In these ten months God has shown me more and more of his will and purpose for my life. He amazes me with His faithfulness and I am so grateful to see His grace upon my life on a daily basis.
November came and went without me even realizing what had happened. I stayed busy with all my different ministries around the city. I stayed the busiest at Joshua Children’s Mission where I worked five days a week.
The school year runs January through December here, and was coming to an end, and I didn’t want to start a new topic with my bible study girls so when we ended Biblical Beauty the end of November Carol and I took the girls to Fish Hoek Beach for fun and Ice Cream. The girls loved it and it was fun to watch them get out of their environment and let loose a little bit. It was a WINDY day but the girls didn’t mind that the water was freezing; I on the other hand didn’t put one toe in the water!
That same week was Thanksgiving, and since it is an American holiday I got to introduce Gary to the festivities. We went to Brad and Patty Wos’ (MTW missionaries) house for the meal. It was great fun and Gary really enjoyed it. He got to taste his first pumpkin pie and he loved it! The following day I came up from kids club and we went out for a picnic. During that evening Gary purposed and we are now engaged to be married in April.
I spent that weekend up at his brother and sister- in- law’s house. When I arrived back home I got an email from sister with the subject line saying “CALL ME ASAP”. I didn’t know what was going on. I then got another email saying that my father was having triple bypass surgery at 8 am (ET), my time 3pm. I quickly called my sister not even considering that it was 6 in morning in Chattanooga. By God’s grace my father didn’t have a heart attack but he was just having chest pains. His doctor sent him in for test. He ended up having quadruple bypass surgery. I was so thankful that God gave me such a wonderful community of friends here in Cape Town who prayed with me. It was so hard to have all of this happen while I am 10,000 miles away. I would have much rather been able to sit in the hospital with my mom during the surgery instead of waiting for a phone call from my sister. But God is so good. My dad is doing well and seems to be back to his old self again, which is wonderful.
School ends the beginning of December so Carol (from JCM) organized a Christmas Program for the kids to do for the parents. It was great fun. The Children sang some of the songs that we have been learning in the Literacy Program, they sang three Christmas Carols and they said their memory verses.
The Lord once again provided and the kids were given gift boxes from Samaritan’s Purse and we had a local store here in Cape Town donate a whole bunch of clothes, so all the Kids got one brand new piece of clothing. God is so good. We were also able to give all the mommies pamper packs of smelly soap, lotion and chocolate! It was so fun watching the kids open their presents and see the excitement on their faces.
The following week I took two of the kids to a Scripture Union camp here in Cape Town. They had so much fun, when I picked them up they didn’t stop talking about all things they did. It was such a joy to hear all their stories.
I spent Christmas at Gary’s parent’s house. It was a bitter sweet time. I enjoyed spending the holidays with my future in-laws, but I missed all the hustle and bustle that goes on at the Caines’ house during Christmas. It was also very interesting to spend Christmas Day by the pool instead of enjoying the first White Christmas in years in Chattanooga. It was fun being able to see how other families celebrate Christmas. The Isaacs do things differently than my family but it was fun to be able to celebrate in a different way than how I grew up.
It is now January and I am getting back into the swing of ministry. I spent the past weekend in Franschhoek, which is about 2 hours outside of Cape Town. Muizenberg Community Church where I teach Sunday school and help with Kids Club had a camp for the kids. It was lots of fun. We had 19 kids come to the camp, and we were blessed with 7 adults to come and spend their weekend as chaperones. The theme of the week was “Amazing Grace”; it was based on the TV show “Amazing Race”. We studied the book of Judges and how God kept showing grace over and over again to the Israelites. They Kids got to do fun activities as they “FLEW” from one country to another in attempt to be the first team to get all the clues. The kids loved it. I was so grateful to God for how smoothly the camp went. We had a few hiccups at the beginning of the camp but by the end things were running so smoothly and kids were so well behaved.
School starts back this week as well as my ministry with JCM. I look forward to seeing my kids there as I will only have a month left with them. My time here with MTW has flown by. I cannot believe I have a little over a month left before I head home. This year God has shown me where he wants me and I have learned a lot about doing ministry full time. It is amazing.
I just want to say thank you to all of you who have prayerfully supported me these past ten months. As well as financially supported me. MTW likes to provide two months of salary and benefits to their interns once they arrive home, so if those of you who support me on a monthly basis could prayerfully consider continuing through April, I would appreciate it. When I return home the end of February I will be planning a wedding for April.
Thank you for being such a wonderful team these past few years on my several missions’ trips with MTW. God truly has blessed me with such a loving Covenantal Community and has shown me where he wants me and what he wants me to be doing with my life, and he used all of you to help in that.
