I am so happy to say that my entire family is finally in South Africa! Sorry to be so behind on updating but the last month has been a blur of a whirlwind. When Jason returned home from his last trip in May, we began praying through a shorter-term move of three months. Several reasons for this…one, it would be way less costly and two, we could come on a tourist visa and not have the constraint of working through all the requirements for a longer stay in country.
God radically confirmed this through the provision of taking care of our home. At the beginning of June, I mentioned to a friend what we were sensing and that we would be looking for someone to rent our home for the three months while we were away. My thoughts being ‘who in the world wants to rent a house for three months anyway?’ Well, less than 24 hours later, that same friend was standing in his back yard talking to a contractor that he had recently hired when the man begins to say that he and his wife had just received a contract on their current home and would not be able to move into their new home until October… giving them a three month lapse and no idea what they were going to do. As you probably can figure out, my friend connected our families and the rest is history! The really cool thing is that this couple actually lives in our subdivision just a street over from our current home. When we met them and were talking through if the scenario would work, his wife asked when we would be able to be out of our home to which I replied ‘whenever you need us to be.’ Her reply, ‘how about June 17th?’ I am certain my mouth dropped wide open. This date had special significance because a group of precious friends of ours were already leaving on this date to travel to South Africa on a Pinelake mission trip. Jason and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t be able to be in South Africa by then and had broken the news to them the week before that there was no way possible that we were going to be here with them. Needless to say, after that conversation we checked flights and when there were 5 seats still available on their same flight we took that as our confirmation that it was time for us to come. I share the details of this because it is a beautiful picture of God’s sovereignty over all things and His faithfulness in all things. God is so good!
We arrived in South Africa on the 19th of June and were fortunate enough to spend our first week here with friends and an incredible team ministering alongside Tabitha and iThemba Ministries. It was a tremendous blessing for me personally to see the impact that this place has on people and to get a glimpse into the work that God was doing in the hearts of the team. We saw the last members off this past Sunday and this week we have been busy trying to get ourselves settled in. God has graciously shown us where we will be calling home for the next three months. We are extremely thankful and continue to be humbled by His provision over our steps. We currently need prayer over the acquisition of a vehicle. Automobiles here are more expensive than we had anticipated, but we continue to trust that God will guide our steps and give us wisdom in that area as well.
It has been almost a year ago exactly that we first traveled to this beautiful country. Last July, I would have never envisioned what this past year would have held. This has been such a remarkable journey and we continue to be so humbled by it. Thank you all so very much for your continued support, encouragement and prayers.
I’d love to have you visit our website at www.restorationhope.org to find out more about what’s going on here in South Africa!
Blessings to you….
