A Freestate Update
In the last month since I’ve written, the kids and I have been steadily moving forward with the various ministries where we serve in South Africa, and Dan has been putting in some long hours working on a difficult renovation project stateside in Seattle. We are so happy to be reunited this coming weekend!! Dan was originally planning on returning in early March, but he had some setbacks with the snow days and challenges with window deliveries. We are so thankful the project is done, and the rental is a million times better than before. (Some before and after pictures below)
I have been leading our Align group in Dan’s absence and there have been some wonderful breakthroughs and testimonies this past month. I was meeting with a gal for addiction recovery and she recently told me that our chats, the book I loaned her, but primarily the Holy Spirit healed her completely! God had given her such deep insight into her pain, and she has been able to forgive a lot of people who caused her trauma and hardship. As the pain faded, so did the desire to do those behaviors. Dan and I firmly believe that you must change your heart and mind and deal with your pain before your behavior can follow. Addictive behaviors are like pain medication. If you can deal with the source of the pain in your life, then the need for your “medication” will go away. We have seen a lot of freedom this month and we have also seen a couple relapses. It has been brilliant to see several people “fail forward” and identify the emotions and feelings around their using “medication” again. One guy said, “I was able to figure out what was going in my head and heart after one drink and turn my thinking around within one day. In the past, one drink would’ve led to 6 weeks of drinking.” He has been in rehab a couple times and recently told me that he always felt like he was locked in a dark room and rehab poked a couple holes in the roof so a little light could come in. He said that being a part of the Align community, all his conversations with Dan, and my recent teachings made him feel like the roof of his dark room has been ripped off and he can see finally see and think clearly now. I love this so much – thank you Lord!! I initially felt a little nervous taking over the group, but I realized early on that it is just discipleship and loving people – they just apply what they are learning to deeper wounds and challenges. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously!
We also launched our student ministry at New Horizon College a couple weeks ago and Ernest and Rebecca Fynn and I have a brilliant new connection with the new hostel dad named Joseph. He has a huge heart for the spiritual lives of the students and in a few short weeks, he has already led several students to the Lord and started a Bible study for the young men. In a few short weeks, they have already outgrown the room! We are supporting him through purchasing discipleship books for him to use with the guys in the dorm and helping plan weekend activities and sharing movies. I have been asked to meet with a couple students going through challenges and it has been a privilege and a blessing to be more connected on campus again. Earlier this week, when I was waiting for a student to chat with, there were a couple gals leaning out their dorm window to shout hello and to tell me about their day. Others ran over for hugs – it’s a wonderful beginning and I can’t wait to see what the Lord will do for the rest of this year.
The leaders at the school have been asking for our recommendations when they have staff openings and one young man from Align has been hired as a middle school rugby coach and another lady from church just had a second interview for a campus job and I helped her with a ride there and back. Employment opportunities are difficult to find and unemployment is high in Bethlehem. Quite a few hours this month have been invested in helping people in Align and a lady from church apply for jobs. Still praying for breakthrough for several!
It hasn’t been a challenge-free season. There have been many difficult conversations, confrontations, and doing hard things by myself – the Lord has been stretching and growing me. I can’t wait for Dan to be home again!!
We are still looking into buying a home and property here in Bethlehem and there have been lots of meetings with different people for different aspects of the process. I am incredibly thankful for all the friends and professionals from church who have stepped in to translate documents, give advice and insight, crunch numbers, and help me identify what questions to ask. Multiple pairs of eyes have been incredibly helpful to me as I am trying to navigate the maps, paperwork, contracts, and business books. In every place where I needed more insight and wisdom, God brought just the right people to support and care for the kids and I. I have tangibly felt the Lord’s love and presence in these weeks and I am so thankful.
Friends from our connect group offered to let the kids and I use their beach apartment at the Indian Ocean and we had a lovely, WET time together. We did all the indoor things you could do, watched a bunch of movies, found the good coffee shops, visited the bookstore multiple times, and then decided to have adventures in the rain and got thoroughly soaked. Each time we went to the beach or tried to go swimming we got rained on. We ended up at the uShaka Marine World in Durban 2x. The first day we had a sunny afternoon (yay!) and on the 2nd day the kids opted to go cave diving with SHARKS!! It was in a huge tank at the aquarium and the sharks are considered “docile” but it still made for some brilliant pictures and a great story to tell. They really enjoyed it!
While in Durban we looked up some friends from the past. We were SO blessed to be reconnected to Themba and Buhle Bhembe from our earliest days of ministry in South Africa 19 years ago. After their daughter died, they relocated from Soweto (a suburb in Johannesburg) to their family land outside Durban and although we visited them there 10 years ago there, we lost touch as phone numbers changed and we moved to Bethlehem and then had a season in the states, and Facebook messages didn’t get through. The memorial fund from Dan’s mother’s funeral service in Dec of 2023 was designated for their family and ministry and it was an honor to be able to finally pass the gift on to them. They are still very active in their community and the gift was very timely as a recent storm had severely damaged the roof of their home. We talked about the season where we worked closely together and so many of the children we ministered to in those early days are now finishing University, getting married, and having families. It was a blessing to hear how so many of them are doing incredibly well.
It hasn’t been a challenge-free season. There have been many difficult conversations, confrontations, and doing hard things by myself – the Lord has been stretching and growing me. I can’t wait for Dan to be home again!!
We are still looking into buying a home and property here in Bethlehem and there have been lots of meetings with different people for different aspects of the process. I am incredibly thankful for all the friends and professionals from church who have stepped in to translate documents, give advice and insight, crunch numbers, and help me identify what questions to ask. Multiple pairs of eyes have been incredibly helpful to me as I am trying to navigate the maps, paperwork, contracts, and business books. In every place where I needed more insight and wisdom, God brought just the right people to support and care for the kids and I. I have tangibly felt the Lord’s love and presence in these weeks and I am so thankful.
Friends from our connect group offered to let the kids and I use their beach apartment at the Indian Ocean and we had a lovely, WET time together. We did all the indoor things you could do, watched a bunch of movies, found the good coffee shops, visited the bookstore multiple times, and then decided to have adventures in the rain and got thoroughly soaked. Each time we went to the beach or tried to go swimming we got rained on. We ended up at the uShaka Marine World in Durban 2x. The first day we had a sunny afternoon (yay!) and on the 2nd day the kids opted to go cave diving with SHARKS!! It was in a huge tank at the aquarium and the sharks are considered “docile” but it still made for some brilliant pictures and a great story to tell. They really enjoyed it!
While in Durban we looked up some friends from the past. We were SO blessed to be reconnected to Themba and Buhle Bhembe from our earliest days of ministry in South Africa 19 years ago. After their daughter died, they relocated from Soweto (a suburb in Johannesburg) to their family land outside Durban and although we visited them there 10 years ago there, we lost touch as phone numbers changed and we moved to Bethlehem and then had a season in the states, and Facebook messages didn’t get through. The memorial fund from Dan’s mother’s funeral service in Dec of 2023 was designated for their family and ministry and it was an honor to be able to finally pass the gift on to them. They are still very active in their community and the gift was very timely as a recent storm had severely damaged the roof of their home. We talked about the season where we worked closely together and so many of the children we ministered to in those early days are now finishing University, getting married, and having families. It was a blessing to hear how so many of them are doing incredibly well.
We also had lunch with Brad and Gayleen Martin who are dear friends from our first African connect group at church 16 years ago. Miesha and their daughter Kirsten were less than a year old when our friendship began and now it is incredible to be able to sit together over a 4 hour lunch and share of God’s goodness, God’s healing and restoration, the things we are learning in the Lord, how He led us both to become counselors and champions of healing and freedom, and to marvel together at His goodness and kindness to our families and in our marriages. It was a brilliant reconnection and the fish and chips at the ocean were pretty good too.
We pick up Dan from the airport this coming Sunday evening, and then we will drive home to Bethlehem on Monday. We have Tuesday through Friday to catch Dan up on a few things, have some meetings, get him over jet lag, and then early Saturday morning we will start our long journey up to a Zambian village where we get to minister and serve for a while. We are so thankful for our friend Louise who is joining our family for this outreach. It is approximately 25-30 hours of travel one way – depending on how quickly we can get through the international borders.
You may be asking – why are you driving so far to minister in a village? Why are you taking time from your Bethlehem ministry to go to Zambia? Simple – we love Zambia. We lived in Zambia for 3 years and we haven’t been able to get back to visit friends and minister there since Covid. This is an incredible opportunity to invest deeply into a community and to bless, encourage, and support the local pastors there. It will give us some quality time with influential church leaders who also happen to be our dear friends. We will be able to pass along some wonderful resources so they can love and disciple their community well. It will also give us some quality family time and some rural African adventures and we are expectant for what the Lord will do in us and in the Chongwe village. They have asked us to teach on discipleship, couples ministry, youth ministry, and counseling at their conference – it’s going to be great!!
This past month, a friend from church visited our homeschool co-op and did a brilliant photography lesson for the teens and then another friend came last week to teach us all how to use the Canva app. I can say tentatively that you may see more pictures and videos of our missions in the near future – stay tuned! It has been such a blessing to add more students/friends into our homeschooling journey and the kids are doing great.
I look forward to sharing news of the Zambia outreach in my next letter to you all. In the meantime, we would love your prayers to cover us for safety as we doing some significant driving in the next couple weeks, for deep connections in Zambia – especially in the Chongwe village – that we will be a blessing and encouragement to those we meet and minister to on the journey and for the Holy Spirit to move and soften hearts. We also need a lot of wisdom to navigate some relational challenges and to make decisions about the property purchase in the coming weeks too.
Blessings!
Janell for all of us
Thank you for your prayers and support!
