Many Miles Ahead

Below is a list of praises and prayer requests as we begin our travel back to the US later today. 

Pray with us for safety as we leave South Africa today, Wednesday January 17, and arrive back in the US on Thursday January 18. We leave here around lunch time and drive to Cape Town for our late evening flight, late afternoon EST time. We land in Atlanta and then have a few hours before flying to Charlotte, being picked up, and brought back to Columbia. We should make it back mid afternoon on Thursday. According to my map app, it says its about 8,158 miles from here to Columbia, SC!

Our time here has been amazing, but too short. We knew it would feel this way, and know it needed to be short, but it feels like we just finally got our feet back under us and now it's time to head back.

We are so thankful for confirmation that the oncologist here can assist with the follow ups Joshua is going to need every three months and continue to pray for no recurrence of disease in his body.

We are thankful to have gotten to re-connect with so many folks from Life Fellowship Church, and meet new members of the local body here. We praise God that within the past few months the church has formally voted on three local grounded Elders to assist the Pastor in different areas of Church body life. For a young church plant, this is such a great step and sign of the of Spiritual growth and maturity in the church.

We are thankful for time spent with our local ministry partners and their family on multiple occasions. They reach an area of the city that we would not be able to on our own, so the commitment to co-laboring is so vital. 

We praise God for the group of young men who are up and coming leaders in our church. We pray that God will continue to keep them and grow them in their walk with Him. Over the next year or so, Lord willing, a one year Biblical training program will begin in our city to help these young folks in their foundational knowledge of the Word and also teach and train in some practical life skills to help them secure better paying jobs to provide for themselves and their families.

Pray with us for Joshua's next scans in the US on February 14.

Pray with us for the remaining support we need to round out our monthly needs as we begin to move forward in transitioning to South Africa full time.

Pray with us as we come back stateside that we will balance well the needed fellowship times with the to do lists to make a move happen.

I’ve been reading through a Proverb a day to start off the year. Yesterday as I was reading Proverb 16 I was comforted by how many times (so far in the book, and in there in that chapter) that it mentions us making plans and the Lord fulfilling them in His way. I know we say that a lot, but it has been made so real to us over these past years and especially months. We do truly give all of these plans to the Lord with open hands, as much as we can in our fleshly selves, and ask Him to fulfill them in His timing and in His way. His ways are truly best. If you are struggling with trusting Him with the plan in your life, I really encourage you to read through the Proverbs and list all the times we are encouraged in our planning. Whether it is in seeking counsel from wise ones around you, or being humble to receive instructions along the way, or simply just trust Him enough to lean on Him for understanding. Go check it out!

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)

Also, in the coming weeks I'll be sharing some of Joshua's Weekly Recaps from our time here. Each week as part of his school work I had him recount weekly activities. I need to read them and edit them a bit, but I think you all will enjoy his thoughts. They are humous and random, but also show what he loves about being here.