Working on a THANK YOU Support Letter...

We went to South Africa.
We saw poverty unparalled.
We saw children without shoes, and were lucky enough to get to provide them w/shoes. Wish you could have seen the faces.
We through the generosity of some of you, gave toothbrushes and toothpaste to child and adult alike. Later saw the kids eating the toothpaste like candy, they don't know candy.
We saw young women and men who’d made an impact. Who were dropped off in a village and were robbed and dealt w/death who were still there. In hearing their story it was because they prayed…were encouraged to 'ask God' (I wish you could hear the accent w/which this is said..sounds like gawd and I smile in the remembering) …the people who told them to pray were very confident He would answer them....they prayed and God told them to stay. In the staying we saw people who were saddened that we were taking them away. They had loved on women and children, built homes and brought love into a village. They had brought Christ into at least one young womans life simply by living what they talked about, so when she talked w/them, what she’d observed in them…matched and she accepted Christ and is hoping to go to the Bible College herself. We were blessed to be the first white people she had ever eaten with, sat with, told HER STORY to…what an amazing privilege that was. The value of a story is really huge. I think I knew it but hearing the stories of so many it really comes full circle. Story, mine, yours is important....
We got to worship w/these young people…their joy, their voices, their exhuberant worship touched us deeply.
We passed out stickers to children…I sometimes hid behind that rather than fully engaging in what they came from. I took photos rather than fully engage. I am sad for that and yet in Him praying and holding onto no irredeemable harm....I don't know what it would have looked like to do it any differently. Just in the looking back . see where I hid.
We fed children... THAT was a humbling experience. Knowing that those we didn’t feed probably didn’t get to eat that nite was devastating….creating a chaos in us that makes us want to see this culture change….
We met people both Afrikan, other and Xhosa who exhibited a faith to us that was both humbling and confusing. We heard stories from them that challenged us to learn how to tell ours.
We went on people’s support and THAT blew us away. That we asked was humbling and filled us w/chaos.
We went to South Africa and everything we’d ever heard in at least 3 money studies over 12 years…. just made sense.
Our money isn’t ours and we want to figure out HOW to get it over there. Not just over there but into the lives of people who are going to change a culture…..who are going to live their lives not counting on seeing the change, just confident that Jesus changes cultures.
We are in the chaos ourselves of wondering what it looks like committed to that and yet every morning wake up w/that thot.
Our gratitude to those of you who sent us is without adequate THANKS….. We are grateful to you who supported us, who prayed for us….We are forever changed by the experience, but I think more than that forever changed by Jesus and His plan for our lives…whatever that may be.
The word CHAOS, we used it a lot…we are in chaos right now. Loving God, Jesus so much and perhaps never having loved you so you would know. Our thanks here is inadequate I know and yet it is all we have right now. THANK YOU for allowing us to go to South Africa and should you ever desire to go count on us to support and pray for you. What an amazing God we serve.

Not part of the letter Abba...just THANK YOU .....answered prayer in that this morning someone, fully qualified... cast vision for a fund raising mission....I just get anxious & fearfully afraid I will miss....after a lifetime lived focused on me...please help me to finish focused on You....