Dear Christ Covenant,

Warmest greetings from sunny South Africa. We are so excited to share with you all that we have been up to over the past several months. We can’t believe that today marks our two-year anniversary of landing here in South Africa. What an exciting journey the last two years have been. When we left, neither of our children had been born, we didn’t full know what the Lord had in store for us here, we didn’t really know anyone, and we didn’t really know what our life here in South Africa would look like. Since then, we have had two children, Alex’s role at East Mountain has taken shape, we have a number of meaningful, deep relationships, and we have as much of a rhythm of life as two young children will allow you. We are grateful to God for His many mercies in our life and try to regularly look back at our life here in Africa and point to the many ways He has been guiding us.

Ministry Update
In our last update we asked you to pray for Luthando (said Lutando), the yearlong intern (what we call a resident) that Alex was mentoring and for whom our family was responsible. Luthando is now living at his home in Kayamandi, which is the black township here in Stellenbosch, and is completing his first month at the University of Stellenbosch where he is studying music. We are very excited about where God is leading Luthando. We would ask that you pray for Luthando’s schooling as some of his classes are in Afrikaans and his first language is Xhosa. He does get the notes in English, but that still isn’t his first language. We would also ask that you pray that “Tando”, as Emma Kate says, would continue to feel a part of our family.

This year East Mountain has 10 new residents, which is a big jump from the 5 we had last year. Alex has been assigned to work with Siyabulela Qangule (said [see-ya-boo-lay-la] [click-goo-le]). We call him Steve. Siyabulela is from Khayelitsha one of the largest black townships in the Western Cape. He is 24 years old, has been serving with a local soccer ministry, and already so grateful for all the Lord has been doing in his life the past few weeks. He is already becoming part of the family. Emma Kate thinks the world of him and Steve is one of the few people that Will will go to without screaming. It has already been a great joy to work with Steve. He has a deep passion for the kids of Khayelitsha and desperately doesn’t want them making some of the same mistakes he did. His hope is that through soccer and his church with which his ministry is connected, he can help keep the kids off the streets, give them a skill, and allow them to have some fun in the process. Pray for Steve as the work load at East Mountain is proving to keep him very busy.

Currently we have 4 interns who serve in a church in the US staying at East Mountain for a few weeks to gain a better perspective of what God is doing globally and to participate in the life of East Mountain. Alex has charge over their schedule and finances and is working with one of our newer East Mountain families, Cody & Megan to ensure that their time here proves to encourage both them and East Mountain.

Next week, the whole family is headed to Port Elizabeth, about an 8-hour drive, to help with a team from Wheaton College. Every year a group of boys from the Wheaton football team come over their spring break to serve East Mountain. This year we will have 9 boys and we are sending them to work with some of our partner churches in Port Elizabeth. Alex has been given charge over the logistics of the trip. We are very excited about their time with us. They will be putting a playground in at a church whose facilities are often used for tutoring. The playground will give parents a place for the younger kids to play while the older siblings are being tutored.

Alex is also hard at work on Summit, East Mountain’s 6-week internship. So far we have about 6 Americans signed up and are hoping for about 4 -6 more. We are about to start recruiting our South African participants and are praying for 10 – 12. Summit is one of the most amazing times of the year for us as it always proves to be a space where the participants learn about God, missions, culture, and community. We would ask that you pray for Summit. There is still a lot of work that needs to go into the preparation for Summit. Alex is working with Nimo, one of our second year residents, who would like to replicate Summit in Port Elizabeth next year.

Click here for LINK to read an article from one of our Summit participants from last year.

Family Update
We are happy to say that the family is doing well. I guess the biggest news is that William started crawling about a week ago and Emma Kate is almost fully potty trained. Both the kids are in swim lessons, which they enjoy very much. They are both proving to keep us on our toes, but we love our little family and very grateful for the gift of children. Now that Will is mobile, Emma Kate enjoys playing with him more. She loves to copy all the things Will is doing, such as his crawling and his crying. She also enjoys sitting under the kitchen with Will and “reading” to him her favorite books. There is such joy in hearing them laugh together.

Click here for more pictures on our Facebook page.
Our lease at our house ends on April 30 and we are in the process of figuring out if we should move or stay put. There are a lot of factors that go into that decision, cost, the difficultly of moving, and the fact that our visas run out at the end of January, so if we move, it could only be through January at the latest. We have to return to the US to renew are visas, so we are thinking we would return to the US sometime in December in hopes of seeing family for the holidays. We would ask that you pray for wisdom concerning this decision.

Financial Update
I believe we have explained this before, but just to keep everyone up to speed, we will recap where we stand. Upon moving here, we were given a large donation to help cover the deficit we had for a number of months. We calculated that the donation would last us 18 months and praise the Lord it has lasted us 24 months and looks it will keep us her several more months. Our hope is that we could stay here through December and it looks like those funds won’t last us until then. We have reached out to a number of churches with whom we have some contact and asked them to consider helping us reach our goal. We have had a positive response from one church and are waiting on several others. We would ask you to pray that God would provide exactly what we need.