WHY THE NAME GRACE?
Grace means undeserved favor. We are given so many undeserved moments in our lives, so many precious memories, such wonderful things and opportunities. It is a word loaded with amazing truth and depth of emotion. It has a wonderful companion in the word mercy. Mercy is not getting what I DO deserve. Grace and mercy are apt descriptions of the work of God in our lives and in our family's journey. God brought all of us here to South Africa and has led each step of the way in His magnificent plan to come and serve the public of Knysna. We could have been abandoned in the midst of major heartache, trials, and tests, but we weren't. (that's mercy.) We have been the beneficiary of new friendships, a drop-dead gorgeous city in which to live, and a promising horizon of paying forward the blessings He has given in dying for us, buried and risen for us, and rescuing us.. (That's grace.) |
BRIEF HISTORY
Our hearts have been always ready to go and serve and pour out all the wondrous things we have enjoyed into emptier cups than ours. For a long time, it really seemed uncertain as to how we would actually get "there." Wherever that was. I told my University employer early on that my next move in ministry would be, God willing, to a place of missions ministry, and that I really hoped they would be the jumping off spot for such a move. Our home church, Keystone Bible Church, had been a great foundation for this and a church we very much wanted to be sent out from. My primary interest would have been to go abroad as a tent-making educator, teaching as a means of salary provision and instant connection in the community for Gospel outreach and care. That was the purpose of the family trip two years ago to the Western Cape where we stayed nearly 6 weeks. There really were no jobs to be found. We entered months of praying, waiting, and silence. But God was not finished with us. One positive outcome from that extended stay was a weekend lecturing event at NMMU-Port Elizabeth, making friends with area educators and musicians, and even a three week radio spot I was given to teach musical ideas on air. That fed an earlier heart-spark of a desire to see radio ministry be effective along the Garden Route. God stirred the hearts of people who shared our passion for radio in South Africa, and doors began to open and close. We were sent out to realize our dreams and desires to move everything to South Africa and begin a multi-faceted upliftment ministry here in Knysna. It is a story much longer than this telling, but one that demonstrates that miracles still do happen. |
For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. John 1:16