Christian

We can always here him heading towards the manse when we sit at the table in the kitchen – that dragging sound his slops make as he steps up to the door. Christian: our Congolese neighbor who has become a dear friend/brother to all of us and the unofficial 6^th member of Radical Journey: South Africa.

"Yogurt!" He calls me to me every time he sees me. Christian is notorious for his nicknames [Yogurt derives from Yoder]. He has one for everyone. There was a time when he would ask me "Yogurt! What kind?" and I would duly respond, "strawberry" or something else ridiculous like that. [Explanation – "What kind?" is South African slang for "How are you?"]

My favorite thing that Christian and I do now is every time we see that the other one is wearing something new (or something so old that we haven't worn for awhile since it is now getting cold) we'll tell the other, "the Lord is good, eh? Testify to how the Lord has been good to you." Or something along those lines. It's really funny.

Anyway, the reason I am posting a blog solely about our friend is because seeing Christian every day is one of the things I am really going to miss about South Africa. But also, Christian's birthday was on Saturday. He told prior to his birthday that he never celebrated his birthday before – so of course that means we need to have a party. We celebrated the day by making him pizza for lunch (a food that he initially told us he didn't like until we made it for him, now he likes it a lot. Then in the early afternoon we had people over to have cake and chill with. It was great to be able to celebrate with him – especially since he had never had "real birthday party" before and for someone who loves to make birthdays into elaborate occasions, I really enjoyed it.

And actually the Lord has been really good to us here, by blessing us with Christian's immediate friendship. All our other friendships really didn't evolve until the beginning of the year. But Christian's been here since day 1. And I am grateful for him.