Howdy Folks!

---

General Nonsensical Intro

‘Sup (common American greeting equivalent in meaning to our ‘howzit’) my friends far and wide, near and far, here and there, fast and slow. I must apologise for such a late update! I am terribly sorry that it has taken me so long to drop you a line but quite frankly hanging with my fiancé has just been………so much fun!!!😊 And seriously busy. Even though I cannot work here and should have all this spare time, it just doesn’t seem to exist. When there are two of you, life just seems to get abnormally busy! I don’t know what happens but all of a sudden this other person’s needs become your needs too and you can’t just do whatever you want whenever you want (even though sometimes I try…to no avail)…they did warn about this!😊 But it is great and lots of learning is taking place…well me learning what I need to do better comes quite quickly, but actually learning to do it better is another story😊, but we try. It is great to finally be with my fi (Natalia abbreviation for fiancé), and be doing life together. Anyway blah blah blah, I’m sorry for late update, but

finally I find myself sitting at my laptop, eating a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and sipping on my 4th to last five roses bag brewed cup of tea that I brought along with me (American’s do not know the pleasure that is hot tea sipping, coffee they can do and do like no one else, but there tea is…abysmal!!!) and writing to y’all (Southern American slang for “you all”, someone should tell them “you” will suffice)

More Sensical Intro

So that was a bit of a jump straight into things without really starting at the start…Where doth I begin? So I landed in America and had to go through customs…hang on-I won’t tell everything in such great detail but this is a cool story. So I’m going through customs, and for some reason I always get nervous there, I know there is absolutely no reason too, but I always do. Plus I thought to myself that if God were to show me at any point that I had made a mistake in coming to America it would be at customs. Anyway so I get up to the desk and the customs officer asks me a few questions,

then he starts paging through my passport and sees I’ve travelled quite a bit. He then asks me why? I tell him that I was a missionary for a while with YWAM, as you know. He then starts asking me to quote specific Bible verses like Psalm 19! I’m like “Oh crap! If I get this wrong is he going to think I am lying or something and is not going to let me in to visit my fiancé?!” So I don’t know it straight off the bat and I get scared. He starts it for me and I recognise the Psalm and finish the rest of the sentence. “Ok shew I’m done.” I think. No no! He hits me with 2 or 3 more references. Same process happens, he starts the verse I finish it. Then he starts telling me to read in James a verse about saving others from there sin, stamps my passport with 6 months stay, and tells me God bless. I tell him, “God bless you too brother”, and am on my way. I had goose bumps all over and thought to myself, “How cool is God that I was all scared and nervous (for no reason) and he provides me with a Bible quoting customs officer to ease my nerves and show me that He is with me in all things!” PS: I am such a chop with customs nerves!

So I land in Florida where I am met by my beautiful fiancé! And when I say beautiful I mean strikingly beautiful. There is something about seeing her for the first time in a long while that is really striking. Anyway, so the first week is all a blur between getting to know each other again, and getting all our affairs in order. I meet all her family again, and some of our mutual friends that we have over here.

Middle

Ok so some highlights. This time being with Natalia is very different from all the other times we have been together. This time is “normal life”. All other times have been during YWAM and outreaches or when we are both on holiday. Since I am here for such a long time Natalia isn’t on holiday and has to work Mon-Fri, 7am-4pm, and so life is looking more like a “normal” life than crazy missionary life, which is…different. It is both fun

and difficult at the same time. This is where the “knowing what the Bible says” rubber meets the “doing what the Bible says” road. But we are enjoying doing this life thing together and “working out our salvation with fear and trembling”.

Ooh for those of you who don’t know, I am living in her parents house.

Hmm…next big event is that somewhere in the first two weeks Natalia and I felt that we should move from the Church she was currently at to another Church called Calvary Chapel (Google: Calvary Chapel Sarasota). We were invited to this Church by her Dad’s neighbours and pretty much instantly fell in love with it. We spent some time in prayer about the move and weighed up the visions of both Churches and decided to go to Calvary Chapel. The people were so welcoming and loving, everyone remembered our names, the Pastor teaches verse by verse out of the Bible which is way more interesting and life giving than one may think and the worship is so intimate. They support a ton of missionaries and have many ministries to their local community and everyone is so humble, real and broken before the Lord. People go up every service to the front and kneel down, pray and cry during worship. On the weekend the Pastor has been going through the book of Mark and on Wednesday nights there is another service where he is going through the Psalms. Before the Wednesday night service Natalia and I are discipled by a couple (he is an American she is a South African from Stilbaai) for two hours where they show us in scripture how to be in relationship with each other, God’s way-very challenging! The love of God is so evident there. It is a Church slightly larger than Westville Presby, but still quite small compared to some of the Churches here (some are HUGE!), and has that similar big family feel. We love it.

Then there was this crazy weekend and few days after! I will call it my “Southerning”. This was my “baptism” into being in The South (of the USA). First I went away to Nat’s Dad’s farm. Here Natalia’s little brother taught me how to shoot a hunting bow (there’s a ton of irony in that sentence I don’t even want to get into). Then her Dad “taught” me how to shoot a gun. Very extremely scary!!!!! Not just because guns are scary and I have never really ever touched one before, but also because he thought nothing of it to hand me a double barrel shot gun, tell me to point at the target and squeeze the trigger. After I let off the first barrel and totally missed the target, he quickly walked up to me and dispossessed me of said gun. He then brought out a 22 rifle with a sight, which was a lot easier and enabled me to hit the target. Needless to say, I like the bow and arrow better! Two days later I found myself on a boat in the Tampa bay early in the morning, with three other Southerners, putting hooks into live bait and fishing for snoek and some other kind of fish I can’t remember. I caught three, two of which were barely legal, but legal none the less.

Final highlight was having a friend from California who was in our first team at YWAM come and visit us for two weeks, which meant that four out of the 9 person team where together again. It was great to have him around, and to be hanging out again. He is a super gifted worship leader and you should definitely check out his myspace/facebook for his songs. His name is Matt Logan.

So those are a few of the highlights. Other than that life is just busy getting life together and trying to find a routine. Natalia and I have been pretty selfish with our time over this first 5 weeks as we see the importance of working on our relationship first before over committing ourselves in other areas.

Having moved Churches I am trying to find ways to get involved their and volunteer my time. I am also having a meeting next week with one of the Pastors from Natalia’s old Church to see if there is anything I can do there, however with moving Churches I am not sure how it would work, but want to chat to him anyway as he was the guy I had been in contact with before coming here and is a friend.

Social Comment

One comment that I would like to make is about America. As much as it is a wealthy and successful nation, and one who I am beginning to feel comfortable in, it is just as much a broken nation. Never have I seen a nation so lost and broken and in need of the message of Jesus Christ. Yes America was a nation founded on Christian principles and that is why it grew so quickly into a successful nation, but it has since forgotten them. Families are broken, teenagers are so lost, people have no idea what the purpose of life is. We often think that the neediest people are those that are poor, but the truth is the neediest people are those that do not know Jesus and the truth of the Word of God. If you don’t know Jesus you have no idea what life is about and how to cope with the many challenges that come across your path. You are richer poor with Christ than you are rich without Him. Please pray for America.

Please Pray

I would love for you guys to pray for us as well. As great as it is to be together, it is not always easy. Please pray that God draws us closer to Him and teaches us how to live as Christ every day. That He gives us direction for the future, whilst working on and living in the present.

Closing Paragraph

I really do miss you guys a lot! And love you too. Thank you to all those who have dropped me emails and facebook messages, I appreciate them a heck of a lot. I hope I have replied to all of them. This last week things seem to be settling down a lot and life is normalising a bit, so am hoping to be able to spend more time keeping in touch.

Massive amounts of love and respect!
Sean

---

Photos

Where I Stay
It is currently for sale if you are keen.

Long 30m Walk to Beach:)
That's Natalia's folk's sandy driveway on the right. PS: ZERO WAVES!

Natalia and I
I'm the one that looks like a boy.

Our Wonderful Car
The brand name is aptly Oldsmobile. Its is held together with rust, but the lady in the purple keeps people's eyes off it:)

Pumping Gas
Turns out we have to do this ourselves.

Nat's Dad's Place
This was the start of The "Southerning".