Thursday, February 26, 2015

Divine Appointments

Complete visas….check!  February 23rd came and went.  We approached the visa office with all of our documents in hand, only to find out that we applied for the wrong visa type, even after speaking to several people confirming that we were doing it right.  In order for us to submit our documents, the man serving us told us that we had to go online and fill out the visa application forms again.  We had driven 30 minutes to this office and did not want to keep making trips back and forth.  The man willingly told us that, upon completing our forms online, we could come back and he would print them off for us in the office.  He wasn’t going to make us reschedule our appointments.  What a blessing!  We got back in the car and drove to a park so the kids could play while Josh and I filled out the forms again online using our phones.  Well, we were able to fill out some of the fields on the first page, but the most important field (the name) was blocked for security purposes while using our mobile device (phone).  So, we packed up the kids and drove to an internet cafĂ© where we paid to use a computer.  We were successfully able to complete our online applications and then drove back to the visa office.  The man whom originally helped us was not excited about processing 6 visa applications, and at times he was frustrated because we didn’t have everything the way he wanted (even though the Web site didn’t mention certain things he was requesting).  On the bright side, we are blessed that he was willing to help us anyway and submit all of our documents for processing with the Home Affairs office, only 3 1/2 hours later.  So thankful to have that process completed.  The only documents we were missing was a marriage certificate and chest x-rays for Jade (because we were told it was only needed for 18-years and older).  We are praying for and believing that everything will go smoothly and that we’ll have 3-year visas in our possession come the end of April!

Parole officer, Matt, social worker, Ethan (intern), Josh, Mindy
On February 25 our friend, Thamar, scheduled an appointment for us to meet with a parole office and social worker for the Juvenile Detention Center.  We met at a place called The Nursery Coffee Shop.  We are called to love everyone that the Lord puts in our path, but for those that know us, we have a special place in our hearts for troubled teens/youth.  These amazing women love the Lord and want His will to be done here in Mossel Bay.  After getting to know them a little bit and spending some time sharing our hearts, we all grew very excited for the Lord’s plans with the youth here.  The parole officer is allowing us to meet with approximately 10 parolees next week, just to get to know them and build trust and relationships with them.  Yay Lord!  Doing life with and loving on the broken – isn’t that what Jesus has asked us all to do?!?  In addition to that, the social worker is checking with the head of the Juvenile Detention Center to see if we can visit there and serve the inmates on a regular basis. The age range for inmates there is 16-25.

Matt, Josh (from Virginia), Josh (from Idaho), Mindy
After our meeting, we decided to take advantage of our “kid-less” time and head to a coffee shop to talk about how we all felt the meeting went.  We arrived at “The Blue Shed” and ordered some drinks and delicious chocolate brownies.  As we walked in, we noticed a guy sitting by himself at a table with his Bible open.  We were talking about how cool it was that the parole office and social worker were believers, when the guy at the table approached Josh and asked him, “Where are you guys from?”  He must have picked up on our American accent!  Josh went on to explain that we’re from the States, in Idaho.  It turns out that he was also from the States, in Virginia.  He asked what we were doing in South Africa, and we told him we are missionaries.  It turns out he is also in South Africa as a missionary, along with his wife, Abbigail, and 3 boys.  They have been living here for 8 years now.  We joined him at his table and had amazing conversation with him.  He was telling us about the ministry they are involved with called Growing Hope.  It’s where they teach others how to be self-sufficient when it comes to food by growing their own vegetables, etc.  This was all ringing a bell to me.  Then the lightbulb went off!!  Before we even visited Mossel Bay in January, Josh’s mom, Marita, had done some research online and came across this blog site from a missionary family whom lived in Mossel Bay.  She knew we were praying about visiting and decided to forward their link to me, and I had spent some time reading their blogs.  Complete strangers to me – but I even signed up for their newsletters.  It turns out that the guy sitting across from us at the table was the very guy whom I had been reading about!  No way!!!  I wondered if we’d ever cross paths with this family, but the Lord was already 10 steps ahead of us preparing the way.  I love how the Lord orchestrates divine appointments!  This guy, also named Josh, ministers to the townships (also our hearts) and so if he has time before Matt leaves he’s going to take us to the townships so we can walk around and get to know people.  He shared with us a lot of invaluable wisdom and insight into the culture and strongholds we may encounter (which we’ve already begun to witness).  It turns out that Josh, from Virginia, is also good friends with the head of the Juvenile Detention Center…..say what?!?!  We encouraged and prayed over each other and then parted ways after contact information was exchanged.  We’re excited to see what the Lord does with this connection and how we can join together to love on the people of Mossel Bay!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Home Sweet Home

As I reflect on the past 6 months, I’ve become more aware of just how much change our family has gone through.  Since the middle of August 2014 up until now, we’ve moved locations/housing 7 times.  Thankfully, we believe this last move to Mossel Bay, South Africa will be for a longer period of time.  We have been so blessed to have a place to stay, although for the last week our family has been split in ½: Josh, Matt and Christian staying in one home and me and the rest of the family staying in another home.  We made things work and spent most of our time together, but I’m happy to say we’re finally under one roof now!! Ever since Josh arrived in Mossel Bay on February 8th, he’d been diligently looking for a place for our family to live.  He wasn’t having much luck, as most of the places he called on were already let (aka “rented” in America).  When I arrived on February 11th, he still hadn’t found a place.  We had 2 appointments scheduled for the following day: one for a 3 bedroom apartment and one for a 2 bedroom + loft apartment.  Immediately upon walking into the first one, I knew it wasn’t the place for us.  Josh had seen the second one and wanted me to also look at it.  He thought it could possibly be the one.  It was very simple, close to town and well below what we hoped to pay for rent.  That evening we decided that we would return to the office the following morning to sign a rental agreement.  However, when I woke up the following morning I shared with Josh that I strongly felt like we were supposed to continue looking for a place and not settle – that the Lord has a house (not apartment) for us.  I even had a dream that we were looking at a house, but I don’t recall any of the details.  This isn’t the first dream I’ve had about finding a house either.  The first dream that the Lord gave me about a house, which I journaled about, happened a few weeks prior.  That same morning we shared with Thamar, the lady I was staying with, that we needed to keep looking.  She suggested getting the paper, as it was Friday and new listings come out Friday mornings.  We did as suggested and she helped call on a couple of places because the writing was in Afrikaans.  Long story short, we end up getting a call from an agent that is renting out a house.  The location was a bit further out than we had hoped, about 15 minutes from town, but we decided to have a look at it anyway.  On the drive there we even got into a scuffle about the distance, but I told Josh not to set any predetermined decisions since we hadn’t even seen the house yet.  The house is located in the foothills of Hartenbos, a suburb of Mossel Bay.  The moment we walked into the home, I knew that the door was being closed to the loft apartment, and at this point we hadn’t even looked at the home nor did we know the monthly asking price.

Here are a couple of pictures of the home, but if you’d like to view more, you can check it out on our Facebook page: Mason Family Missions.




The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, plus a yard for the kids to play on.  It was fully furnished when we viewed it, but the initial rent price excluded the furniture.  However, it turns out that the owner was hoping to sell all of the furniture.  Of course, the Lord sent people to the owner that just so happens don’t have ANY furniture.  In a dream I had previously, the amount R5900 seemed to stand out.  To our complete surprise, this home was renting for R5800!!  When we asked how long of a term they were willing to consider, the owner/agent said we could discuss 12 months and then go from there.  We asked if they’d consider 6 months and explained our situation – that there’s the potential to stay longer, but we have some friends from the States that plan on joining us in Africa and will need to re-evaluate living conditions once they arrive.  The owner was completely open to the idea and said we could also have the option to pay month-to-month after the 6 months were up.  We then explained our financial situation – that we’ve only lived in South Africa since September 2014 (Mossel Bay for 1 week), have no jobs/income and are here as missionaries from the United States.  We put them at ease and reassured them that we have $ in our bank account and would be willing to pay months in advance if needed.  We understood that they’d be taking a risk on our behalf.  They said it was NO PROBLEM and that they’d just need to see 3 months of bank statements.  With all of that said, and after jumping through hoops to get the funds readily available, we received the keys to our new home today!!  The Lord has blessed us financially to pay for 3 ½ months of rent (plus deposit) upfront, in addition to buying all of the furniture at a GREAT deal!  We have a limit on how much cash we can withdraw daily, so the owner allowed us to pay for ½ the furniture today and then the remaining will be paid tomorrow when we can withdraw more funds.  It would be much simpler to bank in South Africa, as we are occurring a lot of fees to use ATMs and our US debit card here, but we cannot set up an account here until we have temporary residential visas, which we will be applying for next week.  It has been a steep month for us financially, but the Lord is faithful to provide and we trust He’ll continue to do so.  We are continually grateful for those that support us through prayer and finances.  Your obedience is making this journey possible for our family!

We’ve been to the beach a few times already, and the kids absolutely love it, although they had a not-so-good experience the other day with bluebottle jellyfish. Christian’s shins were the first to be impacted.  He came out of the water screaming saying something had touched him.  After getting him to calm down somewhat, we continued talking about going to another beach.  Meanwhile, Gracie decides to get back into the water and minutes later comes out screaming hysterically.  Her body looked like it had hives all over from the toxin.  I ended up taking her and Josiah home to a warm bath with vinegar, which did the trick for the stinging.
Here is a picture of the car we’ve been gifted with for the next 5 months!  It gets incredible gas mileage and is a huge blessing to our family.

Thank you to those that have been praying over our visa situation.  We received the results to our fingerprints via e-mail in accelerated time!  We were praying they’d arrive before the 25th, and in fact, they arrived on the 13th.  We submitted some information online this evening and will be making a phone call in the morning to schedule an appointment to have all of our documentation reviewed and submitted to Home Affairs for our temporary residential visas.  Continued prayers that our documentation will be suffice are greatly appreciated!

Josh and Matt have been meeting with various people to find out more about Mossel Bay and the townships.  They met with the Director of YWAM, whom also said we will have no problem getting into the Juvenile Detention Center so that we can love on the children there.  They also met with a pastor in the townships that would love for us to serve with him so we shall see.  It is important to build relationships with the natives here and people whom have been around for a while, so that will be our primary focus right now.  We want to honor those that have come before us and also let the Lord lead us in how He wants us to serve the people of Mossel Bay.  As you may have heard us say before, we’re continually learning how to go low and slow and to let love be our motive because without love what we do means nothing!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Packing Up & Heading South

The wheels on the van go round and round, all through the town (or country)!  Josh, Christian and our friend, Matt, left at 5am this morning on a 12-hour drive to Mossel Bay.

 

There have been many blessings leading up to this morning’s departure.  Yesterday Josh picked up our rental, only to find out that the van we requested was not available so….  They upgraded us to a larger van for FREE!!  The Lord knew we were going to need a bigger van to fit all of our luggage in, and what’s amazing is that after everything was loaded, we had room to spare!  On top of that, this van gets better gas mileage than the one we originally requested.  Thanks for the extra savings, Lord!  Please pray for safe travels and attentiveness on the roads.  The adults had a bit of a late night last night, as we got together with a bunch of people and went to a place called The Barnyard which features live entertainment with singing/dancing to music from the 1920’s on up.  Again, blessed with FREE tickets!!

The rest of the kids and I are flying to Mossel Bay Wednesday afternoon and staying with a lady whom we met during our visit there a few weeks ago.  We will stay with her until we find a more permanent place to live.  I am praying that Josh will find a place within 3 days, so if you’d like to join me in prayer for that, that would be great.  Our friend, Matt, arrived in South Africa on February 5th.  He didn’t sleep much on the plane, but the Lord sustained him to stay awake for the entire day so that he could go to sleep on a regular schedule.  We are excited he is with us!  He has a specific question that he is asking the Lord to answer during his time here with us, so that’s something else you can join us in prayer for.

Last Monday, February 2nd, Josh and I had our fingerprints taken at the police station.  Yes, we’ve been found out!!  Just kidding!  This is one of the steps we needed to complete in order to apply for temporary residential visas.  We thought there was going to be a cost for the prints, but it turns out they were FREE because we’re not having them processed in Africa.  We sent our fingerprints and paperwork to a channeling company in the US that works for the FBI.  We paid a bit more to have this company process our request, but their turnaround time is 7 business days, whereas, directly through the FBI would have taken 14-16 weeks.  Well worth the extra payment since our current visas expire February 25th.  Please join us in prayer that the process would be accelerated and that all needed documents would be returned safely to us in Mossel Bay.  Our family will be attending a meeting prior to February 25th to apply for temporary residential visas, so we are praying that we will have sufficient documents to move forward with the process.  The total cost for visas, after all is said and done, will be around $1,300.  The cost to move to Mossel Bay is around $800.  The Lord is so faithful to provide for our every need!

Speaking of needs, we weren’t sure how we were going to get around Mossel Bay once we moved down there.  Right now we’re homeless, carless, jobless……..but rich in the sense that we are so fulfilled with living for Jesus and doing what the Lord’s asked us to do.  I think about the disciples and how they left their jobs, everything, to follow Jesus.  Our family has a lot of growing to do, in fact that will never end, and the Lord continues to teach us what’s important in this life and what things we can continue to let go of to follow Him.  A couple drove us to the police station, and on the way there they nonchalantly asked us if we needed a car once we go to Mossel Bay.  We told them yes.  Immediately the guy said we could have his car and use it however needed.  I honestly didn’t know if my ears had heard right or if he was serious….turns out he was!  He is leaving the country from March-July and said we can simply work out arrangements for when he needs it back after that time.  It’s a little car but big enough to squeeze our family into, and it gets around 45mpg and 600 miles per tank fill-up!!  And get this, he and a friend are driving to a conference which is located ½ way between Pretoria and Mossel Bay.  They leave on Wednesday and offered to drive the vehicle the rest of the way to Mossel Bay so that we could have it.  What?!?!  Our dilemma - how do we get the vehicle to Mossel Bay?  Problem solved!  They will arrive with the car next Sunday evening, and then we are taking care of their transportation back to Pretoria via the bus.  As I read in Acts about people selling their belongings to help others in need, I’ve seen that same generosity in this house we’ve been living in.  I am observing and learning a lot about giving without being stingy, and I’m not just talking about money here either.  You know the saying, “Me casa es su casa….”  Well, people here literally live that out.  They are so selfless and full of love for each other.  It’s not a sacrifice but a blessing for them to give to others with no reservation or hesitation.

Some of you may be wondering what we’ll be doing once we arrive in Mossel Bay….  Well, all we can say at this point is that the Lord has highlighted the following to us: land, a garden, townships and the youth prison.  We’re excited for what’s to come for our family, but most importantly, we love getting to know each other and the Lord more and more every day.  That’s what our journey is all about – loving God, loving people!