This past year we learned of an opportunity to take some of
our students to Africa on a Missions Training trip. I can’t really describe it, but we knew we were supposed to
go. The day Kurtis called to see
if we could go as sponsors, the leader of the trip said that he had just sent
out an email looking for sponsors. What wonderful timing! :)
We decided to apply and we were accepted as sponsors. There were many times we questioned
whether or not it was the right thing for us to both go and leave our son at
home, but each time we faced that question, we felt an overwhelming sense that
we were doing the right thing, so we continued down that road with a mix of
excitement and fear. What if
something happened to Malachi while we were away, or what if something happened
to us? Could this really be the
best thing for him?
The conclusion we came to: Following God’s will for our family is the very BEST we can give Malachi, no matter what happens. We want Malachi, and any of our other children down the road, to know that we have given everything to Christ and trust Him with each moment. (We are so in need of God’s grace on this parenting business!)
Funds were not matching up with the cost of the trip and it
was iffy whether I (Emily) was going to be able to go. We decided that I would only go if all
of our students and Kurtis were fully paid for, as I did not want any of our 3
teens to miss out on the trip. At
the last minute, we got a call from a friend of ours in a different country and
he told us that God had told him to give a pretty large sum of money for the
trip. God is good! (I have to admit I was a little concerned
about why God wanted us in Africa so bad that he would talk to someone on the
other side of the world to get us there…)
We had a great time in Africa. We spent a lot of time in missionary training (which was interesting
because I don’t think either of us were really considering full time
cross-cultural mission work at this point). I did have some fears that God might be calling us to Africa
(as I made reference to in my first point) and in my journey I spent a lot of
time committing myself to the Lord’s will and asking Him to keep us at
home. Guess I wasn’t really ready to follow His will at that
point.
We loved the people of Kenya, but when the trip started to
come to a close we didn’t feel any specific call to go back. One desire we did have was to help
other people in the states connect with the larger world. We found that getting out of our own
culture gave us a chance to really rely on Christ and understand more what it
means to find our joy in him.
There were many we met who had very little but had such joy. It was very convicting.
On our last night in Africa, as Kurtis and I crawled under
our mosquito net, he mentioned to me that he had learned about an opportunity
in South America that I thought might be interesting…
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