July 2015 Review
As you may have read in our past few blog posts, we are continuing to adjust to the new culture, languages, and life in South Africa. Most of the time, we are successfully navigating our way through our new home town. Other times, such as in the sugar cookies incident, not so much. After the the build-up of two years’ worth of prayer, fundraising meetings, many presentations, training, and then the excitement of entering into the missionary field, we are now entering a period of calm and new routines.
Bechan showing us the direction back to Cape Town from Zimbabwe.
AfCon 2015
July rang in with a bang for us! No, it wasn’t the Fourth of July celebrations that we somehow almost completely forgot about; Happy Birthday, U.S.! What did actually happen was that on July 3 our family flew to Zimbabwe for United World Mission’s (UWM) Africa Conference (AfCon) 2015.
UWM AfCon is held every two to three years and helps the UWM missionaries serving in Africa reconnect with one another and connect with the team from our home office in Charlotte, NC – that’s right, Queen City, I’m looking at you!! Our home office spent time updating us on UWM’s recently revised organisational mission, vision, and values. Each missionary family/team was also given time to share about their individual ministries that span across the African continent.
This seemed to be a very refreshing and beneficial time for the veteran missionaries we spoke with. We heard numerous comments about how these missionaries once again felt more like part of the larger UWM team again because of the conference. Most missionaries in Africa seemed to have spent the majority of their time in Africa working in relative isolation from other Western missionaries, especially those within UWM.
For us, the conference had an added benefit in that Michele and I had an opportunity to meet almost the entire team of UWM Africa. This was especially true of the families serving in East Africa (e.g., Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda), of whom we had not yet met.
While we were there, we also took advantage of seeing some of the sights around Zimbabwe. One highlight was being able to see Victoria Falls and the massive number of waterfalls it contains.
Please pray for the many missionaries with UWM who are serving across the continent of Africa, especially those who are more isolated. Pray that God continues to sustain and empower them.
Antioch Church Short-Term Missions (STM) Team
A Spiritual Leadership seminar given by one of the Antioch Church leaders.
East Mountain (EM) hosted a short-term missions team from Antioch Church in Burlington, North Carolina. The church is a financial partner with one of the missionary families working at EM, and they came to support Mark, Marcie, and East Mountain through conducting spiritual workshops, a children’s program, and lady’s tea, among other things.
Michele and I had the privilege of being involved in hosting the team through airport pickup and providing meals. Michele also hosted a tea at our house during one of the mornings of their visit. During the tea, one of the Antioch STM team members facilitated a discussion with the EM women about challenges of being in ministry and tips for staying close to the Lord and thriving through the challenges.
After having served on so many cross-cultural STM teams in the past, this was an exciting and educational time of learning what it is like to be on the opposite side and serve as the host.
New Roles and Routines
Michele, Asher, Bechan and I are beginning to establish new routines. Asher is beginning his new life in South Africa as a homeschool kid. This is giving him some extra responsibility along with some newfound freedom. He seems to be handling both pretty well and we pray that he will come to love learning and school more through this experience. Bechan will also begin her homeschooling over the coming months. Michele and I continue to try and settle into our roles, balancing together time in ministry, time of preparation for our future mission work, time with our family, and time with our East Mountain community. Please pray that we will continue to find this right balance in our work and family lives.
