Ministry at the Ocean, Violence and a Dictator’s death…

I am writing to you from our friend’s very comfortable lounge in Durban.  We are a 7 hour drive from home and depending on where you are driving in the city, you can catch glimpses of the beautiful Indian Ocean through the rain and clouds.  We have been on the road for a week now, and have been enjoying the ministry opportunities.
 
Dan connected with a youth pastor in Margate who has been doing a brilliant job of reaching the youth in their community with the message of purity and hope.  For the weekend conference, they imported keynote speakers from the States from Moral Revolution and Dan taught two of the breakout sessions.  On Friday evening, the rather small auditorium was packed with teenagers wearing skinny jeans, the worship music was pumping so loud Dan (and others above 40 years) were wearing ear plugs, and the room was filled with smoke from the smoke machine. There was standing room only and there were teens looking through every window on the ground floor – there were close to 500 students!  Not only was it a brilliant opportunity to impact a bunch of students with his story of healing and hope, but it was a tremendous networking opportunity and we came away with more resources for reaching teens.  From our BnB balcony, the kids and I could often see whales spouting in the distance in the ocean.
 
Following an amazing several days with the youth, we drove a few hours to our friend’s farm to rest.  We did all our favorite farm adventures together – fishing, archery, shooting guns at the shooting range, hanging out with the other homeschool kids and seeing their lambs, calves, guinea pigs, going down a slip and slide, talking for hours, Dan attended men’s prayer meeting, hanging out at the dairy, etc.  We had a marvelous time!
 
We are currently in Durban now and have been doing some counseling for a few couples and investing in the community at Immanuel Christian Centre.  Tonight we are showing The Heart of Man movie to their congregation – and we invited other churches too!  We are anticipating that the Lord will move deeply in people’s hearts as they watch the film and during the ministry time following. 
 
Please also pray for our beautiful country.  It has been chaotic and unsettling for the past few weeks.  Perhaps you have seen in the news, but there has been a recent increase in violence, specifically towards foreigners from other African nations who live here and against women.  A few weeks ago, our pastor told us some fascinating information – within South Africa there are currently 58 million people living here.  13 million of those 58 are legal foreigners (like us – who have obtained the correct visa and have legal permission to stay) and there are 12 million illegal foreigners living here.  Many are given a 90 day visitor’s visa and stay under the radar for years.  After we heard these statistics, I was chuckling as I realized that the previous week, at lunch time I had made food for a Zimbabwean, Malawian, Zambian, Nigerian, and us from USA.  As Dan was organizing the container a couple weeks ago on our church property, the truck driver was Portuguese, his helper was Zambian, and a Zimbabwean, Nigerian and American were observing.  South Africa has been called the rainbow nation (referring to racial diversity) and it is becoming increasingly so with all the other African nations also coming.  In Southern Africa, our country is the “land of opportunity” and with the increase in chaos in neighboring countries, many are coming to SA to find work to support their families back home. It is complicated and multi-layered and has been compounding for many years.  To be perfectly honest – I don’t understand it all.  In the riots and violence against foreigners, South African lives have also been lost and fear has increased.  Our family has felt safe, we have deep peace, we are ok.  Please pray for the leadership of South Africa for wisdom and discernment, for peace and reasoning to prevail, for the police force to be righteous and just and for the violence to end.
 
Please also keep the nation of Zimbabwe in your prayers.  Our neighbors to the north have had an extremely difficult year and many say that even though Mugabe has been replaced, the new regime is worse than before. This morning, Robert Mugabe, age 95, who led his nation for nearly 40 years – has died.  It will probably not impact their seriously struggling economy at all, but prayers for peace and wisdom for their leaders to govern their country well are desperately needed.
 
In the coming weeks, Dan will be the keynote speaker for 2 men’s camps and another youth camp.  We are thankful for the opportunity to share our heart message of healing and hope to so many.  The opportunities to disciple in these venues and to speak about God’s intention and design for healthy sexuality and purity is such an amazing gift.
 
Thank you for your prayers for safety as we travel and speak.  Several of these camps, the kids and I will remain home together while Dan goes to minister.
 
Thank you for your love and prayers and support for our ministry and family!
 
Janell, for all of us