Hello everyone! We have missed you! Really if I’m being completely honest, we have missed everyone. Every friend and family member that would normally be just a few minutes away, has felt worlds away during this time. Our prayer for all of you today is that your health will be protected, and that you will be blessed in unexpected ways by this extended up-close time with any loved ones at home. 

    This update will be a little different than normal. Instead of a general update, we wanted to give each family a chance to share a short personal update with some of the things they have experienced and learned in this season.  Enjoy!

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Snow Family

Oh my what to start with, where we have been and the things we have done since the first of the year. We will do our best to get everyone up to speed without being too long and wordy.

The family was able to cruise thru Christmas and the month of January without the stresses that sometimes occur with the holidays and post holidays events. Starting in about the second week of February, we along with the rest of the world started to hear about this thing called the Coronavirus. The first week of March was the start of the talk of isolation, lockdown and shelter in place. At this time our children were getting out of school for spring break, a one week break they take each year. At the end of the spring break we were notified the schools would be shut down for an indefinite time. We as a family started the shelter in place during that second week in March due to all the confusion and unknowns of what was taking place and the effect it could have on our health and family. I (Scott) was considered an essential worker so my income was not affected like millions of others.

Danielle and the kids had to learn and adjust to online schooling. This was quite a hurdle to overcome at first but was very critical in the kids being able to finish out the school year.

We were so overwhelmed by how this had taken hold of the entire world and how so many would be able to withstand lockdown and the shelter in place guidelines put in place throughout all the countries. The unknown outcome and the reports of the loss of life was overwhelming.

As a family we were concerned on how we all would react with each other since we were spending all of the time together instead of going to school, visiting friends and all the other stuff we normally did. Danielle was able to keep everything on an even plane even though sometimes I know she was about to lose her mind.

We are beginning to see lockdowns and restrictions being lifted. I have had to change jobs due to Coronavirus, and we have had our son Jackson graduate from high school. Our daughter Emily has moved back to Texas and near us after 6 years in Colorado. Huge things have happened in our family these past few months and we each have grown and learned and have not been stopped or broken. God has been so gracious during this time.

  During the last few months we have spent much time praying and asking for clarity on how this has affected 5 Lights and where do we go from here and what does it do to the future for the 5Lights ministry. We have not been put down or stopped but just slowed for a short time. Over the past couple of years 5 lights have not been able to take the next step with anything that moves us forward without a huge resistance and push back from every situation and process we go through to reach our goal of going full time into this ministry. Each of us knows that and grows our faith that we are on the right path with God and this movement.

We ask for your prayers for our families and for the 5 Lights Team. We need God and each of you to have this ministry move forward. We will be reaching out very soon with information on how you can get involved with us on a personal level and our next steps in our transition in moving to South Africa.

Thank you and God Bless.

Snow Family

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Young Family

Hello Facebook friends and family, what a crazy, uncertain time these past few months have been. As in many trying situations, we believe our family will come out of this time stronger and with a little more appreciation for time together and apart. 

  With most of retail having to close, the store Chris worked at shut down.  This allowed him to spend most of the lockdown safe at home. Fortunately, his company paid him during this time and that took a lot of stress off of the family.  

  Since Leslie was already homeschooling the boys, there wasn’t a lot of change with them not being able to leave the house. In fact, they finished up the school year they were working on during the lockdown and have already started the next year. 

  With the family not able to leave the house and afraid cabin fever would soon set in, we tried to keep busy at all times. Most of our time was spent working on some much-needed projects around the house. However, we did have some very competitive game nights that almost ended with the police having to be called to bring the peace. We have a few overly competitive family members who do not like to lose, and a few very poor winners; which is always a great recipe for a night of fun. 

  On one note Chris did have a surgery scheduled in March to have a skin graft done to heal a chronic wound, which was postponed to May. As the quarantine was starting to be lifted a little, Chris returned back to work. Unfortunately, it was only for a week before he had to take off for his surgery.  Chris had the surgery and is currently having to be on bed rest for six weeks for it to heal. Leslie is having to take care of him on top of their four boys but is doing an awesome job at playing nurse, teacher, wife and mom! We are ready for things to settle back to normal and spend time with our friends and family.  

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:13‬

The Young Family

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Keefer Family

Hey everyone! 

You have all been on our minds and hearts these past 6 months in such a huge way. Our family started this year with a lot of excitement and anticipation, with plans for this to finally be the year we would make the move to Limpopo. We renewed everyone’s U.S. passports and began gathering the information we would need to be able to obtain our family’s visas. Shortly after receiving the updated passports, we began to hear of the spread of Coronavirus into the U.S. 

Like most others, we had no idea what immense change would be coming. 

   During this season of quarantine and distancing, our family has had to navigate a lot of changes. Our kids’ transition to online schooling was a huge one. Although difficult and stressful at first, we were all able to find ways to adapt and ultimately found a good rhythm. The kids actually really enjoyed the freedom to do their work at their own pace and plan their time in ways that worked for each of them. 

  Thankfully, Shaun’s job had just moved him to working from our home before quarantine began which meant that his work hasn’t been affected. It is a huge relief and blessing to us. 

  For me, it has been like I can literally SEE what God is using this time for for us, and that has been nothing short of amazing to me. He has given us the opportunity to adapt to homeschooling our kids and the chance to get used to the kids being with us all day every day instead of away at school. He has given us the opportunity to learn new ways to spend quality time together as a family (Everyone beats me at chess now!). He has given our children the time and opportunity to explore new individual hobbies and interests that they may not have ever tried with the busyness of “normal” life. 

 ALL of those changes are directly preparing us for our family’s next season of life in full time ministry. Away from our family and friends and all things familiar and comfortable. Except- instead of us being thrown into all of it in a new home and a totally different continent, He is graciously and lovingly preparing us in a familiar place. In our own home here. I can’t see that as anything other than an amazing gift. God is so good. His plan is GOOD. 

In Him-

The Keefer Family.

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In closing, we love and miss you all and look forward to the days we can see some of your faces and hug your necks again. Until then, we will update as new things develop. You are all in our prayers and in our hearts.

 -The Five Lights Team-

Hello Family

 It’s time for an update for you and I’m taking this as a great opportunity to talk about something that has been on my heart for quite a few months. I know it has been on the hearts of our team as a whole in one way or another. I want to talk about all of the waiting. 

  The Five Lights team came together almost 5 years ago with this HUGE dream that God has given us to become a ministry team. A team that would equip and empower others in a beautiful country that has taken a piece of each of our hearts- South Africa. 

  When we first started out, I think it’s safe to say that none of us could have imagined the journey ahead and the things that God was planning in order to prepare each of us to walk out this dream.  We also could never have guessed how long it would all take! 

   I mean, when Dad says “It’s time to go out on an adventure!”, as His children we all excitedly run for the car. Right? 

“But wait-“ he call to us, with a smile. “Where are your shoes?”. 

  And so we begin the frantic search for shoes. Like many little ones are known to do, we may come back with shoes on but maybe they’re our favorite ratty old flip-flops. Maybe they’re on the wrong feet even. Maybe it’s not even a matched pair.     The Father smiles and laughs. “Nope. Go back inside and find some sturdy running shoes. Where we’re going, you will need them. There will be a lot of walking, over hills and through tall grass. Maybe even through some rough and rocky places. You need GOOD shoes. The RIGHT shoes.” 

  And so, with much groaning, we run back inside to get the proper shoes. Once again we bound to the driveway- full of excitement and anticipation. The Father stops us again. “Wait, you will also need your jacket. It may get cold later. I don’t want you to freeze.”

  And so it goes, back and forth from the house to the car until we have finally collected all of the things we will need to be prepared for our journey. The Father knows where we are going. He knows the things we will need for this adventure. He knows that if we leave without some of those things, we will find ourselves in situations we aren’t able to handle with what little we do have. 

We cannot equip and empower others until we ourselves have been equipped and empowered by our creator. Our Father in Heaven. 

 At the beginning of this journey, we were all SO ready to just make the move. To drop everything and leave the U.S. to get to our final destination. Backward flip flops, no jacket and all. But each step of the way, The Father has gently (and sometimes not-so-gently) shown us the next thing we need to work on. Wether it be our team dynamics, our communication, our lifestyles or our marriages. And looking back knowing what we have learned thus far, we are SO grateful that we’re not the ones holding the car keys. HE knows what we need. HE will get us there. HE will make sure everything works out. 

    We have been busy with quite a few things these past few months. In June we received our official nonprofit status. Then in July, our board members had our first quarterly board meeting. Currently we are also doing as much research as possible on banking and international banking for nonprofits. We have been speaking with different banks to be able to find the one that will best suit the needs of our ministry and will require the least amount of funds to be used on things like Point Of Sale fees and withdrawal fees overseas. In the next couple of weeks, we plan to have everyone meet with the bank we have chosen and we will set up our stateside account.

  Our team has also continued to meet together weekly. These meetings give us valuable time to pray and worship together, to pray for one another, to keep our team connection solid and to make prayerful plans for the future of 5 Lights.

  Oh and one other thing... We have shirts! Our team members Chris and Leslie Young were able to come up with a really awesome T-shirt design. They have our order submitted and we should be receiving them soon. We can’t wait to show them to you! 

    And so as far as all of the waiting goes, we’re still the antsy kids ready to jump in the car to adventure with Dad. 

“Are we there yet??”

“Almost.”

We’re still being sent back inside for things, and we’re still doing everything we can to be able to follow His direction so we can finally leave. 

Please continue to be in prayer with us so that we can finally see this dream become reality!

Love you guys!

-Andrea

Hello everyone!

 We are due for an update around here! We want to get all of you up to speed and invite you to pray with us about where we’re at, what we’ve been doing and the things we are working toward and praying for right now.

On the business side of things, we have been dealing with what has felt like an endless process of “Hurry up and wait”. We first submitted our 501(c)(3) paperwork to the IRS in early July of last year, using what we were shown by their website to be the correct paperwork. Unfortunately from the time we sent the forms in to the time they received them to process, their online forms had updated and the ones we sent were no longer valid. We redid everything on the new forms and had them resubmitted in September with great hope that we would be able to receive our official nonprofit status by the end of 2018. The holidays came and went, the new year came, and finally Spring came and we were still waiting. We knew that because we hadn’t received a response within the initial 3 month waiting period that meant that our paperwork was either incorrect or was missing information that they needed. That also meant that once we received a response we would have to correct everything and resubmit the forms again. 

And....wait again. While the waiting has been difficult and honestly frustrating at times, God has been showing us and teaching us so many important things through it. This season has absolutely all been a part of HIS plan. 

Over these past few months, our team has been working through a course called “Impact” with our friend and oversight team member Wendy Good. The course teaches the keys to effective leadership and impacting others. It also has been equipping our team to better relate with one another and how to better invest in the lives of those around us. This course has been an immense blessing for our team. Each week, we found that the coursework lined up directly with things that each of us had been dealing with in our own lives at that exact time. It also has been giving us new opportunities to open up more with one another, which has blessed us by bringing our team unity to a much higher level. We have no doubt that God’s timing has been perfect and that He knew this course would be exactly what our team needed, exactly WHEN we needed it most. 

  As a team, we have expressed to one another at different times how it’s difficult not to get frustrated with the timing and process of being able to make 5Lights “happen”. We are all eager to be on our way, excited to make our big move and we have all felt so READY to get moved and get started. Through these past few months and even over this past year, God has been showing each of us that while we have all felt ready, He has important things for each of us to learn and work through first in our team, our marriages and our families. We cannot be effective in doing His work until he has taken us through this refining process we have been going through here at home FIRST. 

 We are trusting in Him and His process and welcoming Him in each day to guide us and to teach us what we need to learn and do next. 

The good news is that last Tuesday we were given a huge dose of hope! We finally received our response from the IRS on what needs to be corrected, and they only had ONE THING that needs to be clarified! We are excited to get that worked out and hopefully have everything resubmitted in the next couple of weeks. We are trying to be as prudent as possible in answering their questions correctly and fully with hope that we will get our approval this time around. 

Please be in prayer with our team about this paperwork over this next 3-4 month wait. We are praying that the process will go smoothly and that we will receive our official nonprofit status without having to resubmit again. 

  The next thing we hope to do (if the Lord wills it) is to make another trip to Phalaborwa at the end of May. As a team, we need to continue to grow and maintain the relationships we have been building with the pastors and communities we have connected with on the South Africa side. We hope to send 3-5 members of our team on this trip and the main focus will be on reconnecting and maintaining and growing those vital relationships. This is another area where we want to invite you to partner with us. Right now we need prayer for the timing of this trip, prayers for the team members that hope to make the trip and prayers also for the funds to be able to make it happen. 

 The estimated cost for airfare, lodging, food and materials is $2800 per team member. We want to invite each of you to pray about partnering with us as we raise the funds for this trip. If you feel led to give, you can make a tax deductible donation by clicking below:

Make a Donation

Or you can also mail a check to:

New Hope Church

1100 W Brown St

Wylie TX

75098

*Checks must be made out to New Hope Church. Please DO NOT put any other names on the check, but instead include a separate note that says “5Lights May 2019 trip” and if you are donating for a specific team member for this trip, also include their name in the separate note.*

Any funds left unused at the end of this trip will be transferred into our 5Lights Launch fund. You can view an itemization of what our Launch Fund will be used for in the “Future Projects” section on our website. 

We’d also love for you to read the update (with an awesome video!) posted from our last trip. It will show you what one of our team trips usually looks like and also explains more of what we’re about and how God created this team. You can view the video here: 2018 Summer Trip Video

We are so grateful for you, 5Lights family. Thank you for continuing to believe in what God is doing with this team. Thank you for praying with us and for us and for those we are seeking to serve. Thank you for being our community!

In Him-

The 5Lights Team.