Last week was pretty special here.
The long awaited, loading of the boxes for shipping actually happened! We had hoped it would happen on Wednesday, but it ended up needing to be scheduled for Friday. We were so thankful for the answer to prayer that the loaders were decently on time, and knew very well how to do their jobs. They needed to label each box with their shipping label, so that slowed us down a bit, but helped to double check to make sure my list had all the boxes and then we cross referenced the numbers and contents to make their loading list. We were told they would drive it to New Jersey and load it into a container for the actual shipment. Trusting by faith, that it happened over the weekend or today and that we’ll get confirmation soon that it is on the way. They say it could take up to 12 weeks to arrive in South Africa. More on that later in this email.
Sunday Alex and I both had an opportunity to participate in our local church service. I was able to co-share a testimony of God working behind the scenes while Joshua was in the hospital to bring about one of his nurses, now our dear friend, coming to be a part of our church family. It was so special to share this story with our church and be reminded of one bright spot that God brought through those rough months last year. God is so good! Alex was able to “read the whole Bible” as Caleb kept telling people. He did not actually read the full Bible, but preached an overview of the Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. He was very concerned about how long the message would take to preach, but personally I think he did a great job and kept everyone’s attention well. We praise God for this, probably the last time he’ll get to preach here before we head out. If you’d like to listen, here One Story HIStory.
We have booked our flights to South Africa, we leave the US on June 3 and arrive in Cape Town on June 5. It worked out best to rent a car there in CT and drive to George the following day. We have teammates who will be in the area that weekend and they will bring any suitcases that will not fit in the vehicle we will be renting.
As we have been turning our attention from packing on this side, we are beginning to look ahead to details in SA. Renting the vehicle for a month not only helps us save on 4 additional flights, but it also gives us wheels on the ground when we get to George, while we sort out bank accounts and needed paperwork to purchase a vehicle. Please be praying that God will lead us to just the right wheels for our needs. We will most likely start with one SUV type car and juggle it between the two of us as long as we can. We’ve been doing that here stateside so we are accustomed to it.
The next big thing on the list is somewhere to lay our heads at night! Since our goods will likely not make it until July, we will rent a furnished place for a month. We know of one, and will probably try to secure that within the next few days. Please pray with us for a long term fit for our family. We have had a relator looking for a rental for us, but the right place has not come up yet. We desire to purchase a home there, as we’ve heard rentals often cause you to have to move every year or so as people sell them or go up on rent. We’d really like to settle sooner rather than later. Purchasing there is a bit more challenging as foreigner, as you are required to put a much larger downpayment down due to lending rules. Please pray with us for wisdom to know the best solution to meet our needs and allow for ministry in our home.
Coming back to the shipping details, a big request with that is that once the shipment is within about two weeks from entering the country we’ll need to physically go to the customs office for paperwork and potential import taxes. Please pray with us for a reasonable agent when we reach that stage. This will likely happen late June or early July.
We continue to praise the Lord for you all, just last week on Thursday we were praying for God to bring about ways to supply the difference in our current support and what is needed ultimately as we get settled in SA, the very next day we saw the Lord begin to answer that request…in two ways!
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