Wow, a lot has happened since my last blog post, which is why, of course, I haven't posted anything. The bane of the blog existence is that when I have time to post there's nothing to say and when there's lots to say there's no time. Things were pretty busy and exhausting as we sold and gave away 85 percent of our stuff and moved out of our apartment. I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to deal with all my stuff disappearing and moving out of what has been our only home as a married couple. But God is so faithful to remind me of his good plan and why I'm doing all this. After quitting my job Dec. 17, we flew to San Antonio to spend time with my family before Christmas and then up to Washington, D.C., Dec. 22 to spend two weeks with Brandon's family. That's where we are now. We've spent a refreshing and relaxing time with Brandon's parents the past week. We're looking forward to Brandon's brother and his family are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Brandon wrote our long-overdue e-mail update and we sent it out to many in our community. If we haven't added you to our e-mail list, you can read it at the bottom of this post. If you'd like to be added to our (semi-)monthly e-mail list, please shoot Brandon a line at mbjones@gmail.com. _______________________________

Dear friends and family, It's been a busy couple of months!  Quite a bit has happened since our last email in October.  We traveled to San Antonio and met quite a few new friends at Community Bible Church.  Brandon got the dreaded hamthrax (H1N1 - it isn't as bad as the doomsayers say).  We traveled to Indiana to spend time with family.  We had a delightful Thanksgiving in San Antonio.  Reserved plane tickets to Cape Town, got health insurance for us both for the next year, moved out of our apartment and into some close friends' house, Julianna had her last day as a reporter with the Norman Transcript, we spoke to a college Sunday school class of 60 and had delightful Christmas celebrations in San Antonio and Washington, DC.  Currently, we are still in DC enjoying a relaxing time with Brandon's family. We just mentioned that we reserved our plane tickets.  We now have confirmed seats leaving on February 4th (arriving in Cape Town late on February 5th).  On one hand we are incredibly excited about this but on the other are feeling the time crunch.  We have less than a month before we hop on a plane to start life anew on the other side of the world.  In this time we'll be spending as much time as possible with family and friends and Brandon will be finishing up his job at the university.  We'll also be condensing, as much as possible, our life into 3 duffel bags (weighing less than 50lbs each) a piece. As far as things that need doing before we leave, the only major thing we have left is obtaining the visa.  It's a straightforward process but required having some of the other agenda items in place first (health insurance, plane tickets, support base).  That this would be as straightforward as it sounds is definitely a prayer request.  We have other requests too that we covet your prayers on: Strength and joy: Life hasn't slowed much since our last email; it's actual probably "sped up."  Between traveling and meeting people, and pressing on with our daily lives, free time seems scarce and it is easy to feel overwhelmed.  We still wake each morning with new joy and new strength in the Lord; pray that we would continue to seek Him and not lean on our own strength or understanding in any of this. Continued guidance in community raising: God has been faithful in leading us to people with a genuine interest in our lives and HIS vision in it.  Pray that he would continue to do this. Provision: We still have monthly support to raise (we have ~$900 pledged of our $2500 goal).  We are definitely encouraged but have a ways to go.  Thankfully, as it was due up front, we have what was needed for the first 5 months of training but will have additional expenses as we press on in this mission.  If anyone is praying about year-end-giving and thinks of us, the Journey is ready to accept checks on our behalf. Finishing well: It's important to us to finish this season in Norman well.  Brandon still has a few days of work left and we have lots of goodbyes to make. For the establishment of HIS kingdom, Brandon & Julianna Jones

We had our estate sale last night and sold a lot of our stuff. Brandon and I declared it a success, even though we only got rid of about 40 percent of the total we need to part with. Thanks to all who came out and took what they wanted! It was a pretty strange feeling getting rid of some of the things I've had for years. I didn't realize until I sold them that I had held them so dear. When did my stuff start becoming my identity? Brandon had some wise words as I crashed in the aftermath of the sale. He reminded me that it's easy for our possessions to make up our identity, especially in this consumer-driven economy/kingdom that we live in. But as I sell or give things away, I'm saying to the god of this world, "You can't control me. I refuse to pursue material possessions. I'm giving myself to another kingdom." I look forward to feeling free from all the stuff that's cluttered my life for so long, but at the moment I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff still to be sorted through, sold and given away. If you have any ideas on what to do with our stuff, please make suggestions in the comment section (or get in touch with me if you want anything).

Today is World’s AIDS Day — a day set aside specifically to raise awareness and support for the 33 million people living, and dying, with it. It’s a disease that is literally tearing through the developing world at an alarming rate and it’s one that we don’t yet have an affordable, easily reproduced and highly available cure for yet. In 2007, it was reported that 5.7 million people in South Africa had HIV/AIDs; 22.4 million have it in all of sub-saharan Africa. To add, several million more are being infected yearly and more than 14 million kids are orphaned because of it. Hopefully those stats are humbling enough to make you want to do something. Truthfully, there’s so much that needs doing; Education, medical research and care, funding and raising awareness here are just a few of the things we can play a part in. It’s not a situation that bares no hope regardless of how dire it may seem. Research is advancing — there are groups that seem to be ever closer to a vaccine and just this past May it was reported that a German group actually successfully cured AIDs in a stem cell transplant procedure; the patient has now been HIV free for 2 years. An end is in sight. And until that end — a highly available cure and/or vaccine — is fully seen, I can take some hope knowing I serve a GOD bigger than any disease, no matter how scary it may seem. One of the most moving stories of Juli and I’s time in Cape Town this past May was meeting Angela, an 18 year old woman lying on her death bed in Masi. She had AIDS and was dying of TB; hospice had sent her home, not giving her much time at all. When we first met her, she couldn’t move or doing anything for herself. We told her about a man, GOD’s son, who loved her so much and was here for her now and always. We told her about HIS kingdom and how it differs from ours (which is broken by sin and decay and death). And we cried out to GOD there with her. It’s still amazing to me how GOD heals and comforts and restores those that come to Him. I see this throughout the Gospels especially, as Jesus walked through life. It’s not always how I expect it and it’s not always how I might want it but above all of this and my limited expectations God is now and always faithful. That hasn’t, and won’t ever, change. Anyways, back to Angela. Many in our rather large group got to see and meet her throughout our trip. She had such a hunger for Jesus. And an amazing thing was happening — by the end of the trip she was easily talking and she could feed and bathe and clothe herself and even briefly make it out of bed. She was supposed to be getting weaker and weaker until she died and here she was getting stronger. We left after two weeks but left her in the hands of the long term missionaries to continue discipling her. About a month after we had left, some of the long termers visited her and after hearing complaints of pain, took her to the hospital. She was tested and after some time the doctor came back and said, “I know why you are having this pain. The medication is so harsh and is treating something you don’t have and is causing it. In your x-rays and blood work you show no signs of TB! I don’t understand it but there it is.” She and the long termers and us when the told us celebrated our GOD’s strength and compassion — He’d taken away this young woman’s disease and healed her at least of that. Several months later the doctors called her back in for another test as they just couldn’t believe the results. They showed the same thing — no TB. She was baptized rejoicing the day, knowing hope that sees Jesus’ kingdom breaking through here and now and knowing how it changed her (not just the healing) and how it can change others. It will be a wonderful day when we all have vaccines and cures and successful treatments for blights such as AIDS. But more than that though I have hope knowing that there is kingdom where none of these blights even exist and it breaks through occasionally into our broken kingdom and it is bringing with it hope and change through the redemptive power of Jesus.