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Hello Friends,
We wanted to send out a brief letter regarding three specific things, which are both announcements and prayer requests. We've been sending newsletter updates every two months, unless there is a specific circumstance or prayer need that you should be made aware of. This is one of those special and exciting times!
This letter is only being sent via email to a specific segment of our contact list. So if you're receiving this, it is because you are our more faithful readers of our newsletters. We are not posting the full content of this update to social media, but instead will post an abbreviated announcement of some of these things.
First, we have a baby Lily update! Terrah is almost 33 weeks now. At her checkup last week, everything with the baby is looking healthy and stable. The circlage that was inserted in June is doing its job and keeping everything in place as hoped. So unless something unexpected happens in the meantime, our doctor is planning to remove the circlage at 39 weeks and, instead of waiting around for labor to begin, he will instead induce at the same time. So as of right now, the plan is for this to take place on Sept 19 (which is not very far away!). Please continue to pray for this entire situation. Even with the circlage, this is still a high-risk pregnancy and the risks of pre-term labor are still very possible. But all in all, we are praising God for getting us to this point and excited to meet baby Lily next month!
Second, we have a major development on the ministry side of things that we need to share with you. This has been in the works for the last couple of months, but we weren't able to share in our last newsletter. As you know, we serve here in Knysna with the Knysna Hope organization, primarily in the business and music sides of the ministry. Our specific roles (and all of our Knysna Hope team is this way) are always in support of the overarching goal of Knysna Hope, and that is to encourage disciple-making relationships across Knysna with the aim of starting new, healthy churches in the various neighbourhoods of our diverse and geographically-divided town. Over the last few months, it has become clear that a core group of families from our weekly life group (which has been meeting in our home for well over a year now) is moving into a more formal direction. So we, together with our ministry partners Brett & Brittni Stowe, have begun meeting on Sunday evenings (while still keeping the Tuesday evening life group) with two other local families in a new "church-in-formation," which we're calling Cornerstone Fellowship. Until the end of the year we're teaching through the doctrine of the local church (nature, mission, structure, essentials, etc). In 2020, we plan to move into more exposition-based teaching, focusing on fundamental doctrines of the faith. Over this "formation" time, we are praying that God will make it clear whether we will continue on our trajectory of covenanting together as a new local church sometime in late 2020/early 2021. Will you please pray for the Stowes and us as we lead this group and for the other families that are walking this road? Please pray for God's wisdom and clarity in the entire process. And please pray for the handful of "curious onlookers" who will come periodically; pray that they be receptive to the gospel and that they will see unique, Christ-honoring community in our fellowship. We are excited and humbled by this opportunity God has given us!
And finally, as you know, we are planning on returning to the US around the first of December and staying through February. We have new support to raise and need to come report in person to you, our support team. We also are looking forward to spending the holidays with family. God has been incredibly faithful through your giving to keep us supported through this "interim" time until after Lily is born and we can return to raise what is lacking in our monthly support. As we are looking to book flights in the next couple weeks, we wanted to make a specific request for assistance in purchasing plane tickets. For a family of 5, it will be quite expensive. If you are able to give a special financial contribution for this project, please just click the "support us" button below and indicate "plane tickets" in the notes section of our giving page. But there is another way to help us as well. If you travel often for business or have other ways of collecting air miles, and don't plan to use them soon, would you consider donating them? Particularly if you have any from American Airlines or British Airways (or anything in the OneWorld Alliance), these seem to be the most cost-effective flights over the time period we will be traveling. If this is something you would consider, would you just send us an email directly? Then we can work out all the details.
Thank you for taking the time to consider and pray over these three things. We are excited about all that God has in store for our family and ministry over the coming months! Thank you for your sacrificial participation in the work of the gospel in Knysna!
-Caleb & Terrah
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