On Saturday December 2, 2023 we boarded a plane for the other side of the globe. We’ve done this so many times that I’ve lost count. We were blessed to be dropped off by sweet friends who gave up their Saturday morning for us. We flew from Charlotte, NC to Atlanta, GA with no issues. We waited a nice long wait (we missed a connection once and had to sleep in an airport, so I prefer to play it safe and have a longer than needed stretch between flights). Around 8:30pm we boarded our long haul flight from the US to SA and settled in. We knew they’d feed us right away, and then we’d get the kids down for the night.
Well, it was rather bumpy once we got up in to the air. And then it was bumpy longer, then longer. Finally by 10pm things leveled off enough for them to serve dinner. After dinner and the clean up we got Caleb settled in for sleep, he was out in no time after the long day. Joshua took a bit longer, as we were still facing a good deal of turbulence, but then finally he settled in to sleep too. At some point I looked up the flight map, bad idea, we had a lot of hours over water, not my favorite! Finally about 7 hours in it settled into smooth sailing. The boys slept about 5 or 6 hours of the flight, Alex and I dozed a bit but never really sleep too much on the flights. Praise the Lord, we safely landed in Cape Town, SA around 6pm here (we are currently 7 hours ahead of EST). We were warmly greeted by friends who brought us a car to use and saw to it that we made it to the hotel for the night, then we were on our own.
Our hotel had a restaurant, so we went down for a quick dinner, we were soon reminded that quick is not the way meals work here. Caleb’s food and some salads came, we all filled ourselves with those and when our pizza was ready, we took it to our room to munch on while getting ready for bed. Caleb was concerned about his little make shift bed, but it suited him well and when he finally stopped talking he was out like a light! The rest of us were not too far behind. Alex and I were awake from about 3-4am but then back to sleep until 7, the boys made it until 8:30 when we finally had to wake them. We needed to get breakfast, pack up, meet up from a friend, and then get on the road for a 4ish hour drive.
We made it to George smoothly, praise the Lord, as driving on the opposite side of the road is no small challenge. Alex mostly drove, but I did take a pretty straight stretch. We again were warmly greeted and fed and went to bed soon thereafter!
Tuesday we were up and ready to face the day, we just didn’t know what it was going to hold. The boys swam, I did laundry, we did shopping, and I made dinner. By dinner time I was feeling so beat, assuming it was jetlag and the day catching up with me. After dinner, when the lights went out (scheduled power outages called load shedding) and we were sitting around talking with our host I knew I was coming down with something and I woke up Wednesday morning with a fever, I can’t remember the last time I had a fever! So I spent the next two days doing, well not very much. Alex and the boys had a touch of whatever it was, but praise the Lord they were not as uncomfortable as I was, I’m also thankful to report we are all back to “normal” now….I say it that way, because what is normal anyway?
Thankfully while I was down on Wednesday, Alex and Joshua were fine at that point. They were able to go meet with the doctor at the local Cancer Center here. The meeting went well and it seems as though they will be able to meet the follow up needs for Joshua. We praise the Lord for that!
Friday night there was a youth event that Alex helped out with, while I was trying to rest and listening to Psalms. When Psalm 20 played verses 4&5, I could not help but praise the Lord for all He has and continues to do.
Psalm 20:4-5
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!
Thankfully, by Sunday we were all well and able to attend church at Life Fellowship Church. It was so sweet to see so many familiar faces, and many new ones as well! The work here continues to grow and flourish and we praise God for what He is doing in the Body! They are finishing a study from Daniel and Sunday was a recap and reminder of the sovereignty of God, what confidence we have when we trust Him to lead and guide us day by day!
Tonight, there is a Young Adults Christmas gathering, please be praying for our time together with these sweet young people. On Sunday evening our church will host a Christmas singing event at the estate of a family from the church.
Even thought the start to our time here might have been a bit bumpy, we are confident that the Lord will continue to smooth out the days ahead and grow us and others over the next few weeks while we live and serve here.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
If you'd like to see some pictures so far, here is a link to an album we've started on Facebook: “Souf Affica” (Caleb’s pronunciation)
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