Christmas 2016
Last year Christmas day found
us in Madagascar. Our very dear friends Pam and Gideon Peteresen invited us to
climb the mountains to the east of the Zurcher Adventist University (UAZ)
campus. We had a student along since none of us speak Malagasy so he could
translate for us. We crossed the highway and walked down into the valley where
we crossed a very angry looking river on a couple narrow logs.
Sylvia Crossing the River on Logs
Then we hiked along a narrow
mud ridge separating two rice paddies. We passed several homes and some
communal graves. We climbed the steep slopes of the mountain until we finally
came to a grass covered meadow that sloped fairly steeply back towards UAZ.
Wil in Front of Our Flat at UAZ
While eating our delicious
lunch we idly watched a tropical thunder storm pouring rain on the UAZ campus
then realized that it was coming directly towards us. However there was nothing we could do to
escape its path. In due course we were soaked to the skin. The trails were all
on red clay, which now became extremely slippery, and our shoes built up great
layers of clay.
At the University Gate
We spent three months at UAZ as
English teachers to the freshman and sophomore students. We also toured a rain
forest and a dry forest, both of which sported several Lemur species.
Ruffed Lemur
In many ways our stay in
Madagascar reminded us of our 5 year stay in Tanzania way back in the late 1960s.
If you wish to read more about our experiences in Madagascar, please see the Sojourn
to Madagascar entries in December 2015 and January to March 2016 blogs at http://wils-thoughts.blogspot.com.
Two Ring-Tailed Lemur Babies Riding Piggy-Back
We found the people to be
very friendly and helpful. The 150,000 Adventists in Madagascar are quite
conservative and often spend all day Sabbath at their churches. UAZ is serving
an essential role in providing leaders for the church and its missions in the
Indian Ocean and increasingly to the Francophone portion of worldwide
Adventism. It was a great privilege to have a brief chance to help their
program. If you are interested in volunteering in Madagascar, contact Pam
Petersen at headinghomesoon@gmail.com
One of Several Churchs Founded by UAZ Students
Allée des Baobabs in Madagascar at Sunset
Returning From the Trip to See the Baobabs and Lemurs With the Bairagees
On our way home from
Madagascar we spent 17 days in and around Cape Town, South Africa. We spent
most of the time with long time friends. We toured Butterfly World on our way
to climb Paarl Rock. Joy didn’t feel up to climbing, but then, spurred on by
our example, she and Rodney joined us at the top where we had a grand panoramic,
if smoggy, view of the Western Cape including Helderberg Mountain and Table
Mountain.
Rodney & Joy with Sylvia on Paarl Rock
Joy and Rodney are Pam’s
parents. On Sabbath Lincoln, Rosemary, and Gwen hosted a potluck with his
Sabbath School class. Many of the members are our friends, so it was a great
reunion.
African Penguins
The first part of the next week
we tried to visit Cape Point but picked a holiday to do it, and half of Cape
Town was also trying to get there, so we watched kiteboarding at the Cape’s
most popular beach instead. We also stopped at a breeding colony of African
penguins. They were called jackass penguins when I was a kid because their call
sounds like the braying of a donkey.
With Rodney & Joy in Kirstenbosch Gardens
We reveled in the beauty of
Kirstenbosch Gardens that specializes in the beautiful and rich Cape flora. Heather
took us out to a posh resort in Arniston where we were able to tour Cape
Agulhas and the area surrounding the southernmost tip of Africa.
With Heather at Arniston
The next Sabbath Gideon had
invited us to his mother’s home in Ottery, a suburb of Cape Town. Gideon and
Pam had come from Madagascar especially to see his mother since she was very
sick with cancer. The whole Petersen family showed up, and we had more
excellent food than we could eat. We toured Cape Town in the afternoon with Pam
and Gideon.
Lincoln and Rosemary took us
around to their special sites during our last three days. We drove through four
beautiful mountain passes and stopped for lunch at Gideon’s Famous Franschhoek
Pancake House, not to be confused with the Gideon in previous paragraphs. We
also got to pet alpacas and llamas. Now it’s your turn to figure out what the
difference between them is.
With Lincoln & Rosemary Feeding Alpacas
Against my better judgment, I
allowed myself to be elected the president of the Fellowship of Adventist
Missionaries to Africa (FAMA) at the meeting held in 2014 at La Sierra
University. Just before we went to Madagascar, our very capable editor passed
away. So in Madagascar I spent a lot of time and energy trying to get the FAMA
address list. Then I sent out several Newsletters
mainly to apprise our members of our next meeting in Fletcher, NC.
We left home on May 17 to
drive to the FAMA get together which started on June 2. We headed towards
Indianapolis and then south to Tennessee and eventually our niece’s home in
Roanoke, Virginia. En route we got to visit relatives and very good friends.
When we didn’t overnight with people we knew, we “camped” in Walmart parking
lots. We were driving our F-150 pickup with a cap on the back that covers our
bed. We suffered from some very cold nights as well as some extremely hot
nights in these parking lots.
FAMA Meeting in Fletcher NC 2016
Thanks to excellent help from
many sources, our FAMA meetings were very spiritually rewarding and allowed us
to form new friendships as well as renew many old ones. The meetings lasted
from Thursday night until Sunday morning, the first weekend of June. When we
left there we drove south from Fletcher and paid a very brief visit to new FAMA Newsletter editor, Lorna. She is
proving an excellent editor with lots of new ideas and artistic talent.
We continued south to Orlando,
Florida. In April we had spent a weekend with a group that facilitates Bible
translations in many parts of the world where the Bible is still not available
to people in their mother tongues. We stopped at Wycliffe to see firsthand what
was happening. Wycliffe Associates has pioneered a radical new translation
technique that relies on native speakers of these languages. The average time
for translating a Bible has been around 25 years per language and is very
expensive. The old technique is too expensive because translators must be supported
by others all this time.
The new technique produces a very passable
gospel of Mark in the target language in about two weeks. It uses a computer
printer to produce a copy that is passed out to Christians who speak the target
language. These critique it and then encourage and support their translators
who, with due diligence, can turn out the New Testament in less than a year and
the whole Bible in two years. Since the expenses are borne by the local
churches, they feel an integral part of the whole production. We are very
excited by the obvious blessing of the Holy Spirit on their efforts. Their goal
of having a copy of the Bible in every language that people want a translation
in by 2025 now seems to be a real possibility.
Wycliffe Associates Bible Translators
We got home before our 51st
wedding anniversary on June 27. A month and a half later I, Wil, came down with
West Nile Virus (WNV), a mosquito borne disease. It originated in Africa but is
now found in almost all of the states in the U. S. The county health department
here keeps close track of the spread of the disease. WNV hit me very hard. I
remember taking a group from the church to the San Bernardino County Museum on
August 18 to see their new mastodon exhibit. I was feeling sick on that day.
Then I remember essentially nothing until the second week of October. I was in
hospital for three weeks before they finally diagnosed WNV. It is a rare
disease in Riverside County, where I was the fourth person diagnosed with it
this year. I hallucinated a lot and spoke absolute garbage. Then they put me in
a rehabilitation center for another 6 weeks, where I slowly regained my senses
and learned to walk again. I lost 30 pounds (14kg) of muscle during those weeks
in hospital. I just wish the loss had been around my waist!
Sylvia Supporting Wil in Rehab
The picture was taken after a
total of eight or nine weeks in hospital and rehab.
A headache and dizziness have
haunted me constantly ever since my memory kicked in again in early October.
Recently I had another MRI done on my head to try and pinpoint the cause of the
problem. From reading on the Internet it appears that these symptoms may be
with me for a year or longer. My family has been very supportive, especially
Sylvia and Elwood who have spent long hours day after day with me. I returned
home the end of October. Since then I have been to Joshua Tree National Park
three times. I don’t have the muscular strength to climb anything, but I do
enjoy the hikes that are somewhat level. I also spend time almost every day
hiking in the hills around our home. Our dog, Cleopatra, who has been with us
for over 15 years, is ailing and has a hard time doing the longer walks.
Thank you for your prayers
for our well being and my healing. We covet your further prayers on our behalf.
We pray that you will have a lovely Christmas and a prosperous New Year, 2017.
We treasure each of your greetings.
Our Address is still:
Wil & Sylvia Clarke
5547 Wentworth Dr.
Riverside, CA 92505
Phone: 951-687-4556
e-mail: wil.clarke@gmail.com
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