Zooming through July and into August

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 118:1

Going into July we knew the schedule was going to really pick up speed, and in some ways it did and in others maybe not. I was having a hard time remembering the events of the month, so I took a scroll back through my phone camera roll. A side note, I noticed I have a lot of screen shots from where I’ve tried to pull up the ability to tap to pay via my phone, and do it wrong, am I the only one who does that? I digress!

We were able to join some others from our extended team for a 4th of July picnic, it was certainly the coldest 4th of July picnic we’ve ever participated in! It is winter here, and I really have no concept of what month we are in. It was fun to spend time with some team members we don’t see often. We also got to spend sometime with a visiting couple who are considering ministry in South Africa.

We also saw some of our team members take trips to the US for various reasons and various lengths of time. It’s good to be welcoming some of them back, and look forward to others returning in the coming days/weeks. Being a “whole” team evens out the work load, for which we are all thankful. Simple things like, more hands for set up and clean up of church events, and the ability to take turns driving folks home who need rides after events, especially at night and on bad weather days. 

On a few Fridays the boys and I spent some time up at our Ministry Centre meeting up with some other ladies and kids from the church. It was a great way to get to know the ladies more and get the kids running around. We decided though, that we might need to wait until the weather warms up more before resuming those meet ups. It is too chilly to sit out side comfortably. Thankfully we did have a warm day for the day we met up to celebrate Caleb's birthday. 

Two Tuesdays in July we hosted the Young Adults Bible study group. That included dinner beforehand for 5 or 6 extra young adults for dinner before hand. We love this time, but wow can some of those guys eat! We might need to create a budget line item just for those meals! Our boys love it when we have those “kids” over for dinner. The most recent one happened the night before Caleb’s birthday, he was excited to celebrate with them. They played along well!

We played taxi bus to take one of our friends’ sister to what equates here to her senior prom. It was an experience for all of us, for sure! Driving though a massive amount of students to get her in and out of her school gate was a bit intense. Thankfully Alex was in the driver’s seat! We had to drop her at school, for pictures with friends, then come back an hour later to pick her up and take her to the hotel where the dinner was going to take place. In the mean time we ran some errands, one of which was to the petrol station to fill up. I ran in to get some ice cream as a treat, it was a warmer day. At the counter while having a conversation with the cashier he asked me if I was pure American. I thought that was kind of funny! 

Alex preached one Sunday in July, we were thankful for the opportunity he had to share the Word and look forward to him doing so again this coming Sunday. If you’d like to view the previous message you can by clicking here – The Genesis of Misplaced Worship - Genesis 3

Praise the Lord that our container arrived safe and sound and all of the boxes/items were accounted for. We did have to put 80% of it back into storage, but were thankful to find some bins with key items like winter coats and some needed household things, and our pillows! The way they loaded it in the moving truck was astounding to us!

We praise the Lord for opening up a home for us! It has been such a big prayer request and through kind of a crazy and somewhat last minute opportunity about two weeks back we found out about a home that had just been listed. It was not in the exact area we’d been looking into, but not far from it. It doesn’t have 4 bedrooms, but has 3 and a nice option for an office space for Alex, as well as an extended living room area for having folks over. It even has a pool, which makes the boys super excited. Strangely Caleb seems the most excited about the avocado and orange trees in the yard. It does need some renovations, so we are busily working to get those things lined up and started so we can get that done before moving in. We are anxious to get moved in, but also know we’ll appreciate having them done before we move in. Thankfully we can stay in this furnished rental long enough for the renovations to happen. Pray with us for wisdom in making decisions about renovations and house furnishings. It has been a long time since we had a house to call our own, we are so thankful for this opportunity the Lord has opened up to us to use for Him! We can share pictures a little later.

The boys have successfully completed three weeks of school and we have a plan in place for this coming week to make it 4, Lord willing all will allow for another good week of school. Life is sometimes a bit scattered, but we are thankful for more stability in general.

On Saturday this week we will celebrate Joshua's 9th year with our family. We have plans for his requested Chinese Chicken Curry dinner that he and I like to make together, but he hasn't decided yet what else he might like to do. We are so thankful God placed him in our family all those years ago. We certainly never could have anticipated what those years would hold, but with thankfulness to God we anticipate many more years of adventure ahead, whatever they might look like! He has his one year scans August 15, please pray with us for another good report.

We thank are thankful again for God's continued love and faithfulness to our family. Thank you for your part in this journey as well. If you'd like to see more pictures of life here, you can view them in this Facebook album: A New Chapter. If you can't see the album but want more pictures please let me know!

Prayer requests:

• Clear scans for Joshua on August 15

• Streamlined house repairs, honest, hardworking workers

• Continued relationship building through ministry opportunities

• Diligence in school work for the boys

• Alex as he prepares to preach in Sunday

• Continued provisions as we sort out and fine tune our budget now that we are here on the ground

Happy July from the Tandon Family

God's Goodness

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

    but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12

The last time I wrote I said I was going to send out another update within a week or so, well life got in the way. We’ve now been here almost a month and it’s been non-stop, in a good way!

Below are some highlights, then some prayer requests, and lastly Joshua’s recap of our travels here.

Thankfully we were able to get bank accounts settled our first full week here. That was no small challenge, but it happened and they are working well for paying things that need SA funds. Things like rent and the car. Initially there were some blocks on the account for verification and safety reasons. Paying the rent was the first one to go through, it took about two days to get all the details sorted out. Thankfully the company we are renting from was understanding.

In addition to getting the bank settled and the rent paid, the first two weeks were spent heavily looking into cars. With the help of some of the guys here we were able to find a suitable vehicle in the make and model we were looking for. Sadly there are not a lot of color options here so we had to settle for white, like most South African cars, but it is ours now. Fully paid for from our transition fund, God is good! Alex diligently worked to get funds transferred from our US bank account to the SA account so they were available the guy the salesman was coming to deliver the car. He arrived, showed us the car, came in for coffee and to sign the papers and transfer the funds. Then the funds would not transfer on the phone, so he tired the computer, no luck there either. Finally after about a half hour they set off for the bank branch down the street. After some trouble shooting there the customer service said the verification for that large of an amount had not been cleared yet. The person said they could take care of it, but it would take about an hour. The sales man graciously agreed to do the other errands he had in our area and as long as the funds were transferred before he needed to head back to his office (about a half hour away), it would be ok. Thankfully it went through before he needed to head back. Thankful for the kindness of the folks here!

We have also spent the past 3+ weeks actively looking at long term living solutions. We feel like pinballs bouncing all around. We found one home that seemed promising but the more we learned about the purchasing process here the more we realized we needed to slow down a bit and look at all the angles. We’ve spoken at length with the company who is renting us this short term place and they are really helping us understand some of the ins and outs of things. At present, we have rented this place for another month, during which we pray the Lord will make clear a long term place, whether it is to rent or purchase. Our shipment should arrive mid-July. The company we are working with has a storage facility in our city so we can store it if need be. We are praying that will not be for long if it is needed.

Praising God that I survived doing a half marathon here with two 21 yr olds from our young adults group. They kept me moving and I was so thankful for the challenge!

A few other funny things along the way, which we are thankful we can laugh about are that within a few days here part of the power went out to just some of the appliances. Electricity is pre-pay here, which we knew and understood as it was also like that in our home in Asia. But the meter had plenty of funds on it, and it was only some that were not working. We checked the breakers, it wasn’t that. Thankfully after a few chats back and forth with the rental agent he and we found out this place has two meters because it used to be an office building. The owner loaded more funds and we were up and moving.

A few days later the hot water went out, it is heated by gas and we had a back up tank, but it was also out. Again after a few messages back and forth the owner sent over a tank from the guest house they run which is right behind us. The tank was larger and had to be maneuvered a bit to get it attached. Thankfully after a day or so, the real replacement arrived and we were back up and moving. It’s running low again, so this time we are on top of it and working on getting a replacement before it totally runs out!

Oh, and the kitchen sink started leaking and it was a holiday weekend so on Saturday morning when we noticed it and reported it as an issue it was going to be Tuesday before someone could come look at it. We washed dishes in some interesting ways over the weekend, including the tub! SO MUCH FLEXIBLITY NEEDED!!!!

A fun thing and a reminder of God’s simple care to us was on one trip to the grocery store when our minds and hearts were overwhelmed with the housing details Alex and Caleb were in one part of the store and Joshua and I in another. Alex sent me the picture below.

Over the years of living abroad I’ve come to realize some things are interchangeable and some are not. For me, ketchup is not. It needs to be Heinz or not at all (unless it would be impolite to eat something else, my mom did teach me well!). Heinz’s is hard to come by here, so this was a blessing to me. Coming home it hit me that if God could provide the ketchup a prefer, He can provide us a house to use for Him!

Lastly, yesterday at church we were blessed by the opportunity to be here for a baptism service and family meal. We had over 100 folks come, the boys and I had to move seats three times because more chairs were needed. The testimonies of those being baptized were so encouraging and the fellowship after was sweet. Caleb often will pray in the mornings and thank God for helping us “get our dream” of moving here. His understanding is so simple. We do praise God for allowing us the privilege of finally being on the ground here long term. There are still hurtles to cross, but God is good and kind and He will continue to make the way clear day by day!

You can see more pictures and view a short video from church yesterday by going to this Facebook album: A New Chapter. If you can't see the album but want more pictures please let me know!

Prayer requests:

• The right home either for long term rental or for purchase

• For us to settle into a good routine here

• Brains and willingness from the boys and myself about getting back into school

• Alex as he prepares to preach in a few weeks

• Us as we transition to hosting/leading the Young Adults Bible study time every other week sometime in July

• Continued provisions as we sort out and fine tune our budget now that we are here on the ground

Move to South Africa

by Joshua Tandon

5,4,3,2,1 let’s go! A few days ago we set sailed through the air. On Sunday, June 2 we said our goodbyes to our church family, it was sad but we were excited for a new adventure. On Monday, June 3 we did all the last minute preparations and at 11:45 AM Mrs. Jenny Bare picked us up and we started out to the Charlotte International Airport, we checked in all our bags and went to get in to the line at security. It took about fifteen minutes to get through security. And then 45-60 minutes later we were on the plane to Atlanta. When we got off the airplane we quickly walked to our gate. Baba and I, dropped off our bags and went to get some chow. Last time we were in Atlanta he got a very good wrap from a restaurant, and he wanted to get it again for our long flight, and I wanted Chinese. We got back to our gate and ate quickly because our flight was staring to board. After we ate and waited until they called our section, we boarded our flight. We were docked at the gate for a while because they had to fix a broken panel they said, “Our priority is safety.“ After awhile, the panel was fixed and we were taking off. I watched Black Panther, 

Beat- Bobby -Flay, and Captain America Winter Soldier, and I listened to George Muller from Christian series, Christian heroes: then, and now. After about 15 to 16 hours flight was over, and we were all sore. We got off went through customs got our bags and Uncle Dave and Auntie Julie met us in Cape Town. We booked ourselves a room in a hotel near the airport. Got some pizza from the restaurant down on the lobby, and once we had eaten, we went to sleep. I slept hard, when we were all awake, we went down to get some breakfast at the hotel buffet. Once we were all packed up, we began the 6 hour drive to George. Auntie Julie Mac gave us our dinner, of McDonald’s hamburgers. We went up to to meet people at Inspire George Ministry Center because they were having a Bible Study that night, we only went to greet people because we were tired and needed to get to bed. We had moved to South Africa!

We Made It!

May He grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans! 

May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! 

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

- Psalm 20:4-5

Did anyone double check my reference above last time? In my haste to get the email out before, I apparently only included verse 4, but stated it was verse 5. Well this time it is corrected and shares both verses listed! I'm sure I am the only one who ever makes mistakes like that. 

Ok on to the real business at hand.

By God's grace we had very smooth travels on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Joshua is working on a much more engaging update to share about the travel adventures. I'll share that next week sometime. The short of it is, we got all our bags (8 checked bags at 50lbs each, 1 car seat bag, 3 roller carry on bags, and 4 backpacks), all in our friend's SUV and set off for the airport. Due to construction inside the security line took a while to get through, but we had plenty of time so we were not stressed. We got to Atlanta and were headed to our next gate when we realize we left one of Caleb's small bags. We prayed it would be found and turned around back to our gate, he was pretty upset about the matter, but praise be to God they had it at the desk for him. We praised God for that blessing! 

Our long flight was the smoothest in a while and the flight crew was very friendly this time. That too was a blessing. The boys both sleep 5-6 hours and were otherwise entertained by the tv screens readily available. Alex and I dozed off and on, which is about normal. We arrived in Cape Town around 6pm and our friends were there to greet us and take a few bags that we knew would not fit in the rental car we were picking up. Once the bags and cars were settled we were off to the hotel for the night, a long 3 minute drive! We checked in and ordered some pizza to take up to our room and we were all in bed between 9 & 10 pm. We slept great, which we were all thankful for. Caleb who never sleeps past us all slept until 8:30am when we had to wake him up because we needed to get  moving.

A friend we new from China who lives in the area met us for breakfast and then we were on the way to George. We arrived around 4:30pm to our rental home and started setting in. They were having Bible study at church at 7pm so we went up to say hello, but did not stay for the study. It was great to see familiar faces and also a handful of new folks. Always a joy to see the Body growing!

Thanks to sweet friends we had full bellies at bedtime and the promise of coffee and breakfast, and lunch for left overs today! 

It is a bit breezy and overcast today but we did get some exercise in, of the 5 bags and 2 storage bins we left here I just have a counter left with 2 piles of miscellaneous things to find a home for. We'll get our remaining bags and a few other things we've stored sometime over the next few days and get those things put way as well. Overall we are feeling pretty well settled. We are heading out now to pick up some groceries and needed things. We are blessed!

One more praise before I close. The rental home we are in, which is furnished, is available to be extended through July and possibly into August should we need more time here as we wait on our container and to find a long term living fit. Please pray with us that God will make clear all those details!

Alex started a facebook album of pictures if you'd like to check it out: A New Chapter

If you can't view the pictures just text or email me and I'll send you some. I'll add in some pictures here next time. Both of our phone numbers are still active and will stay that way for a few weeks, mine longer probably. Feel free to call, text, or email anytime. We turn notifications off when we are not available, or sleeping (we are 6 hours ahead of EST by the way).

Love and prayers from us all!