South AfricaFebruary, 2010

Cynthia Tobiaswith

Autumn Morrison

Our Accommodations

Amanda’s Bed & BreakfastGonubie, S.A.

Our private lounge Cynthia’s Room

Autumn’s Room Plenty of Security

Our Land Rover

A Wide-Open View!

The Safari—

This is what Autumn has been waiting for!

Animals dot the landscape and barely take notice of us as we pass by….

Then we went looking for the lions….

We had to enter the double gates one at a time—after closing the first one behind us, our guide went to the safe over on the ground and removed a pistol, placing it beside him on the front seat.

Then we entered “the lions’ den” and the second gate was closed behind us, removing any sense of safety we had felt up to this point.

We found the young male lion calmly lying in the bushes with 2 other female lions and 4 cubs.

He showed only mild interest in us….

As we began to back up, preparing to leave, the lion decided to get a closer look….

Suddenly, while the females watched, he decided to show off a little….

Our guide began maneuvering, backing up the Rover, then gunning it forward to scare the lion. He would back off for a moment, then quickly turn and come toward us again. We were backed into a corner, with the fence behind us.

As the lion got dangerously close, Autumn and I saw the guide unzip the bag and put his hand on the pistol, quietly saying, :We’re not in a very good spot right now.”

We Survived!Thanks to our guide and his skills, we managed to maneuver our way out of the corner the lion put us in, and we drove in reverse until we got to the safety of the security gate. None of us really breathed again until the gate closed behind us.

Our South Africa hosts and another employee of the Game Reserve told us they were just as nervous as we were. One quote from them: “It was a little too close for me!”

It sure helped us put ourselves in perspective, though—no one really feels very big or in control when facing a real live lion….

Is it a compliment to be slimed by an elephant?

Moving on to the Elephants….

They insisted we just walk right on in to the Cheetahs’ fenced-in area. They have been raised by the handlers since they were 3 days old and now they’re 3 years old and about to be released into the wild.

Before they go stalk and kill their prey, why don’t we just get to know them a little better?

Uh, why is that Cheetah licking his lips?

No reason—why do you ask? Now come just a little closer over here….

We escaped without injury that day—well, almost.

Autumn was evidently bitten by a poisonous spider sometime during our safari. Later, it made her foot and leg swell like crazy and caused her a lot of discomfort during the rest of the week.

And she thought she would die with the lion…. (Autumn really hates spiders!)

And now for the real reason we came to South Africa--

Meet Rev. Barry Allen and his lovely wife, Ria. They have a very active and mischievous grandson, Jordan, who is struggling in school even though he’s very bright. Barry happened to read a book last year called The Way They Learn, by Cynthia Tobias. He tried a few suggestions from the book with amazing results. He was very excited.

Barry had an outrageous but wonderful idea. What if he could actually bring the author of this book to South Africa? What if he could share this learning styles approach with parents and teachers and students all over his country?

He talked to his church board about it, expecting them to hesitate to spend the time and money it would take to pull this off.

But they weren’t daunted at all—they were challenged to step out in faith and trust God to help them raise the money. But would an author from the USA agree to fly almost 11,000 miles to speak to their small, little-known city of East London?

Barry assured them he was including Johannesburg, Durban and Capetown. Surely with all those big cities, the author would come and many people would benefit.

But as it turned out, God had another plan. The big cities dropped out, leaving a small congregation and a pastor with a big dream with a huge financial and logistical challenge.

But that didn’t bother God at all. He was already talking to that USA author and when she received Barry’s invitation, she accepted.

Barry and his parishoners believed the people would come.

8 public schools answered Barry’s invitation to hear Cynthia. Principals in one or two of the schools decided to make the teacher training presentation on Monday night a mandatory inservice. Quigney Baptist Church in East London offered to let Barry’s church, Gonubie Methodist, use their building for all the evening presentations. They would even provide someone to do all the AV and technical duties.

All that remained was to see how many people would come….

Monday night, over 500 teachers came. By Tuesday morning, Barry was already getting phone calls from excited teachers and administrators. “I tried it with my students, and it works!”

The next 3 days, East London had the hottest summer temperatures they’d ever known—95 degrees, and 100% humidity. The schools had no air conditioning. Would the students even be able to pay attention? Would the highly heat-sensitive American author survive?

The students loved it! They were incredible audiences, and the American author, although wilted and exhausted from the heat, was thrilled to be with these great high school students!

Parents came every night—many of them brought by their children, who had heard Cynthia promise she would help them convince their parents to try these new ideas.

Cynthia taught 10 sessions in 4 days.

In the end, a total of

7,500 high school students, over 500 teachers and almost 750 parents

heard and responded to the positive and encouraging message of learning styles, and began to believe it was possible to focus on students’ strengths and individual potential.

And Barry didn’t seem at all surprised that God came through….

And the American author once again witnessed the fact that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.

22,000 air miles in one week?More than worth the trouble!