Planning Ahead

About two weeks before we were due to leave SA for Blighty, our line manager at church informed us that they were terminating our contract with them. This came as a bolt out of the blue and the timing wasn't great but that was the reality we had to deal with. Sadly over the next two weeks things were said and information was made public which never should have been and this lead to a lot of hurt on the part of our friends here who (like us) simply didn't understand the reasoning behind the decision. For our part we didn't agree with the decision and were very unhappy with the way in which the situation was managed. However what has been done can't be undone so we've tried to act as graciously as possible and attempted to ensure our words and actions remained honouring of the gospel. If we've failed we can only ask for forgiveness.

This situation complicated our time in Blighty as we suddenly needed to spend a lot more time with Crosslinks sorting out how we move forward. We agreed a broad plan which we're now working to, but more on that shortly.

We've been really bowled over by the love and support shown to us by our friends both here and in Blighty and would be really struggling now without your ongoing prayers and support.

So what next with that 'broad plan'? We still feel called to continue serving God here in South Africa and we've had no leading to suggest otherwise. We now plan to find another local church with whom we can work and which would offer us the accountability we've been missing for so long. We've followed up on a few leads we were given and are really excited by a few leads of our own which we've followed up. We've had some really helpful discussions with key people which we've really valued. WE plan to assess where we're at by the end of November so we should have a much clearer idea then of where we'll be and what we'll be doing. Having said that, we plan to have things sorted before that time.

We've also had a few good discussions with other folks who have left our previous church for a number of reasons. These discussions have been very fruitful and a blessing to us as we seek to bring closure to our time with the church.