One Year In

Dear Faithful Supporters and Prayer Partners,

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve recently gone beyond the one year mark of ministry in South Africa. The Lord has been faithful just as He promised, and you have been a great encouragement to us along this journey.

As we begin our second year, we want to share some specific ministry plans for the coming year so you know what is happening here and so you can pray with us about these opportunities . . .

1. We plan to move the Life Fellowship church plant from a “house church” to meeting in our recently acquired building by March 1. We are excited about having a more visible presence in the city of George.
2. We established a focus for Life Fellowship for the coming year built on 2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” We are using this verse to guide our life together as a church-in formation and to challenge our group about areas of needed growth.
3. We plan to start Biblical Leadership Institute theological training classes in our city beginning February 22. 
4. We have begun renovation work on one of the buildings we have recently purchased and plan to have parts of our community outreach center operational by March 1. We began our outreach efforts with a gospel-centered ministry called GriefShare this past Wednesday. 

As you pray for us, please pray for the Lord to work in these areas:

1. Pray for our ongoing evangelism and discipleship efforts as we seek to reach non-believers in our community and disciple the believers the Lord has brought to us. We currently have about 28 people the Lord has brought to our way. 
2. Pray for our continued efforts to raise funds to complete the purchase of the properties and to renovate the buildings. We still need $90,000 to complete the purchase and $45,000 for the renovations. A special thank you to several folks who gave gifts at Christmas time for this project! Below is a short video so you can see what is happening at the property and also a link to a document that provides a breakdown of our renovation costs for one of the buildings in more
   manageable numbers is case you or your church family would like to be part of this ministry project.
3. Pray for wisdom as we continue to parent our children. We just celebrated Grant’s 16th birthday and he is with us here in SA. Derek is in Greenville, SC working, Carissa (and our son-in-law Dustin) are living in Lancaster, PA, and Drew is in college at BJU.
4. Pray for our visit home this May. We plan to visit as many of you as possible along with our supporting churches and hopefully a few additional churches.

We will close with Paul’s words to the Philippian believers in Philippians 1:3-5. These words reflect our heart for those who are praying, supporting, and encouraging us on this journey: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” Thank you!

For the Sake of His Name,

Troy and Danielle

Psalm 67:1-2