September 2020 – A New Season Starts

As a new school year is starting, a new season of life has started for us, too.  Beth and I have sensed the last couple of years that it will soon be time to downsize and sell our beautiful wooded acreage near Lake Saylorville. We have been working diligently to get rid of extra clutter throughout our Morten Building, garage, and home. We are now blessed with a couple developers making offers to purchase our home and acreage. We have found a beautiful older home in Beaverdale near our youngest daughter’s family, so Mamma Bear is quite happy.

We have been in our current home for 37 years, and have lots of precious memories of our life here.  I cannot imagine a better environment for us to raise three children, before dividing our time between South Africa and Iowa. Except for times when we have had wind or ice storms, I have actually enjoyed all of the lawn work required- it gave me a great excuse to use fun tools (toys) like a small tractor, riding mowers, and Kabota 4×4 utility vehicle. Our new house is nice, but there is no room for them.  However, the recent derecho is helping me spend lots of quality time with them before the move. We lost around 25 evergreen trees and lots of oak branches.  Other than needing a new windshield, we fortunately had no structural damage to our home or vehicles.

I have never had a desire to live in the city, but at least our new place is much closer to our office, so I will be getting rid of lots of lawn chores and commuting time each week. Please stay tuned and pray for the sale of our property and our big move. We will let you know how it is all progressing. As long as the weather permits, I plan to continue spending lots of time on the bike trails. I have ridden over 5,000 miles in the last five months.  It gives me lots of time to pray, think and make plans.

Good news from South Africa: Kabelo just sent photos of a bountiful harvest from a school garden that was planted through the Teach a Child to Fish program. I was concerned that during the lockdown, the gardens might have gone to weeds. These photos are a big encouragement to me that our programs are working effectively and helping feed many children.

Please, also pray with me for our schools, in Iowa and South Africa, during this time of transition.  Hopefully, they will be opening up in South Africa during September.  This means we will be able to start running our feeding programs at full force again, along with our two churches, Celebrate Recovery and Sports 4 Christ.

God bless,

Doc