As many of our friends and family know, David and I have been feeling God call us to the mission field for the last few years. We began going on short term mission trips in February of 2000 and between the two of us have been on 17 trips to various countries. Each trip seemed to confirm God's calling on our life and WE (emphasis on we) felt God would call us to Central America. The last few years I have taken college level Spanish classes in order to be prepared. We (again that emphasis) were getting ready.
During the last few years we have been blessed by a growing relationship with World Hope International. We have traveled to Nicaragua and Guatemala with Ann O'Dell from World Hope for Children to distribute gift paks to children. Our personal experiences on these trips led us to sponsor two children and to become strong supporters of the World Hope for Children program. This spring we were honored when Ann asked us to become Ambassadors for the World Hope for Children program. We traveled to WH corporate offices in June for training and during that trip we heard the first rumblings of an opportunity in Zambia. Ann mentioned that the current WH missions personnel were coming home from Zambia and the field would be opening up in August. The responsibilities would include assisting teams with scheduling and transportation in association with the AIDS/Orphan trusts. We decided to pray about it and returned home.
We began praying and speaking to our church family and it started becoming a little more real to us. We discussed putting our house on the market and selling off some of our belongings. We talked alot but didn't take much action until later in June. One Saturday while I was gone David sold the furniture in our spare room to a friend, this was totally out of the blue. We didn't really use that room but when I left in the morning it was there and when I returned it was gone. We hadn't even planned on this and when I look back that was the beginning. Later that week we began putting FOR SALE signs on "toys" and on June 28th we laid hands on our house and prayed that if it was God's will we would sell the house.
We left on Friday, June 29th for our district family camp. We were to display and promote WHFC during the week and at the missions convention on Monday. On Monday morning about 9:00 AM the phone rang and it was World Hope asking us to seriously pray and consider taking the position in Zambia. The position's description had changed and David will be overseeing the construction of a new ministry and education complex along with a guest house in Choma and my responsibilities would include assisting the country director with financial accounting and possibly teaching computers later down the road. We would also serve as hosts for visiting teams. David and I sat across from each other stunned, this was just what we had dreamed of doing somewhere for God.
We attended our missions conference and when we stood to speak we were able to share with our church and district family the phone call that we feel will change our lives forever. God is amazing. David is so calm and I frantically make lists in my head of all WE have to do. If God is in this, it will happen!! All my lists and worrying aren't going to change anything. We are asking that you keep us in your prayers. We are off to missionary training next week at WH headquarters and will find out more information about the field and our needs.
Who knows maybe I will meet a Spanish speaking person in Zambia??? Pray that we remain obedient and put all our trust in Him.
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