Author: admin

¹  The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. ³  He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. – Psalm 23:1-3

As 2020 began, I was invited to preach at a couple of church congregations for the first time.  The theme I felt the Lord highlight to me was – Where is God leading you?

So often we can begin the new year with a sense of hope and expectation – just because the calendar changed.  We hope this year will be better, this year will be different, this year that one thing (job, promotion, home, spouse, etc) will be added to my life that will make all of the difference.

But how much of our focus is on the Lord – who He is, who we are in Him, and where He wants to guide and lead us?

¹ The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.

Jesus Christ is Lord – that’s undeniable. The question is – do you acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord – right here, right now, at this point in your life?

If I were to ask you about your life this past year – the activities that were most important to you, the thoughts that dominated your mind, the words that came out of your mouth, and the way you spent your money – would it be obvious to me from the way you lived your life this past year that you do acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and that you have decided to follow Him with your whole life?

¹ The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.

You may have entered 2020 thinking that if you just had that one thing added to your life – then you could be happy, then you could be fulfilled, then 2020 would be the best year ever.

If the Lord is your Shepherd, realize that you lack nothing in your life. He has given you and will give you everything you need – the things that He knows you need, not necessarily the things you think you need.

² He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.

You may have had some time off from work over the holidays where you relaxed and rested physically. However, you may still feel tired as we have moved back into the business and routine of day-to-day life.

We need spiritual rest in addition to physical rest. The Lord refreshes our soul. We must remain in Him, spend time with Him, and trust Him with our circumstances in life. We must trust Him even in our times of rest where we worry that the world may fall apart if we don’t continue “doing” all of things we think we need to do, and rather realize that He’s still in control of it all.

³  He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

When we see Him as Lord and as our Shepherd, we realize that he wants to lead us somewhere. By faith, we have to trust Him with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding, but submit to Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6).

He is faithful to establish our steps and make our paths straight.

³  He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Lastly, we need to remember that everything is for His name’s sake. It’s all for His glory. Our lives here on earth are meant to be lived in a way that brings Him glory.

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. – Colossians 2:6-7

As Thanksgiving approaches, we have so many things to be thankful to God for. Even as we reflect on our time so far in Cape Town, we are overwhelmed by how God has allowed us to impact lives here, as well as how He has provided for us and protected us on this journey.

One amazing testimony that we want to share involves Sumari’s mom Elize, who visited us in Cape Town two weeks ago and attended church with us that Sunday evening.

Elize had recently noticed a blind spot in her vision, and was diagnosed with macular degeneration by an eye surgeon. Macular degeneration is incurable and would’ve required surgery to prevent her from going blind completely.

The doctor actually told her that even after surgery, there was only a 30% chance that her condition would improve. There was even a 30% chance that it would be worse after the surgery. Here is a scan showing her nerve attached to the middle of the retina and threatening to tear it completely.

During church the elder leading the meeting gave an invitation for people to come forward for prayer for various reasons. Elize didn’t come forward, but instead stayed in her seat and prayed to God asking Him to heal her eye. While she experienced an overwhelming sense of God’s presence at one point, she only later found out that God had answered her prayer.

Upon returning home, Elize returned to the doctor for a follow-up appointment to prepare for the surgery. The doctor did a follow-up scan and was completely speechless as he viewed the results. He said that a miracle had happened because her eye is now completely normal!

Here’s her follow-up scan showing that the white line (nerve) is no longer implanted into the retina:

We are so grateful for each and every moment that God displays His incredible glory and power to us. We pray that you will be filled with an overwhelming awareness of the love of Christ, and that you will know this love that surpasses knowledge.

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

South Africa has once again been in the world’s news headlines this month for the wrong reasons. Violence and killings have taken place here as immigrants from other African countries have been targeted by South Africans that are angered by the high unemployment rate and other poor economic conditions in the country. 

This past weekend, in arguably the most diverse township in the country (and also one of the most violent), we got together with the church there to celebrate what the Lord has done in the lives of the people there since the church was launched 10 years ago. 

People from 8 different nations and multiple tribes from within South African came together to worship and praise the Lord for who He is and what He is done in our lives. It was a beautiful reflection of the Kingdom of God.

As we continue to see more and more craziness not only in South Africa but around the world, we keep our eyes fixed on our Lord and Savior and the only answer that we have to provide to others – Jesus.

Psalm 33:20-22 – We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

A dear friend of ours took this photo a few weeks ago. Pete was preaching in a township nearby (for our US friends, townships here are typically associated with severe poverty, violence and brokenness). I cannot help but both smile and tear up when I look at this picture. What I see is not just my husband, but a picture of how God wants us to live this life here on earth…

in prayer, with our arms wide open to receive from Him what He has for us, whether it’s blessings, guidance, discipline or instructions, holding His word in our hands and close to us so we can hear His voice, and in community with other believers to support, encourage and pray for us.

Pete went to this township to teach and encourage others, but instead we were encouraged by how they received him, prayed for him and their response to the word God spoke through him.

Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. – Proverbs 12:25 ESV – https://bible.com/bible/59/pro.12.25.ESV

In times when you get anxious about this life, fully surrender it all to Jesus, keep His good word close to your heart and be intentional to surround yourself with others who are fully surrendered to Him, people who will encourage and pray for you.

There are so many different views of what discipleship is and a ton of resources on how to disciple better.  But if we use Jesus as the model, we see that he discipled the 12 disciples by inviting them to follow Him and live life together.  In that context, He then taught them and imparted His life and His knowledge to them before sending them out.

Dayana came to South Africa with us 9 months ago as part of our team to serve the Lord here alongside us.  As she entered her last 30 days of serving the Lord here in Cape Town, we felt God calling us to invite Dayana into our home to see what He wanted to do in that time living in close community together.  Here are some of things we learned…

1 – It takes sacrifice to disciple and invest in someone intentionally as part of your life.

While we all live “busy” lives, we have a lot of choice over how we spend our “free time” as well. Sadly, many people spend hours of their free time in front of their televisions or electronic devices and social media.

Are you willing to lay down your personal agenda to spend time with others or invite them into your daily activities that you would normally do alone or just with your family?

Are you willing to invite someone into your home to stay with you to help them or invest in them, knowing that there will be some disruption to your personal space and activities at home?

If we don’t truly value pouring into others, we won’t make the sacrifices necessary to do so.

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but of yourself less.” – C.S. Lewis

2 – God knows exactly what we need, and often gives it to us even without us asking.

When we felt God calling us to invite Dayana to stay with us, one reason we thought He may be doing so was that she would benefit from experiencing Christ through witnessing how we interact in our marriage and parenting as she prepares for her own upcoming wedding in May.

What we didn’t expect was the blessing we received as Dayana offered time and time again to watch Arielle for us. We hadn’t planned for her to do so, but it allowed us to fully engage in numerous ministry opportunities without “distraction.” We were also able to enjoy a few “date nights” and continue to sow into a healthy marriage.

It was a wonderful blessing for us that we didn’t even know we needed. But God did 🙂

We were so blessed to be part of launching a new church congregation in a very poor informal township here called Khayelitsha.

People came from all over Cape Town from the other JoshGen congregations to support, pray for, and worship with the local residents of Khayelitsha.

It was such a blessing to see the entire room completely full. Some of the leaders had to stand in the back against the wall because there was no more room for more chairs.

The singing, dancing, and worship carried from inside of the church out into the community just outside the church walls. Seeing such a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds worshiping together reminded me of this verse:

“All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name.” – Psalm 86:9

Khayelitsha was one of many informal settlements built during the years of apartheid and segregation, and is reported to be the largest and fastest growing township in South Africa.

It is also one of the poorest areas of Cape Town with an average income per family of $1,872 a year.

Please pray that the message of hope and truth, the gospel of salvation, will be heard and received by the people of Khayelitsha.

Before you rush into the new year and create a set of resolutions or goals, take the time to reflect on this past year as well as celebrate what you’ve learned and accomplished.  Here are 5 things that God has either shown us or reminded us of this past year…

1. God is a provider.

Leaving the workforce where we were paid for our time worked was and still remains an adjustment for us.  It feels way different to rely on partners and donors rather than an employer. But God is reminding us that He is our provider regardless of where the money comes from.

Each month we’ve been here God has provided the funds we’ve needed for life and ministry- either through a recurring monthly gift or through a surprise donation when we least expected it.

We are so grateful for each of you who has generously given of the money that God has given you so that we can further advance His Kingdom and impact lives here in South Africa.

Also, we finally moved into our new home this month. He provided us with the perfect short-term housing situations throughout the year and has now provided us with a place to call our own for this next season.

God has just reminded us again and again this year that He is our trusted provider.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33

2. God is faithful.

God has recently directed us to partner with an amazing local church here that is doing great things both in South Africa and globally.

It’s a huge answered prayer, as we came here with a very small team trusting that God would align us with local leaders that shared our vision for equipping, discipleship, and life transformation.

We’ve been invited to join in with their eldership and leadership teams to learn from each other and see how God wants to use us in 2019.

We took our step of faith to go when he said go, and he has now faithfully positioned us to make a significant impact for His Kingdom.  It’s super humbling and super exciting all at the same time.

Our vision as we enter 2019 remains the same – to create a movement of thousands of souls on fire for Christ who are building up leaders and bringing love and hope to the hurting and broken people around them.

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” – Proverbs 19:21

3. Some things are better “caught” than taught.

One of the things that drew us into this new church was the love that the elders (pastors) and church members clearly have for each other as well as for Christ.

Every time we walked into the church, different people would stop and ask if we are new, and then welcome us.

We received dinner invitations.  People offered us furniture.  We were invited to life groups.  People helped us move.  We had meals brought to us after we moved.

Honestly, it became a bit overwhelming.  Even though I know it clearly reflects God’s steadfast and abundant love for us, it’s so rare to experience it so practically and personally.

It’s one thing for a pastor to teach that we should love God and love others.  It’s another thing to see a church body of believers actually living it out so well.

It wasn’t until I personally experienced the way this group of believers actually lives their lives devoted to Christ that I was given a new vision of what church should look like (which actually reflects what we see in the bible.)

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” –  John 13:35

4. It’s all for God’s glory.

This world can so easily draw you into what YOU should have and what YOUR rights are and what YOU are entitled to.

We quickly think that the whole world revolves around us – our thoughts, our preferences, and our comfort – rather than living a life that truly has God at the center of it where we live the way He wants us to live and we love the way He wants us to love.

God saves us by His grace, but not so we can just live our lives any way we choose while we are still here on Earth.

He saves us so that we can bring Him glory through our lives by the way that we live.

Regardless of whether you are on the mission field, in the workplace, or at home raising your children, the way you live your life (in reality and on social media) should point people to God and bring Him glory for who He is.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” – 1 Corinthians 10:31

5. Discipleship requires commitment and sacrifice.

It’s clear that we are commanded to make disciples.  It takes intentionality, commitment and sacrifice to obediently do so.

Jesus modeled discipleship by spending a lot of time doing life with His disciples.

Realizing that more is caught than taught, we have to rearrange our lives to prioritize discipling others by spending time with them.

We have to invite others into our lives, and we have to be willing to sometimes sacrifice our agendas to enter their lives.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” – Matthew 28:19-20

Comment below and share a lesson that you learned in 2018.

God bless you!

One benefit to having an American accent in a new country is that it usually starts a conversation about what brought us to South Africa and we then get to share our testimony.

As we told our server Jean-Marie at the coffee shop this past weekend about how we felt God led us to move to South Africa, she shared that her family had moved here a few years earlier on faith as well, believing this is where God wanted her and her family to be.

She then continued to share how it’s been some of the toughest years of their lives since they moved as they’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices.  Despite being obedient and following God’s leading, their lives had actually gotten more challenging and difficult rather than easier.

What struck me the most and really inspired me though was that she shared this story from a place of faith and trust that God was still good and still faithful in the midst of all the pain they had experienced.

We asked her if we could pray for her and she excitedly accepted and asked if we could pray for her outside.  What she shared after we walked outside was so powerful…

“For the last 3 months, it’s been so hard and I’ve been literally crying out to God.  Nobody in the church would pray for me during this time and it’s hurt me so much.

Earlier this week as I was crying to my husband and expressing this hurt, he felt like the Lord was saying that someone would come into my work and pray for me.”

I really had to hold back the tears as she shared this story with us, realizing that God had sent us there at that specific point in time to pray for her, when she would really know that it was God answering her prayer.

I encouraged her that this was God’s way of showing her and reminding her that He sees her, that He is with her, and that He loves her so much.

I’m continually in awe at beautiful moments like these where God gives us a glimpse of His love for us.

Don’t miss an opportunity to encourage someone or pray for them.  You really never know how badly someone may need it unless you take the time to stop and truly ask them how they are doing.

What a journey it has been just to get here!

It was such a roller coaster of emotions as we prepared to leave a beautiful season in San Diego behind.

Saying goodbye to our friends and loved ones became harder and harder as our departure date drew closer, but we held tight to the wonderful things that we knew God had ahead for us.

Selling or donating most of our furniture and personal belongings, we brought only what we could fit into a bunch of suitcases with us.

Fortunately, we had a small army of faithful friends at the airport to help us check our luggage and say one last “goodbye for now.”

When we arrived in South Africa weary from a 30-hour travel experience, we were warmly welcomed at the airport by one of the pastors from Jubilee Community Church, one of our new church partners, along with a sweet couple from the church.

This couple and their family have been an amazing blessing as we settle in and get acclimated to a whole new life on the other side of the world.

They’ve not only allowed us to stay in their home this first month, but they also make dinner for us every night (well, except when Sumari insists that she bless them with dinner), and have been helpful in so many ways.

God’s beauty and splendor in creation is so clearly on display here, and one of the biggest example’s (literally) is Table Mountain.  We just marvel as we gaze at it, and it’s clearly visible from almost everywhere we travel in the city, including our current backyard.

Thank you to everyone who has been there for us in this season of transition.  We are so grateful for your love, prayers, messages, and support.  We honestly couldn’t have done it without you.

As for current prayer requests, please pray for God to give us wisdom and direction in these first few months as we settle in, learn the culture, and listen intently for His guidance.

Please also pray for us to meet and connect with a new circle of amazing friends and family that we can do life with together here in Cape Town.

On that note, Arielle has already made her first close friend here.  His name is Buster 🙂

God bless you!