Ministry in Port Elizabeth
Numbers in ZEBS have slowly started to increase although it is a far slower process than we expected. Mentorship has finally settled into a steady routine for both of us as we regularly (weekly and monthly), meet with folk, study God’s word, and do life together. Meeting with folk via ZOOM is still an active part of our lives.
Louise meets with Anni each month and that has been an encouraging time together.
Our soup kitchen on a Wednesday morning in Motherwell has been an enjoyable time of relationship building as the folk there have got to know us a little better and start to trust us with more of their lives as we have worked together and had fun preparing the food and serving the community. We are not sure of the way forward and continue to wait on the Lord as to the next step as far as His idea of what the future holds. What we do know is that Louise will be doing practical training in teaching the ladies to do flower arrangements for functions.
It has been good seeing Timon find his feet since returning home from furlough in Germany and be part of something new the Lord is doing in a different part of Port Elizabeth.
It has also been so good being able to leave Timon to be part of ZEBS alongside Frankie as Barry has been recovering from his knee replacement.
Family matters.
Varsity for Peta- Jade has been hard and good at the same time. She has proved to herself and others that she is able to achieve her goals and has passed her higher certificate in communications with excellent results. Her graduation ceremony will be in April next year. She hopes to go on to study for a BA at Varsity College next year.
This has been an incredibly challenging year for Nathan. The pressure of High School at the start of the year eventually pushed him over the edge and he had a breakdown in September this year. He was hospitalized and reassessed by the professionals who reminded us that he is on the ASD (autism spectrum disorder) scale and that puberty has heightened the depression and Anxiety in him. They put him on an anti-depressant which proved to have a negative effect on him and only in the beginning of December after being off those meds for a while have things settled a little for him. He has also changed schools as he did not cope in Cape Recife in the last term and is in a small tutoring venue close to home. He is home three hours more a day and so we are all adjusting to a new routine which has been disrupted by the December holidays.
Louise is feeling so much better than she was at the beginning of the year as they discovered that Covid had left her depressed and so being on anti-depressants has made a world of difference to her and as the Lord once again in His wisdom knew what was to come, she was on her meds and stable before Nathan had his breakdown. Barry had a knee replacement, which was scheduled long before Nathan’s rough time and so all the chaos happened in the month of September going into October. The end of this year has been hard, and we are so glad it looks like things are getting better slowly- slowly and surely.
Both Barry and Louise have co-led two “Family Connections,” courses this year and have concluded that one course a year is enough for us to run at this stage in our lives. It is such a “God opportunity” and we are so grateful to the Lord for His guidance and strengthening as we have done the courses.
We are glad that we can look back and say goodbye to things that happened this year that have been hard and celebrate moments that have been victories in the middle of the mess.
God is faithful and we look forward to seeing what He has in store for us in 2023 as we look to raise support and continue to hold onto Him.