Where Have You Come From and Where Are You Going?

We pray this blog will not only be a place where those in partnership with our ministry can see how God continues to use them and their resources to further His Kingdom in Zambia, but will also be a place where we can document memorial stones (as referenced throughout the Old Testament) of the faithfulness of God and how He has grown us in our walk with Him.  We also pray it will be an encouragement to you wherever you may be in your walk with the Lord.  The God we serve is the same God who has always been and always will be!  We welcome your questions and comments, but most especially your prayers as we daily go where we are sent. 

 

In Genesis 16: 8a, the angel of the LORD said to Hagar, "...where have you come from and where are you going?" Over the last two plus years we've spent in Zambia, we as individuals and as a family have asked ourselves those same two questions over and over again.  We believe God has brought us to this place and that he had prepared us for the journey since our very beginnings.  Many of you have asked about our story, so we will go back to the beginning to try to document the high points.  (Although we will try to keep things in chronological order for ease of understanding, please forgive us if something later stirs a memory and we jump around.)

 

In June of 2008, we received a flyer via e-mail from our state homeschool group announcing a weekend family conference coming to Oklahoma City in mid-September.  Child #3, Jaymeson, was due to be born in mid-August, so we really didn't think much about it.  We printed it from the computer and hung it on the bulletin board.  After all, what mother with a brand new baby would want to be nursing, changing diapers, and trying to get a little one to sleep at a conference for a weekend with a six and eight-year-old?  There was this nagging feeling that just wouldn't leave me every time I walked past that flyer; we now know this was God at work.

 

By the first of September, Jaymeson was about two and a half weeks old, and God was still pushing us towards that conference.  We received a reminder e-mail from our homeschool group that said it wasn't too late to attend.  We had the money for the hotel room and registered that day.  In the back of my mind I kept thinking I was crazy, but we packed for the weekend in Oklahoma City.   In the first hour of hearing from Steve and Teri Maxwell, we knew why we were there.  God was using their words (and His) to reaffirm the path we were on and show us where we needed to change.  (www.Titus2.com)
 

At the book table where they were selling some of their resources, they had a book series written by their oldest daughter, Sarah, entitled, "Moody Family Series".  Our two oldest girls (then ages six and eight) asked if we could get them.  Since they were both avid readers, and we knew the content was the fictional life of a Christian home school family, we purchased the books. During the two-and-a-half-hour drive home, we started reading the books and were hooked! As we worked our way through the second book, we were intrigued by the family's sponsorship of a national pastor in Africa. 

 

In the back of the book, "Autumn with the Moodys", there is a section listing what aspects of the story are real.  Here is what Sarah Maxwell wrote about the national pastor in Africa, "Our family has enjoyed supporting national pastors in Africa, and I felt the Lord leading me to include that concept in this book.  If you want to know more about national pastors, visit: www.FamiliesforJesus.com/pastors."  We went to the website and found information about two organizations that help get funds to national pastors in foreign lands, Gospelink and Gospel for Asia.  We looked at both, and were very impressed with what we saw on the Gospelink website.  We had always felt God was directing us to do something in Africa, but honestly we always thought we would go to Tanzania after our kids were all grown.  However, God had other plans!

 

We found out the details and prayed about what God would have us do.  After much prayer and research, we decided as a family to make sacrifices in our budget each month to support a national pastor in Tanzania.  We began praying that God would allow us to continue to help this pastor and his family for as long as He needed us to, and that someday (if it was His will) we would be able to travel to Tanzania and work alongside Pastor Balumbu. 



 

From time to time we would visit the Gospelink website (www.gospelink.org) and see what was going on with the organization and their work.  In 2010 we noticed that there was a Bible college in Zambia that had just started in 2009 where the focus was to, "Train up the next generation of Africa's spiritual leaders".   We thought this was interesting, and read a little about it, but didn't think much about it. 

 

God was still stirring and working as only He can.  In November 2011, Jim was looking at the Gospelink website and was again drawn to the information about the International Bible College of Zambia. This time he kept reading and found that there were some positions for full-time missionary service at the college: Business Administrator, teacher, and Director of Agriculture.  As he called me over to read more about these positions, he said, "So, if God called us there, would you be willing to go?"

 

He fired off an email with multiple questions about these positions, as we knew we both had experience with all of these.  On Monday, a reply came in from the president of Gospelink, Lewis Nelms, saying, "I could answer those questions in an email, but it would take a long time.  Why don't we set up a time to talk on the phone?"  We set a time for a phone interview in mid-December and began writing as many questions as we could think of.

 

We set Jim's phone up for speaker phone at the kitchen table, and asked the kids to stay in their bedroom watching videos on the computer and playing quietly.  They were then ages 12, 10 1/2, 3, and 1 1/2.  They were real troopers!  The phone call we expected to last an hour or two ended up lasting five hours!   During that call, Lewis was able to answer many of our questions about life in Zambia and the work of the International Bible College, and paint a picture for us of the work that was needed.  We felt very strongly that God was indeed calling us to work at the college and pick up and move to Zambia.  It was decided the best fit for Jim and our family was in the role of Director of Agriculture and serving as teachers.  In January, on an unusually warm weekend, we had our first-layer-cleaning garage sale and got rid of a LOT of things that we could live without whether we were staying or going. (**Jim was injured at work in January while trying to load hogs for butcher, and ruptured his bicep.  God was at work in this, as well.)

 

At Lewis' urging, Jim traveled to the college in March 2012 for two weeks to pray about what God wanted from him (and us, as a family).  We both believed that unless God clearly closed the door, this was what He needed us to do.  After the first day in Zambia, Jim called home and said, "This is home.  How upset would you be if I didn't come back and you and the kids just got everything ready and moved here?"  Thankfully, he was joking, but God still moved mountains in lightning time to get us here for His purposes.  His two week trip was full of praying, working on our soon-to-be home, meeting the students at the college, and learning more about the resources available in Zambia. 

 

Since the positions at the college were full-time missionary positions, we were in need of ministry partners, Christians who believed in what God had called us to do in Africa who were willing to sacrifice their resources to help us do this work.  We were not given the approval of Gospelink to begin finding ministry partners until May 1st, as Lewis was working in Africa and wanted to check our references upon his return to the states.  After much research on the agriculture conditions in this part of Zambia, Jim knew we needed to arrive in August in order to get our family settled in and the land ready for planting by the time the rains came in late October.  Everyone told us this would be IMPOSSIBLE, as it always takes over a year to find enough ministry partners to be able to get moved and start working!  Once again, God showed us in His Word that He is able to do anything -- "For nothing will be impossible with God."  Luke 1:37 

 

In May Jim turned in his resignation with only about 10% of the partners in place that we projected needing for our work.  His teaching contract would expire the end of June, and he knew we would need the month of July to pack the container of Agriculture supplies and get moved by the first of August.  This was a HUGE leap of faith, but we were still leaping!

 

In June, Jim was sent notice that since his ruptured bicep had been work-related and was filed under workman’s comp, he would be getting a settlement upon release from the doctor.  He had healed very well, for which we were all thankful.  We had anticipated what the workman’s comp final payment might be based on the settlements of some friends who had been injured at work in previous years, but we were very wrong.  We were a little disappointed as the money was about 1/3 of what we had anticipated, and we thought this money was how God was going to pay for our plane tickets to move to Zambia.  We began praying, “Ok, God, we were wrong.  Now you’ll just need to provide more money from somewhere else if you want us to get to Zambia.”  We didn’t understand that God had it all figured out. 

 

A few days later, I sat down to do my morning Bible study and just couldn’t continue on in the book I had been studying.  I was drawn to Jeremiah 32:27 (“Am I not the God of all the peoples of the earth?  Is anything too difficult for me?”)  I couldn’t believe what I was reading.  It was as if it was a neon sign saying, “TRUST ME!”  That very day I received an email from the travel agent that Gospelink uses that said if we booked our tickets now, we could get them for 1/3 of the cost that we had anticipated!  In true “GOD-style” He taught us that we had limited Him by praying for more money.  He can work on either end of a situation, and He simply chose to lower the ticket price instead of give us more money.

 

The months of May, June, and July were spent selling off our personal belongings, traveling to churches to share how God was moving in our trek to Zambia, and getting all of the millions of things done that it takes to move a family half way around the world.  God provided every step of the way, and we arrived in Zambia on August 25, 2012, less than one year after hearing God’s call.  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”  Proverbs 3:5