Delac's Christmas 2011

Hello and Merry Christmas to you all!  I hope that this blog finds everything well with you and your family.  The Delac's have had a crazy year full of ups and downs and ups again.  I wanted to share with you some of our goings on. 

We started the year in Johannesburg, South Africa where we were finishing our 3 year term as missionaries with the International Mission Board.  The children were still being home schooled and we finished the school year and went stateside in April, right after Emily turned 13.  We stayed in Orlando at a mission home and met many wonderful people from Delaney Street Baptist and First Baptist Orlando.  We got to go to Disney and Universal Studios and had a great time.  

In June, Leah slammed her thumb in the car door and we had to make a trip to the ER to have it stitched up.  We found out that she had broken the finger also.  Two weeks later we travelled to North Carolina for a vacation and Emily's appendix ruptured.   The doctor had to do emergency surgery on her and by Monday she was released from the hospital.  During this hospital stay Micah turned 9 and had to celebrate his birthday by driving back and forth to the hospital.  We started driving back to Florida on Wednesday and drove the rest of the way on Thursday.  By the time we got home Emily was getting sick again.  We drove her to the ER (they knew us well by now) and on Friday Emily had another emergency surgery to unblock her intestines.  While the doctors were doing the surgery they found that Emily's appendix was still intact.  A lot of you prayed for Leah and Emily through all of this and I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you.  Leah's finger has healed well and Emily has a big scar but she is healthy and we are blessed that it was something that could be fixed easily. 

During our time on stateside we had been praying about where God was leading us and what would be the next chapter in our lives.  After much prayer David started applying for jobs in the US and in August he was hired as the Assistant Finance Director for the City of Roswell, GA.  We were very excited about this opportunity and David moved to GA in late August while I stayed in Orlando with the children.  We were in the process of buying a house.  I started home schooling the kids again just until we could move to GA.  In the middle of September I started feeling sick and after a few days and a pain in my right side that only hurt if you pushed on it I went to the ER. (yes again)  Turns out I had a ruptured appendix myself.  What are the odds?  Again, we felt your prayers and I was released after 4 days feeling very blessed that it wasn't anything worse. 

During this time we were supposed to move to GA in September.  That didn't seem like God's will for us.  The first house fell through but in God's way we got a different house that was better than the first house and we moved in October.  The kids got into schools and they are all doing great.  All have made friends and like being in GA.   We have just joined Eastside Baptist Church here and we are so excited about the ministry opportunities we will have at this church.  David is loving his job and I am loving putting our house together.  I thank you for your friendship and your prayers and for all of you that helped us out during our time of need.  We are truly blessed with a wonderful family and friends. I pray your Christmas is filled with Jesus and may you and your family be blessed throughout the New Year!

World Cup

Hi all. It's been a long time. As always life has happened and happened fast. God has been good to the Delac family. I'll try to get you up to speed on what we have been doing.

In April, Emily turned 12. Its was hard to believe. She calls herself 12teen. It fits. She is growing up so fast. We started leading our Crown Ministries group. We had a very diverse group. It was really interesting getting to know them and getting a sense of South African culture through them. Our family got to travel to meeting in northern South Africa. David is the Treasurer for this cluster. The cluster is spread throughout South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and the western province of Zambia. We got to hear testimonies of the missionaries from those countries and how God was working where they serve. We met a lot of new friends and got to hang with some old ones. We had a great time.

May brought another trip. We drove to Lesotho. It is a small country within South Africa. We stayed with some missionary friends and got to see where they serve. David is their Treasurer and I help them with their home schooling needs. It was wonderful to actually see where they serve and it helps us to serve them better. Lesotho is a beautiful place.

June brought the World Cup to South Africa. All of the schools have been on holiday for the entire month. The kids finished up school here and now are being home schooled. I have been asked why we decided to home school. The short answer is that we will be going stateside April 2011 and I wanted to get the kids back on the American school schedule. I also want to be finished with the school year before we leave here so we have started already. They are all doing great and seem to like it so I am happy. World Cup has been fun. David got to go to the US vs Algeria game. The one where we won in the last 2 minutes of the game. What a great game to see. He loved it. Now that the US and the South African teams are both out he has been cheering for Spain. They play tonight so we will see if they make it to the finals. What has been neat for us is that our friends all over the world have been able to see where we live. At the beginning of the month we travelled up to Kruger National Park and stayed with some South African friends. This time we got to stay inside the park. It is a true safari and we got to do it for a week. We went on a night drive and saw lions. It was awesome. I don't think I will ever be able to go to a zoo again. Micah turned 8 at the end of June and has finally been trying some new foods. I knew one day it would happen.

This month is winter for us. It has been cold in Joberg. We celebrated the 4th with a picnic with all of the other Americans that work with us. It is very strange to celebrate the 4th in the cold. David will be travelling to Madagascar next month to meet with the M's he serves there. Here we will still be plugging along home schooling. By that time it should be old hat. Thank you for sticking by us and praying for us. We have needed your prayers and have felt them.

Prayer/Praise Requests

Praise out first Crown Ministries Group is over and was a great experience.

Pray for all of the people that came to know Jesus as their Savior during the World Cup. That when they go back to their country there would be someone there that can disciple them.

Pray for our family as we home school.

Pray for David as he travels in August.

God Knows

Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God know the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. This scripture seems to have been popping up all over for me. I think Gods trying to tell me something. Life seems to be hectic over here in South Africa and I for one am very happy that God has plans for us. Glory!


So whats been happening in the last few months? Well in January David and I got to get away and we went to Cape Town. What a gorgeous place! I went out first to go to a Home School Conference. I met a lot of great ladies there and found out a lot about home schooling in the process. David met me after the conference and we had a great time regrouping and just being us for a long weekend. The day after we returned the kids started a new school year. Emily is now in 6th grade, Leah is in 4th and Micah is in 2nd. We have been blessed with great teachers again.


In February, David got to visit Botswana, where he met with fellow workers and got to fellowship with their families. They really took care of him up there. David and the other Treasurers here got trained on a new software system. It was an intense 3 week training. Lets just say it has been very stressful on the whole team. The kids had mid-term break last weekend and we went to Swaziland for the weekend. We had a great trip. We stayed with some friends and David got to go to a rural Bible study. It was nice to get away and regroup.


Now that it is March things are not slowing down. David had surgery on his right middle finger Tuesday. He got the joint replaced with a silicone joint. The surgery went very well and he should be fully recuperated in about 6 weeks. We are so thankful to God, He sent us to the only country in the world that would perform the surgeries on his feet and this one on his finger. Also, on Tuesday we led our first Crown Financial Ministries. It went very well and we are looking forward to the next 9 weeks. We are celebrating 2 birthdays this weekend. David's birthday is Sunday and Leah's birthday is Tuesday, she will be 10. Tonight we are having a birthday sleepover with Leah and her friends. She is very excited. At the end of March we will be travelling to northern South Africa for a meeting with fellow workers. Again it will be nice to get away.



Praises/Prayer Requests:
Pray for David finger healing quickly.

Pray for David and Leah's birthdays.


Pray for the Treasurers that are very stressed.


Pray for decisions our family is making.


Pray for the meeting at the end of March.

Pray for our Crown Financial Ministries group.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! My commitment to you this year is to write a blog every other month. That is 6 blogs for the year. So what has happened with the Delac's in the last 6 months? Well lets see the kids finished another school year. They all did really well. They will start another school year in a week. Emily will be in 6th grade, Leah in 4th and Micah in 2nd. We have made the decision to home school them starting in September. They will all move up a grade so that they will be on the American school system again. We are all very excited about this but there is much work to be done before it happens.

David did have his foot surgery in June. The surgery went well and David has been able to walk so much better. This year we are hoping to get his finger done also. Hopefully, he will no longer need to use the medication that he has been on.

Our company has been making many changes and I believe that last time I wrote I told you about all of the support staff that would be moving here. Well they are here and it has been wonderful to have new families here for all of us. We have about 20 children here now ranging from newborn to just graduated high school. We have made some life time friends.

Micah celebrated his 7th birthday in June. He had a Ben 10 party with some of his buddies from school. It just happened that they had a Ben 10 celebration thing at the convention center here that weekend. The whole convention center was filled with every Ben 10 activity you could think of. The boys loved it and so did I. (easy clean up) In October I celebrated my 40th birthday. My friends here threw me a surprise party. It was my first and it was wonderful. I was very blessed.

In August the kids had a break from school so we drove to Kruger National Park and went on a safari. It really is awesome to see God's creatures out in there own habitat. We also got to visit with some friends while we were up there. It was a much needed break.

I have started volunteering at the Pregnancy Crisis Center that is run by our church. It is very rewarding. Mostly we have ladies that come in with their babies that need formula and clothes. Most are foreigners from Zimbabwe. At the center we do pregnancy tests and counseling for pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. The medicine is free to those who find out they have the disease but most won't because they are afraid they will be kicked out of their tribe. It is very sad.

On a brighter note my parents came over for a visit in December. They stayed until the 26th so we got to spend Christmas with them. We travelled to Kruger again and had a great time. It was fun baking cookies with my mom and hanging out with my dad. Christmas here is during the summer time so it really doesn't feel like Christmas. It was so nice to have family here to make it feel more like Christmas. I miss them already.

That brings us to January. On Tuesday I will be leaving for a Home School Conference in Cape Town. The conference ends Friday and David will be flying over to spend 4 days there with me. It will be nice to have 4 days alone with my husband. The day after we come back the kids start school again. At the end of January David and I will be facilitating a Crown Ministries group through our church. We are very excited about this new ministry.

I pray that 2010 will be a very blessed year for you and your family. Thank you for partnering with us in prayer.

Prayer/Praise Requests

Praise - David's foot surgery. Please pray about him being medication free

Praise - My parents were here for a visit.

Praise - all of the families that moved here. Pray that their belongings that they crated would get here quickly.

Prayer - for our Crown Group. Help us to love them the way that God would and that He would use us to help them with their financial struggles.

Prayer- that God would continue to use me at the Pregnancy Crisis Center

Prayer - for the children this year as they start a new school year. Also, all of us as we prepare to home school

Prayer - for the Home School Conference happening this week.

Winter is here!

Well June starts tomorrow and winter has already hit the Johannesburg area. It started to get cold here about a month ago. I am prepared for a very cold winter. It is hard to believe that it is cold here when most of my friends back home in Florida are having very hot and rainy days this time of year. It is hard for my mind not to think that Christmas is just around the corner. Then I remember that it is only June and Christmas is actually 6 months away.

The last two months have been busy for us here in Joburg. Last time I wrote I told you of the children having a month long holiday (vacation) in April. It went very fast. At the beginning of the holiday we went to our annual meeting that they call a AMTM (Annual Missionary Training Meeting). We had a team of volunteers come from the States to minister to us through music, preaching and doing VBS with our children so that the adults could go to the meeting uninterrupted. Our meeting was titled For Such a Time as This. I am not sure how much I have shared with you about our company making changes. But our company is making some big changes and that means a lot of change for us specifically living in Johannesburg. We have had people from around the globe moving here to help with support positions for the continent of Africa. So for such a time as this we had a meeting that we could learn more about the changes and how they would effect us. The volunteer team had 2 preachers with them and they did a phenomenal job sharing with us about how to get a grip on our thoughts and actions while we are going through these changes. It seems that flexibility was the word for our family a year ago and it looks like that its not going to change any time soon. A lot of things that we were told were things we have already heard but it is nice to be reminded. We were reminded that God gives us a fresh invitation to the spiritual world. That to be in that world we need to be in the Word every day so that the Holy Spirit can consume us and that we can have an intimate relationship with God so that He can lead and guide our steps. In doing this we will be able to hear God's voice more like a trumpet and not like a whisper. We need to stay in fellowship with God to know His will. We were asked the question is God having pleasure with what's coming out of you? Are we complaining, whining, being a martyr, a cynic or a perfectionist? We need to stop blaming others for the problems and look for God's hand in our circumstances. As I said before these were such good reminders. There was so much more that we learned but you would be reading for forever if I kept going on. We met some really wonderful people in the volunteers and missionaries that we hadn't had the privilege of meeting before. We all had a wonderful time. While at the meeting we celebrated our one year of living in South Africa.

A week later we went with some South African friends of ours to the beach in Durban. It was our first official vacation since living in Johannesburg. We had a wonderful time relaxing on the beach and becoming better friends with the family we were with. We got to see a shark dissected and went to a water park and the movies and did some shopping in one of the biggest malls I have ever seen. A fun time was had by all. There are pictures on facebook if you want to see. The kids returned to school for their second semester at the beginning of May.

May has also been a very busy month for us. While we were at AMTM the home school books arrived for the next year of home school. We support 14 families here and we have been working diligently to get their orders for the next school year complete. It is quite a process. David has been working hard in the Treasurers office and on his school work. He completed a class (and got an A) and two days later started a new class which he has been working very hard at trying to get ahead because he will be having surgery on his right foot on Thursday, June 4th. Of course every one of the children has speeches to give this week and Emily has a major project next week. Murphy's law. You all were such wonderful prayer partners for his last surgery please be praying for a quick recovery and that he would stay healthy so that he can have the surgery.

June brings Micah's 7th birthday and of course winter. We are not quite sure what we will be doing for Micah's 7th but I am sure I will blog about it next time.

Praise/Prayer Requests:

Prayer - That we would be able to stay so close to God that we can hear His voice like a trumpet and not just a whisper in all aspects of our lives.

Prayer - that we would have opportunities to witness to our community.

Prayer - David's surgery June 4th

Praise/Prayer - David finished his last class and has started another. Only 3 more to go after this one.

Praise - kids doing great in school.

Prayer - that we will all stay healthy. With winter comes sickness and every one of us has had some kind of ailment.

Prayer - for me and my colleague Dee Ann that we would be able to get the home school materials finished in a timely manner.

Prayer - for those missionaries that have to leave their homes to move here and for those that are already here during the transition.

Prayer - for Micah on his birthday the 25th of June.

Thank you for your prayers and for your friendship.

David, Tracy, Emily, Leah and Micah Delac

Happy Easter!

Wow have I really not written anything on this blog since January? Sorry about that. So what has happened in the lives of the Delac's since January? In a couple of days we will make it to our 1 year mark in Johannesburg. Crazy stuff. Its hard to belief sometimes and other times it seems like we have been here forever. The children have just finished their first term in school and now are enjoying a month off. We had conferences with all of their teachers and they seem to be doing great. Emily received a diligence badge at assembly yesterday. This is a big accomplishment here. David and I are so proud of all of them. The Lord really blessed us with great kids. Next week we will be going to a conference here in Joburg for the southern section of Africa. We are all looking forward to this for several reasons 1) we missed it last year. 2) we get to visit with other M's that we don't get to see often 3) we get to meet M's that we haven't met as of yet and 4) we get to hear some great speakers and hear what other M's around our region are doing. At the end of April we are going with some South African friends to the beach in Durban for a much needed vacation. We are very excited.

In March, David celebrated his 40th birthday and Leah celebrated her 9th birthday. I get the fun of calling him an old man for about 7 months then its my turn to turn 40. We went to the Lion and Rhino Park for Leah's birthday (there are pictures on facebook). She took a friend and we got to pet a Cheetah and baby lions. It was a really neat experience. In March we also went on a safari in Pilanisburg. It was so neat to see these animals out in the open and know that its Africa and not Animal Kingdom (nothing against Animal Kingdom). You can also view those pics on facebook. I would put them on here but I can't figure it out. We also received several care packages in March. The Watkins family, David's co-workers from Ft. Myers and the Mother's Morning Out program at McGregor Baptist Church all sent us American goodies. We have been enjoying everything and are so thankful to all of those who have blessed our family.

David has started a new class. He is about half way thorough it now. He is taken Personal Evangelism this time. He will be finished with his degree in December. He has enjoyed his classes but I think he is looking forward to finishing. For those of you that have been wondering about David's foot it is doing great. In fact he will be having surgery on the other foot June 4th so you can be praying for that. We can't wait to have all of that behind us. Thank you for your prayers for the left foot.

Around BIMS (where we live and work) things are changing. I think that I wrote that our company is changing the way we do things which for us means that there will be a lot of people moving to Johannesburg and working here at BIMS. All of the Treasurers from across Africa are coming to live here. At this time there isn't enough office space for all of these new people to work so they have moved all of us out of the administration building and are building a second story. I am still working in the Home School room and we have had to move all of our books and things to a new office for the time being. That was quite a job. We are all scattered throughout the compound now. Please pray that the building will be completed quickly. Pray for all of those who are moving here and for those who already live here that are dealing with change.

In April, Emily will be turning 11. In fact in just a few days. We celebrated by taking her and a friend to an amusement park called Gold Reef City. (pics on fb) We had such a great time. She is getting older to fast. Micah learned to ride his bike last week. I know he's 6 but when we were in Ft. Myers we had to sell his bike before he learned and then well we moved to Africa. Anyway, he was so ready to learn and now he rides like a pro.

As I sit here and write this blog I am reminded that tomorrow is Good Friday and of course Sunday is Easter. What a time to reflect on God's sacrifice for me and you and you too. Ephesians 3:19 tells us that Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Max Lucado tells us that it wasn't right that spikes pierced the hands that formed the earth. And it wasn't right that the hand of God was forced to hear the silence of God. It wasn't right but it happened. God did nothing while his son cried "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It wasn't right or fair but it was love. Again, I pray that you know that love. The love that was willing to sacrifice his life for our sins. It is so humbling that God would do that for us. I hope you and your family have a very blessed Easter.

Prayer/Praise Requests:
Praise - The kids are out of school for a month and are doing great in school.

Praise - Micah can ride a bike!

Praise - David's foot is healing nicely. Prayer - for the right foot - surgery June 4th

Prayer - that we would be able to share the gospel with more people. That the Lord would put those people in our paths.

Prayer - That the new office buildings would be finished quickly.

Prayer - For all of the M's that are moving here and for those already here.

Prayer - for the meeting coming next week.

As always thank you for the prayers. You are such awesome prayer partners. We are so blessed by you.

It's A New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Welcome back to a new year of blogs from the Delac's. I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas. That seems so long ago already. I think that I will start this blog telling you about how we spent Christmas over here. First let me let you in on a little secret. Yes, we live in Africa but Joburg is a lot more like living in the States than most of Africa. We have malls and roads and most modern conveniences. We do not live in a hut out in the bush. However, we do have friends that do, just not us. O.k. that said we had a pretty normal Christmas. The kids were out of school for 6 weeks. A lot of Joburg left the city and went to the beach for the holidays. Remember it is summer here now. It was very quiet here. The kids and I spent a lot of time baking and making Christmas ornaments for our tree. We had a lot of fun. Here they do not decorate as much. Most everyone has a Christmas tree but there weren't a lot of lights/decorations outside. Again a lot of people were gone. We do have malls here and they were decorated. The children call Santa Father Christmas here. He does the same job. Instead of going to church on Christmas Eve they go to church Christmas morning here. We had a lovely Christmas Day. We opened presents in the morning and had Cinnabons for breakfast. yum. Then we went over to some South African friends for lunch. We ate turkey and some meat they call gammon which tasted like ham. We did Christmas crackers. This is a gift that when you pull the strings at each end it pops and there is a small prize inside. That was a fun tradition. I made pumpkin pie for dessert (which they had never had). I think they liked it. We had a great time. The day after Christmas was a holiday here in South Africa called Boxing Day. This holiday is probably not what you think it is. Basically what you are supposed to do is box up your old clothes and give them to the needy. One of the big differences we have noticed here is that they don't have sales after holidays. The stores are usually just back to normal. Not like the States after Christmas. One week later we had New Years. It was amazing to me how many people told me Happy New Years but never said a word about Christmas before Christmas. Again difference in culture. We didn't really do anything for New Years. Pretty much what we would have done at home in Florida.

The day after New Years we held a home school family conference here in Joburg. A few blogs ago I told you that I have been working in the home school room. I got to go and stay out at a hotel with all of the home school families that home school in SA, Botswana, Mozambique, Madagascar and Zambia. We had a volunteer team come over from the States that did workshops with the parents while others were working with the children. Some of these parents have been home schooling a long time while others were just starting. I think it was a great benefit for the moms who were just starting out. I really enjoyed getting to know all of these families that we serve. David stayed at home with our children and on Sunday got a chance to come out and talk to the youth about personal finances. At the end of the month the home school orders will start coming in so we will be very busy trying to do the orders.

On another note David's foot is healing nicely. He had surgery in November to straighten out his toes. He went to the doctor yesterday and the doctor seemed surprised that it had only been 2 months since the surgery because the healing process is going so well. We will know next month when David can schedule surgery to do the right foot. Thank you so much for you prayers about this.

We finally got to go to the dentist here in SA. The kids went in December and I just went the other day. We were happy that no one had a cavity. Yea us. They do things a little differently here. The dentist is actually the one that does all of the work here. He takes the x-rays and cleans the teeth and everything else. There is a dental hygienist in the room but they just help mainly. X-rays were not taken on the children and I only had two. When he cleaned our teeth he used some kind of electric thing that sounded like a drill instead of the hand held instruments. It was a lot quicker and I think less painful. Anyway I just thought that might be interesting to know the differences.

The children started a brand new school year last Wednesday. On Tuesday I took the girls to book day to meet their new teachers. On the way there I asked them who they wanted for a teacher and wouldn't you know that they both got who they wanted. Even better they all three have children in their classes that they are friends with already. What a blessing. Emily surprised us by auditioning for choir. She found out the next day that she had made it and the music teacher wants her to audition for the marimba band. We will see how that goes. Leah also wants to audition for choir and join the Drama club. If you know Leah this is not a surprise at all. Micah is wanting to play cricket for his school this year. I am thrilled that they all will have something to do but it will be difficult to schedule it all.

As most of you know we are on Facebook. While on fb last week I was chatting with a friend who asked me in the last year what do I think is the biggest thing that God has taught me. I really had to think about that. God has taught me so many things but as I thought the one thing that kept coming up was this. Everything around you can change, whether it be your home, family, money, whatever but God never changes He always stays the same. Everything that happens is intended to bring us closer to Him. Amazing. Everything for us has changed this year but God didn't and He brought us here to be closer to Him. This year there will be many more changes. The job that David knows right now is going to change. He will still be a Treasurer but the IMB is making Joburg the Cost Center for Africa so we will have a lot of other folks coming to join us here. Things are changing and we don't know what the changes will be. We are standing firm in the knowledge that God knows what will happen. To Him be all the glory.

Praises/Prayer Requests:

Praise David's foot is healing well. Pray for the right time to do the other foot.

Praise the children are doing so well in school. Pray for their teachers Mrs. De La Rosh, Mrs. Raines and Mrs. Brennar

Prayer for the home school office as we are going to be very busy.

Prayer for the IMB as they make decisions and for the families that will be leaving their homes around Africa to come live in Joburg.

Thank you as always for your prayer support. God has heard your prayers and we have been blessed. You guys are an amazing bunch of people.