Has the whole world gone mad? Political turmoil seems to be a common denominator across the globe.
As we prepare to leave the US for our new assignment in southern Africa, we are receiving disturbing reports of riots, marches, destructive behaviour or protestors, and call for the removal of the President. Add to that the concern about the lack of water in the western Cape…dam levels are at their lowest in living memory. (See links below.)
Surely this is a call to prayer if ever there was one.
I am reminded of a prayer practiced by Mark Batterson. He calls it the 7:14 prayer as it is based on 2 Chronicles 7:14. At 7:14 AM every morning, he and his parishioners hit their knees and pray for the healing of their land. May I ask you all to join Louise and me in this type of prayer for southern Africa?
God willing, we will leave for Cape Town on April 10 via Addis Ababa. As we only have one and a half hours lay-over in Addis, we are praying that either the flight from Washington DC is early and that a favourable wind blows us over the Atlantic so that we arrive a lot earlier than expected or that the flight from Addis to Cape Town is delayed…we would prefer to arrive in Cape Town with our luggage rather than without!
Louise’s family will meet us at the airport and take us to Villiersdorp where we have to do so many things before moving into our new wee flat in Wynberg on Friday! We have to collect our new South African IDs as we are considered residents now. We also have to open a South African bank account and get South African driver’s license. YIKES! All in a few days…pray that this will be possible. We would rather get our licenses in a small town than in the city!
Growing the Church has let us know that we will be going to Mozambique to train a team of disciplers there beginning April 25. Please pray for our acquisition of visas at the border…this has become possible again since the cease-fire agreement, but it can be a sticky process for US passport holders.
All in all, our visit to the US has been wonderful. We have some great memories of times with our children and grandchildren to take with us, we have managed to catch with many dear friends, and have made many new friends as well. God has spoiled us thoroughly and we are thankful.
SAMS has let us know that we are closer to our support goal, but that we still need about $700 per month extra. We know that quite a few folk promised to become part of our support team, but they may not have given yet. Pray that we will be fully funded by the time we leave.
We are grateful to all or our wonderful team members. Thank you for your faithfulness to the spread of the Gospel.
We will send you our snail mail address as soon as we know what it is. For those who have sent care-packages before, this will be so much more secure than before!
With much love and blessings.
Johann and Louise van der Bijl