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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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)
