Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
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
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