It’s funny when you believe you have a plan, and then God totally changes it. Before we left America, I knew where I wanted to go for outreach, and so did Timothy. A couple weeks into school, the 5 options were presented to us: 1) India/Indonesia 2) Uganda/Tanzania 3) Japan 4) South Africa/Mozambique & 5) Myanmar(Burma)/Cambodia (all girls team). The 40 students each had 5 minutes to pray, hear from God, and then make a list of their top 3 choices and why God was calling them there.
Easy, 1) India/Indonesia. I was after all raised Hindu, I know the culture, I know the ins and outs on how to reach that nation, and I believe God has recently given me a huge heart for that nation. It was also the “safer” route, not many diseases, I’ve already been there and heck, those are my people! We all submitted our list to the staff YWAM team, where they had a meeting to compile all the lists, pray over every choice and construct teams.
I got home and Timothy picked Uganda/Tanzania as his first choice and felt strongly we were supposed to go there. Discussing our opposite selections quickly turned to argument. So much so that we both entertained the idea of us taking one kid each and going our separate ways. I didn’t have peace about the whole situation. That night I didn’t sleep well and got so frustrated at the whole situation. 5:30 the alarm goes off in the morning and if you read my recent post, that’s when I have been having my God time. Walking to the beach I was still flustered. It’s a bit humbling when you are in front of an incredible ocean with the sun rising over it. I lifted my hands and said, OK God, You win, I’ll go wherever you want.
The same night, Timothy prayed through much of the night and when we were riding to the base to meet with the school leaders we both shared our humbling before the Lord and willingness to go wherever He would send us.
Early in the morning before school started, Dave and Jen were kind enough to hear both of our perspectives and why we chose each nation before they gave their input.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. Now if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of that body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (1 Corinthians 12).
With big decisions like this, it is always awesome to have wise counsel and other Christians praying for you so that they too can help you in your decision.
Dave started to speak with such love and compassion, in addition, he has an amazing prophetic gift that truly blessed me. He said something like this: I saw you in Africa growing in authority and speaking life forth with greater power and authority. Seeing the powers of the two kingdoms clashing will bring something alive in you to bring out an authority that resides deep inside you that God wants to bring to the surface. As you go through this season, you will experience many areas of growth but we may not fully realize in the moment all of the areas where God is building things in you for ministry in the future but down the road, these things will come back at various times and you will remember back to this season and realize how God was building these things in you during this season that will become important in your future work in the Lord.
He also spoke about how important it is to go somewhere we haven’t been that is outside our comfort zone so it will add to our experience that we will call on throughout ministry even in other places down the road such as India or elsewhere. He said the more places we can get exposure to, the better prepared we will be to call on those diverse lessons down the road. The full leadership team in prayer felt that we were supposed to go to Uganda/Tanzania now. They felt India was in my comfort zone and that God wanted to challenge our comfort zones, thus, they didn’t feel it was for now, but for down the road. However, they left the decision up to us.
Deep inside, I knew we were supposed to go to Africa, and I picked India out of pure safety and comfort. Will God send us there one day? I certainly hope so, but this wasn’t the time.
So there it is folks, we will be going to Africa (Uganda/Tanzania) at the end of November and will be there until January! Please be in prayer and consider partnering with us to reach that nation for Jesus. We need to raise about 15k (flight and ground fees for 4 of us) and would love prayer for divine health for all 4 of us!
Here is our team standing front of a cave and waterfall/pool in a rainforest when our team/destination was revealed!
