A Long Day and a Half

Our journey to South Africa has begun, and I'm writing this as we make our way there. I’m not sure of the distance, but I think it’s a little less than 9,000 miles from Little Rock to Johannesburg. Funny as it may sound, the 18.5 hour flight from JFK doesn’t seem too bad. I think that’s because I just finished helping our son, Samuel, move to Seattle from Nashville. We drove some 2,350 miles (I joined up with him in Arkansas) in a rental truck with a car in tow, in just over three days.

This trip to South Africa has been in the works for almost six years. It represents our return to the country where FamilyLife first ministered internationally in 1978. Barbara and I left our then three children and spoke at a marriage training event for missionaries that, at the time, was revolutionary. It was a different day in South Africa. Apartheid was very much a way of life, and as we spoke to racially mixed crowds, it represented some of the first times Christians of all races came together in decades. It was the issue of “marriage and family” that united them. We stayed in an Anglican Monastery for $1.25 per day for room and board. I still remember the cots we slept on and the meal when I ate the skinniest chicken I’d ever seen! It was a great trip.

In those days, divorce was rare in South Africa. Families were somewhat protected from what we call cultural influences – S.A. had only 6 hours of television a day … 3 hours in Afrikaans and 3 hours in English (we wanted to move there).

In 1981, I went back alone. It snowed for the first time in 17 years in Jo’berg! I nearly froze to death. It was a long two weeks to be away from Barbara while speaking at Executive Conferences and events. In preparation for our 2006 trip, I found my journal from that time of ministry 25 years ago. I spoke about a dozen times to some 750 people. The people of S.A. were so gracious that it made the time away from Barbara and our then four children not as bad as it could have been.

During that trip, a businessman by the name of Brian came to one of the Executive Seminars where I spoke. He trusted Christ at that event. In the years that followed, God has used Brian and his wife, Edna, in innumerable ways as business leaders to be a witness for Jesus Christ. When we arrive in a few hours, Barbara and I will be staying with Brian and Edna. We look forward to hearing how God has used this couple for His purposes over the past quarter century.

We will also see our good friends Quintus and Isolde Swanepoel. In 1995, Quintus was a divorce attorney who decided he wanted to keep marriages together in his country rather than dissolve them. So they came to America and we trained them at our headquarters for more than a year. They returned to S.A. in 1996 and have had a fruitful ministry ever since. Our visit with the Swanepoels marks the 10th anniversary of FamilyLife in S.A.

After traveling for over 32 hours (if all goes well with the schedule), we will arrive in Johannesburg around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday (11:30 a.m. U.S. Central). Please pray for me because I am sharing Christ with a group of men in Pretoria (the capital city) tomorrow morning at 6:30. I’m afraid my body may think it’s 10:30 at night and doze off during my message!

As I finish this up, we are about 3 hours out of Jo’berg … we would have been early had we not sat on the runway at JFK for 2.5 hours!!!! Thanks for standing with us in prayer. Pray that we will clearly present the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that thousands of South Africans will catch this vision for their country: “Every home a godly home.”

We are weary, but expectant that God will do what He does best, change lives …

Dennis and Barbara
Psalm 112:1-2