You're Doing What?

August 19, 2010

Why are we packing up our family, leaving all that is familiar and comfortable, and moving 3000 miles away?
This is a question I have asked myself several times over the past few months. The simple answer, "Because God said go."
If you would have asked me ten years ago to map out our route to fulfill His calling as missionaries to West Africa, things would look quite differently than now. His Word is true. We make plans but the Lord directs our steps, and we don't know what tomorrow brings. We listen and follow as He leads, praying that His grace will correct the missteps we make along the way.
It feels as though we have come full circle. Ten years ago we graduated from Bible College, in Florida. Now, we are returning to school, on the East Coast, with one of the same college professors.
But, why? We know that God has called us to Africa. That is where we to long be. After a lot of prayer and soul searching, we realize that we need help in the "getting to Africa" process, as well as mentorship to know how to best minister and care for our family once we are there.
Coming to the realization that needed further training and mentorship from seasoned missionaries was only half the battle. The next question was from where? From who?
We began to pray for direction. We began asking other missionaries about their experiences, their training. We talked to alumni and former college professors. We wanted to find a place that would offer relationships and mentorships, not just class learning. We wanted a place that understood the importance of the local church and could work with us and our church.
All this led us World Outreach Center. We know this is where God wants us to go for this next chapter. Sometimes we don't understand why, since it is so far away from home, but we have peace that we are in His perfect will.
We are excited about what God has in store. We are not sure what to expect, but we know it's gonna be life changing.
We are excited to be near our Roscoe family, and have the chance to reconnect with them. They have been a huge support and blessing during this transition. To save us time and effort, they not only found enough furniture to fill our new town house (with the help of Ms Jann---thank you!!), but they moved it all in for us!
And so, with this, we begin another adventure, and with that comes blogging! To give you a summary of what things are going to look like for us in the coming weeks and months, here is a brief overview:
For the next 10 days we will be traveling. We have packed the necessities from home into a small uhaul trailer, and crammed the rest into "big blue" (our 1994 Ford Areostar. It's not much to look at, but it's has low miles, runs well, and best of all it's fully paid for.) Armed with enough food and snacks to last a month, we hit the road. Our first stop Walla Walla, then West Yellowstone and Old Faithful. Then it's onto Mount Rushmore and Rapid City. After that, we will drive a really long day to Lathrop, Mo. We'll Spend a day with friends, and then head down to Kansas City to visit Katie and IHOP for two days. Then it's on to Nashville, and finally, our new home, Fort Mill, SC.
We'll have three weeks to get settled, start home school, find work, and fall into some sort of new schedule before starting our internship.
Internship classes are four days a week in the mornings. Sometime along the way, we may even get to go on a mission trip! (but not to Africa. :-( )
Check back to the AFN blog for updates on the family and our internship. I'll still be blogging on my personal site, too, whenever any personal "profound" thoughts come my way. :-)