Settling In

To Our Faithful Supporters and Prayer Partners,

Our silence over the past two weeks has largely been due to unpacking our container and settling into our house.  We received our container on January 16—two weeks after we arrived in South Africa.  Needless to say it was an encouraging day to get our stuff from home!

Two weeks later, we are mostly settled in. We still have a few more things to purchase that we could not bring with us, but for the most part the house is starting to feel like home.  While we are comfortable in our home, we are realizing that it will take a while to adjust and acclimate to a new culture and way of life.  Some things are the same, but many things are not.  One stark reality is that Afrikaans is the primary language of the majority of people in George. Most of the time when we are out, people will start talking to us in Afrikaans, mistaking us for “locals.” Even when they switch to “English,” the accent often makes it necessary for us to ask for a repeat of what they are saying.  So, we’ve taken our first Afrikaans lesson and plan to jump into learning a new language relatively quickly.  Fortunately, most people speak English (albeit hard to understand at times), so we can certainly get around without too much trouble. 

We’ve met twice with the small group of believers that we pray will eventually form a new church family in George. Beginning February 10, we are planning to meet every week and we’ll begin a book study of Philippians. Dave Rudolph will remain the primary leader of the group for a while as he is the one who has established the relationships with the current group, but we’ll share the teaching moving forward. We are encouraged about the future of this young group of believers.

That’s a short overview of the past couple weeks as we are settling into life and ministry here in George. In my next “blog,” I’ll share a little about a native Zimbabwean named Martin God providentially brought across my path the first week we were here.  For now, we once again want to thank you so much for your faithful prayers on our behalf over this first month.  We have received several encouraging messages reminding us of the many people who are partnering with us from a distance in His work. Thank you so much!

For the Sake of His Name,

Troy and Danielle

Psalm 67:1-2