A Moment, A Mile, And a Bible

Today I leave for Mozambique Africa. As I have probably told many of you, I figured I should actually write out and share the story of how and why I am going on this trip. It all started three years ago as I was serving with YWAM in New Zealand. Every Wednesday morning we, as a whole group, would fast breakfast and intercede and pray over a major world issue. This one Wednesday morning we were praying over poverty and the child slave trade in Africa. I really knew little about this topic and little about Africa, besides knowing of the extreme poverty of course. As I sat down to pray I told God, “God I know nothing about this. So whatever your desires are for me to pray for please show that to me.” As I continued to pray I clearly heard, “Mozambique.” Still not knowing much about Africa I wasn’t even sure if that was a city, country, or even in Africa. It happened to be a country. The prayer time ended and all I got was “Mozambique.” Not satisfied and a bit confused, I went for a walk a little bit later in the day to ask God, “what about Mozambique God?” As I walked along praying and asking for more detail I felt like God was telling me He wanted me to go! I was a bit taken back by this, and honestly a bit skeptical of this word that I thought I heard from God that day, so I told a handful of my close friends there at our base in hopes that they could confirm, pray for, or even write this off for me.

            Our YWAM base was split between the regular DTS and a Family DTS, where families could come and participate as a family in the YWAM Discipleship Training Schools. Most of the time we didn’t have much interaction with the families there, except for meals times where we all sat at the same tables. A few days after receiving this word from God, a couple of my close friends that I had told about the word came running up to me after dinner in excitement. They began to tell me how they were sitting at their dinner table with one of the families, and this husband and wife, on their own, brought up Africa and some good friends of theirs who had started a ministry in Africa building orphanages and churches. This ministry called Iris Ministries happened to be in Mozambique and was started by Heidi and Rolland Baker. And in complete awe of how this was brought up with no prompting, my friends were convinced this was a piece of my puzzle.

            So I was convinced, yes I had heard God and he wanted me to go to Mozambique. Still feeling in over my head with this word from God, I specifically remember telling God that I know nothing about Mozambique or what it’s going to take to get there. So I prayed that he would make it clear to me when and how I’m supposed to go and that He would blow wide open all the doors to make that happen.

            Little pieces would come together over the next few years. One summer while serving at a Young Life camp at the coast I met a couple who had served in Mozambique for a few years and had adopted a little girl from there. She was captivating. Back in Longview after YWAM I was in contact with a couple that were starting a college age ministry. I had partnered with them to help get this ministry off the ground and agreed to be on the first worship team. It was on that team where I met Gabe. Gabe had done a YWAM trip about the same time that I did and was a missionary spirit at heart as well. Gabe and I became good friends throughout this year.  Both of us doing ministry separately in Longview and leading worship together at acollege ministry called The Vine.

About a year and a half ago after one of The Vine gatherings I was chatting with Gabe and a few other guys when he brought up that he was reading a book by Heidi Baker and how he just went and saw her speak. Quickly recognizing his interest in Heidi Baker and knowing mine, I asked why he was so interested in Heidi Baker specifically. He told me that he had just watched a movie called, The Finger of God and how her and her ministry was highlighted in it. He continued to tell me how he was really impacted by the video and that he felt called to her ministry, Iris Ministries. In that moment all I could do was thank God for his persistence in my life and in this calling he laid in my life nearly three years ago. I then told Gabe that I think we needed to go sit down and get coffee somewhere and talk about this calling he had, that I too had.

From that coffee meet and through plenty of prayer, a trip was planned and here we are: for Gabe a year and a half later, for me three and a half years later, getting ready to fulfill Gods words in our lives. We are staying with Iris Ministries in Pemba, Mozambique for 3 weeks then traveling to Uganda and northern Uganda to partner with a ministry Gabe has helped out with through his time as interim youth pastor at a church. God has completely designed and made this trip happen from the beginning. Neither of us knows what to expect nor know what God has planned for us during this trip. It is this unexpectedness that scares me the most. God has been working on this trip for so long in my life and he has designed it, I have a feeling He has big plans. But it is the same unexpectedness that excites me as well. I leave for this trip, nervous, anxious, scared, excited, but most of all I go in obedience. I don’t know why but God has called me and Gabe to Africa, but I just want to follow the God that loves me and has provided for me so much already.

Here are the links to the ministries we will be serving:

http://www.irisministries.com/

http://www.buyabrickbuildafuture.com/