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Hello From The Hornes - 2003:
August 31, 2003
GREETINGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA: Spring is springing all around us, and
it's about time! I have heard it said that spring is Mother Nature's way of
apologizing for such a severely cold winter. With our annual
SABC Lectureship just three weeks away, it's a
relief that “Old Man Winter” is retreating at last. Maybe with the warmer
temperatures, our church attendances will improve. On second thought, the
newspaper says that there are 65,000 young South Africans working in London on
2-year permits. So that's where our young people are, and more are planning to
go.
FAMILY CELEBRATIONS: On the personal front, the Horne clan had quite a
few important events over the American summer. First, we gained a
granddaughter-in-law when our first grandchild to get married, Daniel Steyn,
married Sheena in Austin, Texas. Then his brother, grandson Ryan Steyn,
announced his engagement with plans to marry next May. The Steyns featured yet a
third time in our family news when our oldest daughter, Lisa, and her husband,
Des, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in Fort Worth, Texas. Birthday
headlines appeared when our tribe increased with the July 24th birth of our 13th
grandchild, Kylie Dianne Pitman, in Memphis, Tennessee. That was just before
Donna's mother turned 94 in Kerrville, Texas, on August 8th. Bottom line--Other
things happen in our lives, but we start and end with family!
TWO MORE HIJACKINGS IN 10 DAYS: Two of our Benoni church families
suffered this past week from hijackings. First, Andrew Varga, a husky,
karate-exercising Hungarian, had his car taken from him by two would-be
assassins. As he pulled into his garage, he faithfully activated the immobilizer
device and secured his "gorilla" lock on the steering wheel. As he shut the
doors, he heard the spine chilling instruction, "Keys! Car!" Turning around, he
saw two thugs who had rushed into the yard while the outer gate still remained
open. Andrew would have resisted, but the revolver, pushed firmly into his
temple, made him reconsider that option. The hijackers graphically described how
he was to be eliminated (nice word for "executed"). He complied with their
instructions to start the vehicle. Then they struck him in the face with their
pistol and drove off. Their hasty departure left a badly buckled garage door,
behind which Andrew discreetly sought a place of dubious safety from their
pistol sights. Keys, wallet, credit cards, driver's license, and identity
document took their flight with the thugs. A sense of gratitude at still being
alive was soon replaced by a sense of anxiety as Andrew thought, "They might
return". After all, they had every key he possessed, making their access and
entry assured, and they were armed to the teeth. Andrew wasted no time in
changing every lock on his property. Another hapless victim of South African
crime, he more fully appreciates now that "Hi Jack" in South Africa is NOT a
friendly greeting.
SECOND TIME AROUND: It was already dark when the young Sofianos family
waited for their automatic gates to respond to their remote control and slide
open. Though they had been through a hijacking before, they felt safe because no
one appeared to be lurking around their entrance; however, as they began to
disembark from their car, armed intruders charged into their driveway. Mark saw
them coming and he quietly ordered his little boy, Liam, to run inside and hide.
The little lad didn't hesitate to obey his daddy and cleverly hid in a broom
closet in the kitchen. The thugs commandeered both of their vehicles -- a BMW
and a King-cab 4x4 Isuzu truck. Again, all their personal documents, cell phones
and credit cards were taken. Gail was holding her little daughter, Shelby,
wondering whether this was the end for all of them. They were ordered into the
house and made to lie down on the kitchen floor while the evil men ransacked the
house of valuables. Jewelry and electronic equipment were loaded into the
vehicles and the thugs drove away. Though they had threatened their victims with
death, our Merciful God restrained the mad men. Though the family had lost
"replaceable" possessions, they were still alive! When the police arrived,
little Liam, both frightened and fascinated by all the weapons he had spied
through the crack in the closet door, described the difference in all the
revolvers he had seen. When the police and the CMS (Community Monitoring
Services) Home Security officials left, the shaken but relieved couple fell to
their knees and thanked God for their deliverance. It could have been so tragic.
I might have had more funerals to conduct. Perish the thought!
PREDATORS ON PATROL: When Mpho (meaning "gift" in seSotho), the cheetah,
died the other day of baboon bites and kidney failure, South African pilots were
saddened to hear it. For nearly a decade, the fleet-footed predator had spared
them calamity by keeping small game like warthogs and impalas off the runways in
one of the wilder parts of the country. Because they spell disaster as they dart
from the short grass next to the runways into approaching aircraft, the base's
first effort was to shoot the game. It was impossible to exterminate them,
though, because the warthog simply hid in holes and the antelope hid in the bush
where they kept breeding. More and more kept coming into the base area. Rather
than driving them off, the shooting succeeded only in scattering them and
leaving the remaining ones skittish, and even less manageable. It was then they
came up with the idea of employing nature's way--introducing cheetahs to keep
the small game numbers down. In 1994, Mpho was joined by Mphonyane (meaning
"little gift") in his air-base patrols. With Mpho's death, a "top cop" has gone
and the problem of jaywalkers (warthogs in particular) is bound to escalate.
SABC NEWS: We gained three new students for this second semester that's
in progress. Two are from Zambia and the third, Daniel Kimei, hails from
Tanzania. Since we lived there five years back in the sixties when it was still
called Tanganyika, it's fun having someone around to practice our Swahili on!
Though this is a routine month, feverish activity takes place as students
prepare for mid-semester exams and, at the same time, work to assemble the stage
and all the other props in the main SABC auditorium. Since Lectureship is always
the highlight of our SABC year, it takes "all hands and the cook" to get all the
preparation done in time for the opening day. The theme, "The Church that Jesus
Built" is both challenging and exciting. Please pray for the success of our
Lectureship again this year…that all who come will be spiritually refreshed and
encouraged.
WITH OCEANS OF LOVE FROM ACROSS THE SEAS,
AL AND DONNA HORNE - Your Fellow-Workers in
Christ.
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