Dayna and I have lived here in South Africa now for six months. Can you believe that? In one séance time feels like it has been a lot longer. We have been through so much in this half of a year. On the other hand time has gone by very quickly. We are just under half way before we come back to visit the states. Dayna and I feel like we have missed a lot of your all’s day in and day out experiences. However when we are home in Dec & Jan, we look forward to catching up. We value our family, friends and supporters so much. Being so far away, we are reminded of our love for you all daily.
So what have we been up to? Because we are in our second of six postures, this one being called “submerge”, I had spent three days living in a shack last week. The idea is to see how the people we work with do life daily in their environment. I stayed with a woman named Anna. She has a son and two other daughters. The first night I watched Anna spend five hours cooking dinner. It took five hours because she only has one burner. We ate chicken, pop, cabbage, chockalotta, Anna’s house is about 25 feet long and 15 feet wide. There are three room and sheets divide them. When I woke up the first day there was a bucket of water waiting for me. As I gave it a puzzled look as to what I was to do with it, Anna laughed and said I needed a bath. Children may be reading this so I will not talk about the toilets. I actually loved this experience and look forward to next week when we spend five days with another family.
In the mean time I have experienced a séance of God’s call to work in an orphanage. Ok so when I got to Africa I told God and others that I was done working with kids and wanted to do something else. During a silent retreat I sensed God saying to me,” TONY you came to South Africa to tell me what you are going to do?” I could almost hear him laugh. God told me to get back into the game and wake up. Long story short, so there you have it. I’m sure I will have hundreds of stories from the kids here. What a change from kids from the OC, to kids here in Africa. I can’t help but think of the order of that and thank God for knowing what He is doing. I just find joy in being obedient.
Enough about me, lets move to the best part = Dayna. As I write this she is with 9 other woman in Durban. Dayna deserves this four-day rest and retreat. She has worked so hard this past six months. Dayna has had to balance; me, our team, doing bible study with women in Soshanguve, building close relationships with our neighbors and making everyone she runs into feel a séance of joy. As you know she has many gifts. The gift that I admire the most is how she is with people. They light up when Dayna talks to them and as you know as well, she talks to everyone she lock eyes with. She is my hero and I want to be just like her when I grow up.
Dayna has a plate full for the remainder of our time. She continues to lead our group in worship and conversations. (She has a huge role being here in staff) Dayna continues to seek God’s lead with the prostitutes on our street. She has stated her mentoring with two of the girl apprentices. Dayna’s Thursday bible study is doing well. Oh and one of her best friends is coming to visit for two weeks. I can’t wait for Nickie to come. I know dayna misses people so much and this visit is going to help her in a lot of ways to press on here.
Well if you are a supporter then that’s all we have for now. Thanks for taking time to read this quick update. We LOVE you so much and we are grateful for your willingness to give to us. We have learned so much about sacrificing from you. Please know that we pray for you all daily. Much love and joy……… TONY & DAYNA CERMAK
IF you are not yet on our team please pray about coming along side with us. We have been $600 short of our monthly budget. We are very close to running dry of our surplus. Meaning we still need people to be apart. I will just be bold and ask that if 20 people were to give $20 we would be at 90%. God has blown us away by taking care of us thus far. We continue to trust in his love and provision. WE know times are tuff and we find comfort knowing God has given us a lot of good friends.