A short pray update

Hi all,

Thankyou all for partnering with us in prayer, we truly appreciate the support you provide. Without God & prayer we would never have got this far!

Since our last prayer update I (Richie) have handed in my notice at work, & finish work on August 31st. Also we have been looking at the calender, we aim to leave for South Africa in less than 2 1/2 months. This is far closer than we had previously realised… the time is flying.

Work:

Both Kate & I now know when we are due to leave our current employment. Please pray that we would both use our last few months in work well & leave well. We long to see God break out in our work places & within the employees there.

Shipping:

As we moved out of our house we sorted out & packed what we would like to bring to South Africa. We are currently measuring the last of these items & will then be pricing the costs of shipping. Please pray that shipping would go smoothly & would be a reasonable price.

Finance:

We have just gone through all the pledges for monthly financial support that we have received in writing. We currently need 83 people to sponsor us £10 a month to meet our monthly financial needs. Please pray that God would provide the rest of the finance that we need, that He would speak to the people He has to support us.

Visas:

We will be applying for visas in 4 weeks (set by the embassy). Between now & then we need to get proof of our finances sorted. Please pray that we would have the proof of financial means & that visas would be issued without a hitch.

Thankyou so much for all your prayers

Richie, Kate, Joseph & Reuben.

(Ps if you have felt that you would like to support us financially, could you please email us to let us know the amount so that we know the outstanding amount. It would also be very helpful for the visa application… thank you!)

Prayer Letter 21/07/11

What a month! In the last prayer letter we requested prayer that God would provide the right person to rent out our house. We no longer live in our house as it is now rented and the tenant has moved in! The night before the viewings I was at a missions prayer meeting. One of the people there prayed and felt that the first person to view the house would be the right one. The next day (Tuesday) when I met this person I got a strong sense that this was the person God had to rent out the house.  By Wednesday she had the application form in! She now lives in the house, & to make it even more clear, the house used to be her uncle’s & she knows all the neighbors!

Getting the house rented, prepared & moving out has taken up the whole of the last month. It has been a hard slog, but God has been right there with us. It been a rollercoaster of memories, dreams, saying good-bye to the house & items we can’t bring with us. God has been right beside us, walking through all the emotions with us. There has been laughter, tears, excitement & apprehension. We have had to hand our emotions, belongings, hopes, & fears to God again & again. He has sustained us through a tough period & now this adventure feels more of a reality than ever before.

The list of what we need to do before we move to PE is quickly getting smaller. The main things left to sort out are medical insurance, visas & finance.

As we step into this new chapter of life thank you for standing with us in prayer.

At this time could you please pray for:

• Praise God for His faithfulness & provision.
• That God would be with the boys and comfort them, that He would be their grounding & safety. Joseph has found moving house difficult.
• Protection from the enemy for all four of us.
• God’s grace for all of us as adapt to living with Kate’s mum in her house.
• That God would speak to people about joining with us and supporting us financially monthly. 
• Favour with the South African Embassy and that we would get the visas with no hitches.
• That Joseph would be accepted into pre-school.
• Healing for Kate from diabetes.
• Our family time/prioritising our time correctly as we prepare to leave N. Ireland.
• Comfort for our families as we prepare to leave
• That intimacy with Jesus would always be our focus and vision…

Thank you for your time and prayers,

Richie, Kate, Joseph and Reuben

A quick up date!

The last week has been filled with packing, cleaning, painting and moving. As of last night we no longer live in our house, we have moved in with Kate’s mum.

Over the last week we have been blown away by people’s generosity. Our friends and families have been amazing & supported us so much as we packed up and moved out. A huge, huge thank you goes out to you all. Thank you for storing stuff, helping to pack, cleaning, painting, & transporting our stuff around Belfast. So many people have put themselves out to pray & provide support. From the spiritual help though to the practical help we could not have done this with out you. Thank you all for helping us take a huge step towards moving to Africa & the next stage of God’s dream for our lives!

Thank you so much.

Depth

Life is busy, very busy at the moment. Kate is now back to work, we are moving out of the house at the end of next week, the to-do list seems to be never-ending. It is easy to get lost in all the deadlines, to lose sight of the bigger picture. To miss the point of why we are doing all this, to draw closer to Jesus & bring Him glory.

Without Jesus we might as well give up now. Without Him at the centre there is no point. We have had to be constantly centring ourselves on Him, drawing life from Him. The last few weeks have shown me how weak I truly am, what I can get done in my strength is truly nothing. My ability to change myself is nonexistent, yet at times I think I can help others change their lives, but I can’t. I am becoming more & more aware of my lack of ability, & lack of strength, but I am becoming more & more aware of God’s awesome strength, ability & desire to change the world, His creation. I am blown away & humbled that He would choose to use me as a vessel of this change. It is easy to look at others & reason away why they are doing what they are doing, why God is using them. But the truth is God wants to use each and everyone of us. He has a dream & a plan for each one of us.

We are not anything special, we have just said yes to Jesus. He is the specialist, He is the one who brings transformation, & our role? – to say yes, to step out where we hear him call, to risk everything with the hope of faith, knowing that where God calls is the best possible place to be.  A friend of ours received a picture from God for us. She saw a tree with roots pushing deeper into the ground after water, & this is the key. We are to be like that tree pushing deeper & deeper after Jesus, after his living water, after deep relationship with our creator. The deeper we go the more we have to offer through Jesus.

Without Jesus we would never even have found out that there is a place called Zanethemba in Port Elizabeth, But not only has He opened the door to Zanethemba, He has made working for him there a real possibility. So much has happened over the last few months, we are still not sure how we have got to where we are now. We are moving out of our house in 9 days, the tickets our bought, the visa applications are waiting to go, our relocation costs are covered, & we only need a further 80 people to donate £10 a month to meet our monthly costs. God has done all of this, all the resources in heaven & earth are His, but once again he has chosen to impact the world through people. Thankyou so so much to all of you who have listened to God’s voice & responded to him in generosity. Without your response this dream would not be becoming reality. This is not just Kate & I moving to Africa, we are playing a very small role. This is the island of Ireland, blessing South Africa. This is each individuals in Ireland impacting South Africa, with God’s love, Kate & I are only two of those individuals.

Richie.