Where did September go....

 This time of year always seems to go by so quickly.  It is springtime here in South Africa, the trees and grass are turning green each day and the rains will hopefully come soon.  At the beginning of September, Joe’s parents were here for a visit.  We had a great time with them showing them around here introducing them to places and people that we enjoy.   The weather if finally warm enough for Peter to be able to wear short pants, which makes him very happy.  Each morning he wakes up and asks if it is springtime, which means he can wear shorts.  Some mornings are still cold enough that he starts the day in long pants then can wear shorts, but he seems to be ok with that most days.

    In the month of September we said “see you later” to a wonderful volunteer that has been with us this past year.  She was involved in many different areas of ministry here and we will really miss her.  We also said “welcome” to another volunteer who will be working in a neighboring country for a few months.  He will be helping with a village church’s building project.   Last week Joe traveled with the volunteer to get him set up in his new country.

    The hellos and goodbyes are often hard for Peter as he misses the people that he connects with whether that is people visiting us here or when we are in the US.   Peter has been doing well in his preschool that he has been going to 2 days a week.  He is really learning and developing seemingly each day with new things such as Watermelon starts with a W.  He also enjoys rhyming words, although he still doesn’t always get it.  He often will ask about words that start with the same letter or sound and ask or say that they rhyme.  Sometimes we correct him, other times we enjoy hearing his young mind at work.

    Beth continues to be very busy balancing her studies, with work, ministry and family.  Some days are easier than others to balance, but together we always make it work and are sure to spend time with Peter having fun and learning.

    Also in September we taught a module class at the Theological College.  We team-taught and had 11 students in our class.  They are a great group of eager young people who are training to be pastors and leaders.  It was really nice to connect with them and be a part of their studies.  

    

    Until next time: 

    Going into the kitchen wearing socks is not the best way to learn that it is flooded with water from the washing machine. It is better to do that in flip flops ;)

    

W&W From South Africa to Lesotho

Today's blog is written by a friend of mine and a wonderful woman of God Rev Eunice Sedith.  She is the pastor of the Toekomsrus Church of the Nazarene.  Please read her story of the recent Work and Witness trip her church took to Lesotho.  

Toekomsrus Church of the Nazarene W&W trip to Lesotho.

In the beginning of May the Toekomsrus Church of the Nazarene, Toekomsrus South Africa, sent a Work and Witness team of 19 people to Lesotho

The team went to install a ceiling in the dormitory of the Cornerstone Nazarene Boarding School.  Toekomsrus, South Africa is a 4 hour drive to Maseru, Lesotho. The school is another hours drive into the mountains in Lesotho.

The team consisted of the congregation from the Toekomsrus Church of the Nazarene who paid their own way and as well as gave toward the ceiling fund for the school.  Some of the families had 3 family members present in the team, this is more than 2 months worth of groceries for a typical Toekomsrus family. 

We thank God because the giving was from the heart. And I know they would do it again.

As the pastor I am excited to see that we are a ‘going’ church. Full-filling the great commission of Jesus Christ to and teach all nations. The people of Lesotho Basotho were so receptive to the gospel.

While walking around the town, the team saw a school and went in. Soon all the teachers realized there were visitors and came together in the staff room and the team shared the gospel and prayed with them. Most of the teachers gave their heart to the Lord that morning. Some of them came to the revival services held that night. The pastor of the Noordgesig Church of the Nazarene joined the team and held revival services every night.

So in addition to installing and painting the ceiling, the team delivered pots, blankets, yo-yos and clothing to the school. The principal and teachers were very grateful.   

One of the team mem was a 70 yr old man in a wheelchair with 1 leg. He paid his own way, and helped around the school with various tasks, not complaining once. 

One of our team members have been delivered from drugs and he went to a local school to share his testimony.  These are regular people who are blood washed and In the words of Phineas Bresee only wanted to “share the gospel in the same manner they have received it."

Pray for us, our feet are itching and we just want to GO GO GO, because the bible says how lovely on the Lesotho mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. (okay I edited the verse a little)

We were hosted in Lesotho by our LINKS missionaries, the HORD family. They too are self-supportive missionaries, and it was our joy to join hands with them in this mission. We want to say thank you to the Missionaries, the Doctor and the advocate (all neighbors) that hosted the team for the weekend. God bless you for opening your home to us.  I also wanted to say, we just want to inspire other not to count the cost, but to just GO. it was a life changing experience for our team.  The Sunday before the team, they were prayed over by the church. The church surrounded them and said we are a team and we are supporting the team in prayer.  It was a beautiful moment.  You could really sense that those who didn’t go, were in full support of the ones who could go.  I have never experienced such a thing in my life.  I think this is how the disciples felt when Jesus said (GO in my NAME).

Written by Rev. Eunice Sedith Pastor of Toekomrus Church of the Nazarene.

Update

We have been back in South Africa for three weeks.  It is good to be home.  We are enjoying being back in our home and seeing our friends and neighbors.  We have gotten back into our routines, picked up on projects that we were working on, caught up on email, and started planning a few events for the future.   

Beth’s parents arrived last Thursday and will be here for a little over a month.  Karen will be helping with statistics and Jim will be handling several different kinds of projects.  Peter is excited about having grandma and grandpa here with us.  He has already asked to make chocolate chip muffins with grandma.  He is very excited because one of the projects Joe and Grandpa will be working on is a loft bed/playhouse for his room.    

There are several exciting events coming up that will be happening on our field and Joe and I will be a part of. 

1)   New DS training for a newly appointed DS and an interim DS.  These events are a great time for our FSC and us to connect and equip the new leaders on the team.  It is a wonderful time of fellowship.  

2)   Urban Ministry Forum– leaders already engaged in ministry in an urban setting from across Africa will be gathering for a time of equipping, conversation, growth and fellowship.  Please be in pray with us for those coming for God to be able to apply what they learn in their cities.  

3)   There are a few different W&W teams coming that we will be joining and or leading. We are excited to see how God is going to work through those times. 

4)   In September the Church of the Nazarene will celebrate 100 years.  We are blessed to see what God has done in the last 100 years and excited to see what He will continue to do in the next 100.  

5)   In November we will be having a PALCON event in Johannesburg.   

Another project we have been working on is a video training for our District Advisory Boards and Local Church Boards.  The interviews have all been completed and now we have to work on cutting down the material and adding slides and discussion questions.  We will also be developing a work book to go along with the video.  It is a big project but we are excited about the possibilities for equipping and training leaders once it is done.  

We are also working on planning on Home Assignment Time for 2020.  We will be in the states in March April and May of 2020.  We will be starting out in Florida and ending in Florida. If you are interested in hearing about what God is doing on the Africa South Field and/or want to see Peter (and his parents) send me an email and let’s talk about making it happen.  

Praises and Thanksgivings– 

·     Easy transition back into life in South Africa.  Thank you for your prayers and support during our transition home.  

·     Safe arrival of Beth’s parents to South Africa 

Prayer Request 

·     Peter has an ear infection.  Pray that he will recover quickly and that he will not need another set of tubes/grommets put in. 

·     For the upcoming events 

·     For several situations and transitions happening across our field. 

·     For those affected by Cyclone Idai and for those from our field to be a part of responding to the needs there. 

Until next time- Remember little ears are always listening especially if you think they are not. However if you say their name and a direct command it apparently activates a filter that doesn’t allow them to hear what you are saying.  

Thank you for...

“Thank you for the way you are going to grow our family.”

This is a new phrase running through our thoughts and prayers.  We don’t know when and we don’t how but we are trusting and believing in faith that it will happen.  Maybe not in the time frame we wanted or in the manner that we wanted.  However, we believe God is still calling us to adoption and He is still calling us to continue our ministry in South Africa.   As we have always tried to do, our goal is to be faithful to what God is calling us to. Sometimes that has been easy and straightforward.  Lately it has been a bit more difficult, filled with hard questions and tears.  However, this season will also pass.  The cold and bleakness of winter will give way to spring and new life and beauty in time.  

Sunday, we will begin our journey home.  Later than we thought, with one less little one than we thought, but still going home. In a lot of ways, we are looking forward to being home, in others we are not sure what to expect and if I am honest I am a bit scared.  Our Christmas tree is still up, the crib is up, there are baby clothes to be packed away and there is normal life and ministry to return to.  We have friends there who could deal with those things if we asked but sweeping it under the rug/delaying dealing with reality won’t help us bring closure to this chapter of our story.  We are returning home; we look the same and we sound the same (ok Peter sounds and looks older…) however, we are not the same.  In some ways returning to normal life will be balm to our souls in others ways it will be salt to the wound.  The balm will be returning to the familiar, the known, the expected; the salt will be the loss of what he had hoped for, planned, and dreamed.  The plans we had begun making (again) for our family of four are paused again.  Life goes on, time doesn’t stop, and new hopes and dreams will emerge.   There will be ways that grief will hit us anew and ways that returning home will bring healing and closure.

Will you pray with us as we return home?  

We also are realizing that while our pain is real and deep.  We are not alone in our struggles.  God is with us and continues to walk with us.  He created us for relationship with Him and others.  We walk the journey with God and with others. Each and every one of us have things that are or have weighed heavy on our hearts and minds.  How can we be praying for you?   One of the ways that we get through hard times is realizing that we do not walk the journey alone.  We all have questions and hurts and hard things we have to reconcile with our faith and beliefs.  How can we join you in prayer?  How can we journey together?  Leave a comment, send a private message, send an email or text.  We will have time to kill on our flight from Atlanta to Jo’berg. J

Until next time; If you are raising a curious, smart, clever 3.5-year-old, be prepared for some fun/try hard to keep a straight face conversations at bedtime.  Recently Peter really really wanted his own jet pack so he could be a part of the Paw Patrol.  

Adoption and Loss

A statement Joe and I have been saying to each other some mornings is this:

“This is the day the Lord has made.” 

And the other responding “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Sometimes it took a few moments for the one responding to be able to truly say that they would rejoice and be glad in it.  

Our prayer of late has been simple; that God would give us the desires of our hearts and that He would continue to walk with us no matter what the journey holds.  

The months of December and January have not gone quite like we had dreamed or planned.  But we have clearly seen God at work in the midst of heartache and hard questions.  As many of you know during 2018 our family has been pursing adoption of an infant in the United States.  We found out at the beginning of November that we were matched with an expectant mom who was due at the end of December.  We began making plans to travel back to the US in December with the hopes of bringing our adopted son back to South Africa.  We were hopeful that we would have our second child through the miracle of adoption.  

That is not the story God had for us.  We learned our first match would not happen right before Christmas.  A week later we were matched again and found out on January 6^ththat the mother had chosen to parent her sweet baby boy.  We were heartbroken.  These days, there have been tears; tears of heartache, tears of sorrow, tears of anger, tears of frustration.  There have also been moments of normal and of laughter.  There have been wonderful memories made as a family in the midst of the grief.  Above all God has been with us through those tears and comforted us through the heartache and He has reminded us of the hope we have in Him.  

We are thankful we were with family to love on us and love on Peter as he didn’t fully understand everything going on.  We are thankful to the Church of the Nazarene and its leaders for their prayers, support and understanding.  

We have been in Orlando with Joe’s parents and will remain here until mid-February.  We are on a short list with our consultant group for any babies born between now and then.  We are open if it happens but we are also ok with going home and be thankful for Peter and the ministry we get to be a part of.  If God opens the doors and leads that way someday when we return to the states we will pursue fostering or fostering to adopt.  

We are taking time to heal, to create better/healthier habits in our physical, emotional and spiritual lives, to love on each other and on Peter, and to grieve. There are good days and bad days.  There are days when we want to return to South Africa and our lives there and there are days where I am not ready to close the door on infant adoption.  In the good and bad days God is with us and we have each other.  We have hugged and held each other a lot because sometimes there are no words.  We took a day away and Joe’s parents watched Peter. We talked, prayed, cried, slept in and leisurely wondered around (things not usually possible with an active and curious toddler.)  

Our faith is stronger because of the journey we have been on.  I don’t think this all happened so that our faith would be stronger, but as a result of what has happened we have been refined, changed and we are stronger. Someday we will sit across the desk from a doctor and be given a time line or an impossible choice, or we will receive another middle of the night phone call that there was an accident or an unexpected death of someone dear to us.   Knowing God has walked with us through this journey of miscarriages, secondary infertility, and failed adoption will reassure us as we face the next steps of the journey.  

Thank you for your love and support through the journey.  Thank you for the prayers at times even when you didn’t know why you were praying.  Please continue to pray for us and continue to love us.  

Until next time: Laugh when you can, cry when you need to, and look for blessings in the ordinary and extraordinary.