Elna
Our original plan was to arrive in PNG on 24 September 2017. It is now one year later.
We could speculate about all the reasons God had for not allowing us to be there yet. And I do often make a list in my mind of all the many blessings that have come from spending this year in South Africa instead. But in the end, it comes down to this…
Elna
Our baby is officially seven. Crazy. He responded to a writing prompt just before his birthday: “If I was a punctuation mark, I would be… an exclamation mark! I would be loud! I would be tall! And be strong! And rule them all!”
We cherish any opportunity to spend time with our supporting churches. It is always such a joy to get to know our rope-holders. Add to that the chance to be encouraged by other speakers, and have some family time at the beach, and you end up with a pretty perfect weekend!
Children are a blessing, a reward! We’ve been parents for 10 years now. Crazy. Our girl is sweet, silly and yet seriously thoughtful. We love that she can make up the strangest songs and stories, and also ask very deep theological questions.
Happy tenth birthday, Calista! May you continue to grow in your understanding of, and love for the Word of God. May Lord Jesus capture your heart, so that you will become a young lady after his own heart.
Elna
Our first applications for work permits to enter PNG, were submitted in March 2017. In August 2017, we were told that these applications were lost somewhere at the Department of Labour. We had a second application ready in country, so we sent these to our agent for resubmission. The last 8 months we have waited eagerly for news, but none has come. We have placed increasing pressure on our agent in PNG for feedback with the result that he was forced to admit that he never submitted our applications. We are back to step 1 in the work permit application process, but with reliable agents this time.
“No, we are still waiting.” Most of my conversations these days start with the question, “Have you heard anything about your papers?” There has been some movement (another agency had one of their missionaries’ papers processed). But for now, we have a pretty ‘normal’ life here in South Africa.
On Thursday 4 January, Ledo Silvano Giovanni Raffanti breathed his last breath. His nurse helped him wash up and dress in the morning, and left the room to fetch his breakfast. When she returned, he had quietly slipped away.
Oupa Joe was proud, strong, meticulous, and hard-working. He was a real engineer – a problem-solver, who invented many gadgets on a large scale (his ingenious ideas solved many problems in our public hospitals), and small scale (like using a rod to pull his car cover when he was not physically strong enough to do so anymore). At 91, he was still living alone, driving and fishing.
I have not written in a while. I cannot give you the exciting news everyone is waiting for – we do not yet have our work permits… And thus no clear idea of when we’ll finally head to PNG. But God has not been wasting time. So pull up a chair, and let me tell you about our good God!
-Elna-
Being in ministry often means arriving at church a little earlier than most people – sometimes Daddy has a prayer meeting or a counselling session. Sometimes we arrive early just to make sure that we arrive on time! We’ve learned to include ‘waiting time’ in our planning – our kids often have a picnic dinner before church on a Sunday evening, or I finally read them that book they’ve been asking for… I often ask them: “What will you do while you are waiting?” You see, waiting time does not have to be wasted time.
-Elna-
As missionaries, we depend on those who send us and support us.
John Ryland wrote of this relationship in his book “The Work of Faith: the Labour of Love, and the Patience of Hope, Illustrated in the Life and Death of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, Late Pastor of the Baptist Church of Kettering, and the Secretary to the Baptist Missionary Society from its Commencement, in 1792” (what a mouthful!):
“Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine, which had never before been explored, we had no one to guide us; and while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.” But before he went down… he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each of us, at the mouth of the pit, to this effect —that “while we lived, we should never let go of the rope.”
In one of my (Elna’s) favourite sermons of all time, our shepherd and friend Joel James clearly laid out the responsibilities of those who go, and those who send. (You can download “Keep your eyes on the map” here). We have been diligently working on our preparations to go. And while we have been doing that, God has been preparing a long line of faithful brothers and sisters to hold the rope.
