Back In The Swing Of Things

It has been about a month since our last blog update and for that I apologize. We had a 3 week break for holiday and started back on January 7^th. I know we sent out our newsletter at the beginning of January, but we are so excited about this New Year and all the opportunities we have in the future. Things in Red Hill are going great! We have been back doing club for the kids and teens for three weeks and they are excited as ever to be back and learning together. We have been blessed to have a team of four ladies with us the past month helping us in Red Hill. They are from Australia and have been such a joy to get to know. Their names are Velma, Kim, Simone, and Mikalya. They have been doing a lot of the health clinics during the morning and joining us for club in the afternoons. This past Saturday they hiked Table Mountain and Nathan and I were able to join them. Even though the hike was incredibly difficult, it was so fun spending the morning with them conquering all 3,800 feet of that beautiful mountain! They leave this coming Saturday and we will be sad to see them go, but blessed and thankful for the time we have had with all four of them.

In our Red Hill team meeting today we went over some of our goals for the New Year that we want to implement and it made us all very excited. We are going to be looking at different ways to make club more fun for our kids and teens. We are going to be having one day where we have a sport club where the kids will be able to choose a sport they want to do. We also want to go on hikes with them and let them take more ownership in the afternoons by teaching or leading crafts. We are also going to be seeking out the leaders in both clubs and giving them a little extra responsibility when it comes to serving their friends during club. Nathan will be keeping a close eye out on those kids and teens that show a sense of leadership within club. We are really excited for all of them to take more ownership this year and bring their ideas to the table for all of us to share. We have a lot of awesome leaders and we can’t wait to see them shine in different roles.

As most of you know, Nathan and I spend most of our days, all day, in Red Hill. We do have a small window of time that we are able to branch out and be apart of some other ministries within Living Hope. Tuesday and Thursday mornings are when we get to have a couple of hours outside of Red Hill doing some different things. Nathan is gearing up to start the numeracy program in one of the local townships called Masi. He has been asked to lead the grade 5 kids and is very excited about this new role. He will be coming up with lessons and teaching them to the other life skill educators in Masi where they will be tutoring kids one afternoon a week. He did a lot of math tutoring back in the states and so he is excited to take what he has been gifted with and help these sweet kids. I on the other hand am not gifted in the area of math so I am spending my mornings at Living Grace. This is a ministry within Living Hope. I have been spending my mornings helping the ladies cook in the kitchen, sorting clothes, and sharing life with the amazing people that work there. It has been such a blessing being there on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Living Grace also runs a rehabilitation center upstairs. The people that I have met in the program are simply incredible and have beautiful stories of our Father’s grace and sovereignty. I was approached last week to be in prayer about maybe leading a discussion group upstairs with them one day a week. I am really praying this works out because I would love to get to know the clients on a more personal level and hear more about how they got to where they are today. If you could pray for both Nathan’s numeracy program starting and the possibilities at Living Grace coming up we would greatly appreciate it!

We are happy to say that we have found a church that we absolutely love here. I know I have talked about Commonground in previous posts, but this is a little more exciting news. They are launching a new site closer to where we live. The first Sunday service is this Sunday and we couldn’t be more excited. Nathan and I have talked about church planting a lot and we are blessed and excited to see this church from the beginning phases. We have both been praying for ways to step in and serve in a church community here and the Lord is opening doors for us. The guy who was going to head up the youth ministry is moving back to the states and so they need hands in this area to get it started. Nathan is excited to jump in here since he has a lot of experience with youth from interning at Rolling Hills the past 2 years before moving to Cape Town. I am excited to jump in and help with the children’s ministry and find a place to serve whether that is teach a class or just be extra hands to help do whatever they need! If you can remember to pray for these new opportunities coming up and where the Lord wants us to jump in that would be great!

Life here continues to be exciting and fresh! We feel like we are completely settled into life here and are continuing to love it. We are anxiously awaiting our home church, Rolling Hills, to arrive in 3 short weeks. We can’t wait to serve alongside them and share all that is happening here. The Lord is teaching us new things daily and we are always blown away by his answers to prayer and constant encouragement through his word! We will be sending out our January newsletter this weekend so keep your eye out for that! Thank you for your prayers and constant encouragement via e-mail, Facebook, text messages, and care packages! We are so blessed to have so many people praying for us daily and supporting the amazing work the Lord is doing here in Cape Town. May God continue to get the glory for everything we do day in and day out! Love you all!