At Home....

I am here in Columbia, Missouri for a couple of weeks. My Uncle Robert passed away last Wednesday and I got to fly out to California to be with my family and go the funeral. I got here in Columbia yesterday and will stay until May 9th. My phone number here is 573-446-0065.

I did have an issue with my passport in coming home. I washed it in the washing machine in Cape Town and I guess it's not technically valid anymore, as the machines can't read it electronically. I went to see if I can get another one... an emergency passport, and found that that's not possible. I plan to call the airline and may also contact the Dept of Home Affairs in Chicago to see what my options are here. Please pray that this all works out and that I can go back as scheduled on May 9th.

Love you and hope to see a lot of you when I'm here!

April Training Block

April Training Block was amazing. We went to Stellenbosch, which is in the mountains – it was gorgeous! The teaching was amazing. I think my favorite was Adam Whitlock, who is from England. He brought a team with him and they spoke on the prophetic. They taught about it and had some ministry time. Another gentleman, Nigel, spoke about cross-cultural ministry. This was excellent, as well. I learned so much about South African culture and some of the history here, and learned a lot about building relationships with people of different cultures.

I am back at my home here and it’s nice getting resettled and doing laundry! ☺ Duncan is currently making spaghetti for lunch and we are all going to be eating together soon.

We have a big conference this coming weekend at Jubilee – it’s called Together on a Mission. Terry Virgo is the main speaker and he arrived last Thursday. I haven’t seen him yet, but I look forward to talking with him and hearing him talk at the upcoming conference. Steve is actually interviewing Terry and Wendy this evening at church, so I am looking forward to that, as well.

I have a couple of prayer updates and requests:

Robert. My Uncle Robert has been diagnosed with bone cancer and it is terminal. Please pray for him – first that God will wholly reveal Himself to Robert and second that God would heal him. I am looking into options of coming home for a couple of weeks – to see my uncle in California and to spend a few days at home in Missouri. Please pray that, if this is God’s will, He will provide the funds for me to do this.

Hannah. One of the girls here, from England, has been quite sick and there was a lump found near her heart. I went to the doctor with you the week before training block and this is when it was found. We prayed for her and are trusting that God has removed it. We are going to the doctor tomorrow to have it checked out. If it is there, she will have to have surgery in the next couple of weeks. Her mom is coming out on the 25th of April, as she was planning to visit, so she will be here soon.

Packages. Thank you all so much for praying for the two packages that had not yet arrived. One of them came on Friday!!! Yeah! Because Destiny and I put a value on the package, they want to charge us $250 before we can get it. I don’t exactly understand why, but they said we could write a letter to customs and explain that these are our personal items and ask them to waive the fee. Please pray that the fee is waived!! We should find out this week.

God bless! Thank you for your amazing support and prayers! Love you guys!

Off to Training Block...

Hello. I hope you are all doing well! I have some updates and prayer requests.

Work. Bookstore is going well. I am enjoying it and starting to get settled there. I am currently not doing Think Twice or going into the prisons for various reasons. So, the majority of my work for the last several weeks has been at the church. I really desire to be out in the community. Please pray that God opens doors here and shows me where He would have me go. My work is fairly flexible, as my project leader wants me to try different things until I find my fit.

Friends. I am making some wonderful friends here. Three of the girls that work at the church – Bronwyn, Sue and Tess – have been particularly amazing. I feel like I am getting more connected. I would love to make some friends outside of the church, though. I am thinking about looking into some different things that I can get involved in to do that.

Car. Our car is not doing too wonderfully. ☺ I plan to put some photos online, so you can see it. We took it to the shop and found out that it needs quite a bit of work. Since the value of the car is not much, the church has decided to sell it and take the money they get, put it some additional funds, and buy a better car for us to use. It is not an incredibly safe car, so I’m quite excited about getting another one. Please pray that this is a quick transition and we get blessed with a nicer, safer car. Please also pray that God gives me patience with the car. I have become the individual who is in control of it, but also have five people to continually look after and make sure they have transport when needed. This week has been quite stressful as I continually get phone calls as they need rides. It seems as though I spent the majority of the week out and about and didn’t get a lot of work done otherwise. This week was an exception, though, as one of the fyp’s is quite sick and doesn’t have her VISA sorted – so we spent much time at the hospital and the Department of Home Affairs.

Training. I am leaving first thing tomorrow morning for two weeks of training in Stellenbosch. This is our second set of training. Please pray that God meets with us and blesses our time together as the 28 of us meet up again. My schedule for this is posted on my website, under “Schedule”. ☺

I will not be online or checking email for two weeks. God bless! Thank you for your amazing support and prayers! Love you guys!