took thebandages off and walked around f or s ever al days with his hand i n a bucket of ice m t c r .To show you how hot i t was, the poker burned a hole clear through the living room carpetwhore he dropped tSeptember was also the month for arr ivals , the dmms f inally arrived in Eshowe fromPhoenix, Unfortunately they spent their f i r s t night in Eshowe standing outside i n therain a l l night, but only one had leaked and the contents wore soaked. I t was fun tounpack them. Also, our KwaZulu ndosionary permits ar rived Sept , 2ljth so we are now freeto move about the bush unhindered and can camp wherever we find suitable s i t e s . Thispermit system may sound odd t o American ears but t I s e s s e n t i a l i n Zululand, I t i sgood for a year a t a t ime, renewable.The highlight of September in our Annual Church of Christ mission Conference, Thisyear marked the 57th annual Conference in SA, and is to our churches here what the NorthAmerican Christian Convention i s to our US churches. Host church was i n Barbcrton, E,Transvaal, 650km or I}03 miles north. We try to ensure that a good representative groupfrom Zululand is present, so I offered to drive the Mazda pickup and talco personsbesides Tnysclf, I arranged t ime o f f f o r one of our preachers who also works f o r thoSARailways, and arrived a t the prearranged meeting place on departure day, I was aghast IThere wore 7 adults, a l l of generous Zulu proportions and a mountain of l\:ggago. TheMazda was not up t o the challenge I assured them, they must decide who i s t o s t a y home.Well, I had become accustomed to thinking American, and terrporarily forgotten the ways ofAfrica,,, vrhy inhere was plenty of room, African s t y l e so they a l l simply g o t i n all. 7with suitcases, paper bags, blanlcots, cooking pots, pillows, bannanas,,,thc l o t I wastruly iiT^ressed, (I had loft pointed instructions not to bring goats or chickens thist r ip, ) I t was close fellowship for the 10 hour t r ip,, / ConferencG 1979 was one of the best t o date , no major problems and a good posit ive//time of preaching and fellowship. Missionaries M/M Mills, M/M. Mike Stanley and it^self/ were there, 'as -was our invited guest and speaker Ben Pcnnington and his wife Karen from1 Ft, Victoria, Rhodesia, Ziababwc) For the first time ever, one of our African leaders,L Nick Qemesha was elected superintcndant, A government required position,)

Ben Pcnnington broughbus up t o date on the l a t e s t events i n the war i n Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, Most of tho TTL's (rural bush reserves) l ie in hostile hands and your l i f eexpectancy alone i n one i s about 30 minutes. I t i s ver y unsa fe i n random aroas f o r lonet ravelers , convoys take t r a f f i c between towns twice a day. Reminds mo of what i t musthave be


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^01/,OGTOBER 1979 SANDT'S SAYINGS OCTOBER 1979

ZULUUND CHEIISTIAN MISSION,SANDY & CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,P.O .'Box lU , Eshowe, Zululand, 381^Republic of South Africa NDVMBER 1 1979Dear Prionds and Brethren,

I have dated th i s l e t t e r tomorrow to be consistent wi thmy previous ner^sletters, but today is actually October 31st. ItyiallowoQn inAmerica but the day and evening will pass unnoticed here in Soutn Africa, why I amnot sure of, but the kids will miss their trick^or-trcat excursions again Maybe they won t remember i f we don t say anythingOctober has come and gone already and we don t know where the time fliesDuring October wc spent our time,some of the time that is working with the twoclosest congregations nearest to Eshowe They are Engingweni andQphindwiniand are located about 30 minutes drive away The Ophindwini group is under fholeadership of Caiphas Ncnana who is a fine capable preacher even though he hasnever been to the Bible Training school He works for the South African Railwaysin their telecommunications branch at Gingindlovu station With a Std 6 Educationhe is one of the highest educated of our local men For two years he studied inoxir Extension Leadership Training course and continues noij in our new seriesThe church there meets in his home at the present, but a pole and dagge buildingis under construction right next to his house that will serve this growing church.The church is actually a split off the AmaSundwini group that decided they did notwant to go in continued fellowship Trrith the Church of Christ Mission thcre hadbeen some personality claBhos between the leader there and one of our men who felthe had some authority over them So they broke away, but the group that continuedto asflDciate with the mission is over twice the s ize


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/NOVEMBER 1979 SANDT S SAYINGS ^ ^ NdJMBER 1979

%mULAND CHRISTIAN MISSION, ^SANBY & CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,BCK 111, ESHOWE, ZULITUND, 381^,REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, lECEMBER 3 1979Dear friends and Brethren,I t hardly seems possible tha t th is i s the l as t three weeks ofthe '70'3, for in about a week or two after receiving this i t will be the'80*s. The newdecade sounds futuris t ic , but for certain, God has not rel inquished control no matterwhat -ohe situation in the world and its problems e. .Iran, oil, inflation, recession, crimeand so f o r t h

e have had a very busy month, although there is lots I never got around to, andevents were beyond control in some instances, yet we saw 6 turn to the Lord in ourimmediate area, ^ baptisms, the 6th mar. works in Durban and will be back later in DecMaterials planned.for several meetings failed to arrive which caused minor setbaclffl, bttitnothing that could no t be satisfactorily postponedoThe most excib^g -event in the Sinclair houshold was the arrival of the latesl^^ ^

addition to the^UpJ^cits coral blue, 13,27 ft long, 5ft vjide, weighs 1,9014 lbsar_. gets 55 gallon vra hope), ^f ore you get further confused, its a car, avery small oaf aU Uat^'Tbut. a now car to boot a Datsun II4OY SDK which wo have beenhoping to gGtsiil(l Augiftt 17th,; We were able to get it through the factory at. factorybilling price, through good offices of a Mr Bob Smith of Tustin, California, a memberof First Christian there who also works in Datsun's US Headquarters I t tookabout a month to airrivc after the order was placed We are very pleased as I am againmobile at reasonable costs as far as gasoline is concerned and a gas tank range of 67^miles means no more week-^nd woes when we have far to goOur maiden voyage comes up this week when I go to Cradock in the Eastern Cape for aproblem solving session at tho church there id.th other missionaries and committee mambaTS

who wilJ. be there too Cradock is nearly 750 miles away one way, and this new l i t t leDatsun wil l make the hot t r ip (its midsummer hero now) in reasonable comfort and economica l ly t oo .

The family are a ll well, November is final exams for schools in RSA and so thismonth has been hectic as far as that is concerned. Exams (finals) are more importanthere than at their schools in Phoenix as often i t is* tho orly criteria used to measuretheir scholastic achievement for the pajovious school yoar and determines whether theypass or fa l l the grade. So there was some serious study at our houso this monthRichard does well, is the top of his class, Michelle is also near tho top of her class,the other do less well, but we hope they id.ll be promoted with tho rest, in JanuaryV want to extend to each and a ll of our readership a very Merry Christmas and avery Happy New Year We wish we could send Christmas cards to all on our general mailing l ist but i f you don't get one please allow this to convey our heartfelt gjEsdiing toyou and yours at this time, this very special time when we pause to remember the birthof Jesus Christ, the Son of God, As Christmas l ies in the middle of Summer vacation timehere i t takes on a different atmosphere, .we can't even protend to see winter's isnowrand ice in the heat and thunderstormsc but tho meaning is s t i l l the same God so caredabout you and I that he sent His son to be born of a virgin, to live and f in ally to dieTho Bible saysj God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself .

Merry Christmas,,and a Happy New Year,Yours in Him,

Sandy^lCharlotte (Michael 16, Richard li], Wayne 12, Michelle 10^ and Johnny 8


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EECEMBEH 1979 SANBY S SAYINGS DECEMBER 1979ZULULAKD CHRISTIAN MISSION,SANDY k CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR, 9 inr^^BOX 111, ESHOWE ZULUIAND 3815, 'REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA. JAN. 7 1980

Dear F r i e n d s and B r ot hr on, I t seems so long since I last sat down to write a new-letterj but it has been only a month...but in the meanwhile we have had Chridmas,New Years and a new decade as w e l l . Before mentioning our Christmas I forgot tomention i n l a s t n e w s l e t t e r about th e f i n e Thanksgiving di nner wo had a t theAmerican cl ub in Durban. Go t to meet th e new US Consulvi i-rdhere too .

I wanted to postpone Christmas this year fo r several months while I cacught upbut th e kida. . would have no such thing so we went ahead and had i t on December 29thanyway. Fo r most of ou r readers i t would not scorn like Christmas anyway with th eh e a t and summer v a c a t i o n ac t iv i t i e s . F or th e week b e f o r e Christmas a couple fromStu Cookh church i n Johannesburg came down an d spent thei r vacation a t ou r place,and we enjoyed their v i s i t immonsly, bu t after living with our lively and magnificent 7, Brian and Beryl Raynor were glad to get back to the quite solitude of th ebig city of Johannesburg. I t is relatively quiet there now too as our coast justbecomes a suburb of Johannesburg during the summer school h ol id ay s as they come andt ake o v e r th e place .

Things ar e rather quiet mission wise during th e Christmas time as we close theyear in early December and renew our teaching program for the new year January 26th1980. Christmas in Zululand (and all 3rd world countries for that matter) takeson a rather unroligious atmosphere and i ts an uphill battle to put Christ in Christmas. If you have just thought to yourself its the same here US) too, remember wel ive in both places and I disagree, Christmas is the US is a r eal experience, hereI n eve r h ear d a Christmas carol until Christmas day i t se l f . My Christmas sermonf e l l flat half-way through as ny audience was lost as I spoke of the birth of Christ.Then I remembered that remembering andgiving g i f t s on the a nn iv er sa ry o f one s ownbi rt h is a completely western t radi t i on. Very few Africans know t hei r birthday,much less celebrate i t so th e reason for Christmas is l os t in t he i r thinking.Somewhat frustrated, i t ended in confusion as I was trying to push somthing theyn ev er ho ard a b o u t . . . t h e r e were n o C hr is tm as c a ro ls in th e Zulu hymnal ei ther .Never ha s cu l t u ral r e l a t i v i t y come across ia such a manner, as then. I t makes onerealize how much of ou r expressions o f the C hris tian fa i t h are cultural and notbiblical. Sti l l back/at our home in Eshowe we had a traditional Christmas witha tree, decordiions, gifts under the t re e , a r t i f i c i a l snow, Johnny Cash on therecord player, and two starry eyed kids s t i l l looking fo r Santa. The rest havealready figured who Santa i s .

Fo r a week i n December I was in Cradock, Cape Province with other missionariestrying to try to help solve the problems of the congregation t here. They had tobo s erious t o bring 6 missionaries several hundred miles from a l l directions, theywere, I hope we were able to help, but they run' deep and decades have passed withth3 same basic pers onality problems between ministers an d o ld o rs c on t in u in g .The l a s t day of the year we went to Johannesburg to vi si t a t Alethcia ChristianCenter, v i s i t with and welcome back co-workers Floyd and Joan Stamm, and se e theNew Year and th e new decade in in the fellowship o f other Ch ris tia n s on ovr kneesin prayer. I t was a grand occasion, and we were glad we went t here. More thanever wo see how the world needs Jesus t hi s New Year, t hi s new a nd d an ge ro us decade.More than any other Christmas season I ca n r ecall we have boon b le ss ed w it hnice cards an d le t ters from our readership an d s u p p o r t e r s back in the USA. I t wil l

take weeks to catch up on the backlog an d get an answer to a ll who requested something or information. If you were one of them, hang on, but keep those^arj^ ^dl e t t e r s coming f o l k s , we rea l ly l ove them u

M u s t c l o s e t h i s t ime Satfidy a~harlotte & 9

sinclair sandy charlotte 1979 safrica

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