Hello friends and family,
Well it has been a great year and a lot has happened. I look back on this year and I can think of both good and bad times. In everything I would say The Lord has taught me more than I could have ever imagined. So...why this email? I really want to tell you all about one of the good things that God has done in this past year.
I will start from the beginning. Shortly after I got here last year I started working with Choose to Wait. When I started i met a woman named Julia. She was helping out as a leader in the Choose to wait club that I had just joined. We began to talk and to start building our friendship almost immediatly. It was such a great time. As we got to know one another we found that we really wanted to get to know each other more than just friends. It's sort of hard to pin point exactly when we started quarting, but to the best of our memory we think it was around April. Since April it has been a great time of just getting to know each other and seeing if we want to commit the rest of our lives to each other. It was a great quartship. We would see each other at choose to wait club and at times take walks in 5 dollar with someone sort of fallowing us closely behind. I cherish those memories! So with about nine months of getting to know her let me tell you a little about the woman I have come to love. Julia Mwahi is from the Owambo tribe here in Namibia. Her and her family live in a location here called 5 dollar. She has two brothers and two sisters that live there in 5 dollar with her parents and her. Now all the little details done here is how I feel about her and what I have learned by spending time with her. First and formost she loves the Lord and is growing in the Lord daily. I have seen how she has such a gift of teaching. Some of my great joys have been seeing how she has taught some of the students and how they seem to all look up to her for advice and help. I love her very much. She has a great sense of humor, and also knows when to be serious. She likes to camp and outdoors stuff, but also she is very feminine. there is not another woman like her. I don't know the exact date when I knew that she was the one I was going to marry, but I know it was a while ago. After listening to a lot of council we really felt that instead of just jumping into everything we should take some of the advice and give things some time. I can say that it was good advice. During that time we found ourselves getting even closer than before and really confirming that we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives. So I started to look for a ring. I can tell you it was a bit weird the first time I walked into a jewelry shop to look at rings...maybe some of you can relate. After that it was time to find out what kind of traditions I was going to have to fallow. I learned a lot. I found that I had to first go with someone who was older and already married to ask permission from her father to marry her. I had to take someone because the tradition says that that person who I bring is in a sense vouching for me. He is saying by coming that I am a trustworthy man that will do what I say and take care of there daughter. So I did that. I had a man come with me that Todd and myself have been talking to and sharing the gospel with during last year. His name is Henry. He is also owambo which really helped. After that her parents said that they had no problem with us, but they wanted to check with the elders of there family(Julia's grandmother) first before we would be officially engaged. So then I went up North to her families village for about two weeks. When I was up there I learned so much. I learned about there culture and about her family. I really have come to love her family very much, and they have come to concider me as part of there family already. Well her dad talked with her grandmother and I got the OK. That was great to hear. Then I was told about a tradition here in Namibia that I was not prepared for. In Namibia no matter what tribe you are from you are expected to upon the engagement give the girl not only a ring but also a watch, necklace, and earrings. So the day before everything I was scrambling around trying to find somewhere up north that had all the rest of the those items. I did end up finding them and then the next day was going to be the engagement. I didn't know what the engagement all included. To be honest it was like a wedding service. There was someone who officiated things and Julia and myself sat infront of everyone there. We sang songs prayed and they explained the significance of the ring. Like I said it was just like a wedding service. Then Temus(the man officiating) turns to me and asks what token or object have I brought to show my commitment to Julia. So then I got out the ring put it on her hand, then the watch, then the necklace, and lastly I put on the earrings. The earrings were a little scary, but the rest were fine. So.....on the 3rd of January Julia and I became officially engaged!!!!! We are just planing things out as far as the wedding goes. It is the complete opposite here from there. It is the responsibility of the groom to pay for the wedding not the brides family. So I have a lot of things to get ready for. I am sure the first question is when would the wedding be? We have decided on May 5th as the date of our wedding. So there is a lot to do , but not much time. I would love to hear from any of you about this. I am very much looking forward to starting my family this year. And then hopefully soon giving all of you a chance to meet my wife.
Serving Christ,
Buddy and Julia
