Dear Praying Friends,
For this update, we’d like to share our family highlights, ministry highlights, and personal highlights from 2022. Before we mention specifics, we just want to thank and praise God for His grace to us, His love for us, and His work in us. We are blessed to close yet another year of serving Him in beautiful Knysna SA!
Family Highlights: Given that our highlight for 2021 was George David getting married, our highlight for 2022 is most certainly Ashley getting married. We marvel at the spouses God has matched with our two eldest, and we are privileged to observe each of them grow in their respective marriages – one from afar (George David and Sarah in Richmond, VA) and one from much less afar (Ashley and Louis only an hour away!). We also should note the “highlight” of Alyssa leaving SA to begin her studies at university; however, this was a bit too sobering for us to see it properly as a highlight. We probably see it more as a “significant event” that gives equal measures of joy and sadness. But all in all, we are thrilled with what God is doing and has done in the lives of our children!
Ministry Highlights: For Amy, the ministry highlight of 2022 was seeing our church family in action/service together, most notably in the context of special services conducted at Easter and Christmas. What a joy to see God’s people united in praise and worship, using their gifts and abilities for God’s glory, and winsomely proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our town! As church planters, we really cannot ask for more. For me, George, the highlight has been seeing the Biblical Leadership Institute both complete and then restart its course in our initial location (Sedgefield), with two students moving onto further studies after having completed the full complement of BLI’s course offerings. The development of theological education here is slow but steady, with promises of more fruit to come.
Personal Highlights: For me, George, the highlight has been a painful but necessary refining process of God forcing me to engage in ministry opportunities I’d rather pass up. The specifics are private, but in short, I’ve been forced to wear a couple ministry “hats” that I would never have wanted to wear (and honestly still don’t!). Through it, God continues to expose my tendency to rely on self, relentlessly demanding that I trust Him fully instead. Wouldn’t you think I’d have learned this lesson by now?! But alas, there remains more work to be done – a lot more! This year was also a year of growth for Amy as she was “forced” to lead our church’s Ladies’ Bible Study for about six months while teammate, Janet, was on furlough. It isn’t something she really enjoys or feels adequate to do, but the ladies were gracious and she grew in the process. Probably the biggest highlight for Amy is seeing our children thriving where God has placed them. God blesses parents with children and gives them to us for a very short season to train. Many of you have been through sending your children off, and you know how painful that process is of letting go. If you aren’t there yet, enjoy those moments! The days are long but the years fly by! Amy is so thankful each one of our children loves the Lord and is being faithful to Him where He has placed them. There is not much more thrilling than seeing that happen.
This past year has been busy, challenging, rewarding, fulfilling, fruitful, and blessed. We continue to see people discipled to Christ and in Christ. We continue to see God at work in the specific ministries to which we’ve been called, and therefore we continue to believe God has us here, in this place, both now and for the foreseeable future. We are grateful for each of you who support us with prayer, financial contributions, and regular expressions of encouragement and friendship. Please pray with us that 2023 will offer yet more opportunities for the name of Jesus Christ to be made known in this place!
In Him,
George and Amy