Welcome

The time in Cape Town is:

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Novalosi (who am I kidding I dont even know if this is spelled right???)

I can say, just for myself, that I probably had the most unique dining experience of my entire life this weekend! After church, Shelby thought he would take us to a little place called, Novalosi. It is located in the township of Masiphumalele. I cannot say that anyone in the car was jumping up and down over this idea.

First, Masiphumalele is a little bit scary and not known for it's fantastic restaurants. When we were driving thru, there was a lady actually selling deep friend chicken feet next to the road, point proven! But deep into Masi we drove.

Finally once we were about right in the middle of Masi and thoroughly uncomfortable with our surroundings Shelby exclaims "Here it is!" we al look around and didn't see anything that looked like a restaurant. He then points to a garage with it's door open... Oh, you mean the garage with 5 dogs in it? Yep! That is Novalosi!

My big kids wouldn't get out of the car. It really is quite intimidating to be deep in the heart of a township. While sitting in the car we saw a man hit a woman in the face, right in front of our car, next to the car to the right, were about 8 men who were drinking a lot of beer and smoking a joint. The whole street seemed more like a night club, but in broad daylight. Everyone was flirting with everyone else, music was blaring, the whole street was drinking... it was a big party!

Right in the middle of this daytime nightclub is Novalosi. All they serve is meat and something called pup, which is a bit like grits. Shelby ordered 4 steaks, 4 pork steaks and 8 chicken wings all for R120/$15...okay the price was impressive :)

The guy has a big braai/oven in the garage with hot coals in it and just cooks the meat there with a sauce. There were about 5 dogs wandering around licking the drippings off of the floor and one dog was asleep under the braai, where all of the firewood was. We waited for about 2hours. Shelby had a great talk with the "chef" about Jesus and church. We also met some American missionaries who are only here for a week and a local missionary brought them there to show them some African "culture". I've lived here for 2 years and this was my first encounter with Novalosi, I cant even imagine getting off the plane the night before and having lunch in the middle of that. Quite intimidating, but yes, full of "culture".

In conclusion, it ended up being kinda fun. We did get to see how the people in the townships "do" Sunday's. We got to witness a ton of stuff we dont usually see on a Sunday or any other day of the week. My kids ended up getting out of the car, toward the end, and got to experience something most people dont get to experience. We got to meet people we would have never met, we got to minister to people, meet and share with Americans, pet some fat township dogs and then after much waiting we got to have some really yummy meat!

Here are some pictures, all taken very sneaky sneaky on my camera phone! :)
This is the braai, where the meat is cooked over hot coals and our chef! Gabe watching.

This is the right side of the restaurant where you can sit and dine. There are long picnic tables to eat on and as you can see a couple hopeful dogs.

These are the gentlemen that were next to our car having a good ole time. Notice the houses, a corrugated metal shanty and across a clapboard house.

Some visitors from America talking with Shelby and Finley


Saturday, October 6, 2012

FURLOUGH


The Render Fam Furlough

Possible dates: November 26th – January 16th

Average Cost Per Ticket $2000 each X 6 = $12,000
Homeschool Supplies, $1500
Travel Expenses, $2000
Total $ needed = $15,500

Needs
Car
Place to stay in Nashville from  approx 12.19 -01.16

The plan for us is to spend 2 weeks in Indiana with Shelby’s Family, 2 weeks in Florida with Andrea’s family, and 3 weeks in Nashville with our Church Family and friends.    We will fly in and out of Nashville and will need a vehicle to drive to Indiana and then to Florida and then back to Nashville.  We will stay with Family while in Florida and Indiana, but will need a place to call home while in Nashville.  We will buy school supplies for home schooling while we are home in order to help save money on shipping. 

We would love the opportunity to speak/share at churches, small groups, midweek, youth or other gatherings while in the Fort Lauderdale area, Evansville area, and Franklin area.    We will also be planning some fundraiser events for some special projects we hope to launch in 2013.

If you would like to contribute to our furlough, please click here, RENDER FURLOUGH, in the note section just type in FURLOUGH. 

Some of you have mentioned you would like to help with tickets.  If you are still interested please now is the time.  We would like to book these flights as soon as possible before prices go up.  You can donate the cost of a ticket or just contribute a flat amount.   

If you have any questions or would like to schedule us to speak, please feel free to drop us an EMAIL.

Thank you so much for all you guys do.  We look forward to hopefully seeing you when we are home. 

Blessings
The Renders.