Travel Doctor

We went and saw the travel doctor yesterday.  Kate commented afterwards, "How come that guy can give needles so good?"   :)   We barely felt the pricks.  2 each for the kids and myself and 3 for Andrew.   We'll go back in August to chat more.  Hopefully we'll have tickets by then and will know what countries we are stopping over in.  We still need to chat about malaria.

Thanks to our friends that came out (and helped) with our sale.  I can't believe how much stuff we got rid of and even more so - I can't believe how much stuff we still have!!!  Soon it will be time to go through all the papers and boxes we've put off for years!

God's answering some prayers already!

Keep praying!  It works!

We have had friends offer up LOTS of space for boxes (not furniture as it's a tight squeeze to get into). So that's a great relief!  Andrew's parents are able to take a bunch of our furniture too.  So that seems to be getting sorted out nicely!

We're getting rid of stuff at an open house / get rid of our stuff by donation coming up on a Saturday soon.  If you want more information send us an e-mail or contact us.  We will be donating a ton of stuff to a local Mennonite Central Committee Thrift Store that day!  We figure we're supporting ourselves that way.  Hee hee.

Another blessing happened today when I turned in my leave of absence form to the school district, asking for a 3 year unpaid leave.  I was not surprised when they phoned and told me they could not grant the request.  However they were very kind (my principal gave them a good reference) and they offered to keep me on as an inactive Teacher On Call (TOC).  Which means, that I won't have a contract but I'll be able to apply for internal postings when I come back or sub.  It was the best possible scenario that I could imagine.  So yeah!  Glad they think I'm worth keeping!

We're hoping to list our condo by the end of the month.... so pray for a really quick sale please!

Thanks for all your prayer support!

Kate's viewpoint

So this morning I told our daughter, Kate (age 4.5), that we're letting everyone at church know we're going to Africa.  Her response:

"They'll all be so sad that they don't get to go to Africa!"


Because everyone wants to go to Africa right?! :)

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.