Women On Fire

This past Sunday I went with several of our women staff to a "Women on Fire" meeting in Nsongwe Village. Nsongwe is just about 4 km away from our base and we have a great relationship there with the people and churches. During the rainy season, several groups sprung up including Women On Fire, where women from every denomination gather together to worship the Lord and share about Christ. I found myself in a hot classroom as the african sun was setting immersed in the local worship. All I could do was praise God for that very moment and how amazing it was to be in His presence with such an amazing group of women. You could see the desire for the Lord in them and they grew in their revelation of who He is. So many times the women in churches are looked over as the local churches are led by the men. These women have been encouraged to stand up and serve God with everything they have and are. It's amazing to see such passion and I am encouraged by all that God is doing in this place.

Adventures in Town

I've been back at the base now for about 4 days now and there's really never a dull moment here. Mainly I've been working on servicing my truck and getting it ready for the "roads" to the villages. The new tires I got in South Africa are fantastic and a complete oil change was done. I did manage to get to town (Livingstone) on Tuesday to do some errands with a few of the staff. Let's just say there's never a dull moment in town. However, Tuesday was extra challenging. While loading some mattresses into my truck, a drunk man decided to try and climb in the back seat to see what he could steal. After we got him out of the truck and locked all the doors, he proceeded to try and pick pocket myself and my friends. He did manage to get away with a handful of my business cards but while trying to steal a friends pocket knife, we chased him off. As if the day was exciting enough, a tourist almost backed into my truck while we stopped to pick up some auto parts for one of the base vehicles. Let's just say I was very happy to make it back to the base without any other incidents. :) There truly is never a dull moment on the missions field!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

All my bags are packed but a few errands left to run this morning. I'm headed this afternoon to washington dc and then on to johannesburg, south africa. I'm very excited to be heading back to africa and be back in the villages sharing the love of God. Please be praying for safe travels, no lost luggage, and a smooth pick up for my new vehicle that I will be picking up in south africa and then a fellow staff member and I will drive it up to the base in zambia. I will update as soon as I can with photos and testimonies of the journey. Thank you all for your love, prayers, and support.

God's Timing Is Perfect

Today I got a glimpse at why God has set my depature date for Africa in April. As some one you might know, Zambia's rainy season is usually from the end of November through the beginning of April. Now every year seems to be different and this year is not exempt. It is now mid march and the heaviest part of the rainy season seems to just have started. It's late for the season and making it impossible for our staff that are on the ground to make it from the base to town (only 20 km away) much less to the villages. I was planning on being back in Zambia next week but if I was, I'd be on the base unable to plan out the ministry for the upcoming expeditions. God's will is always good and perfect! So instead I'm in sunny Florida, continuing to support raise and work on manual and procedure updates for the department. The photo here is of the road to our base so you can get an idea of how difficult travel is during rainy season.

What Are You Willing to Give?

I had a strange dream a few nights ago. I was back in Zambia but things there had changed. The country was now persecuting Christians and there was a warrant out for my arrest. I knew it but I was also supposed to be preaching in a village that day. I felt the turmoil and I tried to make my decision. The dream grew stranger as my mom showed up and had a way to smuggle me out of the country without getting caught so I wouldn't be killed. There it was. I was faced with a life or death situation. I could feel myself agonize over the decision. Did I want to die? No. Would I sacrifice God's calling? Thankfully not. I made the decision to go preach despite knowing that it would be the last time I would see friends and family. I woke up and all I could do was lay there and reflect on what had happened. If it wasn't a dream, would I have made the same decision? I pray that I would and if ever the time ever comes, then I pray that I will. It is my heart's desire to see the lost reach. I'm thankful for the dream because it gave me a look into my heart that I am indeed willing to sacrifice my own life for the love of God. Are you?

Living on Support

I'm in Chicago at the moment working on finishing up support raising. That's right. I said finishing up. I'm 35% away and God is doing awesome things. In this lifelong journey called support raising, I've decided one time. I think that every believer needs to live off of support for at least 6 months of their lives. I'm not saying this to prove how "hard" living on support it because it's not hard. What it is is faith building. At first, it's scary. Not Freddy Kruger in your dreams scary but it's definately "stomach in knots", "life is out of control" scary. Once you get past the fear though, you then have people speaking unbelief in your life and you HAVE TO stand against it. Once you get past these, you then get to see God do amazing things in your life. The big thing is how much your faith grows. You suddenly start finding yourself believing for the "impossible" and seeing God do the "impossible". I've been told more then once that "it's a shame that your organization or church can't just cover all of your finances." I've disagreed then and completely disagree now. Raising up my support team has been once of the most amazing and life changing experiences of my life. I couldn't ask for a better team to come around me and above all I now know that God truly does provide for every need in our lives despite whatever outside circumstances we come up against. Just believe and trust in Him!

Don't Be Wise, Be Fools!

I don't want to be wise. You may think that's a ridiculous statement but it's true. I don't want to be logical, smart, sensible, or rational. If I were these things, I'd be home in the States, not beleiving God to be fully funded during an "economic crisis," not living in a tent in Zambia driving 12 hours into the middle of nowhere to people I don't even know or are even the same culture. There's too much risk. If I was wise, I'd know that I could get hurt, sick, go bankrupt, or even worse. However, I'm not wise. I'm a fool. A big fool at that. I'm a fool for Christ and each day I want to become more and more of a fool. I am raising my full support in an "economic crisis" and I love my tent in the villages. I dream of the villages and search Google Earth to find the footpaths that will take my truck to them. Stick that in your logical pipe and smoke it! In 1 Corinthians 4:10-13 Paul talks about the foolish things the apostles do in view of the world. They don't make sense. Why, when you seemingly have nothing, would you give it away? Why, when someone is threatening to kill you for preaching, would you proclaim the Gospel from every corner of every nation? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!! Thus, it's foolishness. I want to be foolish with every breath, word, action, decision of my life. Foolish for Christ is a million times greater then wise in the world.