Getting ready to go!

Now we have a different challenge!  Getting ready to go!  It's almost June and we leave mid-late September.

My awesome mother-in-law wrote this in the e-mail to us after hearing that we were going to head to Zambia in September.  It brought me to tears it meant so much to me.  "Last week I read in 3 John 6b: "You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God."

Here's what's on our "to-do" list - pray especially for things in BOLD please!  Or contact us if you can help be the answer to our prayer!  See below for more ways to help!

1) Storage!  Figure out where we can store some stuff for three years.  We need to know soon so we can start showing our condo (see #2).  How much storage we can find depends on how much "stuff" we need to get rid of, knowing how expensive it will be to set up a household again when we are lead to come back and settle here again.  We have some pieces of furniture that we'd love to have again - so if you want to "borrow" a dresser, bookshelf, bed, etc. for three years - talk to us!  It will be easier to store our stuff in one place but it's hard to imagine anyone we know having so much extra space that is not being used (especially some big stuff).

2) Sell Our Condo!  We need to sell it.  Which means we need to get rid of "stuff" soon, so it shows better.  We really need a final sale and all paperwork to be done before we leave in September.

3) Have a garage sale.... which is easier said then done!  Since we live in a condo and we're not allowed to have a yard sale.  I think we're planning to have an open house / fundraiser / donate stuff to our friends on June 15th.  Only a couple weeks away (but it needs to be done so #2 can happen sooner).  And for it to happen we also need #1 to happen.  Anything that doesn't sell will have to be hauled to MCC thrift store.  (In a way it's donating to ourselves).  :)

4) The school year needs to finish.  I still have report cards coming up that also need to be done.  And I have to pack up / sort all my school stuff (a whole classroom) and store what I'll need for later.

5) Then there is the whole figuring out paperwork and little details.  Passports expiring soon?  Vaccinations for Zambia? Malaria medicine (for the kids?) Getting medical and dental appointments so we can switch over to new insurance.  When does Andrew quit his job?  (Michelle should be done at the end of June - it's not worth going back for a couple weeks in September!)  How does our MCC orientation time this summer effect our other vacation plans?  How do we squeeze in visits from far away friends and family?  Eventually we'll have to sell our car.  So many little things... this is just a smattering of what is in my head!


How you can help:
1) Pray that we trust that God will provide the things necessary for us to go in September and for peace during this chaotic time.  That our kids would sleep well and be flexible as there are many changes to come.
2) Find us storage! :)
3) Buy our condo!  Okay, well - talk to your friends that might want a nice condo!
4) Come entertain our kids or have them over to your place so we can pack!  (Especially when it comes to us getting rid of their stuff!)
5) Anything else you can dream of!  :)  We'll let you know if it's helpful or not!

We're going to Choma, Zambia for three years!

So the dream is happening and the waiting is over for now....

That's right!  We'll be leaving here sometime mid-late September (2013) and moving to Choma, Zambia for three years!   We're going with Mennonite Central Committee (http://www.mcc.org) and working with their global family program (http://globalfamily.mcc.org).  Read previous blogs for more information on how it came to be!

Michelle will be working full time as a teacher mentor, working with MCC's partner, Brethren in Christ Church, which has about 13 schools in and around Choma, (grades K-7), coming alongside teachers to encourage them, support them, and teach a few workshops as needed.   

Andrew will be home with our kids as well as working half time.  There are a few possibilities for Andrew (teaching carpentry at a trade school) but nothing set in stone just yet.  

Zambia is dark orange:

This is a map of Zambia:  Choma is Southwest of the capital, Lusaka, on on the road between Lusaka and Victoria Falls (Livingstone)

Waiting on the Lord

This was during the months between November 2012 and March 2013 when we waited to see what God had for us.  We didn't wait long, but we didn't know how long we would be waiting....

Back in November (2012) Andrew and I decided it was TIME.  God was ready for us to think about going overseas.  We had felt we were in the right place and were at peace but no longer so:

We put in a general application with Mennonite Central Committee letting them know we wanted to go.  We figured we should let them know that we existed and we desired to go.  Wherever God wanted us.  How could they find us the "perfect" position if they didn't know we were willing?

We heard back from them..... wait for a position to show up on the service opportunity page.  We were a bit discouraged and we settled in to WAIT.

Then I heard a cool analogy.  I don't know how "biblical" it is for word studies and such, but it spoke to me and was just what I needed to hear.  Some encouragement while we waited.

Wait on the Lord.   Think of it as being a waiter.  A server for God.  God's sitting in your restaurant and you are waiting, listening, observing, and being very attentive.  You do the "little" things. Give a bottle of water for those who came out to raise awareness and money for the hungry.  Cooked a meal for teens with unstable homes, parents that are having a hard time making ends meet and can't be there to put a hot meal on the table all the time.  Help a friend move.  Teach Sunday school.  Talk to someone at work why you'd want to go to Africa when you have a good job with a decent income here.  Comfort a child who hurts himself.  Be patient with your own kids.  Be patient again.  And again.  Listen to a friend.  Encourage.  Hope your words are building others up.  (And there are times when I wasn't attuned into God and I missed things - a word spoken, frustration at my kids, inattentiveness to my husband - since I'm so busy serving the Lord).

I am a servant of the Lord, a waiter: attentive to Him, listening to Him, and watching for the opportunities he places in my daily life to come alongside Him and serve with Him.

I waited.  I listened.  I tried to be obedient.

(Sound too much like "works" to you?  Well, God doesn't need me to serve Him, to work with Him.  Because He loves me unconditionally I want to serve Him.  It's a privilege.  It's like when my kids are invited to "help" daddy build the latest project he's working on.  It might take longer, but it gets done and my kids learn so much from the process.  Especially how patient and loving daddy is (even when they mess up and make it so much harder!)

My dream and our journey towards Zambia

Before I tell you my dream I have to tell you some background. How I discovered this dream.
I heard a sermon.  It stuck.  I wrote things down.  I kept them on my fridge.

Here's what my tiny square of a paper says and how it made me think. (By Kory Sorensen on September 4th - I don't even know what year! I only know this because it's on my paper, but it's been in the last 4 years I believe - after I did my teaching degree).

1. God has given us a DREAM.
2. Accept that DREAM.
3. Pursue the DREAM.
4. Let the DREAM unfold.
5. The DREAM is always outside your own abilities.  God: "Trust me, I'm either in it or not."
6. The how is God's problem.
7. Don't die with the dream still in you.

I thought about it.  Do I have a dream that God has given me?  I took my time with that.  Not much because I do like to jump into things.  I knew I wanted to go overseas again (a dream in its own right from God) and as a teacher.  I knew I did not want to teach ESL classes overseas, nor did I feel the dream included teaching in an international (missionary) school - though this was something I was not opposed to doing.  It didn't feel like the dream.  I decided I wanted to help those children who most needed an education.  I wanted to teach the teachers that taught these kids.  If I could help the teachers I could help a lot of kids.  That was my dream.  Simply "teach teachers."  I accepted it.   I got my teaching degree (or I already had it?)  I started to get teaching experience.

I was discouraged.  Who was I to teach teachers?  I've only been teaching a few years.  But then I remembered #5.  Hope renewed.  And #6.

Then March came along and with it my good friend, Krista, who had found this awesome course to take that would ladder me to my Masters Degree.  Made sense.  If I wanted to teach teachers I should work to get my Masters Degree and I could even have some student teachers in my class eventually - when I went full time (after my kids were older).  I started looking into it.  I'd have to do this course (one that excited me about play-based learning) which would take 2 years.  Then I'd have to do two more years after that to get my Masters.  A 4 year commitment.  It seemed like that was the next step.  It made sense.   I talked to my woman's bible study group the next time we met (March 6th) and asked them to pray for me that afternoon as I took time to seek and ask God if this was a commitment he wanted me (and my family) to make.  My daughter went to preschool and my son took his nap.  When all was quiet I walked into the living room ready to seek God's will.  I felt a tug to go check the MCC postings online (which I hadn't done for over a month probably... getting discouraged!) I figured that was NOT God talking to me as I knew I'd fall into checking e-mail and facebook and not seek His will.

I read my Bible, I prayed.  I listened.  At the end of my time (just before I had to go off to pick up at preschool) I felt God saying, "Go check the MCC postings."  So I did (since I had to leave in a few minutes anyways).  And there it was.  A job description of my DREAM.  Better than I could have ever worded it!  Including little things I had been thinking about (what would I take when they have so little resources, wouldn't it be fun to do up a "kit" of materials that they could easily get and use).  Yep - that was in there the job description too!  I talked to Andrew that evening and sent in my letter of intent the next day.

Then the process began.  MCC asked us to submit a full application.  Both of us.  So 15 pages later we did.  They sent all 8 of our references forms to fill out.  We waited.  They called us for an interview.  We met at the MCC BC office on April 23rd.  They recommended us to have an interview with MCC Canada and the country representatives in Zambia.  That happened a month later, May 23rd via Skype. After that we didn't wait long.  Just 4 days later, on the 27th, MCC sent us an e-mail inviting us to come to Zambia and work with the Global Family Project as a teacher mentor.  We accepted the next day (mainly because we figured the office was already closed anyways).

Every step has been directed by God.  There are still a lot of steps being taken by faith.  Andrew especially as he's not sure what 1/2 time job he'll end up doing.  (The kids are going to be his full time job)!

A couple God moments that I forgot to mention that I thought was encouraging for Andrew:
-sounds like there is a family with MCC Zambia nearby who has the mom / wife as the full time worker (nurse) and dad is home with the kids.
-there is a possibility that Andrew's 1/2 time job could possibly end up being teaching carpentry at a trade school.

Offering Up My Life - What does it mean?

I've been on a journey.  A faith journey.  I seem to always be on this journey but it has been exciting to feel like I've been leaping and bounding down the path lately.  

(Trust me, there have been times when someone had to drag me kicking and screaming... that's why I try to surround myself with great, support friends!  They drag me down the right direction!)

This is what I've been learning lately.  A big shout out to my Wednesday ladies Bible Study group for their support, encouragement, and love!  We've been studying Ephesians (Precepts Bible Study).  This is what I've been learning in that study and elsewhere in my walk:

1) God loves me.
2) God's promised me an inheritance since I'm His adopted child.
3)  I did nothing to earn it.  (See #1).
4) I love God, sort of like a young child loves her parent (see #5 and #6).
5) I want to please God.
6) I don't always please God.  I don't always listen and obey.
7) God loves me anyways.
8) I'm trying to walk a life worthy of my calling (because I'm called by God, an heir!) (Eph. 4:1)
9) Ephesians 4:2 tells me how: "Always be humble and gentle.  Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love." God wants me to love others the way He loves me: unconditionally.
10) Humble = something I'm working on... but simply means relying on God instead of myself.
11) If I can rely on God it will give me peace!
12) Ephesians speaks pretty clearly about Gentiles and Jews (which = everyone, since we all fit into one of those two groups) living in unity and peace.  So I want to be a peacemaker.
11) I want to look back on my life (even now) and say that I remained faithful.  I want to pour out my life as an offering to God.  Obedient to the little things and for the big things.
12) God has unlimited resources and power that He can use (and uses for me even!)
13) God gives us different gifts to use (I can't compare myself to anyone else, but I need to make sure I am using my God given gifts to do #5 and #8).
14) I'm responsible to use my gifts to serve others.  It will hopefully encourage others towards maturity in their own faith journeys and appeal to others to start the journey.
15) It's about love and grace. Loving others done right means it's not prideful, not judgemental, not indifferent, and does not repel.  I don't need to be "right" (Besides, I'm not always right and it's so embarrassing when I think I am and I'm not!)   I need to love others and offer grace (and hopefully receive lots of it too!).
16) Walking a life worthy of my calling (#8) is purposeful.  It's not just when I want to be obedient.  It's waking up every day and asking God what he wants from me.  Listening and obeying.
17) For me, daily, this often includes being more intentional in my parenting.  (This is harder than it sounds and I'm just starting to muddle my way in this area!  The iPad is keeping my kids busy right now while I write this.... that's intentional right?)
18) I'm learning a lot about what God expects in my role as a parent: needing to model what it looks like to be in right relationship with God (a good part of this is serving others because I want my kids to think about others and be loving and serve!)  as well as involving them more so I can work together with them, teaching them life skills, communication, compassion and a whole lot more, even though that task is going to take me an extra hour to get done with them "helping."


This blog has influenced me a lot lately too (and her books).  Thanks to my brother for introducing me to Rachel Held Evans! :)  Read the link below - I could have just not written this post since she says it so much better!

Her main point is that we all have to be a Christ-follower in our own way.  So for those of you who think I'm amazing to head to Africa with my young family... I'm just being faithful to what God has called me to.  And I hope this opportunity came because I've been trying to be faithful and obedient to Him in the "little things" in my daily life, here in Canada, even right now as I prepare to go!  (Don't let that scare you - God's not sending everyone to Africa, even if you are faithful in the little things!)

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/jesus-without-shane-claiborne
Here's a quote from this post:
"I can’t allow my desire to be a “radical” Christ-follower prevent me from being a faithful Christ-follower. And faithfulness tends to happen in small, unglamorous acts of obedience—a grudge let go, a relationship pursued, a meal provided, an offer to help. If I am faithful in these little things, I may be entrusted with bigger things down the road, so I must remain open to new possibilities."

Poor in this world = rich in faith

Originally posted on January 27, 2013 on a facebook note originally and I moved it here.  :)   Seems fitting now that we know we'll be moving to Zambia - and we'll need to get rid of a lot of "stuff."

"Offering up my life"  -all areas of it..... even my money and possessions.  Here's just a small pile of some of my kids' "stuff" and I'm not sharing any photos of how much stuff I have!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi all! I'm studying Ephesians these days with my Bible study girls here (Precepts course). Just spent some time on Ephesians 1:13,14 "And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own* by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him." (emphasis mine).

Pretty simple from what I studied (though the study was not as simple!) When you hear the truth and you believe it. God gives you the Holy Spirit as a mark of ownership that we are His. It's His first gift to us and it's a deposit of the inheritance we are going to get in Heaven (priceless inheritance that also includes a new heavenly body and eternal life somewhere in there!)

Now what stuck out to me the most with all the word studies and cross references that I did (feel free to ask my anything more specific if you'd like and I can share the extra stuff for you to look up!) was James 2:5 "Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn't God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren't they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him?"  This stuck out so much because I had just researched what the inheritance is going to be (pure, priceless, never decay, never change, undefiled, given by God, Christ's glory, glorious freedom from death and decay, new heavenly bodies, eternal life).

We can be generous with our material things and be rich in faith (you have to be when you give until it hurts!) since our inheritance is safely stored in heaven. I want to be one of those people who get to inherit the Kingdom he has promised to those who love Him. So I need to be poor and love God. Poor - I can do that, though it's harder at times to let go of "stuff."  How do you love God? I think what we do in our First World country to show our love to God - go to church, praise music, etc. and it's all good. However, I think it's loving and caring for those people who can't care for themselves, the unloveable, the outcasts, the "taxpayers and sinners" of our day is the way the Bible tells us to love God (whatever we do to the least of these we do to God).  And, honestly, giving money away is probably one of the easier "hands off" ways to give to others! (I shudder at the thought of how hard some of the more down to earth / personal ways to help can be! Author Beth Moore combing the hair of some elderly homeless man comes to mind.....shudder).

So just remember - we have a PRICELESS inheritance stored up in heaven all safe and waiting for us! How can you use the money God has blessed and freely given you to bless God back? Or any ideas on how to love God? I'd love to hear it all!