The 3 Day Blur

It feels good to be writing to you all again.  Claudia and I have been able to get somewhat acclimated to our new life here in Cape Town and tomorrow we get to embark on our first day serving in Red Hill!  But before we start this adventure, I'd like to recap the last 3 days for you..

After an emotional farewell from our friends and family at the Nashville Airport, we boarded a plane to Washington D.C. and then made our seamless transition to our Gate and boarded our plane for Johannesburg.  Only half of the personal media screens on the flight worked, and the two of us were in the lucky bunch, so our traveling was about as smooth as it could be.  Our plane refueled in Dakar, Senegal and we were off to South Africa.  Then came JoBurg.  What happened in Johannesburg is somewhat of a blur now, but I can tell you in the moment, it was everything in me not to just book a flight home and come back.  

To be fair, we'd been warned about taking the "Refueling in Dakar" flight.  We'd heard horror stories about how long a one hour pitstop easily turns into four, so we were completely prepared to miss our final connecting flight to Cape Town and knew what to do should our flight not get to JoBurg in time to make our flight.  So when we arrived earlier than we were supposed to, we thought it would be easy breezy. We thought wrong.

We landed around 5:35, ahead of schedule, and proceeded to a relatively painless immigration check in.  We grabbed our luggage and hustled to recheck our bags around 6:00.  We ran up the stairs, knowing we were cutting it close to our flights departure when we got caught up in a line and ultimately missed our flight.  But no big deal, right? Just go to the South African Airlines desk and they'll put us on the next flight, and we'll just be delayed in our last flight to Cape Town.  WRONG.  Apparently, (and the jury's still out on whose fault it was, SAA or Orbitz for advertising a flight with such a quick turnaround) the flight was "illegal" because we only had 30 minutes between our arrival into JoBurg, and our Departure to Cape Town.  Because of our apparent deviant flight booking techniques, SAA wouldn't grant us a ticket on the last flight, we would have to pay a $500 to change the flight, or buy new tickets for $600.  Well we didn't have working credit card yet or a SIM card for our cell phone.  We got our phone working and called our contact, Tim, and by the time we got the security flags off our credit card, the SAA desk was closed.  So it was off to a hotel we went.  Thankfully, Orbitz offered to reimburse us for our hotel, flight, and food, but unfortunately our psyche took a hit.

The next day our experience at the airport was much smoother, and we got to Cape Town just after noon.  Natasha, Tim's husband, took us back to our new home.  We unloaded our luggage and took a long nap to get ready for our first run at the South African grocery, Pick-n-Pay.  The next day we went and got our new car, Jackie, a Toyota Corolla and our adventures began.  We revisited the PnP to go by the ATM and as we parked, I heard a little voice call out "NATHAN!"  It was Shinazo, one of the little kids from Red Hill who I've gotten to know on our mission trips.  Made my day.  Then after getting our cards figured out, we went back to the ATM and in the parking lot I ran into Mzo, who visited Rolling Hills 2 years ago and was the reason I went on the South African mission trip.  God put into my path 2 people who have been influential in bringing me back to serve long term.  Just the affirmation I needed to keep on, the day before we start our work.  Praise God!! 

Tomorrow we take another step in our journey and we couldn't be more excited! Please pray for the kids and people we'll meet in Red Hill.  Pray that their hearts would be softened to the Gospel.  Also, lift up Kennedy and Lumka and their families.  Pray that they would have the energy to keep on teaching and leading these kids and teens.  Please keep us in your prayers as well, we are still battling jet lag and haven't been asleep before 3AM any night this week.  Thank you for all your support and encouragement! We couldn't do it without you!

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5 Days Away..

Today is our Social Media Outreach Day and our goal is just to spread our story so that people can ultimately remember us in their prayers over the next two years, but also so that they can have an opportunity to join alongside us in our journey and partner with us financially.  We've prayed over this day and we have set a goal to raise $5,000 dollars during this 12 hour period.  More than anything, we want for Christ to be magnified during this day.  There's no way we could do any of this without the Holy Spirit moving into hearts and spurring them.  We know that our God is big enough to take care of all our financial needs and we want to look back on this day and have no other choice but to give praise to the One to whom all Praise is due.  Thank you for taking time to support and encourage us.  You prayers during this journey has comforted us when we felt overwhelmed and gave us the confidence to keep pursuing this wonderful adventure God has for us!

18 Short Days

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged, I promise it will have a lot more consistency once we get to South Africa. The past couple of months have been a whirlwind to say the least. On September 15th Nathan and I finally tied the knot and the day couldn't have been more perfect. It was the wedding I pictured in my head ever since I was a little girl. We are so grateful for everyone who made that day possible for us, especially his family! Now that life has slowed down a little bit we are really able to focus most of our attention to the big move in 18 days, not that anybody is counting. If you asked us how we are feeling you would probably get a handful of answers. Excited, anxious, nervous, happy, grateful and humbled would be some of our answers I'm sure. I can already tell why people love being married, it truly is one of God's greatest blessings. As we look forward to the weeks ahead we are so excited to be in Cape Town and start our life together, just us! We are currently living out of suitcases and living at his parents house in his room upstairs. While we are so thankful for time with family right now, we are ready to be in our own little small "flat" that we will call home. We started reading through Acts together right after the wedding and it has been such a blessing. Learning and growing together brings me so much joy. Being able to seek the Lord through all these huge steps in our lives is a blessing in itself. Psalm 105 3 says, "Glory in his holy name, let the hearts of those who seek the Lord REJOICE!" Reading through Acts we have seen so much. One of my favorite stories we have read so far is in chapter 4. The boldness that Peter and John have is the boldness that I pray Nathan and I will take to the beautiful city of Cape Town. "But Peter and John answered them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19-20) WOW! That is exactly the kind of attitude that we want to have. It's not going to be easy. We would be crazy to think it was going to be. There are going to be those days that we are uncertain why we are still there and days that Satan seems like he's getting in between everything. It's in those days that we will dive into the word and read verses like Acts 2:28, "You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence." We are reminded daily of the plan we have for our lives. We know that every step of this journey is God ordained. When we step on that plane in 18 short days, we know that we are taking another step of obedience toward the next chapter of our lives together.

As most of you know we are raising our own support for the next couple of years. This has been one of the most humbling experiences for both of us. There are times when we sit together and wonder how we are going to pay rent 6 months from now or wonder how much money we will have by the time we leave. We have had moments of rejoicing and moments of doubt. In the moments of doubt we are always blown away by the faithfulness and sovereignty of our Father. We quickly remind each other that we didn't call one another to this country. The God of the universe called us there. We didn't choose for our hearts to long for hugs and kisses from the kids in Red Hill, God gave us that longing to be there. We didn't plan 3 years ago to fall in love with each other and that beautiful community, but He did. As much as we like to be in control, we couldn't be anymore not in control. God is carrying this all out by himself. He asked and we simply said yes. So when we are looking over our budget and facing uncertainties we must remind ourselves how we got here in the first place. He is the one providing our next step, He always has been. So with that being said I ask you to join us in prayer these next couple of weeks. We are having a couple more fundraisers and we know God is going to show up. Next weekend, October 12-13, in Franklin we are having a huge garage sale. There will be so many things there for sale and we would love to see you come out. Sara and Steve Ingmire have been kind of enough to let us use there house. The address is 3145 Vera Valley Road Franklin, TN. The other fundraiser we are going to do will be the week right before we leave. We haven't set a date for it yet, but just so you have a heads up. More details on that will come in the next week.

More then anything right now we need your prayers. There are some specific things that you can be praying about. Pray for the kids and teens in Red Hill that we are getting the blessing to work with the next couple years. Pray that there hearts will be open to us when we get there and that they will feel comfortable and will be able to see Christ love in us. Pray for Lumka and Kennedy who are daily serving in the community of Red Hill. Pray that they feel encouraged and loved daily. They are two fearless leaders who are always looking for ways to serve others. Pray that Nathan and I will be able to encourage them in the way that will help them the most once we get there. Pray for last minute things that need to be done before we leave. We are still waiting on our visas to arrive and that is something we have to have before we step on that plane. Lastly, pray for our hearts these next couple of weeks. Pray that we would be so filled with the spirit that it would overflow out of us. Pray that we continue to seek Christ in every little thing and that we will be BOLD in all that we do. I can't believe the countdown is less then 3 weeks, but couldn't be more excited! Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. May God continue to get the glory everyday with each step of obedience we take.