The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

You have to love Christmas time in South Africa. Ceiling fans blow the tinsel off the Christmas tree and ice tea is preferred to egg nog, but that’s how we like it here. We really enjoyed all the Christmas “presence” shared with family and friends. Michelle and I were involved in the Christmas services at my dad’s church along with my mom, dad, and Jordan. Michelle did a pre-service skit in 3 services, and I played djembe for some carols.  I love that kind of thing!

Our 2011 students arrive this Sunday! Michelle and I will have just a week with them before we go to Liberia. We are really looking forward to the trip. It will be bitter-sweet trip for us. It will be bitter because one of our most promising students there, Watson, passed away with typhoid since our last training. He was 26 years old, an elementary school teacher and the youth leader in his church. We will miss his passion for young people, his great interactions during the training, and his contagious optimism.  It will be sweet because our country leader, Trokon, was married in December to his high school sweetheart, Ube. It will be great to see how they are getting on.

It’s also a time of real change and uncertainty for us. We are with J-Life for just 2 more months, and after that we don’t know a whole lot for sure. I can’t say that I’m apprehensive about the future, except maybe that I will fall into the trap of living in the future instead of savoring every moment. Will I be able to connect with the students this year when we know that we won’t be completing the year with them?

Two months is a really short time, especially as we will spend 2 weeks of that in Liberia. There are a lot of details to work through (like shipping things to the States, selling the car) and thinking about what we are going to do on the other side (where to live and work). Michelle has finished her grad school applications so we are also waiting for news on that side. I have been doing the job search thing.

We also have a wedding happening here for 2 J-Life staff members, a 10 year celebration for J-Life, and our Africa Summit all happening in February. So there’s going to be plenty happening on this leg of our journey. We are praying that we will be a blessing and encouragement to the work of “mobilizing disciplemaking movements among the youth of Africa” even in these last weeks.

If you are in the States, we hope to connect with you when we get back. I think it might be a challenging for Michelle to re-adjust, so whatever support and encouragement you can give to her would be appreciated. She’s not as used to moving across oceans as I am. We plan to arrive in Houston on March 19th.

Miah