It’s hot! Feb is the warmest month here in the Western Cape of South Africa. It is also super dry. Praise the Lord we did have a night this past week when it rained significantly!!! I mean it was a down pour! People at the store were standing at the windows just starring outside with grins on their faces. Praise the Lord! KEEP PRAYING for rain! We are working on recycling water, reusing gray water, and planning for the future needs. Even more we are trusting and asking the Lord to provide all the water that is needed.
Life Church is one of the greatest connections we have personally made since living in South Africa. We love the preaching and the staff we have gotten to know. The worship time is spirit filled and wonderful. They are serving the poor and needy all over our city in remarkable ways that truly speak to our hearts. But the real reason we have gotten connected at Life Church is because Mac said, “This is the church we have to attend.”. They have an amazing youth group and have loved on Mac so well! It is the highlight of his week for sure.
Our whole family has began serving together at the Helder Valley Community Centre. It is located in a farming community where all the parents work on the large commercial farms nearby and have created a cluster of homes in close proximity to one another and the farms where they work, similar to a village. Most of these communities are very poor and are made up of very busy parents trying to provide for their family. One of the biggest concern is under educated children, that have too much unsupervised time at home. Life church came alongside this specific community a few years ago and committed to coming alongside them to help children learn, feed them lunch after school, and give them a structured and safe environment to be a part of until their parents get home. They also enjoy dance class on Thursdays thought by another member in our church. Our family is enjoying serving under Loise, a local coloured lady who has been running the centre for the past 4 years. We are helping to tutor the children in english and math, teaching basic bible stories, and simply providing a little fun and laughter in their week. We just started this week but already love these sweet little faces! All of the big bear hugs and high fives we get from them tell us, they like us too.
A quick update on Alechia…She is doing well in school! She finished her first class in Greek, is making new friends, and loves her roommate. She felt blessed to hear about all of our friends and family commiting to pray for her this year! Praying that she will do well in her studies, experience more of the Father’s love and favor in her life, and for some basic monthly financial needs she has since she is living on her own for the first time. We will keep you up to date on how she is doing through out this year.
Prayer updates from January:
- Pray for the new residents that will be moving in Jan 20th. We will give you snapshots of each of them throughout the year….
We have had our new year-long residents move in this past month. We have 6 ladies and 4 boys with one more guy on his way. It has been a fun month of getting to know them and helping them get to know us. Lara and I have both been given the opportunity to mentor a new resident this year and we are excited for how the Lord is going to work in all of our lives. We love this chance to speak into them, love on them, and share our life with them. Also, Lara and I both have a couple of young men and woman (like Alechia) that we will continue to walk with this year that are not in the East Mountain program but just in our community.
- Pray for Homeschooling…For everyone to finish the year well in these next 5 months…
School seems to be going fine. Mac is doing so well in his studies with the Liberty online program. He is way more advanced than either of us already so he has to take things like English, Math and Science online to get a real challenge. Greyson really likes the freedom to work on his on time. He is pretty interested in Science, Geography, and cultural studies. Elly is learning how to read and basic mathematic skills like subtraction and how to tell time. Lara and I are learning tons of things as well, especially in the area of how different each child is and how different their learning styles are. Keep their studies in your prayers please.
- Pray for wisdom of when to travel back to the US for a visit this year and for affordable flights. We are looking to visit the beginning of July…
No tickets have been purchased yet but we will keep you up to date when we do.
- Pray for Spanky’s parents (Nana and Pawpaw) as they travel to visit us Feb 1. Mom doesn’t like to fly and it is a long trip…
Nana and Paw Paw came to visit last week. They were our first family or friends to come visit. It was good to have a piece of home with us for a week and to spend time catching up. Their flights were wonderful and Mom did so well with the travel. She knows that it was the Lord helping her. While they were here we sat around the house talking and catching up, Mac and PawPaw played cards, we took them to some of our favourite local restaurants and coffee spots, we went to Cape Town and explored the top of Table Mountain, drove around to see all of the breath-taking views from the mountains to the beach, toured the East Mountain Ministry house, meet the new residents, went to Life Church and the local market on Sunday, had a Super Bowl party, and ate a lot of Nana’s famous chocolate chip cookies! It was a busy and eventful time! We enjoyed having them here and it was hard to say good-bye for sure!
- Pray for success: that others may know Jesus and know His plan for their life through our lives and ministry here. We want to have a deep impact on people and communities this year for His glory!
God is moving in a mighty way in and through us! This is not a statement of arrogance but an observation of His grace and working. We have been renewed in our call to live open, transparent, vulnerable, passionate, loving, caring, selfless, and available to the people and needs that arise from day-to-day. God is using our willingness to step into the moments and people’s lives to share who we are and who He is to do great things!
Prayer needs for Feb:
- Please be praying that we will continue to make ourselves available to the best opportunities not just to every opportunity. We do not want to be too busy to where we miss the Lord’s perfect plan for us.
- Please be praying that we will make some good connections with the children and families at the Community Centre. There are so many great stories to come here!
- Please be praying for both of us as we are starting to mentor new residents, Zuzu and Zach. Our hope is to build a deep trust with them as mentors and help gain a greater sense of who the Lord has created them to be and what He has called them to do with their lives.
- Please be praying for Zuzu and Zach. This is going to be a year of the Lord growing them in many areas as well as deepening their faith and understanding of Him. They are just getting settled and figuring out life here therefore any prayers for peace, wisdom and comfort would be well appreciated too.
- Keep praying for rain!
- Please be praying for East Mountain and Life Church
The Rousehouse 