Dislocate (verb): To disrupt or shift out of place or position.

The Last Supper (in Worcester, SA)

On April 28th we finished packing up our house in Worcester, South Africa, and launched into what we have dubbed our "Unbelievable Intercontinental Adventure".   

First stop:  England.  

The bluebells waited for us!

We stayed in 3 locations: with my (Rachel's) parents, brother and his family, and Great Aunt Gill and really enjoyed some family time and many walks in the country-side. 

Grandma and Papa with Ashani

Eating vast quantities of wild garlic

Barrel-rolling became very popular

Ashani with Aunty Priya

Next stop:  Denver.  We wanted to spend some time with Kevin's dad who had had a stroke and a heart attack and is currently on the hospice program, and also with his mom - especially as neither of them had yet met Ashani.

Planting flowers outside Kevin's mom's apartment block

Kevin's mom was happy to have some help with the flower beds - she said it would have taken her 2 or 3 weeks, and the Yangas family knocked it out in 3 hours.

We took Kevin's dad out to lunch in down-town Denver

From Denver we flew to East Texas where we are currently staying at the "Mecca of Mercy Ships" (aka the Mercy Ships International Operations Center).  We will start training this Saturday, and it will run for 6 weeks.

Kevin and Daniel just returned from a quick 5-night trip to Ellensburg to visit our home church and connect with friends and supporters.  They were also able to spend a day with brother Brian and nephew Connor.

Kevin, Daniel, and Kevin's brother Brian

In July, after our training, we will fly back to South Africa to join the ship, which will be our home for the next 3+ years!  We are excited to get to serve as volunteers again with such a great organization, and we're starting to look forward to not living out of suitcases for a while!

For a great 3-minute overview of Mercy Ships, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWL4MujgWRw

For information on  being part of our financial support team, click on this link, and scroll down to the bottom of the page: http://www.ellensburgwellspring.com/yangas-family/

It Is Finished - by Kevin

Rachel and I have graduated from our 12 week Couples and Family Counseling School and our 3 kids seem to be functioning well, so I think we got the balance right.  They have all been really patient with us and our busy schedules as we worked on assignments and research papers. I am proud to say we both got A's (although Rachel got 94.5% to my 93.5%).  

We had so many good speakers and covered so much information, I think it will take some time to process it all.  Rachel has really blossomed in confidence as a counselor and she is so bright she picked up all the theories, and in our practice times she was amazing.  

CFCS 2016 students and staff - missing George and Shellie from the USA and Koami from Togo who had to leave early.

In our last week we had a great speaker named Rod Smith.  He is originally from Durban but now lives in Indiana, USA where he rears his two African-American boys that he adopted as infants... as a single 43 year old.  He works as dean of a school, a teacher, and a family counselor.  He loves to empower people to "Show up, stand up, and speak up".

Here are some nuggets from our week with him: 

- All relationships impact all relationships and those impacts impact all relationships.  

- Healthy people don't become victims or victimize anyone else.  

- Listening is love, you can give someone a BMW and still ignore them.  (Just for the record, if you want to give me a BMW and ignore me, I'm O.K. with that...a blue Z4 roadster).

- When the outside is too shiny the inside must stink.  

- All holiness is local - you can't export what you don't have inside you.  

- All growth requires some loss.  

- We see the world as we are, not as it is.  

Rod really encourages people to find out what they want out of life.  So he asked us what we want, and to write it in 20 words or less.   I thought about this for a couple of days and this is what I want (although it could change next year): "I want to grow to be a mature man and to help others move towards maturity".  What would you do with your 20 words?

Now we are in full-on packing and sorting mode, tying up the loose ends so that we can fly on the 28th.  Tomorrow already our lovely dog Timmy will be moving to his new home on the YWAM base.  We will miss him terribly but he knows something is afoot and the old boy doesn't need any more stress. 

In other news, Ashani lost her first two teeth within the space of a few days.  Here's the first gap:

Daniel and I will be in Ellensburg for a few days to visit my brother and some friends, and we will speak at Wellspring Church on Sunday May 29th at 10:00 - all are welcome to join us!

Our season in Worcester is coming to a close.  It feels strange to be leaving, nothing has gone according to our plans, but as we look back we can see God's finger prints.  Proverb 16:9 says, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."  What does that mean to me?  The apostle Paul thought he was just going to Damascus.  When we meet Jesus and are eyes are opened, then the real adventure begins.  He is the lion of Judah and he is not tame.  I remember a line from Narnia, about Aslan  "He is not a tame lion...but he is good." 


Thank you for being part of our adventure.  We value your prayers and support.  

Kevin, Rachel, Daniel, Zaden and Ashani.

Learning and Leaving - by Kevin

Our lives and brains are filled to overflowing and we are so thankful.  The Couples and Families Counseling School has been teaching us so many useful tools to equip us to help others.  We are now in week 9 of the 12 week course and here are some of the tools we have been taught about so far: Strategic Family Therapy, Emotional Focused Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, Crisis and Trauma Counseling (for families and children), Genograms, Mapping and Externalizing the Problem, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Play Therapy, and Critical Incident Stress Debriefing.  We have both finished our 3 book reports and are working on our (12-15 page) research papers.  All this while trying to care for our 3 children and prepare for moving house again two weeks after school finishes.  

It has been pretty intense at times and a few weeks ago I (Kevin) noticed my anxiety level was starting to rise into the red.  My body gave me a few warnings so I approached our school leader and took a few days off to decompress. I have been struggling with anxiety on and off for the last 5 years.  Our school supervisors walked me through one of the tools we had learned called "Mapping and Externalizing the Problem".  This helped me to see that the problem was not part of who I am, but something I had control over.  Through this paradigm shift and working together with the Holy Spirit, God provided me with some healing and my anxiety went from an 8/10 down to a 3/10! I am very thankful for this as the next 6 months will involve a lot of stress that is inherent in relocating, changing jobs and cultures, and traveling over 20,000 miles across three continents.  

We hope to cross paths with lots of you folks, so here is our itinerary:  
1.  We pack the house and magically reduce it to 5 suitcases.  
(We bought a new suitcase and I noticed that Rachel was showing clear signs of Post Traumatic Stress: I found her in the fetal position clutching a roll of packing tape mumbling, "boxes, I need more boxes".  So I used my new counseling tools and gave her a straw and gently told her to "suck it up"...)

For real, here is our itinerary for the next few months:
April 29th - May 18th:  UK
May 19th - 23rd:  Yuma, Arizona, USA (to visit Rich Yangas, aka Papa Rich, recovering from a stroke)
May 23rd - July 13th, East Texas, USA (Mercy Ships base)
also, May 25-30 Kevin and Daniel will be in Ellensburg
July 15th - 28th near Durban, South Africa (working with the local community)
around July 28th, board the Africa Mercy in Durban (Shipyard)
then sail to Benin, West Africa.

We have been working with the kids in trying to prepare for their transition to ship life. We asked them to write letters to our supporters to tell their side of the story.

From Daniel:
Moving to the Africa Mercy is certainly going to be hard for the fact that I will be leaving friends again.  I also have a really good teacher this year and I will miss South Africa's delicious biltong and other meat products.  But it's going to be nice to visit Grandma and Papa in England, my Grandpa in the US, and of course our friends and supporters in home sweet Ellensburg!  I'm also looking forward to joining the Mercy Ships Academy which I have heard good things about.  And I am excited because I love to fly and travel.  Finally, a big thanks to everyone who supports us.

From Zaden:
First of all, I'd like to thank our supporters for supporting us.  Some of the things I have enjoyed about Worcester are: a good school, good friends, a beautiful view of the mountains, and South Africa's delicious biltong!  One of the challenging things I will have to overcome is leaving my good friends behind at school.  One of the good things about going on the ship will be seeing the ocean every day!

And here is a picture of Ashani with a picture that she drew of the ship: 

She said the birds in front of the ship are "Eagles".  I think she meant seagulls :-)

I also was able to celebrate my 12th/48th leap year birthday this year.

 Can you tell which one is 12 and which is 48?

Thanks again for your prayers and loving support,

The Yangi




  

Looking back, moving ahead - by Kevin

The year of our Lord 2015 was full of challenges, but as always God had treasures for us to find.  I have gotten into the habit of reflecting back on the year and recording my top 10 memories in my journal so I can treasure them for years to come.  

My (Kevin's) absolute highlight of 2015 was getting to baptize my son Daniel in Carey Lake, Ellensburg.  We asked Daniel about baptism 2 years ago and he said something like, "OK I'll do it, so I can get it over with".  Sooo we decided to leave it, and a year later he pursued it completely on his own initiative.  I am so happy and proud he has chosen this path.

Another one of my highlights was a “Giving worship service” we had here in Worcester at the YWAM base.  Stefaan Hugo the former base leader was speaking at the Monday morning worship time and asked everyone to pray and ask God what to give and to whom, and then we would meet Thursday night at our weekly Community Meeting to see what God would do.  The act of giving - especially when it hurts - is an act of worship and also of power as it can break the mentality of poverty.  YWAM-ers tend not to be a very cash rich demographic group, but giving from the heart is a beautiful thing to witness.  It was amazing to watch how the spirit of God brought joy to the giver and receiver alike.  We saw at least 10 guitars trade hands.  One young man wept as he gave away his first guitar that he had for many years, then only 30 seconds later was given another one that had him weeping with joy.  Even though we were a bit tight on cash God put it on our hearts to give Khaya and Grace (a couple from South Africa and Nigeria) the money they needed to travel home to the Eastern Cape for Christmas for the first time in years.  They are devoted staff here on the base.  

When they received the gift and Khaya’s eyes filled with tears I was thankful to all our supporters that made this gift possible.  After they had returned to Worcester they reported that Khaya's entire family was there for Christmas and their 2 year old son Judah was able to meet everyone for the first time.

On Monday the Couples and Families Counseling School started here on the YWAM base, with both of us attending as students.  It was exciting to get to meet our fellow-students and staff members whom we will get to know very well over the next 3 months.  We are an international crowd of 9 students and 9 staff, from 9 nations:  South Africa, China, Japan, Togo, Brazil, Canada, Cameroon, the UK and USA.  It feels really, really good to be doing a school again.  It’s been 13 years since we’ve had any training, and we’re ready for it.  It’s also great to be a part of a group of like-minded people who all have a passion for families and for the freedom that Christ has for us.  The staff are all really qualified and have tons of experience so we’re very excited to learn as much as we can from them!

We will be learning about the systemic approach to counseling (which considers the individual's interpersonal relationships within their family system, as well as the generational patterns in their family) and about various methods of family therapy.  Especially with our return to serve as Chaplains on the ship later this year, we are happy to be able to learn some tools that we will be likely to use.  We are adjusting as a family to our new schedule, which is quite full with classes every morning and 3 afternoons as well.  There will be some juggling involved! 

On Friday we had a lovely day out in Cape Town with our fellow students and staff, getting to know them better as we wandered around the Waterfront and had an unforgettably delicious lunch experience at the vibrant and culturally intense Eastern Food Bazaar. (Best Indian food outside of India, to date.  Mmmmm.....)

My (Kevin's) Dad suffered a severe stroke in mid-January, which has left him unable to walk or feed himself.  He has just been moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center in Yuma, Arizona.  It's hard to know at this point what his future holds.  

We are due to attend the On Boarding course at the Mercy Ships International Operations Center in Texas starting in early June.  As our Counseling School here will end in mid-April, we are considering bringing our departure date forward a little, so that we can be in the USA to see my dad briefly in May.  Of course we have no idea what his situation will be like by then, so we would appreciate prayers for wisdom to know what to do in terms of purchasing plane tickets and looking for accommodation etc.

The drought situation here has gotten quite severe.  On Monday the fire came close and turned our Worcester mountains into Mordor.  The winds were blowing Ellensburg style and got within 1/2 mile of a friend's house.  Their prayers were answered when the winds suddenly and unexplainable changed directions and the fire burned itself out almost completely.  South Africa sure could use some rain.  Please pray (and rain dance if you are being led). 

Our plans for next year - by Rachel

If you've been reading our blog posts, you are probably already aware that our time in Worcester has been challenging. For several months now we have been sensing that perhaps Worcester for us is supposed to be more of a bridge than a destination.  Our time here has so far been tough, but also GOOD - God has used this time to really delve into our hearts and challenge and change us in many ways.  So often, it seems, He has to get us out of our comfort zones and into a time of confusion and discomfort, to be able to do that.  We have felt it to be a time of preparation for what is to come.

We will be taking the Couples and Families Counseling school here from January to April, and we are really looking forward to being in the position of being "learners" again after a long time, as well as getting the opportunity to become equipped with tools that are specific to our calling and to where our hearts are at.

And after that?  Well, it seems that we finally have some answers:  

We have spent many years on board Mercy Ships in the past.   (8 years for Rachel, 6 for Kevin.)   We first met on the Anastasis in 2000, and have served on board as singles:

 a married couple:

 new parents:

 and a family of 4: 

Actually, we have "tried" to leave Mercy Ships a few times in the past, only to unexpectedly return.  And then we left in 2010 because God put it on our hearts to adopt internationally.  

In many ways, Mercy Ships is our spiritual home.  We have invested much of our lives in this organization, we know the quirks and foibles of living on board, the joys and the tough parts.  For 4 years we worked on board as Chaplains to the international crew - a position that we really enjoyed fulfilling together, and which is a really good fit for both of us - encompassing both of our strengths in counseling and teaching. And the occasional bout of crisis management.  :D

It just so happens that a position in Chaplaincy will unexpectedly be opening up on the Africa Mercy in August, and the position has been offered to us.  The ship will be coming to South Africa in July.  

Ironically, before we moved here to South Africa, Mercy Ships allowed us to send two boxes of clothes etc. to their head office in Texas, so that they could put them on a container going to Durban.  By mistake, they ended up on the Africa Mercy in Madagascar, where they still are now. Looks like we'll finally be reunited. (Did God know all along?  :D  )

Because we have been away from the ship for many years and we will be in leadership positions we will need to attend the On Boarding Program at the Mercy Ships headquarters in Texas in June.  This is a 5 week training program to prepare crew for service on board the ship.  We will then fly back to South Africa in July to embark the ship, and from there to sail to Benin (West Africa) for the following Field Service.

This is clearly a change of course for us, and definitely not what we expected when we moved here to South Africa.  But we really  feel right about returning to the ship and serving the international crew in the role of Chaplains.  We plan to make a 2 year commitment, and go from there.  (As a side note, the Africa Mercy has an excellent school on board.  We are very excited about this.  We have some stories to tell about the kids' school experiences in South Africa!)

In the new year we will communicate more about Mercy Ships and what the next season will look like for us.  Meanwhile, if you would like to find out more about the mission of Mercy Ships, you can find out here.

When it doesn't all just make sense - Rachel

If you've read any of our previous entries, you know that our transition to Worcester has not been easy.  The things we had thought we'd do here have not worked out the way we had thought.  We all feel differently about being here than we thought we would.  We've been struggling to figure out God's purpose for our family here in South Africa.  Again, disclaimer:  We love YWAM Worcester.  Great base, great leadership, great people.  We have no issues with them at all.  For us, this is more about figuring out where we fit in, and lacking a long-term vision here - beyond working in Transport, that is.  :D

I like things to fit together nicely and make sense.  OK, I can live with uncertainty and mess for a while.  But then, after an arbitrary amount of time, I stomp my metaphorical foot, thinking that I have the right to be able to look at the circumstances of my life and say, "oh - that's what God's been doing!  He did A because of B, in order to bring us to C."  And I feel smugly justified in the decisions that I had made in the process, because in the end it was all clearly part of God's plan.  How satisfying.  (And to be fair, there have been many times in my life when I've been able to do that, even though it may have taken a little longer than I would have preferred for the bigger picture to be revealed.)

But what about when it doesn't all just make sense?  

Do I struggle to fit all the pieces together in my mind, desperately trying to arrange them into some semblance of order - partly to appease my desire for everything to inter-connect, and also so that I can present it to our supporters and prayer partners in a tidy package?  (Er yes, apparently that's exactly what I do.  Giving myself stomach ulcers in the process.)

OR, do I wait... and trust... even if I never seem to get to the point where the answers are evident and everything "fits"?

It all really comes down to whose job I'm doing.  

For example:
Analysing the various reasons that we came here in the first place?  
-Not my job.
Wracking my brain to think of different ministries we could get involved with?  
-Not my job either.
Feeling guilty and responsible for the kids' occasional homesickness and not-quite-perfect circumstances?
-Nope.
Putting a plan together that will tie up all the messiness into something that makes sense to me and helps me feel better about myself?
-No.

The fact is, God is sovereign, and doesn't have to explain what He is doing.   He is the Potter, and not only did he create us but He also reserves the right to use us - or not use us - however He wants.

Humbling though it is, I do not have the answers.  But I know who does.  

So my job is to focus on today, doing the job at hand to the best of my ability.  And then to trust, wait, relax, and leave all of the outcomes up to Him.


P.S. Kevin had his dental procedure done last week.  It all went smoothly and he'll have the sutures removed next week.  Only one tooth was possible in the end, which cut the bill in half.  :D  The other good news is that it appears that enough funds are on their way to cover it!  Thank you! 

The Ocean Desert - Kevin

Once Rachel and I realized we were in a desert season (see previous post), my first response was, "How did I get here?  Did I make a mistake?  How do I get out of here?"  My desert has a lot of water, too much.  Before we left home, I felt like I was standing on the banks of a large river called "Faith".  I knew this river was going to South Africa, but that's all I knew for sure.  So I waded in deeper and deeper until the next step disconnected me from the shore and into the fullness of the current.  I had followed God into the river before, always a bit nerve-wracking, but I've learned to trust him.  

This time the river carried me out into the ocean and before I knew it, I had lost sight of land.  At first I thought I could  save myself with my wisdom and strength, but I didn't even know which way to swim.  But God was there in the midst of this ocean-desert in the form of a life raft that would provide safety, shelter, and everything I would need to survive.  

But at first I did not want to get in.  I held on to the side with one hand and I held on to my rubber ducky in the other.  My rubber ducky signified everything I relied on instead of God - My pride, strength, wisdom, my comforts: good things and bad.  What kind of fool would hold onto a rubber ducky when there was  a life raft right there?!  I love my ducky, he is my "Wilson"!  

But he cannot save me.

It seems like God uses difficult times to wake us up to the reality of how much we need him and and how we are designed for deep dependence on our Shepherd-King.  But this does not come naturally or easily; we must make the choice ourselves.  In Proverbs chapter 3 it talks about how God disciplines those he loves (He even led Jesus into the desert).  Discipline sounds like a negative thing but it is not.  "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12)  

A sermon from Rick Ezell says this:  "Discipline means training.  It is meant to draw us away from what will cause us harm and then lead us into the likeness of Jesus.  Discipline is needed to align our will to God's will."  

God is using this desert season to discipline me, just like a coach using discipline and training to make his players the best they can be.

"The job of a coach is to make players do what they don't want to in order to achieve what they have always wanted to be." -Tom Landry, Hall of Fame coach of the Dallas Cowboys (and a follower of Jesus).  
Things have become a lot easier knowing that God has a purpose for this hardship.  The more I trust him, the more peace he gives me.  I'm not sure which is more amazing: that I believe in Jesus, or that Jesus believes in me.

In other news:

Financial help needed: Tooth Story

We all start out with 12 molars. My wisdom teeth were impacted so I was then down to 8.  Right before I joined Mercy Ships in 2000, #7 on my upper right side cracked.  It would need a root canal and then a cap costing $2,000 or $75 to pull it.  I was broke, so out it came.  #6 on the upper right side continued to serve me well even after it had cracked and had a root canal in Africa (on the ship) in 2009.  Last year on my birthday while trying to consume a Snickers Blizzard it cracked down to the roots and could not be saved.  With no molars left I cannot chew food on the right side of my mouth.  The bad news is that implants cost about $4,000 dollars in the U.S. Dental insurance typically does not pay for dental implants.  The very good news is that they only cost $1400 in South Africa using the same high quality components.  The other bad news is that we exhausted our savings account covering our transition costs to come here.  

So I'm asking if anyone can help.  I can put it on a credit card but the borrowing costs are high, and I've not carried credit card debt since 1997.  The bone scan showed I have 8mm of bone, 7mm is needed otherwise bone grafts are required (expensive and painful).

As we get older the bone mass decreases, so right now there is a window of opportunity.  I found a great dentist in Cape Town, I have the bone mass, but I need help with the cost.  The total cost for all the screws/posts, surgery and making the new teeth will be around $2,800 for the #6 and #7 molars. The surgery to place the posts is scheduled for Nov. 17th, so the bill will come due in December.
Information about given can be found at this link:

www.ellensburgwellspring.com/yangas-family/

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Kevin and Rachel