Ladies…Are YOU Ready???

Ladies, this post is directed to you (or your wife if you’re a guy reading this). We are having a group of ladies come from mostly my home church, First McKinney, Texas from 30th Sept to 8th Oct. We are going to be working in a township with a church that is a plant church of the church we go to here in SA. The ministry is going to center around kids and women. We plan to do a Holiday Bible Club (VBS) in the morning with the kids and then work and minister to the women in the afternoon. We may go visit an orphanage I am planning on volunteering at now that I have some extra time. You will fly out of DFW or fly from where your from to DFW to meet up with group hopefully and fly into Johannesburg. The cost is about $2100. Most of it is for the flight. BUT PLEASE don’t let the money be a hinderance. If you feel God speaking to you about coming, listen and obey. The money will come. Just wanted to encourage you to pray about this and contact me for more information or I have 2 ladies at home that would love to speak to you. My email is evenfamily5@gmail.com

When you have old bananas-make banana bread

So, today in South Africa is Women's Day. It's to commemorate the some 20,000 women who stood up against apartheid in 1956. There were lots of gatherings of women today at state buildings and such, but this woman, she slept til 10am. Oh, I woke up several times and kept rolling over to go back to sleep. Most days, school days, we are up at 5:30 and out the door at 6:30am...did you catch that...AM. And my people, we don't do mornings very well. No one really speaks unless it's in grunts or nods. 

So today, we had about 5-6 old bananas and Grace and I decided we would make banana almond bread. My husband loves any fruit bread with nuts in it. So we did the womanly thing and baked. I know, I know, Matthew and many many can cook and bake, but today we, the women of the house, baked. We used our tried and true Betty Crocker cookbook from like 1950. In any move, it will be in my suitcase. It has served us well. 

Lately, life seems to be serving me old bananas, and I am trying to make banana bread. I am depending on the Lord more and more in these days, just like I depend on Betty Crocker to help me with the recipe. The Lord has opened up one door with a blogging group called Daughters of the Deep. It is going to launch in October, but we are already writing. I wrote my first one this week. It is to encourage and inspire women into a deeper walk with Christ. And in writing, it's doing that for me also. There will be more details as launch date approaches. Humbled to be chosen and humbled as I study and write about what God lays on my heart. 

SAHM....again

Well, this is my first at home again in 4.5 years. And well, "at home" is a kinda misnomer in my book. I am still taking the kids to school and back so it's 45 minutes each way. So, yep, 3 hours in the car a day. Doesn't leave much time for things in between, but I am learning to set up schedules and such. Each day so far has been very different, which I like. Please do continue to pray for all of us as we go through this transition. I found a verse from my quiet time yesterday that basically said without the strain comes no growth. So the Lord allows strain in our lives so that we will grow. Grow more in Him, grow more dependent on Him.  I have already had a few new opportunities that I'll share in the coming days. Just weeding through the ones that are "liz wanted" and "God sent".

With a confused heart

Hello my friends and supporters of all kinds.  The last couple of weeks have been difficult at the school I "volunteer" at.  The deal was I volunteer and the kids get scholarships. Well, last week I was called in and told there had been changes to SARS (South African Revenue Service) ie...tax man. And it's no longer legal for me to volunteer and my kids still remain getting scholarships. So we waited and waited and waited.

Today, I met with on the head HR guys at our school corporation and our head bursar. And, tomorrow is my last day at Waterstone College. It is with a heavy heart because I will miss all the relationships I have built over the last 4.5 years and miss the kids. One the other side, I am quite excited to see what the Lord has planned for the next stage of my missionary life.  The kids will continue to get scholarships this year and Matthew was offered one for his final year next year. Grace will need to apply or we are considering homeschooling.  Please be in prayer as we transition.

Romans 6:33-34 What you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what He wants you to do. Then he will give you all these other things you need. So don't worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Love 

Extension 23 ACTS Family Church and J-Life 6 Week interns

Last week was a fabulous week for Grace and me. We got to help out at a local church that partners with J-Life quite often. We also got to work with the six week interns that are here with J-Life for 6 weeks of the summer/winter depending on your hemisphere. We started off the week with about 95 kids and ended the week with almost 200! As word spread we were there giving a Holiday Bible club the more kid came. It was such a great time to see our J-Life young adults take charge in an unfamiliar environment as well as to watch Grace work with them.  We had about 8 young adults from the church helping with us. They were a tremendous help because many of the kids, especially the little ones, don’t speak English. 

The daily schedule was to gather the kids. The first few days we walked the streets to get the kids letting them know we were at the church. Next we would circle up and have warm-up get ready games as everyone was arriving. Then we moved the kids into age groups. Then we would take turns at each station, being games, crafts, music, and such. Then we would gather them all into the church for singing. It was loud and beautiful! Young people and kids praising the Lord were beautiful. Then a lesson for the day would be given and interpreted, of course. Then we broke up into groups again to do a main craft for the day. Then snack time which consisted of chips or oranges.  One of the days the kids got oranges one of our interns noticed the kids were kicking the oranges down the street. She asked if they were being ungrateful or not liking the fruit. But our leader said no, the kick them to make the juice more so they can open a hole at the top to drink it. Just a difference in cultures. This is a small example of ways that people are different. The Lord loves us all.  After snack, the kids would go home. We would debrief the day and have lunch.  It was such a terrific week. Tiring but terrific. We saw the Lord work in kids through just loving them. On the last day, we presented the gospel with the gospel bracelets for craft.

Pray that fruit will bear out of that time. Most all of it was done by our young adults from the church in Zulu so the gospel would be clear and understandable. We were so blessed to be there last week. 

With a broken heart

Two weeks ago on Thursday, the kids and I got to go to a feeding program that is run by a friend of ours. We often go to the one on Wednesday, but this was the first time we went on Thursday. It is a smaller group and meets in a hall. The program is run by a pastor. Three of our J-Life six week interns spoke and gave their story. Then I was asked to explain about what J-Life did and what we were about. For those that don’t know, we are about make disciples through the local church by training the pastor or mainly youth worker in the church. We train them in how to do ministry like Jesus. We work on relationships, growing and multiplying.

We then got up and made a line of the food that had been donated. It is all fresh food like carrots, potatoes, lettuce, etc…As I watched these beautiful people that I had been worshipping with go through the line, my heart broke. There by the grace go I. I want to be found faithful in what I spend, what I give away and what LOVE and COMPASSION I show to further the kingdom.

Pics aren’t for our glory, just to show you what it’s like. 

EIGHT YEARS!!!

8 Years!! 

Can you believe? We can't! We had no idea when we started this journey with you that we would still be serving Jesus with J-Life after 8 years!! Lots has happened in 8 years! 

1. J-LIfe grew from 6 to 25 countries in Africa
2. Our family grew by one amazing Daughter in Law
3. Moved 3 times 
4. 3 different schools
5. 1 dog

All these are just things I can think of off the top of my head. The most amazing thing is that God has grown J-Life and is continuing to work into countries that were once on a dream list. We continue to thank Jesus and His leading. We are so blessed as a family and an organization. All the glory goes only to Jesus Christ! We are simply vessels being used by Him. I would challenge each of us to continue to look for ways in our daily lives to be intentional about living our live FOR Him!

We love each of you and are continually in awe of our prayer and financial partners.
WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!!

serving together, david, liz, matthew and grace

Zimbabwe Update

Good morning. Please remember Zimbabwe in prayer today. Things are now at a tipping point. There has been riots at the borders and in Harare where I live. Government this month has not managed to pay salaries and today has declared a day of national shut down people are striking. Forecasters are saying that this is the beginning of the worst in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile the president is very quiet and has not been seen in a while. Please pray for our leadership as well. Zimbabwe has to change! Thank you.

Many of you may not know the history of Zim and I am not an expert, but i know the Lord is! He can change the political and economic climate in ZIm.  Please take a minute to pray.

Happy 4th of July

Just a few pics of 4th of July.  We spent the day watching movies snuggled up. It is winter here. This afternoon we went in search for sparklers and after 3 stores found a little pack of sparklers and small fireworks. Matthew is at sports camp, so he missed the fun. Although, my bet is that he is having a blast and somewhere in the day the Star Spangle Banner was played and sang in honor of all the Americans on staff, at camp (only Matthew) and on sports camp staff.  You can catch Grace's day on her blog at www.tailofabigail@wordpress.com 

 

Thanks for all the love and support. We loved the messages on FB and IG. AND we got snail mail this week!! WHOOP WHOOP!!

One of my obsessions

SHARPIES!!! I have an unusual and maybe abnormal love for Sharpies! I don't know exactly when it started but it was a couple of years ago. We couldn't get Sharpies here in South Africa until last year sometime which only added to my obsession. You know when you can't get something (Peanut Butter M&Ms, Starburst, good stickers, Sonic Route 44 Diet Coke with crunchy ice, Chick-fil-A), but who's counting? When you can't get something, it only adds to the obsession. When you rely on people coming to SA or your yearly Christmas stocking stuffer to get your Sharpies, your heart pounds when one begins to loose it's color or you can't find the color in the plethora of Sharpies or you're convinced that your children are hiding them from you.

Now, David just asked me (appallingly I might add) if I was blogging about Sharpies. And what that had to do with anything. Grace and I both answered, "Everything." (She's well trained). And I could try and bring something spiritual into this (because isn't that what missionaries are suppose to do?), but I won't. I just wanted to share my love of Sharpies and all other things listed that you can't get here in South Africa that I may or may not obsess about.

Thanks for listening to the rant.

Up next Monday....another missionary monday