It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
Greetings dear friends. It has been far too long since I (Alex) have written an update. As most of you are aware, I started doing Facebook Live posts last year when Joshua was in the hospital, and it has been challenging for me to get into the right headspace to sit down and write something since then. Thankfully, Bethany does a great job of providing periodic snapshots of what is going on in our world, but we both agreed that I needed to write this update.
It is hard to believe that by God's grace we have been in South Africa for five months already. It has been a very full five months, which you can read about in some of Bethany’s previous updates, but we have so much for which to be thankful.
One big ministry highlight from the last month or so is that we officially joined Life Fellowship Church. Gathering together with our Life Fellowship Church family is undoubtedly one of the greatest joys of being here in George and we look forward to serving and serving alongside this body for as long as the Lord sees fit. I have had the opportunity to preach several times since we arrived and look forward to sharing the preaching load with Pastor Troy as we map out our ongoing study of Romans (feel free to follow along with our study here). Another ministry highlight is that we assumed leadership of the young adults ministry, though we are grateful that Pastor Troy and his wife Danielle remain involved. We are humbled by this opportunity and grateful the Lord and others were willing to entrust this ministry to our care.
Another big highlight from the last month is that we were able to move into our newly renovated home. By God’s grace and through His extraordinary provision, we were blessed with a personal loan from the US that allowed us to purchase a home rather than face the challenges of a high-demand rental market. Between the loan and some of our transition funds, which are also a testimony to God’s grace and provision, we were able to purchase the home and complete the renovations within our budget. We are still settling in and getting unpacked, but we are so grateful for the opportunity to not only settle into a space of our own after four plus years of limbo, but to open up our space to the ministry opportunities that the Lord will bring.
One final highlight I want to share goes beyond the last month, but we are finally at a point where we can share a big ministry announcement. To provide a little context, in February 2012, Bethany and I were commissioned and sent out to serve the Lord overseas by our sending church, Calvary Baptist Church in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. In addition to providing local church accountability and support, Calvary also provided the financial services of a missions agency for us, along with a couple handfuls of other missionaries. Shortly before we made our transition to South Africa, Calvary informed all of us that they no longer felt equipped to serve us, and others on the field, in this capacity and encouraged us to begin investigating other options. To be clear, Calvary has expressed and confirmed their ongoing commitment to supporting all of us and to even maintain their status as our sending church. We are indebted to and deeply grateful for the ministry and services of Calvary Baptist Church (and the seminary where I received my theological education), and we look forward to continuing this relationship.
Because this decision impacted two other families on our ministry team here in South Africa, we collaborated with one another and investigated several options. Through the efforts of one teammate in particular, we narrowed the decision down to two. While one of these options would have provided a much simpler transition, we were blessed by the approach and intentional care of the other. After prayer and consideration, we all decided to pursue a partnership in ministry with a missions organization called GoSendMe Global (you can check them out for yourself here: https://gosendmeglobal.org). The interview and on-boarding process has been extensive and challenging while juggling ongoing ministry opportunities and the aforementioned move; however, after spending the last week with the director (though he prefers the title of steward…praise the Lord) of GSM, who flew here to spend the week with all of us to get to know us in person and to complete candidate orientation, I am confident about and encouraged by the Lord’s leading.
If you have made it this far in the update, thank you for stewarding your time to hear about how the Lord has been leading in our lives. We will provide more specific information and details soon if you already partner with us through financial support, but we are praying that the Lord will lead some new partners to join us in the work He is doing here in South Africa (many through prayer, some through giving, and Lord-willing even some through in-person visits). GSM has challenged us to pray for and build a team of prayer partners who will commit to pray for us daily. Thank you to those who have already responded to Bethany’s previous post along these lines, we could still use a few more who are committed to pray daily/regularly for us! If you would be willing to make this commitment or have questions about what this might look like, please respond to this post or send us a message. If you have other questions or would like more information about our needs, please don’t hesitate to reach out as well.
I promise to write again soon as there is more to share about our new missions partnership, as well as several exciting ministry projects that are on the horizon. We are humbled that the Lord has called us to serve Him here in South Africa and grateful for the way He has used so many of you to get us here.
We are thankful for a visit from our friend Rachel who lives in Cape Town, but we knew from Asia. She helped keep the boys stable during our training week.
On Thursday we took a drive with Rachel and Rob, from Go Send me Global, to show off the mountains and the city of George in the background.
Breathtaking!
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