Hello 2008

Well, this post was started on the 1st and now I am just now getting a chance to finish it. I am finding out that with 5 children, things are getting a little harder to complete. I guess it doesn’t help with other extended family members in visiting.

I trust that you had a great Christmas time and a happy New Year. Ours was definitely busy. All of Jody’s family was in – that means a total of 2 parents, 4 children, 4 sons and daughters-in-laws, and 13 grandchildren. It was a houseful to say the least. We were up at 4:45 to open presents. There were some who weren’t too happy that it was so early. I won’t say who!

We were scheduled to return to South Africa tomorrow – the 4th. Unfortunately, tickets were not available until 16th – so we are delayed until then. That is a point of prayer for us because we have a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Some people are saying that we should go and sightsee – yeah, that sounds fun with 5 children – 2 strollers and 14 carryon’s – I guess we could rent 3 taxi’s!! I just checked the forecast and it looks to be in the high 30’s – boy, that sounds like a lot of fun. So, just pray.

We leave DFW on January 16th at 4:15 pm and we arrive in Jo-burg on the 18th at 10:00 am. So you are talking about 34 hours of traveling. Then we’ll drive to Mmabatho on Saturday and then school for Josiah and Caleb starts that next Tuesday.

Jody’s dad is doing really well. He has been out of the hospital for about a month and is working on regaining his strength and weight. (and hair) The doctors are encouraged by his progress and feel that his stem-cell transplant was a success.

Since the end of July, I have been in the naturalization process to become an American citizen. My forms were finally entered into the computer on the 10th of December. The official receipt said that I would get a call for an appointment in the next 240 day – so unless something happens in the next 10 days or so, I will be returning here to complete this process. You can pray that I will get an appointment before we leave and I can be naturalized before we leave.

A special thanks to all our new friends, prayer partners, and the churches that we had an opportunity to speak in these last 6 months. What a joy it was to meet you and spend time with many of you. We certainly appreciate your prayers. You make our job possible by your support. We would not want to return to the field without your prayer support. Thanks, also for your support of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering - I have heard many encouraging reports of goals being met.