Finishing Well..A New Adventure Begins

We can’t believe that 2024 has already come to a close and our time with Word of Life has officially wrapped. Our desire since making the decision to transition our ministry to the Bahamas has always been to finish well. We are thankful that we could end the year with our annual Summer Camps.. the very camps we have had the opportunity to serve at and Thato has been able to lead for many years. It was definitely bittersweet but truly a blessing.

Summer Camps

There are so many wonderful things about camp but one of the highlights definitely has to be seeing the evolution from camper to counsellors. Many of our counselors were at one times campers whose lives had been changed in part because of God’s work in their lives at camp. This year was no exception. It was so encouraging to see these once campers now pouring into the lives of other campers. Another highlight of course is witnessing God draw campers into a deeper relationship with him. Overall, we had 65 campers and kids camp, 4 of which placed their faith in Christ for salvation at camp and we had 100 campers at teen camp, 9 of which made the decision trust Christ as their Saviour. 

"I had unstable faith"
"Camp has helped me believe that God will work it out for me"

In addition to this, many more campers made committments throughout camp to grow in their walks with Jesus and put aside things that were holding them back. It was such a blessing to see some of them sharing their “paper testimonies” during one of our meetings about how God had been challenging them during camp. Our prayer is that God would continue his work in their lives and that they would seek to follow him with all of their hearts.



"Battling emotions, anger issues"
"Prayer: Communication, God is always listening"

During camp we also had our students graduation. It’s exciting to see how God has worked in their lives over the past year and we look forward to seeing how God continues to work in their lives as several are staying on as interns at Word of Life and others are continuing their studies elsewhere and going back to serve at their local churches.





The Big Move

The last few months have been a race to the finish as we have been working on immigration paperwork, moving logistics, and other preparations for the big move while also trying to spend time with friends and family before leaving. To be honest the last few weeks were stressful and a bit discouraging at times as many things we had been working on were just not coming together as we had hoped and we felt like we were continuously taking two steps forward and five steps back. But we are so thankful for God’s grace and provision and the love we received through the body of Christ as our church family brought us meals and helped with childcare while we finished packing while other people helped cover the cost of our moving expenses when we had to sell our car for scraps which was supposed to cover much of the expenses of our move. We were reminded again and again that God was a good, faithful and loving Father who truly cares for his children and that we could completely leave everything in his hands even when we couldn’t see the way forward.



Hard goodbyes to family at the airport













A New Chapter Begins

After many hard goodbyes, we flew out of Joburg on January 17 and after 4 days, 4 flights, one of which was cancelled and one of which we missed, we finally made it to Abaco on January 20. Praise God! We have spent the last few days trying to recover from our travels and jetlag and spending a bit of time with my brother and his wife who accompanied us on our final leg of the journey. Thato will be officially ordained on Sunday and then we hit the ground running! We are excited about this new season of ministry and what God will do in and through us. Please pray for us as we seek to build relationships, learn (and relearn) the culture, and settle into our new life and ministry here.

Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with us, for loving on us and praying for us through this transition and for your continued support! We are so grateful to the Lord for you and look forward to sharing with you all that God will do in this new season.

Please Pray...

- that we would adjust quickly from jet lag

- for Leilani as she will be starting school next month and Aria as she adjusts to not having her sister home as much

- that we will be able to build good relationships and learn the ropes of life and ministry here

- that we would continue to grow and be intentional in our personal walks with the Lord

For more info or to see our updates, visit or email us at one of the following:

Facebook: Love from South Africa
Email: tasathige@gmail.com
Give:
USA (temporary method) - Paypal: ashleyberner94@gmail.com OR chris@nvministries.com


Bahamas: Commonwealth Bank               OR            FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) Limited

Account Holder: Ashley Berner                                  SWIFT Code: FCIBBSNS

Account Number: 7044103257                                   New Vision Ministries account # 24667-36901611

Branch number: 21304



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