If you read our last update, you might have seen that we are fundraising to buy a family van. What you might NOT have seen is my stomach lurching and face twisting when I asked our beloved friends, family, and people of the Internet for help.

We have been sustained as missionaries in South Africa by people's giving for almost thirteen years. THIRTEEN YEARS...

It's my South African birthday! 🥳 I landed in South Africa for the first time on 14 January 2010... 12 years ago!

After five years of single-parenting, God gave me an incredible husband. Since we've moved from America, we've lost all of our grandparents without goodbyes. We've missed a generation of weddings, babies, and milestones - as well as pizza nights and Saturdays with our parents, siblings and cousins. We fused together a family in strange and lonely circumstances, and have since been impacted by mass injustice, corruption, brokenness and oppression.

Church was amazing this Sunday! We expected a quiet morning as rumors of a third wave of COVID rippled through the nation. I took my place next to Chris on the front row ten minutes after the service started. Several new families had poured in the door at the last minute, and I was helping them get their kids checked in. Chris leaned in to me when I joined him and asked, "Is it empty in here?" I whispered that I couldn't see any open seats.

Have you ever had a hope hurt so badly you couldn't pray for it anymore? Do you know the deafening silence that follows your "amen" night after night, year after year?

Take a journey with me through our last 7 years...

Today's call to worship is an excerpt from a famous sermon by S.M. Lockridge. Enjoy your day, and remember that Sunday's is a coming! 🙌

Thank you for praying for us after I wrote this blog. I didn’t leave Home Affairs that day with the miracle piece of paper I was hoping for, but I did leave with a miraculous peace. Here’s a quick article I wrote for the Help Club for Moms about it. Three days later, I’m still consumed by joy and peace. It just took one exhausted encounter with God, and I truly feel like I’ve been forever changed.

Take that, devil.

This was not the miracle story I intended to share with you today. (Another great reason to extend miracle week!) But there’s a real-time reason I chose this story to share with you - and even post it a day early. This is a testimony and an invitation. Both of our boys need birth certificates still. This has many implications on our everyday lives, as well as the big picture….

We’re reaching back into the archives today! I originally published this story on November 5, 2012. This Thanksgiving season and this talk about giving made me think of it again.

There’s just nothing like watching a miracle unfold in your very own hands. The awe, wonder and supernatural power of a miracle breaks off chains, swings locked doors wide open, and makes the impossible possible in your life. If you happen to be low on faith or hope this holiday season, borrow some of mine. These aren’t empty calories. They are real, filling, and there are plenty of leftovers! Enjoy the read!

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.

I was trembling with the possibility. This was it. Resolution was at hand. Urgently. We spent an hour in the board room, reviewing the court appeal and asking questions. Lifa tried to look convincing “studying” next to me - but was actually gaping at our larger-than-life lawyer with his fast flowing  legal jargon. I initialed every single page of the appeal in a room stacked high with folders and appeals, and we were sent on our way to wait. Urgently waiting. 

It was not what I expected. 

Miracles display the glory of God. I want in on that. This post is more of an invitation than a story. I’d like to invite you to send your miracle-request and know I’m going to write it down. I will stand for your miracle with you. On the days you just can’t pray for it, you’ll know it’s covered. I’ll guard it with the sanctity it deserves and not share it with others. And I’ll celebrate every heaven-opening victory with you as you share it with me. I can’t wait!!!

I can think of no better way to complete this week of looking back at God’s faithfulness than with a miracle! This story from November 2012 celebrates being a part of one of many food multiplications I’ve been able to watch God do. He is so good, and He never runs short. Remember that this weekend in whatever you find yourself doing!

Did you see our new house!?!

There is one thing I didn’t show you on the tour: our closet.  

First, you should know that closets are almost non-existent in South Africa. If you’re lucky, you get a few built-in cupboards. Chris and I have never been able to fit both of our clothes in our bedroom before now. You can imagine the squeals of delight when we opened this little magic door in our bedroom…

The greatest win for today, however, is to stop asking questions and letting my insecurities and inadequacies spiral out of control. The greatest win is to just write something.

You have to be moving to have momentum. Your miracles and breakthroughs happen inside your momentum. We honor God with our movement.

The rest of this post is not written to you. It’s a raw response that shot out of my highly-caffeinated fingers and overcome heart. I think you should read it because one day you might need some hope to hold on to.

There have been dangerous and difficult times since we said “yes” to God’s call in our lives, many of them better left unspoken. But we have also learned when it’s important to speak, and today is one of those days.

After my first year in South Africa, I visited my family in Texas. I took a walk… No, a stomp down the beach on Galveston Island, spiritually arrested with the choice God had laid before me. He gave me a “Yes or No only” invitation for a very special kind of life and family.

A miracle is something that happens in this world but doesn’t follow the rules of this world. We are bound with all kinds of rules like gravity, time, space, probability and logic. A miracle reminds us there’s something more and Some One bigger and better than that. We want to be a miracle family. No, scratch that… We are a miracle family.

Dirty, desolate Benji has probably never had a smiling mama to wash away the dirt or to sing away the desolation. He lives with relatives, but he has no parents. He shares a living space inside a culture that feels no obligation to reach for you, touch you or sing over you if you are not their own. No matter how many baths he takes or how many people are around him, without being seen, reached for, touched, he will always be dirty, desolate Benji.