We are the Livingstons

 

Who are the Livingstons? Kim & Jeff Livingston are a South African couple that have been accepted as associate missionaries with ZEMA. The Livingstons have four children: three boys, Jaden (16yrs), Ryan (13yrs), Luke (11yrs), and a daughter, Tori (7yrs).
Church History: Kim and Jeff were involved in church and the Baptist community from a young age. Jeff attended Hatfield Bible School prior to his military service and they were part of a church planting team with Coastlands Baptist Church. After serving with Coastlands Baptist Church they joined Westville Baptist Church and later settled their family at Redpoint Church.
They are involved with several ministries at Redpoint: children’s ministry, Life Groups, youth and worship bands, and Kim teaches guitar.
Homeschooling and Occupations: All of the Livingston children are homeschooled by Kim. She does website design and hosting work from home and has been working with the ZEMA Media team to redesign our website. (Her talent and joyful spirit have been a tremendous blessing to the ZEMA media ministry, particularly during lockdown.) Before this, Kim worked in Logistics at AVI – a job she left in 2006 to start homeschooling.
Jeff was self-employed most of his life in the clothing and warehousing industries. Jeff & Kim currently have a small business that operates leisure boat rides (gondolas) at the Durban Point Waterfront Canal. This business has provided supplementary income while Jeff worked, for the past six years, as a maintenance manager at Compass Medical Waste (CMW).
Tshelimnyama: Jeff felt a calling to be involved in ministry, particularly in the area outside Durban called Tshelimnyama where many of his colleagues from CMW live. At the beginning of 2019, Jeff promised God he would respond positively to any request from God to minister in that area. Shortly thereafter, Jeff was asked by a co-worker (a new convert) to come and share at a youth day he was organizing in Tshelimnyama. Jeff was excited to see God use his commitment. He had no idea that by November he would be involved in Tshelimnyama with ZEMA.
Jericho Walls: At the end of May 2019 Jeff had an epiphany. He envisioned the Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho for six days. Nothing happened until the end of their march on the 7th day when – with a loud shout – the walls came tumbling down. It was then Jeff realized he had been employed at CMW for exactly six years as of June 1st. Jeff was marching into his “Jericho” year…the walls were about to fall! Soon Jeff and Kim would be marching into new territory. Jeff saw scripture after scripture and many signs indicating he would be leaving the ‘Compass chapter’ of their lives. In those six years, God had used CMW to form Jeff and lead the Livingstons in a new direction.
A new chapter: Together, Jeff & Kim decided he should resign from CMW and they would work together to grow their Gondola business. Jeff planned to take over a small maintenance business from a retiring friend…. but our Heavenly Father had other plans…
The Hasenknopfs and ZEMA: Thomas & Laura Hasenknopf, partner missionaries with ZEMA, had begun a ZEBS in Tshelimnyama. When the Hasenknopfs learned Jeff was resigning and interested in Thomas’ work they were excited! Thomas and Laura had been praying for someone to take over Thomas’ responsibilities for some of the ZEBS schools around Durban as Thomas was to assume a new position in Germany. The Hasenknopfs asked the Livingstons to consider joining ZEMA. The Livingstons felt God leading them to become involved with ZEMA’s work. Soon after, they met with Greg and Carlene Seghers and were invited to ZEMA’s Annual Missionary Conference at Sunbury.

The Final Sign On the morning Jeff was resigning from CMW he asked God for one final sign. There had been so many – but Jeff asked for one more to calm his nerves! Ten minutes later, waiting for the traffic light to change, Jeff suddenly became aware of the license plate on the vehicle in front of him which read “ZION”! Remembering his morning prayer, it was as if the Father was saying, “I have given you so many signs – and confirmations! But if you still want me to spell it out for you – here it is!” And the Livingston’s story, like that of all His children, will continue to be written by His Spirit through us…The ZEMA Home Office would like to thank the many volunteers who assisted in writing, editing, designing, folding, sealing, addressing, and organizing this newsletter.

If you would like to volunteer to help with the quarterly newsletters call or text Kathy at 847.872.7363.

Learn More Inside
PO Box 727

Zion IL 60099
www.zema.org
847-872-7363

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