into Africa

I was on the road last week, and am back on the road again. Actually, by the time you read this, I'll be in the air somewhere over Europe, headed to South Africa...

Saturday marked 6 months to the day that we have been here in Texas — since we pulled out from our farm with a loaded trailer behind us, headed west to Waco. Not really knowing what lay in store.

For half-a-year now my family and I have been immersing ourselves into a new, completely different culture, and way of life than we’ve ever experienced before. Learning how faith can, and should, integrate into every single part of our daily lives. Every day it seems, we learn something new.

People often ask me when we are going back home to Tennessee. If ever? That’s a great question. One that Rebecca and I have spent a lot of time thinking about and talking through.

My guess is we are probably at the halfway mark, or pretty close to it. There are parts of us that knows we could go home tomorrow and be filled-to-the-brim with all we’ve learned and the new life that’s inside us. But we don’t feel like we’re fully ready yet. God is doing a great work inside our hearts and changing us. We think we still need to be here a while longer.

Indiana says she wants to be here through Christmas. And that sounds pretty good to her Mama and I. We made a trip here late last November for Thanksgiving weekend and the big Homestead Fair, and also one for the Fair two years before that, and so we got to experience a little bit of what the holidays here might be like. And although you won’t find many Christmas trees, and Santa Claus sightings are pretty sparse in this neck of the woods… the spirit of Christmas and the real reason for the season abounds everywhere. So my guess is, we will probably be here till the end of the year. And soon after, or right before, we’ll go back home.

You can’t go home again

About a month after we got here to Homestead, we were having dinner with some neighbors and they asked how we’ve liked being here so far. My wife surprised me with her answer..

“If a community like this doesn’t start in Tennessee” she said, “I’m not going home.”

That’s a pretty bold statement, especially coming from someone who loves our farm and her garden and the animals there as much as she does. If you asked me, I would’ve probably said it differently. My response would’ve been, and is, very similar…

“We can go back home to Tennessee, but we’re never going back to the life we were living before”.

What we found — not just by coming here and spending this time — but by letting go of our own ambitions this last couple of years, and continuing to give ourselves completely to God, has given us a glimpse of what Heaven must be like. Of what real community, and healthy relationships can be. Our time here has been a real eye-opener to what’s possible, not just here. But anywhere where the real love of God exists.

Tennessee turnaround

I actually just got back from Tennessee a few days ago. I had gone to check on things back at the farm and catch up and visit with some friends and family. The timing couldn’t have been better, as a good bit of the corn in the garden that my neice and family planted was ready, so I got to load the coolers and bring some back here to Texas with me.

And the timing also just happened to work out too so I could be there to celebrate my dear friend Russdriver‘s birthday. We’ve been blessed to celebrate many of his birthdays together in years past.

We’ll be traveling back and forth to Tennessee a number of times in the coming months. Rebecca and Indy are going back in early September for the birth of Russell and Bri’s little one, who’s due to arrive around the 4th.

They’re are also excited that that birth should coincide with our four mama cows at the farm giving birth also. They’re all due to calve around right around the same time!

And not long after that, our whole family will also be back in Tennessee in mid-October for this year’s Homemaker Conference that’s going to be held at the farm again this year. Rebecca has been working hard on getting things ready for it, and I’m sure she/we will be letting you all know more about it the coming weeks.

But this trip I mostly was there to start getting things ready for our return. And to start getting things ready for what’s coming… which I’m excited to get to share more about in a month or so.

Headed South

In the meantime, I’m back on the road and am going to be gone for the next three weeks. This time headed south.

Sort of.

I’m currently in route to the wilderness of South Africa. Yes, you heard that right. But it won’t be that kind of wilderness. It turns out Wilderness is a place, a town in South Africa, and that’s where I’m headed. Where a number of us are going.

There’s about twenty or so of us all traveling together to spend some time and be helpful in one of the smaller communities — similar to the one we are living in in Texas -- but on the coast in South Africa. I think I’ve mentioned that in the last dozen years or so, smaller churches and communities like ours have begun springing up in places like Montana, Idaho, Virginia, Mexico, Netherlands, India, Israel, etc… This one in South Africa began in 2015.

Rebecca and Indy and I have been to visit most of the communities here in the states over the last couple of years, and I’ve been to Chihuahua, Mexico (where one has just begun) twice in the last year or so. But this is the first time for me to travel this far, and to be gone this long.

The plan was originally for our whole family to go — we bought tickets for all three of us — but with Indy’s heart scare a few weeks ago, we didn’t want to take any chances and Rebecca felt like they should stay and be close by, just in case. Besides Indy has another checkup appointment on Thursday. And they have lots of plans for sewing and pottery and other classes lined up to keep them busy while I’m gone.

My friend Andrew (he performed at my last Christmas concert with me in Tennessee) and I are bringing a case filled with cameras, lights and gear, and while we’re there, we’ll be doing a good bit of film work. Shooting a short documentary about the community and church there, and all that God is doing in that country. Or at least we’ll be trying to — I’ve never done anything quite like that before. But I’m excited to continue to step out in faith and see what lay in store.

There’s a quote that my friend Frank and I came up with, that I say quite often….

Which means that we usually have a plan and think we know why we are somewhere doing something, but quite often, we discover God has us there for a different reason.

I’m guessing the next few blog posts are going to have a South African flair to them, or a bit of an accent. Our first layover and stop is in Istanbul, Turkey and we’ll be there for a day or two, exposing the old city, going to museums and the big market area that everyone talks about. I have a feeling my world and especially my vision of it, is about expand in ways I have no way to even imagine right now.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will keep you posted — yes, pun intended — and give you (and my little family) updates through whatever camera lens and pen I find available over there, which is most likely the handy-dandy Swiss army knife of communication devices most of us have today… the iPhone.

Please pray for our time in the Wilderness. That we can be a blessing to the people there. To the community and church, and the folks in that area that they, and we are there to serve. And that God will use us in a mighty way.

And also pray for my family if you would. That while we are apart, He will knit us even more closely together, with Him and with each other.

PS: the new LIVING FOR GOD blog

I launched my new blog/publication on Monday. Most folks who are signed up for my This Life I Live Substack should have received the first post in their email inbox. If not, you can read the first blog post I shared and sign up to receive them in the future by clicking on the link below. I will be sharing another post and story about my faith journey on the new blog in the next day or two.

I Surrender All

THIS LIFE I LIVE © 2026 Red King Creative, LLC

---

SUPPORT RORY’S WRITING

Thank you for taking the time to read this story. If This Life I Live is an encouragement to you and the life that you are living, please consider supporting Rory’s writing and ministry by giving a financial donation of any amount.