Tucker Times Vol 21 May 2019

Mother's Day Lunch at Hemelsbreed

As you can see from the photo we enjoyed a beautiful luncheon for Mothers Day although most of May was busy with the move from Genadendal and leaving all our friends in the Western Cape.We were blessed to have a memorable going away "braai" (BBQ) with our friends. So grateful for everyone who showed up that evening to wish us well. We kept saying we could stay a few more days, and it would have been possible but we felt like we were just postponing the inevitable. Thad was able to finish an extra project on the stairway for our dear friends Alex and Nathalie. Alex gave a going away speech that was truly an honour. We are determined to return and check in with them all in the future. It is so nice to be able to keep in touch with technology.
On Thursday May 23rd we began the two day, 815 miles drive from Genadendal, South Africa to Mafikeng, South Africa. The weather was beautiful except for a rain storm just 30 min from our destination. We appreciated our enclosed trailer! We enjoyed the drive and were very surprised to see fields of sunflowers, and large orchards of pecan and olive trees!

We also saw many baboons, springbok, impala, wildebeest and vervet monkeys. Thad thought the landscape of the Karoo often reminded him of the old west.
We were greeted warmly and settled into our SMALL flat. It is actually the size of a regular hotel room with a small kitchenette. I will admit to feeling a bit stir crazy when we first arrived, but we seem to have found a system and are adapting. The people here have been very gracious and we are always blessed by the family of God!
Since we have arrived we spent four days getting the licences and registration for the blessed trailer! We also have spent two weeks gathering all our documents for our Visa application to Botswana. Because we need to be "out of the country" we are not able to stay in Lobatse where the Word to Africa team is. We can spend a few days at a time, but are saving our 90 days for two outreaches coming up in June and July. We will be taking our application in on Monday and are praying everything is complete. The process of waiting for immigration approval will be next!

1. Pray favour for the visa application to Botswana!
2. Pray for Levi as he is back to work fighting fire.
3. Pray blessings on our granddaughter Oceana (turned 5yrs old without us!)
4. Pray for guidance for Bekah.
5. Pray for our friend Jackie and her son Ashten's spiritual and physical healing.
6. Pray for our church family in Genadendal
7. Praise the Lord that the tornado in Indiana mostly missed thad's family!
8. Praise the Lord for Thad's mom who has recovered from Pneumonia!

Thad's Thoughts

As we start our new adventure I want to briefly recap last year. "Man makes plans and God laughs" or so it is said. We planned to be knee deep in many areas of agriculture in Genadendal by now! Much political and spiritual unrest waylaid us there. Just now, a year later our mentor Theuns has started a small garden in a neighbouring village. Over the past year God allowed me to work on six different building construction projects, mostly out of our own monthly support (money we have received from you the readers). Thank you! You also built homes for brothers and sisters which some day you'll meet! I was privileged to lead seven people to the Lord! Four of whom we also were able to disciple with Every Nations One to One program. I can now understand how Paul felt when he left his disciples to go to other places God called him! Will they continue in the faith? Who will love them as I have? The answer is Jesus! JESUS will love them even more than I! With around 50 people in attendance in our farewell braai, we felt real genuine love from the people! I shed not a tear until I knelt to say good bye to a small 9 year old girl, Ashlynn, then the flood of emotions hit me! At that moment we shared something wonderful! unspoken love, and something terrible, not knowing if we would ever see each other again! To my surprise she called 2 weeks after to inform me, her and two other children were planning on catching the bus to church! I am so glad to see God continue the work we began!

Sara's Sayings

Maybe not be like the usual quotes I use, but that is how I am feeling today!! Often people will speak of "African Time" and say you just have to go with the flow and don't get impatient. Well I am not so sure I am doing that very well! This time of transition is going to be a teaching time from the Lord. With such a small space we are limited in what we can do and have. But I think I am getting better. I can wait hours in line (or in queue as they say here) at the traffic department! But pray for us as we while away the hours waiting for our Visa's!

Two in a row! We are so blessed to report that we met our goal again this month! Our disbursement was just under $3,000! We are able to use it to purchase a few more things we will need for the transition. Thad and I have bought some camping gear for our outreaches to the villages. Unfortunately, We are also expecting to need more things for our new home, as our last place was a fully furnished rental. It seems like prices are slightly higher here than when we were in the Western Cape. While the South African Rand exchange rate is good, when we are in Botswana the Pula is not as good. So when we move our expenses will be more. We praise God that through you we are always taken care of!! Thank You!!

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Elianna's Escapades

Elie had a busy May aside from all our moving. She was in a professional photo shoot! We unfortunately can't share the photos (even my snap shots of the event). But she enjoyed it even if it was from 8am till 3pm! Wow it was a little scary for me to see how beautiful she is and how fast she is growing up.
She loved the few days we spent while Thad was building the steps to play with her friend Chloe. As you can see from the photo she also had as many days playing with the neighbour kids as we could! Here in the flat she is mostly doing the last of our school or on the iPad. Elie is looking forward to spending more time with the missionary kids in Lobatse.

We found a way to get our school books here to us faster! I am unsure if it will be cheeper yet. We had Bekah send them to a mission team from Texas that will arrive the first part of July! They agreed to bing them as their extra baggage and so we won't have to worry about it getting lost or taking months to arrive. We may still have to pay the extra fees if it is too heavy. We are learning creativity as we work with foreign systems! So if you want to get a hold of us email and FaceBook are the best at this time! As always We really appreciate your personal contacts! If you send us a personal message we are pretty good at getting back to you!
ptnstucker@yahoo.com