Happy Birthday Saida!

She might not appreciate my posting this picture, since nowadays you're likely to see her with her hair done and makeup on, but I liked this photo so...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET SAIDA!  Hard to believe how fast 14 years can pass!  You bring beauty to our family and help to keep all those squirrely boys in their place.  I'm so glad God brought you to us!

Sadly, we will be leaving for Africa on Saida's special day, but we leave her in capable hands and know she will have a wonderful time.  While she is celebrating with friends, we will be boarding an airplane for Kenya!  

Yes, our time of preparation is almost done and the trip has finally arrived.  This blog will remain silent for a couple of weeks since we will not have access to the Internet while we are in-country.  When we return, I hope to relay our experiences to you in detail.   Until then, thank you to all who have followed this journey since "Eating for Africa" and have supported us with your prayers, finances and words of encouragement. 

We would appreciate your continued prayers throughout our journey since it is clear to us that the enemy has been "prowling around [our team] looking for someone to devour".  He might be hungry for a kill, but the Lion of Judah is going to kick his scrawny butt!  Oh - is that not polite of me to say?

May God bless you, keep you, make His face to shine upon you and give you PEACE.

- Julie

I Know You're There Lord

Tonight the CCC Prayer Ministry Team met with our Bondo mission team to hear our needs and pray over us for the trip.  What a sweet time of togetherness, with each other and with the Lord.  At one point I really want to fall on my knees, but of course second-guessed myself for a while.  When I opened my eyes preparing to make a move, I saw that almost all of our team has prostrated themselves already - so I joined them!  By the end of it all, we had all humbled ourselves before God and it was just...perfect.

Without disclosing details of other people's stories, I was amazed to hear how many of our team have been under spiritual attacks these past few weeks.  Many team members shared how current situations in their lives had been mentally all-consuming, distracting and heartbreaking.  There were many commonalities in our prayer needs.  My heart ached for some of the situations and it really brought losing the UK trip into better focus for me.  In short, I'm okay with it now.

I believe Satan has been trying to divert our team from the battle ahead and I see all of these attacks as an ambush from enemy forces.  Those grenades have really been flying in everyones lives, so I reiterate:

"No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD. - Isaiah 54:17

We'll spend the rest of this week in final preparations which for me equates to housework and loving on my kids.  There is laundry to finish, luggage to pack and bug spray to purchase.  Yes, the business of these final days will continue but by the grace of God I choose to give my worries to Him and go about my business enjoying the "peace that surpasses all understanding".

I leave you with a favorite song to enjoy.  Just pretend it is me singing it because I agree with every word sung.

Grenade!

I've been watching the mini-series "Band of Brothers".  That tidbit of Julie trivia will help make sense out of what I am about to say.

Two weeks ago, just about the time we said "Whew! No more fundraising!" we get the word from Dave's work that they were wanting to send Dave to England to help out the UK office and they were possibly considering sending the whole family.  This started us down the road of anticipation, but I was pessimistic.  There was no good reason to send a family of six on the company's dime other than to bless a hard working, long-term employee.  I was shocked when the company came back with an offer to send the whole family for 3 1/2 months! 

As you can imagine, this was a huge mental distraction for us.  Since they needed Dave within days of returning to Africa I suddenly had to prepare for two trips instead of one and I only had about 2 weeks to get it all together.  The logistics were paralyzing at first, but we processed the details and started working a plan.

Did I mention how mentally distracting this was from our Africa trip?

Over the past two weeks we have run the gambit of emotion but we landed in a place of excitement.  Even the kids were warming up to the idea of a family adventure.  This was an opportunity that we could never afford on our own...traveling internationally together.  I felt blessed and I was so glad Dave's company was willing to honor him in this way.  Dave and I waited with anticipation for a meeting with his boss to receive all the logistics, but when that meeting came (yesterday) we were stunned to hear that they would no longer be sending the whole family.

"Disappointed" seems too flippant and "shattered" too severe - but we are very let down.  I mean, I had spent two weeks thanking God for blessing us with an opportunity that I had only dreamed about for my family.  We had prayed about the logistics, contacted a church, found a home group, familiarized ourselves with the area, the weather, the free places to visit, etc.  Now...nothing.

After some time to process the news I've decided that this whole thing was nothing short of an attack by the enemy.  It's like an emotional grenade was thrown into the middle of our lives; it came out of nowhere, sent us scrambling then exploded.  Fortunately, God's word says, "no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD" - Isaiah 54:17  The grenade was a dud, meaning it didn't destroy us, but boy has it left our ears ringing!

It also serves to remind me that we are in a battle for the souls of men.  As I've struggled to re-focus my thoughts towards Africa I realize that Satan doesn't like it one bit when the truth of God goes forth to shine in the darkness of broken lives.  There is definitely a battle and we are foot soldiers in that fight. 

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." - Ephesians 6:11-12

Yes, I am sad about not going to England with the family, but when I stop and consider the scriptures I've shared with you today, I'm encouraged and believe that great things are ready to happen in Akala, Kenya!

Amen Lord, let it be!

- Julie

P.S.  In case you're wondering, yes - we know we might be wrong about all this.  We have prayed and given the whole situation over to God to work out the details as he sees fit, but for me, emotionally, I have to consider the matter closed.  Perhaps circumstances will change so feel free to pray as you feel led. 

Freedom!

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." - John 8:36

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." - Galatians 5:1

Happy Independence Day Everyone!  The family spent a fun night at the town Jubilee surrounded by friends, sharing food and oohing & ahhing over the fireworks display.  It was a fun night of celebration and I am reminded again of how blessed we truly are here in America.

More importantly, I am blessed to be a child of God because in Him I know a freedom that isn't dependent upon any government system.  True freedom indeed!

"On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand - all other ground is sinking sand."

- Julie

Money Is the Easiest Thing for God

The start of this blog four months ago marked the start of fundraising efforts for our Kenya mission trip.  I have mentioned several times throughout this process that I believe fundraising is a balance between doing all you can and trusting God to provide everything you need.  That balancing act isn't always easy for me.  I seem waffle someplace between faith and worry.

We undoubtedly believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we also believe in the vision Pastor Morris and his wife Aidah have for their homeland of Africa. We believe in these things so much that we were willing to take a risk and mail a few letters, park a few cars, sell a few trinkets and dedicate a little bit of money to serving in Africa once again. Still, despite all that belief we scrutinized our decision - especially in light of fundraising. Is it right to try this thing one more time? Should one of us stay home? Should we both stay home? Did we hear God correctly or is this all our idea?

As my dear friend, K.K. puts it, "Money is the easiest thing for God" and you know what?  She's right!

I'm so happy to report that our fundraising is complete and it was nothing short of an act of God - literally.  David and I had done all we could on our own and as part of the team and still we were about $3,000 short.  We were unnerved by that fact, but had to recognize that we had done all we could and the rest would have to be up to God so we prayed about it and waited.  The next day we were with our team leader discussing our funds when a good friend of ours calls up to say he wants to make a sizeable donation!  I mean we literally said something like, "It will be okay, God will provide" and within 3 minutes the phone call came! 

The next day, while depositing the donation, we discovered other unexpected donors had made visits to our account.  All in all, within a few short days we went from thousands due to a mere $400!  But God wasn't done showing off yet.  A few days from that point, there came other donors who felt moved by God to support our team until all of a sudden we found our whole team fully funded! 

The Bible says "It is more blessed to give than to receive" [Acts 20:35] and I'm starting to think it's true, because the feeling that overwhelms you when you are the recipient of generosity is not an altogether comfortable feeling.  I think they call it humility.

More than ever, I am acutely aware of the fact that we do not make this trip alone.  Yes, we go with God, but we also go with each and every person who felt led to support us in prayer and with their finances.  I am humbled and honored to do this work for God and on behalf of all those people who said, "Yes, we support this.  Yes, we support you."

Dave made a profound observation.  Even though he worked as hard as he could at fundraising, it wasn't enough.  He still fell short.  It was God who bridged the gap and brought our funding to completion.  The same is true for our salvation.  We can never be good enough or work hard enough to be holy and perfect.  Only God is holy and perfect and we are a flawed creation made in his image.  Yet he loves us.  He delights in us and He desires to be with us so God made the way.  He bridged the gap between us.  He did what we could never do.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." [John 3:16-17]

We can never earn the way ourselves.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." [Ephesians 2:8-10]

We're excited to see what God has planned for the people of Akala, Kenya this year.  Thank you all again for your support.

- Julie

Happy Birthday Dave!

I'm a total Dave groupie!

What a great guy I'm married to.  Here's a little photo of him rockin' a reunion show with his old bandmates The Lost Memo.  His band days were before I knew him so the reunion concert was really fun for me.  Along with the other wives, I sat on the front row totally engrossed with my husband getting his groove on.  Most of you know him as a conservative bass man playing worship (me included), but when he was with his bandmates...yeah!  I kept thinking, "Wow, I get to go home with that guy!"  Yep, total groupie.

Happy Birthday to the best husband a girl could ever ask for.  I'm blessed beyond blessed to be sharing life with you.  As Saida said this morning, "You're halfway to 86!"  So much living left to do.

Rock On Honey!

- Julie

Holy! Holy! Holy!

[Okay, something has shifted in my ability to download videos, but since I wanted to share the music with you more than the image I'm just going to ignore the weird "crop" of the screen.  I hope it doesn't irritate you too much]

Things have been happening that I can't explain just yet but they're all good and it makes me want to worship! Today, I'm inviting you to join me.  No matter where you are and no matter what is going on in your life, God is worthy to be praised!  We might not always understand him, we may not always see him and we may not always agree with him, but God is always in control, his will for our lives is always in motion and his ways are always better than our own! 

- Julie