Thanking God for progress

This has been a great and busy month!  We are so grateful for the progress made toward our serving in Cape Town:

• We’ve been appointed!  That was, of course, the biggest progress.  We’d been seeking a new assignment since my return from Nigeria last December.  We’re grateful that SIM has such a diligent and multifaceted approach to examining assignments and that they consider the needs of the people and families serving with them as well as the needs of the work being done and of the people being served.
• Education:  We received an email from SIM’s missionary kids coordinator with many details about schooling and its estimated expenses, which will help us establish our budget and support goals.  One of the final stages of being considered for Cape Town was a conversation about our kids’ specific educational needs.  It’s good to know that serving overseas will not mean the kids get inferior or inadequate educations.
• Dozens of details:  We had a great Skype session this week with SIM’s personnel director for South Africa!  We covered probably two dozen topics and got a lot of details on big and little things, and that both informed and excited us.  God has prepared such a great opportunity for us to serve, and we’re so excited to be moving forward!
• More connections to South Africa keep arising.  Several friends have revealed that they studied Afrikaans and would be willing to practice it with us sometime, and our language learning materials arrived earlier this week.  One couple even offered us decorative souvenirs from a trip they took there years ago, helping improve our presentations.

So there’s much to give thanks for in prayer, but that doesn’t mean we’re done praying.  Please join us in asking for these needs:

• Study.  There is still so much to learn!  Afrikaans, culture, deeper Bible knowledge, history, and theology are among our lessons for the coming year.
• Prayer and financial partners.  We’re assembling a team of people to pray for us throughout the week (pick a day that works for you), and we need to begin raising funds now so that we’ll be able to move to the field next year.  Like most interdenominational missionary organizations, SIM requires its missionaries to raise their own support.
• Preparing the kids:  We’re so grateful that they’re excited about all of this, but we also ask prayers for guidance as we prepare them for moving to and living in a distant country.
• Sale of our rental house:  Our most recent renters had planned to buy the home, but their situation changed, and the house is now empty.  Please join us in praying that it sells quickly.
• Time:  We have over a year before we leave, but we know that the time will pass quickly.  Sooner than we’ll realize, we’ll be packing and leaving, so we ask your prayers for making good use of our remaining time here for study, preparation, and relationships with friends and family.  Coincidentally, my parents have just popped in for a visit, so this is a perfect time to sign off.  Thank you for your prayers, your interest, and your support.