Have you heard about Words to Live By!?! Read this short blog for everything you need to know about it. Chris and I are passionate about this discipline. I promise… it will change your life! I want to share my 2022 Words to Live By with you to encourage you to write your own! Mine my change over time as I settle into declaring them out loud daily, but here’s what I’m starting with. You can click the button below for a list of declarations that you can use to make your own. I used this list and a few other resources I’ll share below as well. Let me know if you’ve written yours too!

South Africa is back on lockdown, and it’s easy to turn attention toward what we cannot do according to restrictions. But, you know what’s so cool… We can still pray together! This week, I had an opportunity to host a live, international prayer event with Help Club for Moms. Moms from around the world came together to hear encouragement from God’s Word and to pray together. It was so powerful, I realized that our church could still access the power of corporate prayer together. The prayer ministry I’ve been so excited to start… is starting! We don’t need to meet together physically to pray together. God’s power is here. No walls required!

Happy New Year from the Ladd family! News seems more extreme than ever on the global scale. Thanks for taking a moment to zoom in to our little corner of the world. We have much to share with you, and we can do it with pictures and bullet points! Here’s some noteworthy news from us. HINT: Hang in till the end or skip ahead: The last part is the best!

When I was a freshly-degreed young woman, testing the waters of adulthood, I looked life straight in the eye. I knew where I wanted to go, how to get there, and nothing would stop me. I did not, however, factor in life. People, circumstances, sin, suffering, and all of my ickly-prickly shortcomings.

I recently went to a mall to pick up a gift for a friend. I had a toddler strapped to my body, a mask on my face, and bags in each hand. I glanced at a window display of women’s clothing and thought, “That is a store for grown-ups.”

If you’ve been around me or my writing for more than a minute, you’ve probably noticed I talk a lot about the Help Club for Moms. I reached out to the leader, Deb, over a year ago and asked if I could bring Help Club to South Africa and “make it a thing”.

I’ve lost count of how many phone calls, prayers and encouraging discussions I’ve had with Deb and the Help Club team members since then. I’ve been honored to write regularly for the international ministry.

Hi! Let’s take a Thursday deep breath, and do a quick self-inventory. How would you answer these questions about yourself? (They are today questions, but you can use yesterday if you are reading this in the morning.)

What did you talk about today? What kinds of words did you use? Did you build up or tear down? What do you look like today? How do you feel today? How are you talking about those things?

The Ladd house has been hustling! Chris has preached for Southpoint’s Church Online for the last 3 weeks in a row. (Click here to see messages!) And we have kicked off the 15x15 Worship Challenge, Virtual Book Study, and online community for Help Club for Moms South Africa. Every day, Chris and I are more blown away that God is giving us platforms to do the things we love to do so much.

In 2014, I was a single missionary living in the African bush. At one stage, every other leader of the ministry I was working with had to travel out of the country, and I was singlehandedly leading a local staff, missions staff, hosting international missions teams, facilitating all ministry and running the missions base. At that same time, I heard the popular speaker, Christine Caine, share her amazing life’s accomplishments. She said when she started to feel like she had too much on her plate, she’d ask God for a bigger plate. I started to pray that same prayer, and God was so faithful.

I have to buy Benjamin a new pair of pants today because ALL of his pants are wet and muddy. Good news! The Cape Town drought is OVER! Just a little over a year ago, we were all showering in buckets and recycling water too many times just so the city would not run completely dry. Now I CANNOT keep my child dry! We’ve been cold and wet for days, and we are celebrating! Benjamin is especially celebrating.

Boom. Clap. Boom. Clap.

The sound on the kitchen counter during breakfast this morning. Lifa was trying to teach Benjamin how to slap his palms down on the countertop and then clap to make a beat. It was adorable. Benjamin will do anything Lifa does. (Which is not always adorable.)

I want to tell you about a short series of small events that have turned into something of epic proportions. A couple of weeks ago, Chris’ visa renewal application was denied. It felt like a step far, far, farrrrr away from the prayers we’ve been praying for our family’s documentation for the last three years.

We live here! We know those storms! We just went 24 hours without electricity last week because of them! A quick google search on this revealed that the actual Portuguese translation for the “Cape of Storms” could also be read “Cape of Torment”. The very same cape as the Cape of Good Hope. You could say it depends on the day, the wind, the weather. Or it could be the perspective and experience you bring. But you know what else... it could just be what you decide to call it.

I didn’t know what to do with a newborn. I needed my mom. Lifa needed his mom. My body and my husband’s mental health were shutting down. I desperately sought refuge in God’s Word through the YouVersion Bible app - the easiest thing to hold onto while caring for a baby. I found incredible encouragement through a plan by the Help Club for Moms there and decided to do a little research on their website.

Suddenly, there was help! There were moms! There was hope! I didn’t know how much moms needed moms and people needed hope until I ran out - until I was stuck half a world away from my mom and didn’t know how to be the mom to the kids living at my house.

On Sunday night we sat in our living room with two cooing babies, a toddler with her art supplies, and a couple of couches full of real people. One woman had left her husband that morning after learning that the adulterous relationship from 2013 was still active. Another woman came late because she had a sick child and was caught up in the boughs of an unbearably oppressive home life. Another family is getting ready to welcome baby #3 into the world and has no idea where this baby's car seat or crib will fit into their very compact life.

Needless to say, finding a good gym was important to me when we moved to Cape Town. I’m often the only female in the weight room, and I had no idea how much that would impact me. A year ago, I joined a small gym a mile from our house. I was lifting weights 4x/week and became a familiar face quickly… Because I was the only girl-face in the weight room. There was the guy who cleaned, the guy doing the same 5x5 program as me that always took his shoes off to lift, the guy who headphone-danced while he lifted, the guy who made secret videos of himself and sent loud voice messages between sets, the most adorable elderly man who would curl dumbbells and sweat buckets, and the guys who scream-talked about their favorite protein drinks. We all grew accustomed to seeing each other and exchanged polite smiles as we began workouts.