A Time for Faith...

Hey friends,

This has been a TOUGH season for our family, but we’re hanging on.  If there ever was a time that the Deetlefs family must live not by sight, but by faith - that time is now. 

I am sorry for my lack of communication lately, but the truth of the matter is I have been pretty overwhelmed. Marius and I have both been hanging on by a thread, and thankfully that thread is tethered to our Faithful God!  Here are a few of the bigger things going on in our lives at the moment:

• Our house in South Africa didn’t close as we were assured it would, so we signed a new contract last week and the house is expected to close in March 2020. This means we are now carrying 2 mortgages.  This while making less than half the salaries that we made working here 14 years ago. This requires Faith.

• Marius’s job at Reformation did not work out as we had hoped it would. His already injured back simply can’t sustain the heavy lifting and bending that job requires daily. God has provided another job for him as Assistant Manager with Bojangles, which will start in January. He hopes to be managing a store sometime next year…. We have Faith.

• We are headed to Jacksonville as I type this message for Marius to get a 2nd epidural steroid injection for his back. This will buy him some time until he he is eligible for medical insurance. He has been in alot of pain, with sciatica going down both legs every day now. This pain, coupled with the lack of finances has been tough for Marius, and he has been in a tough place mentally as well. Marius’s friend in South Africa committed suicide last week, the day before Marius’s birthday. As we cried and prayed for peace for his wife and son, Marius and I both acknowledged our own desperate need for God and our need to live by faith and not by how we feel.

• Our World Outreach support account last year at this time was $4,000 - compared to THIS November in which it was $286. We understand that we can’t expect our supporters to continue to financially support us as we are no longer on the ground in South Africa- but it means that this is a time we have to have FAITH in God to be our provider. 
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• I started a job working at CARES ( https://pickenscares.org) a community non-profit that provides counseling, food, and emergency financial assistance for people in extreme need.  I really like my job, and my boss, Chris Rumble, is the nicest boss I have ever worked for. It is a non-profit, and is only a  part-time job which pays for 20 hours/week, but I’m working about twice that many hours. I really want to stay at this job and help people in our community, but it requires FAITH to be able to pay the bills. 
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• I was calling around trying to find a place for Marius to get his 2nd injection and I found that on average it would cost around $1500 out of pocket, which was shocking in itself, but when they heard that he didn’t have insurance for another month, I was told “We don’t accept self-pay patients”. Basically the general message at most places I called was  "No referral, No insurance, NO service.” It was bad enough that we were going to have to charge his procedure on our credit card, but even worse to be told that that we weren’t allowed to see the dr. unless we had an insurance card. I can not understand where the hippocratic oath fits in to all of this? How in the world do normal, working Americans afford to go to the doctor? ***Just happened - this amazing dr. just did Marius’s 2nd injection at no charge- Thank you Lord!*** Another reason Marius applied with Bojangles -aside from the fact that the owners are Christians and are doing so much good in the communities where they have stores, they also have good insurance benefits. Right now, only Emi and I are insured, and the cost of that monthly premium is more than our mortgage. So, basically from strictly a financial standpoint, it’s as if we are presently paying for 3 mortgages with 1/3 of the income we had before.  Thus, our need for FAITH.
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• Emi misses her friends in South Africa, and she still hasn’t made a real friend here yet, but she isn’t crying in the car every day before school anymore- so that is definite improvement. We’re hoping her new recreation league basketball will help her make some new friends.
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• Emi’s mom, however, IS crying in the car every morning. Ems gets out of the car to go to the bus, I listen to my worship music in the car, and the tears start flowing. I can not describe the tremendous sense of loss I feel in this season. I miss South Africa. I miss our church so much.  I miss leading worship. I miss my friends!  I miss the kids I was ministering to. (Even though things are continuing on without missing a beat -Praise God!). I miss being creative and making crafts for Treasure.  I miss Oakridge Academy and the incredible environment that school was for Emi to learn in.  I miss our house, and Emi's trampoline, and my Kitchen-Aid that we had to leave behind.  I miss my life there…    BUT, I realize that this is truly where the rubber meets the road when it comes to faith. I can not see with my eyes the way forward - but neither could the children of Israel as they stood by the Red Sea about to be annihilated by the Egyptian army.  So, I remind myself that my faith can not be in our supporters,  in myself, or in Marius.  My faith is in the same Faithful God that parted the Red Sea and led His people through without their sandals even getting wet.  This is a time for me to grow in Faith, and I declare it - My faith is in the Faithfulness of God,  and I am gonna believe come what may.  My faith is in the Faithful One. 

At first glance, this may seem like the single- most depressing newsletter I have ever sent out 😂 but I hope that you can see the silver lining - the encouragement that we must all hold on tight to our faith. We have to stay tethered to the Faithful One, even if we’re only holding on by a thread. He is faithful, has always been faithful, and will forever be faithful!! 

I saw a Target commercial last week that pretty much summed up what I see all around me in this season here - somehow the world has managed to camouflage Christ in Christmas. I, however, want to shout from the rooftop -

 Emmanuel.

God with Us.

Jesus.

This IS Christmas! Christmas is God stooping humbly to be with us and fill us with hope. My hope  and the hope of the world lies in Him alone - the Faithful One. And it is this message that the Deetlefs leave you with this Christmas - We wish you a Christmas full of hope and full of faith!!

We would love to invite you ~~ Marius will be preaching and I will be singing on Sunday Dec. 29th at the Jasper United Methodist Church at the 8:30a.m. and 11:00a.m. services. 

Sincerely,

The Deetlefs Family

(Marius, Jodi, Emi, Clemmie the Cat, and Zoe the Dog who doesn’t know she’s a dog)

The Deetlefs Family

260 Jacobs Way - Unit C

Jasper, GA 30143

770.547.9047

www.worldoutreach.org/490

***Important October Update*** - Deetlefs Reunited after 3 months!

Team Deetlefs Reunited!!

Finally some news to report! 

Thank you for bearing with me in these past 6 weeks with little communication. I sent my last report just as I was about to head to Montana for a missions debrief week, which was absolutely incredible. I also got to re-connect with so many friends (Cat, Schramm, Suze, Anna, Nancy, the Briggs, the McDonalds, the Ogles, Wilkie, Mariska, and many more. It was cool water to my thirsty soul!!!)

         

  

Next, we moved mom and dad out of their Main St. house into their new rental house, and the week they closed we also found a small townhouse for Marius and Emi and I to live in (just 2 doors down from the one we lived in 14 years ago when we were first married!!) It is tiny and needs a lot of work, but it's going to be beautiful, and we're so very grateful to have a place to stay!  This is the kitchen/living room/dining room and it's what I've been working on day and night. My parents have helped so much too. I will send you pics going forward as I gradually DIY my way through. 

   

Marius arrived this past Saturday, October 5th! We're very happy for our family to be together again! Emi is so glad to be with her papa again!. Please continue to pray for her. She is in a great school. She loves her teacher. She loves her bus driver. She loves the school janitor. But she hasn't made a real friend at school yet, and the girls in her class have not embraced her, so her transition has been pretty tough. She says it is like the schools in American movies with cliques, and this was not what she was used to in South Africa where she was in class with her best friends.  She misses them terribly. I also dearly miss my friends and church and leading worship. I have been like a fish out of water here, and it's getting a little bit easier each day, but I still can't type this update without a steady flow of tears. I had just not envisioned God moving us back here again, and its so hard to assimilate back into my own culture. Weird I know, but it's true. Reverse culture shock is a very real thing!

Marius also accomplished alot in the past 3 months since we last saw him. Our house in Jeffrey's Bay is under contract and the buyers are set to move in November. Things take forever to happen in SA, so it will be mid-December before everything is finalized, but they will pay occupational rent until the title paperwork returns from Capetown. All of our household stuff sold to friends and neighbors.

Our business partners will carry on business as usual at the coffee shop/restuarant in Jbay for now, and Marius managed to do all of the necessary training, and transfer job responsibilities to the necessary people. Our car in Jbay also sold, and with that money we were able to purchase a car in the States.

Big prayer request:  With the stress and the physical demands of the move, Marius injured his back pretty severely - so much so that we weren't sure he would be able to make the flight last week. In the end, he did fly, and we are busy trying to get him some pain relief as he is in ALOT of pain right now. He had an MRI done yesterday, and based on the results the dr. recommends that he have an epidural steroid injection. All of this is very expensive here in the States and unfortunately we are having to pay out of pocket as our South African insurance does not cover us here, and we won't have American medical insurance for another month. Just the last 2 days alone have cost over $1,000 and that is before we find a specialist to do this steroid injection. Please pray with us that God will continue to direct us to the right care, as Marius is not able to function and work with this level of pain. Our friend Nick has offered Marius a job at Reformation, but he needs his back to be strong in order to do it, so please pray with us for his total healing. 

Now onto the subject of support. I know that several of you who have been supporting us have probably received an email from World Outreach explaining their new credit card processing system, and that it is necessary to re-register in order to support us via credit card. This comes at an extremely bad time as I'm sure some of you are debating whether or not you should still support us since we are now Stateside. I want to ask you to prayerfully consider sticking with us at least until the end of this year.

Going forward in 2020 I will still be working on this side of the ocean to champion and empower the vulnerable children of South Africa. The vitamin project continues to flourish, with well over 1,000 kids served daily. There are still scholarships in play at Oakridge Academy, and there are upcoming school supplies that need to be purchased in January for the same kids that we've helped for the past 8 years in South Africa. I don't feel like we should discontinue their education and nutrition just because of their government's decision to not renew my visa. Please consider continuing to send your monthly support to help make sure these needs continue to be cared for, and these kids don't fall through the cracks. I won't be able to fund all of these things without your continued help. November and December have always been the biggest months for people's giving, and that helped us buy all the necessary school supplies for several children, so please don't forget them. If you do wish to support us going forward, please go to www.worldoutreach.org/490  or send checks with Deetlefs #490 in the memo line to:

World Outreach Ministries 

P.O. Box B 

Marietta, GA 30061

Treasure, our single mom empowering, fund raising, skills training, recycling, repurposing project continues to go forward as my dear friend Mich takes the helm. She and Zanele are sewing and marketing our beautiful re-purposed items that are selling in South Africa.           

    

I have a possible ministry job opportunity that I will share more about when it's a for sure, but it would allow me to continue to help hurting, vulnerable people right here in my own community. Now, isn't that a God thing?

I know this is ALOT of info, and I'm sure some of you gave up several paragraphs ago. I just had so much to catch you up on. I have a U.S. phone number now (770-547-9047) and hopefully Marius will get one this week. Please let us know if you have questions or would like to connect. We appreciate each one of you so very much, all of your love and support and care through this unexpected relocation. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 

With so much love,

Team Deetlefs

Marius, Jodi, Emi, Zoe (the doxiepoo), and Clemson (the Maine Coon)