Our time here as a family in Pretoria has been very blessed
and fruitful. We’ve gotten to know each
other better on different levels, and the Lord continues to grow us and meld
our hearts stronger with His. I
mentioned in my last post that the Lord had put a place on Josh’s heart and
that we were praying into the meaning of it.
We never did hear back on our inquiry by January 7th, which
is fine because we asked God to close that door if that’s not where He wanted
us. However, a series of events happened
which led Josh and I to visit this said location. To rewind a bit…
On December 11th we spent time as a family in
worship. Jade received a word from the
Lord during the song, “It is Well”. She
felt like God was saying that there will be changes for our family and we might
not be ready for it but it will be well with us. Josh received a picture from the Lord of a
map of South Africa. Jesus’ hands were
underneath it cupping it. The following
words were impressed upon him, “It’s all yours!” He received another picture of a sushi
restaurant with a sushi boat bar. On
each of the boats was a name of a South African city/town. God said, “Take your pick!”
A couple of days later the following words were impressed
upon my heart, “Wipe the dust from your feet and go.” Days later I woke up knowing I had a dream,
but all I remember is the following – I was reading a letter in scroll form and
in it read, “Go after your dreams and do not stop!”
At this point we didn’t know if we’d be staying in Pretoria
long-term or if the Lord was leading us elsewhere. However, about a week prior to leaving the
Footprints base the Lord gave me a dream that seemed to indicate that we wouldn’t
be in Pretoria for long. Josh was also
sensing the same thing. Almost 2 months
ago (around the beginning of December), during Josh’s quiet time with the Lord,
the words “Mossel Bay” came to his mind.
He didn’t know what it was or if it was a place so he decided to Google
it. It turns out that Mossel Bay is a
place located in South Africa. Josh had
never heard of it before, nor do we know anyone that lives there (or so we
thought). He shared this with me, and
then we placed it aside not thinking much of it at the time, but the Lord was
relentless and continued to stir Josh’s heart to pursue what this might mean a
little further. After moving back to
Pretoria, we began talking and praying about Mossel Bay and why the Lord would
highlight this place to us, a place we’d never heard of before. We thought maybe the Lord wanted to up and
move our family there. Then one day the
idea came to me that maybe Josh and I should visit the place before just moving
our family there. We got online and
researched local churches in that area to see if there might be one we could
attend during our visit. The first
search result that came up was a church called Joshua Generation. After reading about them and listening to a
sermon, we had peace that this would be a good place to start so we e-mailed
all 4 of the eldership couples to ask for recommendations on where we might be
able to stay. One of the elders called Josh
and suggested that we should visit before up and moving our family – the same
idea I had so we received this as wisdom.
This man was very helpful and offered to help with accommodations if we
decided to come visit.
Before I continue any further, one thing to note is that
there’s a family from the States that God is bringing to Africa to partner with
us in serving and loving on the people of South Africa. Josh spoke with our friend, Matt, whom will
be coming to visit us in February and asked him if the Lord had been showing
him anything about Africa and if he specifically felt called to South Africa. Matt told him that he has peace about South
Africa and that all the Lord keeps showing him is the ocean along the
Cape. Prior to this, Matt didn’t know
anything about the Lord speaking to Josh about Mossel Bay, which is along the
Western Cape by the ocean. This was
confirmation to all of us that we were walking down the path the Lord wanted us
to. Thank you, Lord, for sending others
to RUN/PLAY with us!! Eventually Matt,
Bree and their 2 children will be moving to South Africa, but for now Matt will
be coming to stay with us for a month on February 5th. Please cover his finances and travels in
prayer, as he’s never flown internationally and will be leaving his family
behind for a month.
To continue on, after speaking with our kids, they were okay
with us leaving to Mossel Bay so we asked a lady in the house if she’d be
available to watch them. Unfortunately,
she wasn’t but she took it upon herself to ask someone else in the house if
they could watch our kids. This person
approached us because they knew of our need and offered to watch our kids for
as long as we needed! What a
blessing! We booked our plane tickets at
a great price and were about to book a rental car for our time there, but then
I had this impression that we should wait because the Lord was going to provide
for us in a different way. The next day
we informed this elder we had been in touch with that we booked 2 plane tickets
into George (approx. 30 minutes from Mossel Bay) for January 16th –
January 19th. He ended up
taking care of ALL of our accommodations and transportation. We were truly blessed beyond measure!! What blows our minds even further is that he
tells Josh, “Ya, for the first 2 nights you’ll be staying with someone you
know.” Josh is thinking, “I don’t know
anyone in Mossel Bay.” It turns out that
someone we went to Harvest School with in Mozambique 2 years ago lives in
Mossel Bay (his hometown) and went to the church Joshua Generation. In addition, Josh served with this guy every
week at the Noviane Center where they taught English and hung out with the
boys. Only God knew of this divine
connection!!
Our kids were counting down the days until we left. I think they were excited for us to leave
because they knew they were going to have a lot of fun while we were gone….AND
that they did! The generosity and
outpouring of love and honor we experienced while in Mossel Bay was beyond what
we ever imagined. Someone even donated
some money to us for our trip. They said
it wasn’t much but that the Lord placed it on their hearts to do. The Lord is so good to us! On this trip we were asking the Lord to make
it clear to us whether or not He wanted us to move there. We sensed this trip was going to be about
connections and building relationships, and we definitely met a lot of
wonderful people during our stay. We
also got to see most of Mossel Bay and drove through the townships (aka slums),
as that is where our heart is leading us to serve.
On January 17th, our first morning in Mossel Bay,
our friend’s wife asked if we had any dreams last night. Josh mentioned having a dream of himself
looking over the ocean while standing on a cliff. Jesus was walking towards him. There was nothing else around, just
cliffs. Jesus walked up to him and they
began having a conversation about something, but Josh didn’t know what it was
about. Then he woke up. Later that day our friend took us on a hike
along this trail called St. Blaize that led to a beautiful view overlooking the
ocean. He left us by ourselves so we
could worship and pray together. The
view was almost exactly like what Josh saw in his dream the night prior. As Josh was praying, the lyrics from an
American song popped into my head, one I would never think about on my own – “This
land is my land. This land is your land….” I felt like the Lord was saying, “This land,
Mossel Bay, is mine but I’m giving it to you!”
The next morning we attended church at Joshua
Generation. We felt very welcomed and
honored, and it reminded us a lot of the church we attended in the States –
Vineyard Meridian. After the service a
couple came up to us and said the Lord prompted them to approach us. They shared how they do street ministry to
the townships – exactly our hearts – but they knew nothing about us. Another divine connection from the Lord! A lady also prayed over me and released
encouragement! It was spoken over us
that the Lord will bless wherever our feet may lead. I looked up some verses that speak of this
truth – Deuteronomy 28, Deuteronomy 11:24, Joshua 1:3. We enjoyed lunch with some new friends after
the service, and God even connected us with someone whom is interested in
attending Harvest School in Mozambique this June, so we were able to share our
story with her.
Here are some pictures of Mossel Bay. We had a lovely time with some beautifully
amazing people! We are grateful for
everyone that played a part in our visit, and yes, that includes those covering
us in prayer.
With all of that said, we have peace about MOVING TO MOSSEL
BAY and will be doing so within the next couple of weeks, so long as the
details line up and God opens the doors.
The kids are super-duper excited to move again, especially since it
means we’ll be by the ocean. It is a
huge leap of faith for us, as currently we don’t know where we’ll be living, we
have no vehicle to drive and no steady money coming in, but the Lord is good
and we know He didn’t send us all the way across the world just to leave us
high and dry. He will provide!! Thank you for covering this next step in prayer. We are asking the Lord to visit our kids in
their dreams and show them the house we’ll be staying in.
We are also in the process of applying for our temporary
residential visas for South Africa. This
will allow us to stay in the country for up to 3 years without having to leave.
The Lord’s favor has already been upon
this process, for which we are truly grateful.
Your prayers for continued finances, peace and wisdom are greatly appreciated! We’ll keep you all updated as things
progress. Thank you for choosing to be a
part of this journey!! Many blessings to
you!
