Our April...

Before I jump into all the incredible things God has done in the last three weeks, I need to interject a few business things first in case a few of you don’t read to the end of this note.

This month (May) is the last month for you all to give to our ministry needs through One Challenge Int (OC). As of next month (June 1st) please stop giving through OC and begin giving to us through donations to Overland Missions.

As you continue to support us financially or if you would like to begin investing into our ministry with Overland, would you please direct your financial support with the designation “3074” (our new account number) in the memo line, payable to:

Overland Missions
P.O. Box 566
Cape Canaveral, FL 32920
https://www.overlandmissions.com/donate/secure.php

USA Office: office@overlandmissions.com
Phone: 1-321-452-9696

We expect our overhead costs to decrease moving forward, but in the next few months we have some significant expenses ahead with regards to our big international move. Even if you are not a regular contributor, will you please consider giving a one-time gift to help with our moving costs? It would be a tremendous blessing for us – thank you!! (if you have any questions about the process, please email us at danielhartley@oci.org)

Easter Conference in Bloemfontein
We had an amazing week away at our church’s Easter Conference (aka The Kings Feast). Dan had been working on administrative pieces for this for around 6 months and it was incredible to see how everything came together. We hosted two international worship leaders and once again were blessed by a former Shiite Muslim’s words of encouragement and exhortation as the main speaker. On Easter Sunday, we had a time of unbroken worship that lasted from 7am-9pm with various worship teams taking turns leading. It was a fantastic time of encouragement and refreshment with other believers! There was some beautiful worshipful art paintings done and several people were healed by prayer. Amazing!

A Sister in Town
A few hours after getting home from the conference, I drove to the airport to pick up my sister Julie. Some of you may be thinking, “wait, didn’t she just visit you in Oct last year??” I am delighted to announce that my sister Julie has also joined Overland Missions and is going through their Advanced Missions Training for the May – July class. (We will be in the Sept – Nov class) She flew in a week early to spend some time with our family before flying up to Zambia. I can’t tell you how amazing it will be to be able to do ministry with my sister in the future – I can’t wait!

We have been slowly phasing out of formal ministry as we prepare for the BIG CHANGE. (Moving to Zambia) We have a few more things Dan is helping with at the church, but the month of May is largely for us to focus on our big To Do List. We gave notice for our rental house and our home has to be completely packed up by the end of this month. We also have a few other big things on our list like updating our will, researching and signing up for a new insurance company, setting a new missionary budget, updating our address database…all of which are rather time consuming. We have some incredible friends who have offered to come and help us pack or to play with our kids so we can pack uninterrupted. This will be a life-saver! However, PLEASE PRAY FOR US, especially in the next 3 weeks. I know we can do it, but it looks a little overwhelming right now. Here is a picture of my two cute moving assistants.

Then, after that…we are still working out the details. The month of June we expect to be bouncing around a little bit. Our goal is to spend some quality time with ministry partners at each of the construction projects Dan has helped with. We hope to do more work in Swaziland for a couple days with the Chomba family at Hope House, spend time in Nelspruit with the Mongwes at Impilo Orphan Village, and then up in Temba at House of Hope with Bill Rapier. For one week, some people we barely know at church have given us a week’s vacation all paid at their time share in Mpumalanga. We also have been invited to go hunting at some friend’s game farm in the Eastern Cape for a week. Those two weeks are going to be incredibly needed by then I think! It will be great to have some quality family time as we prepare to transition.

Although this may be subject to change, based on what we know now, we think that we will drive up to Zambia sometime the second week of July. We are so excited that you are with us on this journey!

Thank you for all your prayers.

Janell for our family

Easter Camp

Thanks for your prayers for us this week. Our week was full of unexciting things like updating our database, researching insurance companies and errand running. Sometimes even missionaries have boring weeks! We are preparing for our church's Easter Conference (April 21-27), we also participated in part of a worship conference, and hosted a Zambian missionary at our home for a couple nights this week, so we had a few fun things interspersed in there.

Easter Conference (also known as The King's Feast) is a special time where anyone who is a member of the churches belonging to our network can come and hear some international speakers and have some incredible times of worship. They will come from Zambia, Zimbabwe, and all over South Africa. It has always been a super special time. In the past month, it seems like God has been showing His goodness in some pretty tangible ways to people at our church – it will be amazing to celebrate all together!

Dan has been on the planning committee again this year and has a pretty long "to-do" list to punch out before Wednesday. Please pray that things would come together smoothly and easily.

This coming week, we would love prayer for:

• Safety as we travel south 4 hours to Bloemfontein with multiple trailers full of equipment.


• Health – the weather is changing here (it is officially COLD) and that usually brings out the sniffles in our family


• That we, and those attending, would learn from the Word and have an incredible time in the Lord's presence.

Also, we will pick up my sister Julie from the airport as we are driving back into town on the 27^th. She is participating in the AMT training in Zambia with Overland Missions and will be up there on base from May-July. We are really looking forward to time with her! She is about 70% supported last I heard. If you would like to give her a one time gift to help cover her training fees – please send her an email at jfengeman@gmail.com

You probably won't hear from us next weekend because we'll have limited (or no) internet service while in Bloemfontein. We are excited to tell stories and show pictures when we return.

And then in May…we start packing! Wahoo!

Dan's birthday is tomorrow (18^th). Please feel free to congratulate him on aging or send him cheesy e-cards to danielhartley@oci.org

Smiles,

Janell for our family

Hartleys – BIG NEWS!

For awhile now we have had a sense that God has been cultivating some plans that would completely change the direction we are currently moving in.

We have been praying about this change for many months and have wrestled with two different options to consider for our next season of ministry. We have invested a great deal of prayer, investigation, and research into this decision and had many spiritual mentors speak into our lives as well. We have felt God's guidance and confirmation in this process and we are excited about what is ahead for our family.

We will be moving to Livingstone, Zambia!

After 8 years of being missionaries with OC International (5 years in Africa) we feel God nudging us into something new and different. We are so thankful for all the amazing people God has brought into our lives through OC to shape us, grow us, and prepare us for this next season of ministry. Our OC teammates have walked this exploration journey with us and even though they are sad to see us go, they are incredibly supportive of our transition. We will really miss these wonderful families as well as many dear African friends.

We have been accepted as missionaries to Overland Missions, and have resigned from OC, effective May 31, 2011.

Things in our life will be pretty different. We will be saying a lot of "goodbyes", packing up our house, selling/buying a different vehicle, and moving from the really big city with several 6 lane freeways to live in a pretty rustic environment where you light a fire under the water tank if you want a hot shower. We have intense peace about our choice and although we'll probably go through a bit of culture shock again J we are confident this is where God is leading us.

If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to contact us directly at danielhartley@oci.org or janellhartley@oci.org

Here is a bit more background to our story:

You might recall that three years ago on our way up to a conference in Lusaka, Zambia, our trailer was quite literally "eaten" by a pothole in Botswana, leaving the axle and trailer separated from one another. We were able to drag it a few more hours up the road and then left it with some friends on a missions base in Livingstone. We then continued another 8 hours up the road to Lusaka where we met up with the rest of our church's ministry team. After our time of ministry we headed back to retrieve what was left of our trailer.

This missions base where we left the trailer was operated by Overland Missions. Our close friends also lived on base and we were going to spend some time with them as well. Much to our surprise, when we arrived on base the trailer was flipped on it's head, and pieces were in place making it look once again like a trailer. With a few more welds, it actually seemed like it would make the 20 hour pot-hole filled journey back to South Africa.

The next few days were spent on base relaxing, exploring the base operations, and discovering how God was using Overland to make huge impact into the lives of Zambians who might not otherwise be reached if not for the massive 4X4 trucks they use to get into the deep bush. I (Dan) almost immediately felt as if I had found my perfect fit for ministry… not Janell. It was a little too rugged for her!

Now, fast forward 2 ½ years, and I believe that the feelings I had then, are now God's intention for our family this year. We had a 6 hr meeting in January with the director of base operations/ministry and the answers he gave to our difficult questions resonated like a C Major chord within our hearts. As well, just as a bonus, the base-life is much more family friendly then it used to be (they now have electricity and houses on the base for the missionary families to live in rather than safari tents!) and Janell's spirit is in union with mine as we pursue Overland.

I have been given a gift of teaching others not just with my mind, but also with my hands. I believe that I am a capacity builder for others. I am passionate about finding the potential in others and then exploring it so that their heart and mind understand who, and what God has created them for. Overland has invited me to teach their AMT course and it is a dream job for me! AMT stands for advanced mission training and is designed to train and equip someone who is interested in becoming a missionary with skills to help them minister effectively in challenging rural situations. It is a 3 month course, run 2x a year, which will teach missions theology, preaching, cross cultural communication, medical wilderness training, 3rd world country diseases, GPS navigation, expedition training, 4x4 driving course, welding, bush cooking and much more. What an amazing opportunity to impact world missions right from the starting line!

You can find out more by watching the course promotion video here: http://www.overlandmissions.com/index.php?/amt/article/amt-description-new/

During the months that the course is not running I will have the amazing opportunity to participate on evangelistic expeditions into the unreached and neglected regions of Zambia and Southern Africa. Western Zambia is an extraordinary landscape because the Zambezi River is in flood 3-6 months of the year. This isolates a huge number of people groups that settle within and west of the River. Because it is so difficult to reach by modern transportation they often receive minimal priority. These hard to reach places are where Overland wants to explore with the vision to evangelize, train pastors, teach Biblical principles and assist with social/health education. I first set foot in Zambia in 1994 and always had a portion of my heart set aside for this opportunity. I never imagined it might be so much fun experiencing the fulfillment to this dream.

(the picture above is the Zambezi flood plains at sunset from our Zambia trip in 2010)

We are not sure exactly what Janell will end up doing, but her first priority will be our children and then there will always opportunities to assist with projects around the base. There will also be times of mentoring / coaching needed for the gals who will be going through AMT and that is her favorite thing! She will have these opportunities and more to have great loving influence into the lives of women as well as into the "life" of Overland. She is an amazing mother and the model she will live, out of her love for God and others will speak much louder than any seminar could ever accomplish.

We know that we are only seeing a partial glimpse into our future but we are very excited about what is ahead for our family! Above are a few pictures of the base and view.

We will continue to stay in touch with you about how to transfer your support of us to a new account with Overland in upcoming communications. Until the end of May, please continue to send in your financial support to OC International. Thank you so much!!

To learn more about the other amazing holistic ministries of Overland Missions go to http://www.overlandmissions.com/ and check out Expeditions (short term teams), LIFE (caring for orphans), sector management (evangelism and discipleship in a target area), SAM (helping develop agricultural projects and microenterprise), RPN (Rural pastors network – pastoral training), and more.

With hearts full of thanks to God for all He has done and for you all,

Dan, Janell, Miesha and Titus Hartley

PS. We are in process of updating our communications database – if you have moved in the last 5 years, will you please send us your updated residential address? Also, if you want our emails to go to a different email address (or not come at all! J) will you please drop Janell a quick email at janellhartley@oci.org Many thanks!

Transitions

Many of you have popped over here to our blog hoping for more news about our upcoming transition. Well, we are close to an announcement, but you won't find it today!

Stay tuned!!!

Lots of love to you all,
Janell for us 4

Here are a couple cute pictures of our kids from this week. Miesha was given a bike with training wheels and she is just now getting the hang of pedaling. Dan attached an old mop handle onto the bike so we could help her keep moving as she was learning. Now, Titus loves to "help".

The best place to eat a chocolate pudding popsicle is...

Soweto Sewing Center

God is doing some amazing things through the missionaries with work with. At our team prayer meeting recently, my teammate Sarah shared some incredible news about how God is working in a small community called Braamfischerville and I thought I’d pass it on to you.

First, a little background…
Sarah and her husband Jay have been working with OC Africa for around 12 years with a focus on community development and uplifting area called Braamfischerville for the last 7 years. “Uplifting” basically means doing everything they can to help the people get out of poverty and walk in the abundant life Christ intended for them. They have created sustainable income generating projects, they sponsor an orphan boy to be able to keep him in school, they assist with health needs, they assisted with a starting a church, they do Bible studies, help with funerals, they plant gardens, expand people’s houses so that they can care for more orphans and foster children, showed the Passion movie at Easter time, and helped build a pre-school so the little kids could have a safe place to play and learn. If you knew all their challenges over the years, you too would be wildly impressed with their tenacity and the incredible things God has done in this small community.

Last Friday, Sarah was sharing about her sewing center project. The sewing center was birthed through the assistance of a short term team from the USA who came over with some sewing machines and patterns. Fast forward 2.5 years and now the sewing center has 5 ladies and 1 man on staff and although they are still struggling to see steady revenue come through, they are all making beautiful things and making money! Sarah proudly said, “They can make ANY kind of bag from generator covers to purses and there are several who are making their own patterns. They are extremely gifted individuals!”

Sarah has been going in weekly to do a Bible Study with them as a part of “leadership development” and has been taking them through the gospel of Mark. Recently, they talked through chapter 8 and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Sarah gave an invitation and she believes that all genuinely gave their lives to Jesus that day!! Isn’t that incredible?!!!!!

(Sarah with Judith)

Recently, Sarah was doing her personal Bible study and there was a theme about living generously and investing in eternal things coming through. She made a note to herself that someone was probably was going to request money from them soon. Sure enough, a couple hours later, the leader of the sewing center, Judith, phoned and through tears told Sarah this story:

Her daughter Palesa was the only student (out of 6-7 kids) in their community who passed her matric exams. (which are like really hard tests before you’d be granted your HS diploma in the US). She did it! She beat some incredible odds to stay in school, to learn, and to apply herself to get good grades! She was accepted into the Forensic Science program at the University of Johannesburg and would qualify for grants and loans to cover the cost. The only problem was that this family still owed the High School R500 ($70) for outstanding school fees. The school would not release her diploma/matric certificate until they paid the fees. Without the certificate, she would be unable to complete the paperwork to apply for financial aid (the financial aid deadline was a few days later). Without the financial aid there would be no University education, without the education, no career… You can see where this is going. Her future was hinging on $70/R500.

Sarah and Jay were able to give from what God has blessed them with to help this bright young lady have the chance to get a good education and create a life for herself.

They are impacting the nation of South Africa, one life at a time.

These are the stories that make my heart smile, and I think God’s heart smiles too!

Happy 2011!

We can all see that I neglected this blog the entire year of 2010. (sorry!) Rather than giving you all my lame reasons why, I am hoping to redeem myself through sharing our family's adventures in 2010 through this awesome Smilebox. Enjoy!

May God bless you in 2011. - Janell

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