Dear Christ Covenant,
It is a true joy to get to write to you today.  We have a number of exciting updates to share with you in this letter and we pray this serves to encourage you as you read about the Lord’s answers to your many prayers.  When we returned from South Africa in October of 2017 we had been praying that during our time here in the United Sates, the Lord would allow us to raise the necessary funds in order to return to South Africa, successfully renew our visas to South Africa, and sell our home here in Atlanta which has been a bit of a burden over the past several years in Africa.
We are very pleased to share that we are now at 90% of our monthly support need and are praying that the Lord continues to close the small remaining gap.  We would be overjoyed if we could return to South Africa in late June.  Due to the our longer than expected time back here in the US raising support, we are still in need of some onetime funds.  If you would like to help get us to that ever so close finish line, just click on the picture of Emma Kate and William below.  Or, if you know of an individual or church who might be willing to contribute towards the work in South Africa, please feel free to forward this email or send us their contact.  We would also ask that you pray that the Lord would continue to teach us to trust in him for his provision in our lives.

We will be applying to renew our expired visas next week.  This involves a trip to New York where the whole family must apply in person.  Recently, a number of our colleagues have been denied their visas and it is a real possibility that we will as well.  We aren't sure of the reasoning for the denials and are taking extra care to make sure that all our paper work is in order.  We are grateful to the Lord for his graciousness to us in this process already.  We realized that both Emma Kate and Will would need new passports.  Amazingly this process only took two weeks.  We also had to apply for a police clearance from South Africa.  This process is known to be slow.  But, by God’s great goodness, we also received that within two weeks of applying.  We would ask that you now pray that the visa office in New York would be favorable to us and that in our next update we would be writing you with exciting news.

We are also excited to share that we decided to try and sell our home several weeks ago.  After being on the market for less that 24 hours we received 5 offers and accepted one of them.  This was the first home that we had ever purchased and while we are a little sad to see it go, we are also very pleased that we can return to South Africa without having to navigate renting a home from the other side of the world.
We cannot tell you how grateful we are for all your prayers and support.  While this is a very positive update, the answered prayer hasn’t come without a lot of faithlessness on our part.  We often felt like the Israelites in the desert, wondering if God was going to provide for them, even though he had never not taken care of them.  I am reminded of a song that has served to encourage us to look to Christ and his saving work on the cross on our behalf and that his ultimate provision is eternity with him.

Prayer 

We would ask that you would pray for a temporary vehicle for us.  We have to turn in the van that we have been using on June 1st and will be looking for a car for the remaining time in the US.
Please pray about all the transition that is about to take place.  We are going to start looking at houses to rent in South Africa and begin thinking through the packing and return process.
Pray for our children as they transition back to South Africa and say goodbye to all their newly met friends and family.

Alex and Maggie Halbert
UMW - South Africa