I was chatting with several friends in South Africa this week and they are talking about the blistering, unrelenting heat, and up here in Seattle we are celebrating seeing all the spring blossoms and the sun coming out for a couple days recently.  

1,567 days after we submitted our applications, we officially have Dan’s Permanent Residency Permit in our hands!!!   This  is an answer to many years of prayers from all of us.  Thank you for persevering with us in prayer.  We are 1/4 of the way there, but Dan’s is the most crucial one and we hope the other 3 PRs will be easier to get in the year to come once we are back in South Africa.  

Rather than contest for PRs now, we have decided to get Relative Accompaniment Visas for us three so we can return to South Africa sooner.  We have been steadily going through the list of needed things for those applications this week. (We check over and over again to make sure we haven’t missed anything!) The doctor notes are signed, the applications are filled out, the background checks for two countries have been returned to us, and we the final piece is to get a bunch of documents and copies notarized and on their way to the LA office.   We have heard we could have our documents returned within a month of submitting.

While we have been waiting, we have had the chance to make some pretty special memories this past month.  

I, Janell, drove south to the Oregon coast with ALL my sisters and we had a special, relaxing weekend together.  It had been eight years (to the day!) since we all have gotten away together.  We didn’t venture out too much, but loved watching it snow through the picture windows at the beach house and played loads of games, talked, and ate great food together.  Just as we were started our journey home, we were driving downhill in a hectic hailstorm and our car slipped and spun across several lanes of traffic and hit the guardrail next to a steep drop off.  The front bumper of Joleen’s car bumped off, but we are so thankful to the Lord that it was a light bump (no airbags deployed) the guardrail kept us on the road, there were no other vehicles involved, the sisters in the other car stopped to help us and no injuries.  We were all a little stiff, but I didn’t even need to go to the chiropractor.  Best car accident ever!  

We went up to Steven’s Pass with the kids and family friends and spent the weekend together in a friend’s cabin and then went snowboarding down the ski slope our friend is building.  Miesha loved driving the snowmobile!  It was a fun and memorable weekend resting together.  We were worried we wouldn’t have enough snow gear, but it was 75 F/23 C and the guys ended up snowboarding in their t-shirts most of the day!

Grandpa Don is feeling great and is back to his usual schedule with friends.  He continues to have follow up scans and the doctors are monitoring him carefully.  There were some extra lumps and bumps on his last scan which concerned us all, but when he arrived for the liver biopsies to be taken, they weren’t there and he got sent home!  Either there was a mistake or a medical miracle, but either way we are so so thankful.  

My Dad, Garry Engeman, had a day surgery yesterday to remove skin cancer from his nose and chin.  It was a success, but he has 30 stitches on his face, is pretty sore, and would appreciate all the prayers for a speedy healing journey.

Dan has been working doing some construction projects and house repairs for family friends up here and has been a tremendous blessing to dear friends in their final season with cancer.  He was actually with Bob last week when he graduated to heaven.  Another big loss.  Dan will officiate his service in a couple weeks.  

Titus joined a group called Junior Warrior Training with his cousin Nathan and they are loving it!  He will continue with the group until we return.  We love how the leaders are deeply investing into their character, leadership, team building, lots of physical exercise (like 8 mile hikes!), and practical skills trainings like wilderness medicine, land navigation, building an engine, volunteering, disaster preparedness, culinary skills, tool use, woodworking and more.  It’s like boot camp for teens with boy scouts and Christian mentoring thrown in too.  He is really happy to do it, and it gets us down to Portland/Vancouver twice a month so we can find more of you there too.

Miesha finished Drivers Ed course and now is getting her hours behind the wheel in.  Both are working more on their art, and Titus is practicing guitar again.  Funny story: in November, Titus asked Dan if he knew of anyone who could loan him a guitar here in the states.  Dan drove down to Portland within a couple days of that and saw a guitar next to the side of the freeway.  He went back to pick it up and it was relatively unscathed considering it probably bounced off a trailer and it had no ID or name in the case.  We consider that a special gift from God to Titus!

Dan has also been a guest on two podcasts this month – a fun blessing!  He also spent time with the Rescue Mission teaching and encouraging the men this past Monday.  

We continue to meet with donors and future donors and have visited loads of churches – we have a cupboard full of “church mugs” to prove it!   Please let us know if you’d like to connect.  We anticipate being in Portland/Vancouver every other week until we return to Africa.   Our paperwork is finally coming into alignment so we hope to see you all before we get on a plane again.

We are inching closer!

We are still growing our support base and any donation, whether monthly or a one-time gift, would be a big blessing.  

Also, please let us know if you would like our most recent missionary magnet with our family picture.  We have tried to give them in person and mail a bunch of them out, but recognize I am sure we’ve missed loads of you.  Please send me a message and your address.  We’d love to send you one. 

Thank you for journeying with our family!  We deeply appreciate your love, prayers, and support.

Janell, for all of us.