We left early from the Strawberry Festival in George. We had a long road ahead of us, and did not want to get there too late. Just before 1 in the morning we arrived at a friend’s house in Bloemfontein where we could get some sleep before continuing our journey the next day. Potchefstroom is far from Mossel Bay!

The next day we were on the road again bright and early and  just in time for registration and setting up our stall, we arrived at the Festival Grounds in Potchefstroom. It was a hot day and our winter clothes soon got shed as we embraced the Summer. Some friendly staff directed us to our space where we could set up stall. But when we got there, there was no place set out for us. We asked around, and waited quite a while, when finally they came back and told us that they would have to move us to another place. This new spot was in the middle of the the tents and the Stage, a much more prominent place than the one we would have had. Praise God!

The Festival started off with dear friends of ours coming to visit us from Johannesburg. (We felt so special that they drove all the way and paid the entrance fees just to come see us!) The rest of the day,a public holiday, continued to be blessed as families and individuals walked through our stall to admire and buy the Christian T-shirts.

Wednesday was quiet. After the day before it seemed strange that we had so few customers, and at the end of the day we wondered if it was worth coming all this way. When I look back to it now, I think this was a test from God, to see  if we would continue to trust in Him.

We spoke to some other stall owners who were quite negative. This being our first time, we did not realize the change for some of the other stalls. Apparently the grounds have moved this year, and the entrance fees were much higher than previous years. Stalls lost a lot of business because of this. Some came to the end of the Festival and could not even cover their expenses.

The next day it picked up again for us and in the following days we broke our sales record twice! God was so good to us. At times it was spinning inside our little stall as people came in and picked up T-shirts left and right. We praise God for His Favour and Grace towards us, that in the midst of unfavourable circumstances He blessed us and we were able to cover all our expenses and receive even more from His hand.

We experienced God’s favour with people as well, who were all so kind and gracious to us and our little boy. In fact our 8 month old son was really quite the centre of attention as customers and stall owners alike came to see him and play with him. The one day someone from a stall next to us brought a large container and filled it with water, so he could have his own “swimming pool” to play in.

2 Chron 16:9 says “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” We are so blessed that we could experience how He showed Himself strong on our behalf.

All in all, we enjoyed Aardklop so much, experienced God’s favour and we are really looking forward to going back next year!