Summertime in Joburg and Primary Music

The street  entrance to a home in Cluny Street that we walk past on one of our morning four mile walks in Forest Town

This sign suddenly showed up on our walk along Upper
Park Road and threw us for a loop. What could it mean?

We have been walking almost every morning, 5 days a week, for 6 km (4 miles), from 6:00 to 7:00 am, and have found the early morning summer weather to be cool (50's) and beautiful. We now have several enjoyable routes we can choose from, through either nearby Forest Town or Houghton Estates. During the day, it warms up into the 80's, and for awhile was in the 90's. We're now getting a lot of afternoon and evening rains, hoping the drought may soon be over. We are thoroughly enjoying the summer weather and all the beauties that surround us here in Johannesburg.



Last Sunday, Martha began accompanying the primary children for the last 30 minutes of the 3-hour Sunday block, balancing a borrowed keyboard on her lap, as a favor for the primary chorister, Sister Phanyaphanya, who is fantastic with the kids and they love her. They learned a new song, "If I Listen With My Heart, I Hear the Savior's Voice," and they did so well and were so cute. When the music part of sharing time starts, they remove all the chairs from the room and have the children sit on the floor. They had never had a piano accompaniment for their music before. After primary, all the kids ran up to Martha, one at a time, and thanked her by hugging her legs.

Sister Phanyahpanya, in the colorful orange and gold outfit leads the children in "If I Listen With My Heart."
She has 5 children, including the older girl in green, and another on the way. She is putting sweets (candy) in
 a popcorn box as a reward for singing reverently and well. When finished, there was a sweet for every child.

Martha loves helping with the primary music

Every Sunday, on our commute to Church, we pass two or three congregations,
who meet out under the trees, all dressed completely in white. We are told that
they are part of the Christian Zionist Movement