Good news!

We were scheduled to return to South Africa on Wednesday. Scott has a meeting in Joburg and we'd hoped to have the papers signed so we could apply for our visas in Pretoria (SA). Instead of leaving early as we'd planned, we decided to wait until ten o'clock to see what the government offices said which would then determine whither I went with Scott to Pretoria to sign papers, or onto my aunt and uncles.

After going back to the offices everyday and hearing the promises of "tomorrow" I wasn't convinced we were going to have our miracle and prepared myself to wait in SA for the next few weeks. By now, this two week process has taken over a year. The news wasn't great. The director had signed the papers, but now we were told that there were now more things they needed from us. The last step of the process it turned out, wasn't the last step.

We headed out of town, frustrated at the bad news, and stopped to pick up Scott's jack he'd left at the car dealership. The car dealership only brought more bad news. They had forgotten to pay a certain fee for the car. Two hours later, we grabbed lunch at KFC and headed out of town.

The boarder crossing into SA went fine, but it didn't take long for us to discover that there was a problem with Scott's truck. Half the time he couldn't accelerate past 30 or 40 miles an hour. We quickly realized that we would never make it and called his uncle to find us a mechanic in the first major town we'd come to. We limped in to Nelspruit where we dropped off his car and planned to stay the night. It turns out that when the truck ran out of gas, it messed up part of the engine.

But God was still in control. Gustavo called us and let us know that he'd talked to the director about the new things they wanted and managed to work things out. The paperwork is now officially finished! What a blessing this is! Now all we have to do is go to Pretoria on Monday, turn in the papers and apply for our longterm visas. These should be ready by noon Monday (really). God is good!

Because we had to wait for Scott's car on Thursday and there was no reason for me to rush to Tzaneen which was now only 3 or so hours away, we decided to spend the morning in the game park with Bia and Gustavo. If you know me, you'll know that this is one of my favorite things to do. It's completely relaxing, away from phones, distractions and simply in the midst of God's incredible creation.

I'm now in Tzaneen with my aunt and Scott's at his meeting down south. We have a list of things to do before returning, but should be back in Mozambique (for good now!) by the end of next week. Our furniture should be right behind us within the next couple weeks.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us during this transition. We still have a lot of adjusting ahead of us, but we finally see the end in sight.

Blessings!

Lisa

Dozens of bats hanging around Kroger Game Park


Stunning Sunrise