A Free-zing state Update (Winter!)
It’s been a challenging season. For many Africans we care deeply about, life has been exceptionally hard lately. As we listen and process with them, adding wisdom and love into the conversation, we feel we are making a difference! Much of our ministry these days is informal discipleship – listening and helping in the moments we have together. Several people have said they feel so much more peaceful after speaking to us. We are grateful!
In our Align group, we have been helping people navigate so many incredibly difficult situations. Some step up to move and respond with love and grace, and some haven’t, and we are there to help pick up the pieces. Some of the most challenging conversations we’ve had in many years have been in the last couple weeks.
We continue to minister next door to New Horizon College hostel students, and we had a movie night yesterday. We showed the movie “The Forge” which had a powerful Christian message. They were a bit chatty during the slower parts of the movie, but then cheered and danced when the actor had his breakthroughs in forgiveness (and let me be honest, the girls were also cheering during the workout scenes! Ha ha!). We are enjoying this season with the students so much. Their exam season is coming up now and then there is a 6-week winter break where all the students go home between terms 2-3. Hard to believe June is already here!
We have been trying to receive Permanent Residency Permits since Nov 2019 and after Dan received his, Miesha, Titus, and myself reapplied for PRPs this past August. We got an answer early this week that all had been approved and we needed to pick them up. That next evening, our friends had a celebration dinner for us, and we ate all our favorite South African foods together. It was awesome! Early the next morning, Dan drove to Johannesburg, stood in the long lines with our agent and received our permits, only to find out that there was a miscommunication. Titus and I’s applications were accepted, and Miesha’s was rejected. It was an incredibly deflating and frustrating surprise. Now, we are required to submit her appeal within 10 days and pay more. It’s been a broken system for as long as I can remember and we are trying hard to curb our disappointment. We are incredibly thankful for the 2 PRs we did receive, and we will continue to do and pay what is asked of us to legally and correctly get the needed papers to stay here. Friends continue to support and circle around us to love and pray us through this. Some have offered to adopt Miesha or to help us arrange a marriage for her to a lovely South African guy – ha ha! Miesha’s current visa is good for another year, but we will ask you all to PRAY PRAY PRAY with us for a favorable response from this appeal. It could get much more complicated if she doesn’t receive the answer before she turns 18 years old in December.
We have a few more ministry trips lined up, but we are at the mercy of the Dept of Home Affair’s appointment availability, so we hope they can still happen. Dan is trying to get up to Zambia another time, we have a trip to Eswatini on the calendar, and then we have a family vacation planned in late July. We also have been blessed with a family friend paying for flights for our whole family to come back to the States in September for a month. We are really looking forward to time with our families and seeing many of you too. In October, we anticipate having another Impact Africa group of interns to join us for a week or so of ministry.
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 have been invited to serve in a more intentional way with Miguel and Marlien Godoy who are YWAM missionaries in Bethlehem at their ministry called Bambalela. They have around 20 people who stay at their base to detox and move out of addictions. They do job skills training, community outreach and evangelism, feeding the impoverished, and have a church service on Sunday afternoons. They are having a tremendous impact on their community, but it is still incredibly broken with massive issues. Marlien said they had around 100 people come last week to Bambalela for counseling. Dan and I have been attending their Sunday evening service and have agreed to help with some of the counseling, writing and leading some Bible studies, and then in the coming months to train their leaders and staff with some counseling tips and techniques. Their ministry is growing, and we are happy to support and help in a practical way.
This past month was slightly slower for me, so I took an online counseling refresher class and have signed up for two more. The invitation to help with counseling and mentoring at Bambalela came at exactly the right time.
Some very dear friends have asked us to be godparents for their gorgeous little girl who was born a couple days ago! We are thrilled and look forward to meeting little Aria soon. Pictured above is another young couple we love who had their son a couple weeks ago.
Dan is a blessing everywhere he goes. He has been able to speak life into many challenging situations in the past month and has been helping with a lot of practical projects too. He has fixed our anthracite stove at exactly the right time because we are down to freezing most nights now. He also set up a new sound system for Bambalela’s church services and is trouble shooting the solar panels he set up in Zambia. I’m confident there are a dozen more things I don’t know about too.
In other less interesting news – we bought a second vehicle! We sold our other vehicle to pay for visa expenses a while ago and Dan found just the one he wanted on auction and bought it for 70% off. We were pleasantly surprised that it has fewer issues than anticipated!! He is planning on having the kids help him restore it as a part of their homeschooling electives. Winning!
We also our deepening our homesteading roots here by investing in layer chickens. We are now the proud owners of 95 chicks. They were soooo adorable for the first two weeks and now they are like little dinosaurs! We anticipate a lot of eggs in a couple months.
Enjoy your summer weather for us! Thank you for your love, support, and prayers for our family and ministry.
With joy,
Dan and Janell
Thank you for your prayers and support!
