My Side of The Story

This is our last week in Texas. We will be leaving for Africa on Jan. 17. Sunday was our last service at our home church, Shady Grove in Grand Prairie. It was bittersweet, I was quite surprised at how emotional I got. I began to think of the past 12 years that we have spent there. When we first started attending Shady Grove we were pretty desperate for the Lord to change our lives. He did it, through small groups, love from our church family and all the awesome people He brought across our paths. Many sowed into us and believed in us and we are so grateful. We feel that we are carrying you in our hearts on this new adventure. I remember in those early baby filled days (I had 3 kids in 3 years!) all Skip and I wanted was to one day be small group leaders and graduate our Sunday School Class, First Principles.  It was a really big goal for us. As the Lord was ministering to me, this past Sunday, I began to think of how a pursuit for the presence of God changed everything for me. How it launched me into a seeking for His face that I had never known before. I am still on that pursuit and it has lead me down a path I never thought I'd be on. His presence has changed me, and He began to open doors before me. It is because I had fallen in love that I could not tell Him "no". The cry of my heart has been to say, "yes" to Him even before the question was asked.

In 2004 I went on a short-term mission trip with my husband and a team from the church to Burkina Faso, West Africa. I was going with the knowledge that my husband wanted our family to move there and do mission work. I was basically there to agree with that vision or to say, "Your crazy, no way are we moving there." I can tell you that I was under a bit of pressure. I didn't know what to expect. I had seen pictures, heard stories ect. but nothing could prepare me for how I felt there. I did not like it, to put it nicely. When I thought about moving the kids there, I cried. All I saw was dirt and mud and trash and shacks and well you've seen the commercials. Then one morning while looking out over the city, I saw my Father's heart for this place.  I saw how His eye is on the sparrow (being the least of the birds) and how this small, poor country was that sparrow. Let's just say He didn't order me to be a missionary there, I volunteered. Make no mistake, it is the small, the poor and the forgotten that your Heavenly Father is concerned about.  I, at that very moment, told Him I would make it my life's concern as well. I told Him if He would provide the way, we would go. Of course Skip (my husband) was overjoyed and now 6 years later we are finally leaving. We don't know when we will be back. This is not a one year commitment. It has taken us what feels like a lifetime to get to this place and the journey has not always been easy. Africa has always been on our minds. At times it was like a pipe dream other times like something that could happen once our children were grown. Now it is finally here. We couldn't be happier. There are still giants to be fought...but we so want to be like Caleb in this hour. We want to say with all our hearts, "we are able to go up and take this land." You know what was so incredible about Caleb was he wasn't looking at himself like the other Israelites, He was looking at his God.

So with eyes on Him, we are making this journey...and you can believe it when I say we plan on doing some exploits. After all , they are His glory stories and we will just be voices who get to declare what He has done.