I have been a bit quiet on the Life Lived Simply blog and social media.  Not because anything is wrong, more like everything has been mind blasting.

Last year, our first year of marriage, we had been hoping for an ex-pat opportunity somewhere amazing and warm and tropical like Zambia and Malawi where we could make loads of money and life would be awesome.  But the door continually closed.  Point taken.

So not all that long ago, February in fact, the plan was to go live a self sufficient life  and so we bought our plot on the Vaal. The idea was to share that space with those in need of breaks, for example, the kids or residents at Resthaven. I loved the idea of being on my own with loads of space, growing veggies and throwing chicken feed around.  It was going to be awesome. So that was all good.

Also, in the last few months, we decided that it was time to move on from doing a 100km round trip every week to go to the church we love, Riverside Community, and try a local church, so we can have fellowship and friends on our doorstep.  Well, in Heidelberg, pretty much all the churches are Afrikaans, and our understanding of Afrikaans is horrific. But we had decided to suck it up and give it a good go.  That we would adapt and Heidelberg would grow on us.  Not that there is anything wrong with Heidelberg, but we are like half-Brit Zululanders?!

Then we got back from our Botswana holiday, and conversations about kids started, and the thought of living out at the Vaal, potentially with a child or two, and still having to travel for church, was kind of freaking me out. Then, completely wham bam out the blue, my husband gets offered a job on the North Coast. Where we grew up, where his mother and family are, where my family are, where there are a gazillion English churches, where loads of our friends live, where the sea is and where the plants in your garden don’t get annihilated by frost. He obviously took the job!  We move September.

I cannot believe that in just a few months, we will be part of a new church, be able to attend cell groups and church functions without making a ten day camel ride, Erik promises he will catch fish.  Sigh.  It is almost all to good to be true, unbelievable really!?  Well, Erik catching fish; I know, that truly is unbelievable.  Shame. Apparently it is the lack of fishing ski.  So we shall see.

Looking back, I can totally see God’s plan in our life, and it is so reassuring.  He brought us to this area and to Riverside for a reason, without a doubt.  We have grown so much in ourselves, in our relationship with God and in our relationship with each other, and that is all through the friends we have made at Riverside.  We are so grateful.

We also plan to keep the land at the Vaal, as we believe that was part of God’s plan, and we want to continue to support Resthaven through it and possibly even other families and organisations. We are continuing to pray about it, and our friends are doing the same, and we trust God will guide us, as He always does.

So after that long ramble: We are moving to the North Coast!!!?? God is indeed good.

These are just some of the verses that have been so helpful to me over the last year; I am learning so much!

Proverbs 23:4

James 4:3

Corinthians 7:31

James

• Disclaimer: I know some of you would have only seen the words “a child or two”, no decisions have been made. Calm down.