sinclair sandy charlotte 1981 safrica

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ZULUIAND CHRISTIAN MISSION, .S NDY CH RLOTTESINCUIR O 7BOX 111, ESHOJE ZULUI ND 381? ' <Q .REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA January ik 1981

Dear Fr i e nd s and b r e t h r e n

December i s usually a very quiet month in th is part oY the Yield as Yar as theoutreach i s concerned, but i t is a busy month Yor Yamily and friends with theexcitement of the season. Being mid-summer, the c hi ld re n a re out of school Yortheir summer holidays and they found their own level of activities • ^his maybe looked upon by us two as the year or summer our oldest two suddenly grew up.

Michael and Richard, arJ Wayne to some extent, have been involved in a youthgroup vdth many local Christian teenagers that really came into thei r own thepast s ix weeks. A ll of a sudden our home was the focal point of t ee n-ag e g at he rings and cars and motorcycles and teenage girls came and went i t seemed a l l dayan d a l l nigh t w ith regulari ty. So the household has been a happy and act ive onewith many t r ips to the beach and fr iends and missionary familes from as Yaraway as Zimbabwe dropped in Yor a night or two or severa l days.

Charlot te s temporay job ended l a s t Friday and sh e enjoyed th e work at the hote l

desk, but glad to get back home Yulltime b ef or e s ch oo l resumes Yor the new schoolyear January 20fch, nexb week. Pheew

Christmas was spent a t home , but l a t e i n the afternoon the f ive American missionaryYamilfedn Eshowe (Sinclairs, Elericks, and three other families with Campus Crusadewent over to E le ric k s home fo r s in g in g , f el lo ws hi p, ea ts an d genera l re l axa t ion .We had both cut down a pine t r e e each on the vacant l o t next to our house so thehouses looked Christmassy (there are no Christmas trees for sale here) but the heatmade i t d if f er e nt e s pe c ia ll y fo r some o f the group from Nebraska an d Iowa.Old t imers c a l l t h i s th e h o t t e s t summer they can remember, and t c e r t a in ly hasbeen l i k e t h e Texas Gu l f coas t i n Ju ly w ith no a i r c o n d i t i o n i n g .

I s t a r t ed with a new Zulu i nf or ma nt a nd teacher t h i s week, he i s a r e t i r ed Luthoanmissionary, 8 l years old, who speaks Zulu f luen t ly. I wi l l also be taking studiesw it h a nn th er lady who i s a lso a f luent Zulu l inguis t fo r the grammer s tud ies , asMr Otte, the older man w i l l be helping me with Zulu bible study and sermon preparat ion, which he excel ls in , but knows l i t t l e grammar an d other complex matters ofth i s language. He t o ld me somthing t ha t l i f t e d my s p i r i t s when I consider I ha\ebeen studying Zulu for years now...back in 19k9 when the Communists closed thedoors t o China, mar^ o f t h e i r missionaries were sen t t o Zululand. One of them,

f luen t i n C h i n ^ who had l ea rn ed t th e hard way, by s tudying , s a i d when facedwith th e conplexi t ies o f the Zulu language: Goodness, and I thought Chinese washard, Chinese i s a piece of cake cortpared to th is Zulu of yours.

New Meetings begin soon, the f i r s t again in the f a r north, fo r a whole week-end,fol lowed by regu la r preach ing and t eaching rounds t h a t w i l l t ake us i n t o everyc o m e r o f Z u l u l a n d t h e n e x t t w o m o n t h s

Our planned all-SouthAfrica missionary re t rea t for the f i r s t week of January fa i l edt o m a t e r i a l i z e when more and more o f th e m iss io n ar i e s f e l t th ey co uld not a f f o r d t o

a t t e n d . We were saddened, but we were one o f them unable t o go unfor tunate ly,al though I had planned t o go to the venue fo r one or two nights as I was a speaker.

For those who sen t us such love ly Christmas cards , we thank you, they s t i l l keepon coming last year we got our last Christmas card in March (i t came surface mail)and fo r a l l of you wetosh you a prosperou^New Zear.

God b l e s s

Sandy feharJStte, + Michael Richard Wayne Michelle Johnry



Itooh - April 1981 ZULUIANDCHRISTIANMISSION March-Ap.SANDT CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,BOX111, ESHOIE, ZULULANT 38l5REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA. April 30 19ol

Deares t Breth ren and f r i e n d s

Yesterday wa Charlottebirthday, she has finally reaching that age efface andbeauty, but where most womenwould rather be on hold indefinitelyi From her c^l^enshe received gifts ranging from huge chocolate bars to lipstick holders and l i t t le items

for the kitchen. I gave her a much needed watch digital no less) and a nice new dressf o r w i n t e r

We have had so much going on the past two or three months the stacks of work upon mydesk testifies to much time spent away from th e office. I will try to catch you upto the events taking place in our work here. I have contimed to teach and be taughtZulu and am finding i t easier and easier new to hold my own in average conversatioraThe most important event though is the new church at anpangeni. For many months wehave been in contact with this group that ir^dts in a school room in a t^gh School inthis town about UO miles from Eshowe and the largest in Zululand. Their leadershiphas been taught by Albert Masango who is a tremendous preacher and Christian workerat Mtubatuba. Throagh his contact, teaching, oversight and encouragement they have nowbee ome the Ngwelezana Church of Christ in Empangeni. One one of rr̂ trips there on thebike I ran onto reserve 28km from Empangeni and as a l l stations are closed on week-endshere I was in trouble unt i l the Chr is ti ans there found 2 l i ters they wanted to give merefusing all payment. (I had assumed the tank was full)Other meetings recently were held at Mbazwana(two days) Sokhulu (one full day)plans were laid to be with a church at a place called Nkundusi where we have a smallcongregation. This was to be a GoodFriday service, possibly going into Satur^y andSundajr-as well, but as usual the invitation was very vague about times of starting andstopping. As I was not sure of how to find the place, and the whole faMly plamed tocome and camp beside the church in the bush for the two or three days, I decided to goup ahead of time and locate the place and get things ready. Whenwa got there, » isCaiphas and one of his elders who accoiT5)anied us as we3J.as my son Michael who drovefor the experience, we found that the meeting had been cancelled as the ministersick. Later I did hear of an attempt to contact me by telephone, but the persons speaking only Zulu said only that the minister was i l l but the meetings would go on anyway.But a few days before when we arrived, nobody was there and nobody was coming, but atleast the Easter week-end (ihich in RSA includes Friday, Saturday, Sun(^y and Mondayasfull no-stores-open holidays) was a tremendous success when we met with Caiphas Ncananaand his church at Ophindwini where we camped overnight. The Saturday night seiwiceslasted until Ij:30am, Sunday services began again at lOOOam. The popular American

Saster sunrise service as such i s unknown amoiing our Zulu. We showed fi lmstrips onthe well tha t night too, always extroDitly popular.

Charlotte has been extremely busy too, too busy in fact for her own good, but she has

been working part time dressing windows at a local store Adams and doing masterful^creations for al l who walk by to see. In Februai^ she was gone for a week during whichtime she officially accompanied our temporary foster daughter Philippa to her schoolnear Cape Town. She went there and back on the train at government expense and spentan extre few days visiting relatives of mine in Cape Town. It was a most enjoyableexperience fo r her and a good time to get away from Eshowe for a whila.During the first few days of the Children's easter vacation off school, II4 days for 2 ofthem, we went to the Drakensburg mountains for some backpacking. Wayne had a scout badgeto pass and needed a 25km hike and an overnight camp in a wilderness area to qualify.The rest of us accompanied the two of them as Richard stayed with him, and helped carytheir packs, then returned to our camp at the foot to the mountains.^ It was the mostenjoyable three days we have spent together in many years. He got his badge.

On-the whole th e children are doing well in school, but do not particularly like theSQYere d':'icipl3ji6 as con^ared to their school in PhoeniE. Michael though is not doingwell in school Rrid we are concerned. He would be start ing his senior year in High schoolat Cortez HS in Phoenix in September, but over here is s t i l l 3 years away from graduating or getting his matric or completing standard £0m This is a much prayeran d some decis ions we are facing w i l l a f f e c t the \m61e family.

bur L o v ^ Sandy Char l o t t e 5



& un/\KJLjuriu. a i w u L A l K

BOX u i . ESHOWE ZULULAND38I5, 'S~<S QRBPUBJjICof south AFRICA, NOVEiyiBERI98I

Dear Friends and brethren,IV u V 3 0 1981

As this is our first newsletter in mahy manymonths, I hardly knowwhere to-begin. And because of this this will be a difficult newsletter to write.

aere have been many laajor events since ow last newsletter that has changedthe direction our lives will soon bo taking. As we have knownmost of you formany yeqrs

we fera wemust inform you as

bestas

possible.

Iên we returned to South_Africain 1979we were fairly certain that this wouldt our last term on the field for someyears. Our children were all growingup

so fast and at the same time growing together in the Lord as well.

In late April and early May Charlotte suffered a series of emotional breakdownsas a result of years of stress, and she spent several monthsrecuperating at amission called KwaSizabantu about 2 hours drive from Eshowe. While wo expectedLrZ ' f evident i t will take a long time, perhaps yearsd v e ô^pl^ tely recovers herstmgth again. Althoughas she said yester-ay taCii day she f tn ls a l i t t l o stronger. . .

So we set in motion plans to return to the USApermanently as the Lord led usand put our houseup for sale. There is a real slumpin the housingbusinos^now and we expected a long wait and a low price, however, as always; and we cancertainly testify to that now the Lord provided a buyer in September-, but theapproval of his loan continues to be delayed, and thus our plans hang in the airtoo. He was to move in Oot 1st, then Nov 1st, now Dee 1st, and we still have nofirm word from him about his housing loan and with tight moneywe k.-ep this as aMttor 01 prayer. As these dalays have left us uncertain, we put off our newsl e t t e r from month t o month.

^ order that thay mightbegin school at the first of their school year, we sentthe three older boyshome on August 25th. Michael is now a senior at TrumanK- r c:>ua. I i icnaex i s no w a s e n i o r a t TrumanHigh school and staying with M MRon Fowler, Rural Route 1. Truman •m 56088, which IS where I first ministered when he was a small boy. Richard and

SSr Phoîx ̂ .A2and going to WashingtonHigh School.

T to trouble me again and became extremely painful. By Septembercould hardly mwe and spent two weeks in October in the hosoital in traction.While that provided some relief from t he constant r«in, the reUef has been

K lived ad I am in constant pain and moving around very slowly, I plan toe bac^ a gain as soon as the house has sold and before we return to the

USAfortr^tment again, possibly surgery if necessary, as this has become severe lately.

The cost of such treatment in South Africais about one tenth of the equivalent inAmerica. We do ask for your prajêrs in all these things. The problem has come

1 riding and driving on bad roads in small Japanese

this time wo managedto get the new Empangenichurch underway, and togetherckT h™ traveled to various key oongrogations in Zululand, althou^y back pain has made long journeys on poor roads almost impossible for mo now.

Our p^ns aro to return to the USAbefore Christmas or early in the new year. Ipossibly mil remain on in South Africa until all the loose ends are tied upt cannot predict if that will be a matter of weeks or months- Eveiything has

taken longer than expected, but that is normal for here. All our addresses willrema in t h e same f o r t h e moment.

>iastclosefor now askingfor yourprayersandhopingtojlseeyouall aAi, LYo u r s

sinclair sandy charlotte 1981 safrica

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