Africa.... when I was a small child, I used to love to
listen to missionaries come and tell about their work. I remember learning about the Gambia (I
wondered if you called the people of the Gambia "the The
Gambians"...) and thinking maybe I would go there someday. With every
testimony and story, my heart’s desire was that one day God would allow me to
serve overseas in medical missions. As I
got older, I was fascinated by other countries and cultures, and became
interested in disaster relief, as well.
In high school, I got to go to the Dominican Republic for a mission trip. It was more challenging than I had
anticipated, but it was a great introduction to the world of mission work. In college, I helped coordinate a medical trip
to Bangladesh, but didn't get a chance to go myself. I got to go back to the DR after Carter and I
were married and do some medical work with a plastic surgeon. I followed disaster relief efforts after
almost every earthquake, flood, and typhoon.
But God never opened a door to another opportunity, and never to
Africa. Togo... Angola.... Kenya...
Nigeria....The Dark Continent… the statistics telling of the need for water,
food, medicine, and… Light. Later, I
followed the journey of the Myhre's as they worked during the Ebola outbreak in
Uganda. Then, we met a wonderful family serving in the Central African
Republic. A group of friends from our
church went to visit, work alongside them, and encourage them, but still, the
Lord said, “Not yet.”
When our church began working on coordinating a trip to
Uganda a few months ago, I felt the spark again… the “I want to go!” like a little
child raising her hand in front of the Lord and squealing, “Pick me! Pick me!” And when the moment finally came when I had
to make the decision -- the timing seemed right, Carter agreed that this was
the trip and that Emma was the one who should go with me, and we both felt it
was right to commit to going. Since that
moment, God has encouraged me through songs, devotionals, scripture, and other
people’s words to me that no matter what happens, He is leading, He is in
control, and He loves Emma and me. My
biggest fear is not a vague, scary “Something” that might happen on the trip,
but it is really that something will fall through at the last minute and I will
not get to go! For this fear, the Lord
has reminded me that no matter what, He is already in this and He is already at
the end. I don’t need to convince Him
that it all needs to work out. He is
already working in the details, and what He has for me and Emma is best. We can rest in that. This summer, Emma and I have the opportunity
to go with a small group from church and visit, encourage, and work alongside
the Fish family for two weeks!!
Emma is excited about being around children and working with
the toddlers and babies. We don’t know
exactly what we will be doing while we are there, but we are pretty sure it
will involve kids! I know that Emma’s
biggest fear is the food… she has periodic stomach trouble, and is afraid that
she won’t like the food and that it will bother her stomach. She is hoping that she can pack some things
that she will be able to eat to supplement whatever food she has there. I don’t know if we will have room or if this
is even possible at this point. Please pray for her to trust God to work out
the details of the food for her, just as he will all the other details.
At this time, we don’t know the specific amount of money
that we need to raise. Our church is
very missions focused and has made short-term trips a priority, but we also
want to give our friends and family opportunity to support the team members and
be part of the process of us going. Emma
and I already have been blessed with the funds to get our passport application
started. This is a huge encouragement,
because we needed to start this process immediately and initially, the cost
involved for two of us to get passports was daunting! If you are interested in helping support us
financially, please contact me. Donations are tax deductible as long as your check is made out to the church and our individual names are not on the check.
More than anything else, though, we need your prayer support… for
organization as we plan, for funds for passports, vaccines and medications, and
travel, for right hearts and attitudes as we face new experiences and uncertain
days, for us to be strong testimonies for Jesus, for the hearts of the Ugandan
people we interact with to be open to the gospel, for safety, for health, for
God to use us to encourage the missionaries we visit and to be a blessing and
not a burden in any way, and for any number of challenges we can’t even
anticipate yet. I remember hearing from
other missionaries that prayer support is the most vital, but never quite
understood that. As we look down this
road to Uganda, it is so clear to me that they were right. Not a thing can be accomplished without the
Lord’s blessing and hand in every detail.
Thank you for being a part of our adventure.
