In my Bible study we recently have been reading through the book of Psalms.

I love David’s exuberant worship and his enjoyment of God and deeply resonant with His love for the Lord’s presence.  I often can also relate to his moaning and whining to the Lord about “how long will You stay silent” and “why me” and “why does it look like the wicked are prospering?” and more.  This past month has been full of exciting opportunities for Magezi Ministries and it also has had some very difficult moments.  It has felt so similar to the ups and downs I am reading about in the Psalms!

There are SO many good things to tell you about!  We have had the blessing of leading Sunday morning church for the students at NHC several times each month. We also showed the movie “David” and have been helping with their Bible study as we can.  Dan was also invited to preach at a local African church, he joined a friend for a men’s camp in the neighboring country of Lesotho over a weekend, I was invited to speak to the ladies of Bambelela one Thursday morning, Dan has been asked to lead another recovery group every Thursday evening, we spoke at a weekend Freedom Conference, we had the joy of hosting dear friends and our goddaughter from Joburg for several days, and we have been supporting several friends who have had big health challenges this month.  This afternoon, Dan will share at a new youth group and later facilitate another worship night tonight at NHC.  Exciting opportunities to minister to so many students!

Miesha has been given the opportunity to shadow two local veterinary doctors and has had a lot of fun helping around their office, going on farm visits, and observing multiple surgeries.  She is really enjoying it, and it is a good opportunity for her to consider whether a career working with animals is for her.  Titus loves aviation and a friend from church helped him get a volunteering opportunity at the local airport and he has had a blast helping with mechanics and salvaging for a couple hours each week.  

We are overall doing well, but would love your prayers for some of these challenges we are facing:  

• Miesha has not felt well for a month now.  She is much better than she was, but she has had a lingering cough and still must take packets of tissues with her everywhere.  Please pray for complete healing for her.
• As we were sharing at the Freedom Conference, we noticed that there were a couple things getting lost in translation, so we started writing the main points down on the white board.  There were several times where people who we thought were solid believers would share something that communicated they still practice ancestral worship when they are with their families.  The final day of the conference, the leaders asked the people who attended to come up and share what they learned.  Several people shared brilliant insights that meant something to them – yay!  But there was one man who shared for about 5 minutes about what he learned from the conference and when he was done, I leaned over to Dan and whispered, “Like literally, we didn’t teach on a single thing he said he learned from us.”  It was as if he was taking the opportunity to preach on a totally different topic!  One other person stood up and said they learned to do _____ and we actually taught NOT to do that thing.  It seemed there was some spiritual scrambling between what we said and what some people heard.  Our prayer continues to be that God would seal in their hearts what He wants them to remember.  I believe lots of wonderful spiritual truths were planted…just a few weeds sprouted up too.
• There is something similar happening at NHC.  We see a lot of spiritual curiosity, but also there seem to be two teens specifically who come to Bible study or ask questions in the big group which derail the conversation or distract.  For example:  the leader asks “what is something that brought you closer to God?” and one would reply with “when I light candles and pray to the ancestors, I feel closer to God.”   It is a very real thing for Africans to wrestle with as their culture teaches them to respect their elders and sometimes this is used to get the younger people to worship the ancestors and to still practice rituals with them even if they want to follow Jesus and renounced these traditions.
• Recently, in many of the conversations with people about life and faith, they share that they have experienced deep hurt from church leadership or other missionaries.  This is from multiple different areas/congregations.  Christians are definitely not exempt from hurting each other.  We try to listen and help them process and heal up, but in this season, it has been a LOT.
• We are still struggling with Miesha’s paperwork to stay in the country.  We need breakthrough for her Permanent Residency to come through!  If it is delayed again or declined again, we have a couple more options, but we would really love for an answer sooner rather than later. 
• Speaking of Dept of Home Affairs – remember how in December of 2023 the judge ruled that Dan should be granted PR and that the Dept of Home Affairs should repay the court fees?  Well, still no money has been returned to us.  Our agent hired a lawyer to see what they could do and after multiple meetings, they finally took a sheriff with them to the main office in Pretoria a couple times.  DHA still claim they have no money, so the sheriff walked around the office and put stickers on all the computers and printers and declared they are coming to confiscate the tech and sell it all at auction and the proceeds would come to Magezi Ministries.  While we would love to have that ministry money back (or even a discount on our current paperwork appeals!) it would not be ideal for Magezi to be the reason that the main office has no more computers or printers, especially as we are still waiting to hear back on Miesha’s latest visa application and appeal.  (honestly, after the years of stalling and all the lawyer fees, there is likely to be only 10 cents returned to us in the end!)  There are also some new unknowns as the country of Iran has supported South Africa, loaned them money, and South African politicians have been outspoken about support for Palestine and Islam in recent years.  There is a possibility that there may be even less favor for Americans to remain in the country with the current world events.  God knows!  Please pray for wisdom and peace for us as we navigate these interesting times.  This morning Dan bought a lot of extra fuel for us to have in reserve for the months to come while we wait to see how events play out.
• Five months ago I had surgery, and while I am feeling much improved, our current struggle is with our insurance company to date not paying a cent to anyone, declining everything, deleting submitted claims from my patient portal, and overall being massively unhelpful.  We are confident we did everything the correct way to get things preapproved and certified and the surgery was deemed “medically necessary” but now the various bills are being directed to us personally because our insurance company has dodged and ducked for so long. We desperately need breakthrough in this too.  
• One of our kittens was killed last night.  While in light of eternity, everything else I’ve mentioned is so much more important, that little guy brought us a lot of joy and we are super sad he is gone.
• There seems to be a lot of people in our lives struggling with health problems and death.  A friend from Bible study just had her father die of a stroke.  My closest friend in Bethlehem was just diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer.  Another friend just had surgery.  A young man we’ve journeyed with for a decade fell off a 2^nd story roof, hit his back on a gate, then fell the rest of the way and hit his head on a step.  He had a severe concussion and bleeding on his brain.  We praise the Lord that he is much improved now, but there has been a delay in his follow up care which is concerning.  Please pray for breakthrough for him to have another brain scan.  A friend in Zimbabwe had her young husband die.  Former missionary teammates had his mom die and her dad die within a week and a half of each other.  My sister and her son were also really ill.  All within the last month.

What does this mean for us?  God sees and knows and cares about all the pain and grief that we and our friends are carrying.  We love hard and we listen well and we are so thankful to be where we are for such a time as this.  Please pray for His supernatural strength and rest for us all.  I have had some trouble sleeping for the last while.  Please also pray for breakthroughs in spiritual atmospheres and for salvations, health/healing, peace, visa paperwork, insurance claims, wisdom and favor and for whatever else the Lord leads you to pray for.   

While we are wrestling with these things, it helps so much to know that we are not alone in this.  Thank you for loving and supporting us and for joining us in prayer.

We also choose to remember that in the past when we have faced a lot of challenges or spiritual opposition, it is usually before a time of great breakthrough.  We believe the Lord will do it again this time!

With hope,
Dan and Janell 

Psalm 23 (TPT)
YAHWEH is my best friend and my shepherd. I always have more than enough. He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where he restores and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to his name. Even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near. You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; you give me all I can drink of you until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!