Dear Praying Friends,
We are so delighted and grateful to be able to send this update from beautiful Knysna, South Africa! Solely by God’s grace and in His provision, we safely arrived on the evening of August 16. We wanted to get an update sent long before now, but it has taken a while to get WiFi in our rental home. However, we’re not complaining. Our service was set up quickly compared to thousands here still without WiFi since the fires from early June! So while we felt disconnected for a while, it’s great to be back in touch with all of you. Thank you for your prayers for us, and for your patience in waiting to hear from us.
We have much to be thankful for as we have begun the process of settling in our new home. First, our trip here was relatively smooth and stress-free. Several team members met us at the airport and welcomed us with much fanfare! It was dark when we landed, and pouring rain, so we didn’t see much of our neighborhood as we drove to our home. But the next morning, we awoke to see our surroundings and quickly identified the second major thing to be thankful for – the survival of our rental home. What an amazing sight! Houses on all four sides of us were destroyed in the fires. Yet our house stands virtually unscathed. The devastation can be seen from any window in our house – it’s that close! Third, we are extremely grateful for our teammates here. We have already secured phone numbers, a bank account, in-home WiFi, and many other ‘settling in’ things essential to get off to a good start – all because we are surrounded by people who we already know, who love us and want to help us. There are many other things we could mention, but these are some of the highlights.
In addition to the above praises, we do have a few requests we’d ask you to keep in mind. First, we are hopeful we will receive the contents of our container this Saturday. Please pray all our belongings arrive in good condition during that transition process. Second, we’re having a bit of trouble getting funds transferred between our US bank account and the one we just opened here. We believe it will end up okay, but there is a large sum of money ‘suspended’ between accounts right now, and we’re pushing to get this resolved. Third, Alyssa will be starting school on Monday. Originally we had planned for her to begin in October as an audit student until their current school year ends in December. However, the headmaster suggested we start her now rather than later to allow more time to “settle in.” Please pray for her transition to a new school. We are thankful she has a “buddy” during this audit period, and it is a girl she already knows whose parents are missionaries here. God is so good and kind! Fourth, please pray for ongoing strength and stability as we continue to settle in. While Knysna is a wonderful place, it is still very foreign to us; and we need to learn, adapt, and adjust in many small ways. This is an exciting thing for us, but it’s also a big adjustment.
As always, we continue to feel the power of your prayers on our behalf. Please continue lifting us up, and we promise to do likewise for you. In the next week or two, we will send another update with more details on our first few weeks here. In the meantime, if there is anything you’d like to ask or share with us, please do so via a response to this e-mail. We love you all!
For His Glory,
George & Amy