$4.00 ChristmasTree

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your fake, little green branches. Here in South Africa there is no such thing as a "real, live, Christmas tree". I was so sad when my mom went from fresh pine to fake pine. Even though I understood her reasoning and came to accept it, I vowed never to go the way of the fake pine. Well, never say never. This Christmas season there has been a lot of adjusting. First off, the fake pine....that has been tough. Second, it is like 100 degrees out here and it appears that Tony and I will be spending our Christmas day in bathing suites squirting each other with the hose. We are banking on a big thunderstorm Christmas day. Even though it will be warm at least we will have some rain and we can pretend it is cold. Lastly, we are missing our family and friends. This is the first Christmas away from our families and it has been difficult. Tony and I do have some stockings to fill and we hope to make a home-made mexican dinner. It will be cool to begin our own traditions and be able to visit some friends out in the township on Christmas day. Tony and I are still adjusting to life over here, but find that day by day we are more settled and day by day we are more in a rhythm. We have a lot of work to do to prepare for the new Nieu Communities Group that will be here the first part of Feb. Tony and I are starting to submerge in the culture more and are building new relationships. We are trying to be more intentional with engaging in things that give us life and not things that we just "have to do" to get settled. We do feel like we are making some good steps and that we have worked well through the transition over here. Well, Merry Christmas! We will be in touch again soon.

our new spot

HOME SWEET HOME

Well….WE ARE IN!!!! The Cermak family has finally settled into their own home. We must apologize for being MIA the past week. After nearly a month of searching, we finally found a place to rent here in South Africa. We absolutely love it and it feels like home to us. We moved in on Monday and soon realized all the work we had ahead of us to make the place livable. Deep cleaning, little korkey things than need fixing, BIG things that need fixing, turning over the soil so we can plant grass before the rainy season passes us by. As you can tell we have been very busy. Just think, it will be spectacular for when you all come and visit.

Not only do we have a place to call our own, but we also got our fist child the same week. Cowboy “Cash” Jr. is 6 weeks old and is a pure-bread Borra Bull. We named him after Johnny Cash and he just loves playing in the yard with Tony while listening to his name -sake. You know what they say (whoever “they” are) first start with a plant, and if it lives then move to a pet, and if it lives you are ready for the real little human.

Since our last posting we have been pretty pre-occupied with setting up our life over here. It is a necessary step for us before we can feel completely free to jump full on into “ministry”. We have connected with folks here and there, but have mostly been building into the Nieu Communities team. Some of them will be gone for a couple of months, so we are spending time with them before they leave. We said goodbye to all the 2008 apprentices last week so it is much quieter around the NC property. Tony and I are taking things one day at a time and we know that our lives are going to be very full before we know it. I (Dayna) have been involved in some staff meetings for next year and both Tony and I hope to begin visiting Sosahnguve (the township near us) on a regular basis soon..

Thank you all for your love and prayers and support. It would not b e possible for us to be here without your love and care. Thank you. We look forward to blogging more, however, our home does not have phone or internet just yet. Right now we have to come to Pangani (the Nieu Community property) to phone or e-mail. Thank you for your patience and your time. We love and miss you all and will be in touch again soon.

Transition to our new home

OK .........so we finally have news to post.  Thanks for all your prayers with all the details with the visa's and airline tickets. Everything worked out and we were so blessed and encouraged. The only thing we did not get to do was spend the final time that we wanted with our loved ones and dearest friends. Although most of you were probably thankful that our dreams of returning to South Africa have come true. So the one thing that we wanted was to get a plain ticket to Washington D.C. where our friends Bret and Mary-Ruth live. They are in voled with intercity work and we wanted to spend time with them. Dayna actually met them in South Africa and remained friends. We were encouraged by what the Lord is doing through them. We feel that our friendship was strengthened and I pray that one day God would bless us to do ministry with them some day. The weather and sights were eye candy to us and our souls felt fresh when we left D.C.

     The flight was 15 hours to Johannesburg. Melissa Stewart picked us up and drove us to our new home in room 2 here at Pangani,( North Pretoria).  Which is about 45 minutes away. We were so warmly welcomed. Our friends have stopped by to say hey and catch up with all the news from the year. Sleep has been a project for us.  Last night was the first night that we have basically slept more then four hours. It sure does feel good to get adjusted to the time change. We are ten hours ahead of you. 

     This first week we have just taken time to settle. We have been invited to a few dinners, so that has helped us because we did not have to cook. We did today make our way to the market to shop. We are excited to try new things. I (Tony) have been getting use to driving on the right hand side of the road. Which is not easy.  Tonight  Dayna and I are going on our first date night. WE have plans making our way out to Soshanguve (a township near by). There we will be connecting with the people we have relationships with. We can't wait to visit and catch up with everyone.

     As Dayna and I were driving down the road today I just thought out loud  ,"I can't believe that we live here." We are so thankful to many of you who have supported us with prayers and financially. We Have been encouraged and blessed. Phil 4 10-20 scream  out what I'm feeling. We also are in prayer that God would show us how to take care of you all back home.  So we will have another update soon and include some pics of the people who we will be working with.    BECAUSE HE LIVES...................The CERMAKS

The Home Stretch

For 3 months now, Tony and I have been living out of a suitcase.  Everything that we own is stored in totes and fit in a small walk-in closet.  The month of August we counted at least 9 different places that we stayed.  From Hemet, CA to Appleton, WI and all kinds of places in between, life has been a tiring adventure.  It is almost hard to think that there could be another way of living, perhaps a more normal way of living.  After 5 months of fundraising and jumping from here to there trying to keep our heads above water, we have finally reached the home stretch.  South Africa is practically in the palm of our hands.  Even though we still have a percentage of our support to raise, we have received the green light to purchase our plane tickets.  We are confident that God will raise up the people who will help us reach our financial goal this month before we leave.  Right now Tony and I are focused on applying for our Visas, saying goodbye to friends and family, and gettin ready for our move.

If all goes well with the Visa process we plan to leave sometime between Oct 1-15.   So, that is all for now folks.  We will keep you all posted. :)

The "EZ" Life

Well it is official,  our little nephew Ezekiel was welcomed into the this world Tuesday, July 29th and weighing in at 8 lbs 5 ounces.  EZ stands 21 inches high and loves to eat.  His hobbies include, eating, sleeping, making dirty diapers, and lovin' on his momma.  Tony and I had a wonderful trip visiting the Land of Cheese. We had a ton of quality time with my sister, her husband and their little ones.  Family is a blessing and we feel lucky to have had the time to visit before we head out to South Africa.

Since our return we have had the good fortune of successfully defending the Dragon Boat Race Championship up at Lake Gregory.  There is nothing like the thrill of competing in such a high profile race.  This year there were 10 teams that raced and the smell of victory was sweet.

We continue to be a place of thanks for answered prayers.  A good friend of ours was kind enough to loan us a vehicle while we are still in the US.  Tony and I are extremely grateful for our new transportation.   We continue to move slowly up the fundraising ladder and are hopeful that our financial goals will be met in the next month.  You can still feel free to pray for our support raising process, if you would like. ;)  We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible before we leave, and of course our doors will always be open.  Talk to you all again soon.

 

Here..There...and Everywhere in Between!

Welcome the first "regular" official Blog update from the Cermak's. Those of you who know us best, know that this is a huge deal for us, being the prehistoric technology people that we are. We are slowly submerging into the world of Blogging and all because we love and value you, our readers. So this one's for you!!!

In the past month or so many changes have happened in Cermak World. Let us just highlight a few things for you.

1. We have made that GINORMOUS leap of faith and have moved away from the comfort of our jobs into the land of full time support raising.

2. We are now a "CAR-LESS" family. Dayna's car Zippy, was sadly laid to rest shortly after our honeymoon and we were miraculously able to sell Tony's truck.

3. We have moved from Yorba Linda to Hemet for a few months before moving to South Africa.

4. We have traveled from Oregon to Idaho to Las Vegas, saying goodbyes to family while continuing to raise support.

5. We are expecting a new nephew into our family.....as we write. Lindsey, Dayna's younger sister, should be delivering baby Zeek today!

We still have much to do before our October departure to South Africa. We keep pluggin away and we continue to see God's blessing and provision for us. In the midst of all this exciting change we have struggled a bit. Saying goodbye to people has been difficult. Trying to release people well, has been tiring and has taken a toll on us and our friends emotionally. No matter how much time one might have to prepare making a huge move like we are, there never seems to be enough time to spend with those you love so deeply. Also, the loss of our cars has been a blessing, but hard. Much of the time Tony and I feel stuck and so far away from our core community of friends. We are thankful the burden of selling our cars is lifted, however, we long for that independence that we have lost not having our own transportation. Of course there is the constant battle for God to increase our faith during the last bit of our support raising. We are more than half way there, but sometimes that last hump is the hardest to get over. Kinda like loosing that last 5 pounds.

Soooo, that is a quick snapshot of US! We just want to be as real and open with you as possible. Our heart is that you would be in tune with us and everything we are experiencing. We want you to know what is going on with us internally as well as externally. So get ready because we will hold nothin back. Before we sign out, here is a quick update where will be the next few weeks.

Aug 1-5 we will be house-sitting in Orange

Aug 5-14 we will be visiting Dayna's sister and new baby in Appleton, Wisconsin

Aug 16-18 we will be up at Lake Arrowhead with some friends and supporters

We would appreciate your prayers for some of the things we shared with you. Also, prayers regarding our Visa's, Dayna's renewed passport, and all the other administrative details we need to take care of before we move. Thank you so much for you care, time and support. We are truly thankful for you love and friendship. Until next time......

Online at Last

We are finally online! Thanks to my friend Sharon, we have a blog. We're also working on communicating with everyone. You'll always be able to visit this website where we'll share more about what is going on. 

We're still in the USA, but we plan to leave very soon. We have lots to do. Please keep praying for us!

Please pray for the following:

• We would be 100% funded by September 2008.
  
• We would be granted 3 year Visas.
  
• God's provision for us up until we move
  

Thank you for your loving support!

Tony & Dayna