GPBC Blog

Sometimes God winks to remind us He was there the whole time. In 2013, my husband Lloyd was accepted for postdoc work in South Africa, studying the Acacia tree at Kirstenbosch Gardens. We packed up our three-year-old, Louis, and moved to a funky beach town called Muizenberg, just outside Cape Town. I was pregnant with our second son, Dean.

Muizenberg had surfing, yoga, great cafes--everything to love. But once we settled in and Louis started preschool, I felt aimless. The wealth gap was hard to witness, and pregnancy made emotions run deep. Though Dean was born there with a wonderful midwife in Muizenberg, I left South Africa unsure how God had used that season in my life.

But God has a way of winking at us through the beautiful threads He weaves into our story.

Almost a decade later, in 2022, we started attending GPBC and met the Brune family: Kimberly, Oliver, and their kids Eve and Quinn, who had just returned from Muizenberg. As it turns out, we’d been neighbors in Muizenberg back in 2013 and never met. Kimberly remembers seeing Louis on his scoot bike; her daughter Eve and my son Dean were born two months apart in Muizenberg, delivered by the same midwife. And now, years later, all our kids have attended Maplewood Elementary together in Portland.

Kimberly and I have since connected deeply, sharing stories of how God is working in our lives. Our shared Muizenberg chapter gives us a unique bond. And now, as the Brunes prepare to return to South Africa this fall, I pray for them with vivid memories of that place—and with a heart full of gratitude for how God has been weaving it all together.

God is the great Redeemer of time, place, emotion, and seemingly random details. Joel 2:25 says He redeems the years. It makes me wonder: what story is He weaving now in each of our lives that we’ll only see unfold later?