Happy Thanksgiving!

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God!
It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His Name.
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

When we left for South Africa we had huge plans of technologically advanced communication; blogs, emails, web pages and all. Our prideful promises were met with challenges, heartaches, ignorance (ours), and a mountain of learning. This first blog post is a fulfilment of at least a small portion of those promises. Our hope is that this blog will serve as place where our descriptions of life in South Africa and our experiences can be shared with you.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Well, not here. At least not by the vast majority of the population for now. Those of you who know my wife Shelly can attest, she'll stir up some incredibly delicious dishes. The temptations will be too much to overcome, then, several friends and I will moan from over indulging. But before we dive into the blessing of His provisions, I pray we can pause and truly take stock on what this day means to us.

As I write this post and reflect on what I want to say, I can't help but thank our Lord, Jesus, first and foremost. We tend to "take for granted" the bountiful harvest that is provided before us each day. But truly I must acknowledge and humbly thank the One who "grants." What a privilege it is to serve the Most Highest and to share His love.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the Light of Men. The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

John 1:1-5

There are so many people that we give thanks for. All of you who have supported us, financially, prayerfully and lovingly! You are such a blessing. Someday you will each personally know how much we love you. If not here, in eternity.

This last year has gone by quickly. Trying to get our feet solidly grounded on African soil has been a challenge but we get by with the support of friends and family.

We are blessed by our church family here in South Africa at Bryanston Bible Church more than we could have ever thought or imagined. They still don't know how to take this American family but they love us just the same! We love them, too.

Our church family in Lancaster continues to shower us in love, we feel their prayers daily and let me state virtually and any other way, we couldn't do without them and love them dearly and deeply.

Our family in New Mexico continues to send us care packages of tangible love; chocolate chips, green chili, and even beef jerky! It's hard to describe the excitement we feel when we get a priority mail package from home. Yes, it's those things you just can't get here, but really it's the connection to our loved ones that excites us most. Thank you to the Hill's, the Keenan's and the Robert's. We love you all!

We are thankful for our son Ryan and his success and life in Seattle. The hardest aspects of our moving to South Africa was leaving him a continent away. We miss him dearly. Please pray that he get his passport together so he can visit us soon! Sorry Ryan, I think you're coming to Africa soon!

We are thankful for our past careers. They have allowed us the freedom we enjoy and our colleagues for fond memories filled with cheer and friendships we long for.

We are so privileged to serve people; whether we are in a government clinic helping an newly diagnosised HIV+ women plan a future of hope, encouraging a young Reach4Life group leader to go and change the world, or feeding a homeless refugee who lives on a river bank a meal and the Word of God. Oh my, who are we? Thank you for opportunity to be your feet and hands my Saviour!

Aren't blogs suppose to be short. I'm new at this so please bear with me. Happy Thanksgiving! Know we lift you in name to Him whose feet are the highest place. God bless you all!