Home Again

 

Precious times with family.

After over 3 months of travel, 2 countries, 3 Islands, 7 states, 9 churches, and many visits later, we are settling in back home into life and ministry. Our time away was such an incredible blessing and it was definitely a bittersweet goodbye. We are so thankful though to have so many amazing people in our lives both here in South Africa and on the other side of the ocean. We know that as we journey forward, we have a team who is behind us encouraging us, praying for us, and supporting us. What a gift! The Lord used our time not only to refresh as us we reconnected with people but also to help us build new connections and take a step closer to being fully funded. We are up 15% of our monthly support with only 17% left to go! 
So thankful to be able to catch up with our friends Kyle & Natalie.
Kyle served with us in South Africa for several years.

God has been and continues to be so faithful as we trust him to provide. In the almost 3 weeks since we've been home, we have continued to see fruits of our time on furlough and continue to be blown away by the Lord's goodness. As we reflect on our time away, one of the biggest things the Lord continued to remind us of is that he just calls us to be faithful and trust him to do the rest. Sometimes the Lord works in ways we wouldn't expect and that's the beauty of serving a God who is all-knowing and sovereign. We don't have to have all the answers or assurance of how things will work out but can trust God to do what he does; work everything together for our good and his glory!








This year's DTC students and interns with our
DTC coordinators.



There is a lot to look forward to as we plug back into the ministry and our different roles. Thato is currently planning several upcoming camps this month as well as some trips to visit our partnering churches in Cape Town as we seek to continue to come alongside and encourage them. He also had the opportunity to head to Hazyview this past weekend to connect with and encourage one of our associates. I am happily back with my amazing interns and preparing for our upcoming women's conferences. We are also excited to connect with the new students this year (8 girls and 1 boy).
Since being back, we have also taken on a new role at our church leading the youth ministry. We are thankful for the opportunity to invest even more into the lives of these teens and build a bigger team of leaders to serve with. Thato has also accepted the role as an elder after being approached last year about joining the team. While we can feel a bit overwhelmed at times with all the different things we get to be involved in, we trust that the Lord has led us into these different ministries and trust him to strengthen and sustain as well as give us wisdom to balance everything understanding that our first ministry is to each other and Leilani. We look forward to seeing what the Lord will do in the rest of the year. Thank you all for your continuous love, prayers, encouragement, and support. We are so grateful!

💗 Thato, Ashley & Leilani

Please Pray...

- for the Lord's help and grace as we adjust back to life and ministry in South Africa

- for wisdom, vision and intentionality in our various roles

- for us to continue to grow in our marriage and as parents

- for discipleship relationships with students and interns

- that the Lord would continue to grow our team

- that we would be faithful in all God has entrusted to us

- upcoming camps in Potchefstroom (April 23-25) and Putfontein (April 26-30)

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