2020 Year in Review

2020, what can we even say about you?

This year saw us seriously considering pulling our family off the mission field to keep safe from the pandemic (There were only 20 ventilators in all of Eswatini in March!). We wrestled with the decision for several weeks before we felt a clear answer from the Lord. We had wondered amid quarantine, “Is our family going to be safe here? How do we do ministry like this? What’s even the point of being here if we can’t see anyone?”

But God opened several doors for our ministry to not only continue, but expand. We welcomed our first round of students and interns at the farm, and after an individual quarantine, we grouped together to become one big family unit; isolating together the best we could. We’ve made deeper connections than ever before and we are grateful to be able to say we ended this year with everyone all in good health.

One of the biggest confirmations of our choice to stay was You- your support, dear donor. Year after year, God has shown his faithfulness to us through your generosity. This year, we thought our support account would struggle amid the pandemic economy. We recognize that for many of you, it may be a tough time to give, and we don’t take any of your donations lightly. We feel certain now, more than ever, that God is using your support to show us that He intends for us to stay here for several years longer.

In fact, we believe that so surely in God’s plan that we’ve decided to relook at our dream to build a house here in Eswatini. We went from March, considering booking a plane ticket home, to August, contacting an architect for plans to build a house. We easily got AIM’s permission to build on the farm since the house will stay with the ministry; they were planning on future missionary housing here anyway. We were able to break ground in November after finding and hiring a trustworthy contractor from our local church.

It’s been a joy planning our house in a way to be able to do ministry better- an open floor plan so we can host teams, meetings, and bible studies with enough room to safely meet indoors. We are hopeful to have the house finished by the end of March so we can focus our full attention on ministry again.

Thank you for your support, thank you for your prayers. Thank you for believing in us, this farm, and the Swazi people. Here’s to Hope and a bright future.

Sincerely, with grace and peace, Brandon, Melinda, Zach, and Isabella

We now have 9 Umdoni Update Videos!
▶️Here’s the playlist to watch them ▶️