The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

One of the things I’ve learned this year is that I don’t really like journaling very much which is probably a good thing since I’m not very good at it. I would much rather sit with each one of you here in front of our house with a cup of tea as we talk and watch another storm roll in. We have been having really amazing storms and we were glad that Michelle’s parents got to be here for a couple of them.

We have had a really great vacation with our parents. It is always a privilege to show South Africa to visitors from the States, but it was a special honor to have my in-laws here for the past 2 weeks. We took them to an African themed restaurant right on the beach with a live Afro-fusion jazz band and various other entertaining delights, not least the unisex toilets. They actually have to employ someone to stand there and warn you when you’re walking in so that you don’t freak out when a lady comes out of the stall. But I guess it all just added to the vibe, and the food was really good.

We spent some good time at the beach, got to enjoy Christmas with my folks and New Years with some old Durban friends, and watch a lot of cricket. Its great because the whole country seems to shut down from about December 23 until January 5. And if every one in the whole country is on vacation, you can’t really feel guilty about taking it easy for a while.

With that said, we are definitely ready to get started with the new year. We are going to be getting things set up next week for the new batch of interns to arrive on the 11th. We are also looking forward to our African summit here in February. It will be great to see our country leaders like Amos from Ghana who we spent time with in Israel last year and Tarisayi who we visited in Zimbabwe last September. Mostly, it will be great to continue to vision what God has in store for J-Life around the continent.

Of course, Michelle and I could not be without your support and we rarely go a day without remembering that and how faithful and awesome y’all have been over the past year. We just got an awesome care package from our community group in Austin and its great to know that y’all haven’t forgotten us.

We have plans this year to become more involved in our church and community. This might mean we need to move from where we are staying to a nearby city called Vereeniging. Please pray for us as we work out how to make these adjustments and prepare for an awesome year ahead!