Winter is coming here in South Africa. The cool autumn mornings, changing leaves, and much needed rain are a nice surprise for our family. It also feels very odd for us to be in the middle of Autumn during May. May is a sweet time for Lara and me. Tomorrow, May 18th we celebrate our 16 year anniversary! To celebrate went away for a few days to a small village just over the mountains from where we live. It was a nice time to get away, talk, reconnect, drink a lot of coffee, enjoy the amazing views, eat lots of yummy food, slow down, relax, and stay in an old Dutch cottage with chickens walking around. Our favorite thing was, hands down, the Mexican churros with chocolate sauce to dip at the local pub!!! We went twice just for the churros.
Grey and Elly have officially finished up school for the year! They are still reading through the bible, working on math, and practicing guitar and dance. Mac is almost done and is working very hard to finish up over the next week or two.
Summit is East Mountain’s 6 week summer intensive internship that runs from the end of May through the first of July. Summit is a relational learning experience, filled with adventure and intentional community living. This year we have 2 young American guys, 1 Zimbabwean, and 3 South Africans that will be going through the program with us. Lara and I are serving on the leadership team for Summit and will be involved in many of the weekly activities. We are hopeful that the Lord will use us during this time to bless and equip these young leaders for missional work as well as deepen their relationship with the Jesus over these next 6 weeks.
We have continued to enjoy our children at the community centre! We have been able to recruit some of our resident interns to help connect with the teenagers in the community better through dance, small groups, and sports. It is encouraging to see the deeper relationships and greater influences the Lord has given us with the community! We also love the affection and hugs we get when we see them at church, in the community, or at the centre.
We have bought our flights to the return home for a visit this July. It’s not been a full year since we arrived here in South Africa, but our original plan before the whole visa debacle was that we would travel back to visit our families during July. Since that is what everyone had planned on we decided July would be best. We will be in the US for most of the month of July but traveling around a lot. We are looking forward to are seeing family and friends, Mexican food, and long hot showers that last more than 2 minutes! Things we will miss while we are gone for this month will be our church here, friends, our children at the community centre, our mentee’s, and braais. We are thankful we have all of those things to come back to though!
Answers to Prayer:
- We have been feeling much better since our last update. Praise the Lord we haven’t had any stomach issues since we asked all of you to be praying. Thank you for praying!
- We have seen the Lord’s favor with the families at the community centre.
- Tickets are purchased for the US. They were very costly but we were thankful for the funds to purchse them.
- It’s been raining more regularly!
- God is moving in our lives and in the lives of those we get to invest in!!!
Prayer:
- Summit: Our schedule over the next 6 weeks will be very full, the 6 young leaders coming, our family’s schedule, and weekly balance.
- Planning for our trip to the US and a vehicle to borrow during this time
- Keep praying for the children and families at the community centre: opened hearts to the Lord, better grades at school, and a willingness to come to church with us starting in June.
- Rain, we still in need of much more rain this winter to counter balance the draught we have been in during the summer months.
- That we can keep our focus on what is most important, wisdom to make the best decisions, and hearts full of love for the people God puts in our paths.
- That we will have a deeper since of God’s presence and power in our lives
The Rousehouse 
This id lovely.
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Happy Anniversary!!
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Cant wait to see all of you, hugs are standing by
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Love reading how God is using your whole family! Miss everyone one of you so much but especially Grey here at the end of school! No skip with aunt Charlotte day😢 Can’t wait to see you in July!
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We pray regularly for your family. Thankful for better health and airline tickets. Praying for effective ministry in May and June plus a vehicle in states. Love you guys
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Hope to see you all in July! So glad to know you all are healthy, and that rain has blessed the area. Any concerns with Boer farm attacks, and the ANC apathy toward ANC Youth League and Julius Malema….? Praying that you all are far removed from that mess.
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Hey Matt! Thanks for taking a minute to comment! I love comments and opportunities to interact with our partners and readers. Unfortunately I can’t respond publicly with political comments.
The Boer farmer attacks are horrible and very violent! We had one just a block or two away from a team member of ours home. The father and oldest son were stabbed to death in their home. We live closer to the city in a gated secure neighborhood so we should be fine.
Politics are always a touchy subject here and always seem to be a headed topic of conversation. The decision between ANC and ANCYL seems to be mostly words and not a concern to the majority. We haven’t had or heard of any issues. I personally don’t trust Julius Malema. He enjoys stirring up trouble.
The land reallocation is definitely something that is a height of conversations if you talk politics here because we live in one of the largest farming areas. The plan is to take land that farmers are currently using and giving it back to people whose families once lived there. This is goin to be a big issue once it is put into place. Many mixed feelings on both sides of that topic.
Please keep praying for us and for South Africa! Also we work weekly with a large farm community (families that work and live on the farms, more like a ghetto than a nice little community) that will probably be effected by all of this stuff.
Thanks and God bless!
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