a road trip update
Thank you so much for your love and prayers for our family and for the ministries we serve in here in South Africa. Dan returned home from his long work trip to USA and we had the joy of taking the kids to missionary kid camp. After camp, we took a few vacation days to see a new part of South Africa and do some exploring as a family. We made some wonderful memories together during the 2,000 miles/3,400km we drove and got all the field trips needed for the school year sorted!
As we transitioned back into “normal” ministry life here, we have enjoyed reconnecting with the students at New Horizon College as Term 3 begins, and catching up with the wonderful people who come to the various freedom groups we run or support. Last weekend, Dan was invited to speak at a youth conference in Johannesburg and it was a wonderful opportunity to make some new connections and encourage and challenge some youth and youth leaders/pastors. Yesterday we were blessed to reconnect with a missionary family who we met briefly at a youth camp 5 years ago! We’ve stayed in touch and think they are fabulous. We were chatted about ministering again together soon – these are fun God-connections! We launched a dear friend from church into missions in Zambia again for a 3 month adventure, and have been supporting at Bambelela again. It’s been a full month!
Miesha and Titus LOVED the missionary camp and all the new friends they made with other third culture kids. As kids growing up in a country that isn’t the same as their passport, they face unique challenges and struggles. They really enjoyed being around other teens just like them! It was a small camp with only 18 teens, but tremendously helpful chapels and devotionals, fun games, a snack shack with AMERICAN sweets, time at the beach, and lots of love. Dan and I stayed in accommodation off site, but popped by camp occasionally to watch FIFA matches, to see the kids do their skits, to join the (super helpful) parent’s meetings or the American picnic. Where we stay in Bethlehem, there are no other Americans so it was really wonderful for us to be surrounded by American accents, to have quality time resting and chatting with other missionaries in extremely similar situations, and to encourage and bless each other. Love, love, loved it! We came away with rested hearts and lots of new connections. We also saw some dear friends that have moved from Bethlehem down to that area and that was absolutely brilliant as well.
From the camp, we continued driving south towards Cape Town and stopped at some special stops along the way. Firstly, that part of South Africa is absolutely stunning with pristine beaches, wild protea flowers growing everywhere, whales and dolphins in the ocean, penguins, the Atlantic and Indian oceans meeting, and lots of history. One place we visited had a bell that was 100 years older than USA!! Despite the soggy weather, we got to see some fun things and find a few friends along the way. On the drive home, we went to an observatory and did the day and night tour. The day tour was super informative and we got to see their massive telescope. The night tour was also great. We were outside for a couple hours taking turns looking at star clusters, Venus and the moon and FREEZING. Great memories! We also stopped to look at the Big Hole in Kimberley where the biggest hand dug hole in the world is thanks to the diamond rush. 14 million plus carats worth of diamonds were dug up from there in the past. That was also a super interesting tour and we loved going into their vault to see their collection of real diamonds. We posted a lot of camp/trip pictures on our social media if you want to see some gorgeous parts of South Africa through our pictures.
The students next door are back on campus and we’ve done a Bible study, a Christian movie night, and hosted church for them this past weekend. We are enjoying time with them so much! We have many more things on the calendar for the next couple months. Dan met with one of the school leaders today and they are giving us a whole butchered sheep to say thank you for helping with the students. Wow – a delicious gift!!
I began studying my online counseling certification courses again and this one is for grief counseling. The timing is so interesting as there have been so many people experiencing deep loss in our friend group. A friend’s 43 year old brother died, another’s husband died, a father died, and there was several other deep things to grieve in the few weeks. We are here “for such a time as this” and we have been able to support, listen, and pray for our friends during these tough times.
Our dear friend Sarah, who is on a cancer journey, had her mastectomy surgery last week. About 10 minutes ago she called me to say that her test results show that there is hardly any cancer after her chemo and the surgery removed what little there was remaining. It has been a joy to support her and her family the past 6 months and man was that THE BEST news to get this morning. Cancer free – thank you Jesus!!!!!!!
We hosted a worship night at our home last Wednesday – such a sweet time of fellowship! Then, Dan’s speaking at the youth camp on Saturday in Johannesburg was very well received. He spoke on AI and Ethics and how to use AI as a tool and some potential pitfalls to watch out for a youth and youth leaders. Very interesting times!
We also are hosting a small conference on August 15th to train pastors and church leaders how to begin life giving freedom groups within their communities. We are thankful for the season to begin multiplying our impact by coaching Africans in how to bring life and healing into the most broken places. Within the black tribal groups (many different languages), whites (Dutch and British descent), Asian, Indian, and mixed racial groups, we see in each one’s cultural context a shame based/behavioural driven historical model to try to help people get free. Thank you Jesus for a different way. It will be like swimming upstream to teach something so entirely counter to what they have experienced in their cultures and at the local churches, but it is desperately needed. Thank you for your prayers!
With joy,
Dan and Janell
Thank you for your prayers and support!
