Neil, Tendai and Vuyo in South Africa/Zambia #4
Hello again!
We have some exciting news this time.......
Zambia
I will be travelling to Zambia next week, 16th to 22nd March. Gary Welsh visited Livingstone in January to do some much needed church leadership training accompanied by John Cleverley from Beulah Community Church, Thornton Heath in London - thanks mainly to you who financially made it possible.
He again travelled there last week to attend an apostolic team meeting of all the main church leaders in Zambia, some of which are reaching into other nations in Southern Africa. It wasn't the easiest of times as a decision had to be made as to whether the Lusaka church plant would go ahead this year. Sadly, the news is that it will not, at least not in the form we had initially thought, but there were other plus points that came out of this time. - Again, this was mainly made possible by your generous assistance.
And next week 16th to 22nd March I travel there to meet up with Joseph and Lillian (who some of you know) in Kitwe before travelling down to Kabwe to meet up with Alex and Casey and then onto to Lusaka to meet up with Steve Allen, another new guy on the scene. Part of the thinking behind the postponement of the Lusaka church plant is the need to strengthen the supply lines from the Zambian churches that will be largely supporting the church plant, this is where I come in. Joseph is already lining up meetings for me with leaders in Kitwe who are "looking in" on Newfrontiers and need to know more. My friendship with Alex and CCC will be maintained whilst at the same time building new friendships with Casey who runs 3 churches in Kabwe, and Steve. Once again this has been made possible by you.
Mark Driscoll
I didn't want to go all the way to Seattle, USA like Jonathan did in order to hook up with Mark Driscoll, so instead he came to me! Well not quite, our friends PJ and Ashleigh Smyth (who most of you know) have built a lot of momentum at Godfirst church in Jo'burg - their church is now 1700 strong in just 5 years with multiple services etc., they are involved in an initiative called Urbanforce which is mainly aimed at cities and especially Jo'burg and Cape Town, the two most culturally important cities in South Africa. This initiative is tapping into all the main influencers around the world, one of which is Mark Driscoll, so PJ managed to get him to come to Cape Town and Jo'berg to hold a two day missional church conference in both cities - it was brilliant to meet together with 74 other churches and 400 leaders at Jubilee in order to be reminded that we exist for mission! It was also brilliant to meet up with PJ too!
Sorry I forgot the camera, but then again one conference looks like any other...
Bump
But best of all is this.......
Yes, in case you can't work it out, this is Ariella (assuming it's a girl!) And yes, we are expecting in September!
We couldn't tell you earlier, but one of the sovereign providential blessings of Vuyo's study permit was that we had to get onto medical aid a lot earlier than we planned, the result? We are totally covered for all expenditure related to Ariella. Both Mum and Dad are excitingly looking forward to her happy arrival - perhaps Mum more so as life has been very tiring since the news broke. 3 months down the line things are showing signs of improving and the first scan went perfectly as you can see above. Mum is still looking as beautiful as ever despite a slight bump!....
VISAs and Home
Naturally expecting a little one changes the perspective and needing to do something sooner rather than later in the year has become paramount. We think we have found a solution though in a business visa but that will require some "tent making" whilst on the mission - we won't know totally whether this will be successful until later on in the year, we trust God and our immigration consultant is very confident so that looks like the way we'll be going in terms of the future - Nothing has happened so far to contradict our sense of calling here so we're going to give it our all and trust God.....scary I suppose but I can't talk about men being Wild at Heart and not do anything myself can I?
Added to this, we also need to secure where we stay in advance of Ariella's arrival, so we've also been house hunting! Sadly the views we have from our current rented house have had to be sacrificed for a much more family feel...today we signed up for our new house! See below
Overall, we've had an exciting beginning to our South African adventure and as as special request for Linda here's a picture of the same view from our veranda as the last article, this time early in the evening - sadly it won't be our view from 1st August, aagghh the things you have to give up when on mission - but it's worth it!
Issues to pray for are personally for that business VISA to come through and for a save arrival of Ariella in September, but also for my trip to Zambia, the relationships built and the unfolding of the strategy for the future.
Until next time, our love to everyone
Neil, Tendai Vuyo & Ariella (bump)
PS The new house still has loads of room for visitors...wink, wink etc.
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