Are we there yet?

Merry Christmas from… yes, still in Charlottesville. No, not overseas yet. Not quite there yet. Several years ago in my Christmas letter to you all I talked about the Magi setting out on a long journey to an uncertain destination: “I think of those eastern astrologers loading up their camels to follow a quietly shimmering sign they’ve never seen before, not sure exactly where it will take them, but knowing that the journey is God-driven, God-guided.” And I compared it to what my family and I were going through, having just returned to the US after thirteen years in Ethiopia and Kenya.

But here’s the thing. I didn’t think the journey would take THIS long. I thought I’d be back overseas by now, back to my passion for teaching the Bible and training emerging church leaders where the needs are greatest. As I’ve pondered the Magi’s story this Advent, I've noticed that apparently they were on this quest for two years. That’s an assumption scholars make based on Matthew 2:16, where Herod “sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.” Evidently they saw the star two years before they reached Jerusalem. They could have been plodding along on those swaying camels, across hot and dusty desert, along roads they’d never ridden before, for two years before they reached the destination the star was pointing them toward.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. In the spring of 2015 I began the process of becoming a missionary theological educator with Serge and EPC World Outreach. Many friends and colleagues have affirmed that yes, this is God’s call on my life at this point. And many of you have stepped in as partners, pray-ers and encouragers. We’re on the way. I am so very grateful. But we’re not there yet. There have been several ‘oasis’ stops in 2016 – Ireland in April to meet the Serge team in Dublin where I’ll be based, Spain in May for Serge’s triennial all-member gathering, India in July to teach biblical interpretation at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) – but we’re nowhere near the end of this long hard journey.

My heart’s desire is to begin my new role as a Theological Education Specialist by March 2017. Two years since we first set out on this path. Right now, 64% of the needed ongoing support has been provided – by nine churches and 33 families and individuals who've promised to give monthly or annually – while others of you have made generous one-time gifts. But we’re not there yet.

Could you please stop right now and pray about partnering with me? The call is to bring my international experience in theological education – all those years in the US, UK, Africa and India – to Serge’s fields of ministry, serving the Kingdom of God by teaching in theological institutions alongside church-planting efforts in Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe. Fully funding this ministry will take an additional $2900 per month or the equivalent in annual gifts. But, if I have 80% of my total required support – another $1240 per month or the equivalent in one-time gifts – I can deploy to Ireland this spring. That's a crucial opportunity to begin connecting with the needs in theological education there and in nearby regions before returning to the US later in 2017 to seek out additional supporting partners.

Will you join me in training this emerging generation of Christian leaders worldwide who will shape global Christianity in the 21st century? You can give here to Serge or here to EPC World Outreach. Or email me and let's talk more.

And for those of you willing to pray, here are my requests:

• To Ireland by March 2017 if it’s the Lord’s plan, with all the resources needed (God's doing, beyond human ability!)
• Wisdom and discernment in the next steps if the Lord has a different plan
• The ability for me to say ‘Thy will be done’ with sincerity and joy, no matter what happens

As I wrote before about those weary Magi on their long trek:
“I keep thinking that when those curious stargazers finished their long and mysterious journey, they ended up exactly where God was. Born in fragility, messy with the reality of human existence, newly arrived to engage with his broken human creatures. My prayer is that our own God-driven, God-guided – yet puzzling and unexpected – journey will also bring us face to face with Jesus. I’m holding onto the hope that when we reach the end, wherever that is, we’ll discover that God is already there.”
 
I’m grateful for your company with me on this road. And may we each meet Jesus face to face during this season of wonder... and waiting... and worship.

 

Miles and miles

Greetings from… [she checks calendar]… Raleigh, North Carolina! Today I was the keynote speaker for a lovely group of women at HOPE Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Raleigh:

Tomorrow I’ll be with the brothers and sisters at Peace Church EPC in Durham, NC. Then next weekend it’s Reynolda Church EPC in Winston-Salem, NC. And then I think I’m done for a while. (I hope!)

So far this fall I’ve driven 4876 miles, visited a dozen other churches like these, attended presbytery meetings in Virginia and Georgia, and connected with many, many of God’s wonderful people. Why? It’s #whatmissionariesdo, all part of telling the story about global theological education and how I've been called to serve, while God provides the resources as he chooses. The good news is we're at 60% of the needed ongoing financial support. Now I'm waiting to hear from some of the aforementioned churches as they finalize their 2017 mission budgets.

As I think you know by now, the goal of all this is to help train emerging church leaders in the developing world. I’ll be an international Theological Education Specialist for Serge – in partnership with EPC World Outreach – based in Dublin, Ireland, and teaching in theological institutions alongside Serge's church-planting efforts in Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe. I’ll help Serge develop and strengthen theological training across their fields of ministry.

Well, yes, but... it’s all in God’s hands. To paraphrase my devotional reading yesterday, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to Dublin and spend a few years there, doing ministry and training leaders’… Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that’ (James 4:13-15). It’s true, I’d love to say, "I’m going to Dublin today or tomorrow." But it will happen in God’s own sovereign plan and timing (i.e. when the support is raised). Patience, patience, patience – and trust. Not my strongest suits, as many of you are aware!

Meanwhile, since you probably don’t need to see photos of me repeatedly filling the gas tank in my car or listening to audio books on the road, here’s something more meaningful to share. Last month I sent you a video of my students in Kenya talking about their passions for ministry and why Africa needs theological education. (If you missed it you can click here.) Now here are a few of my students at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) in India talking about our class and how they want to use what they learned in their South Asian ministry contexts (click here to watch this 6-minute video). 

Maybe you’re feeling the Lord prompting you to become a partner with me in this sort of global theological education? One-time gifts are great – thanks! – and monthly or yearly pledges are even better. If you feel the Lord nudging you to be an ongoing partner. now would be a great time to let me know. It’s those promises of ongoing monthly and annual support that tell World Outreach and Serge when they can release me to move overseas. You can give here to Serge or here to EPC World Outreach.

Thanks for hanging with me through this long, exciting, daunting, and sometimes exhausting, process. Please keep praying that the Lord provides everything needed for the call he’s given me – and that I’ll have the patience and trust to wait. And thank you for being in this with me as pray-ers, givers and friends! 

I've been enjoying the beautiful autumn in Virginia
Next year in Ireland?!

Telling the story

VIDEO: My students in their own words
Click on the photo above to see the video


Yes, I get to work with amazing young leaders like these in the video above. "But I could never do all that missionary support-raising!”, people tell me on a regular basis. Believe it or not I enjoy it. There are so many lovely people with a genuine interest in global Christianity, and as a new missionary appointee I get to talk with lots of them. (Probably a happier thing for extroverts like me than for introverts, I realize.) Some of these people and/or their churches become supporting partners, some don’t. That doesn't bother me. As I see it, my part is to tell the story about global theological education and how I've been called to serve in it, while God’s part is to provide the resources as he chooses. The good news is we're now at 56% of the needed financial support – I'm so excited!

Full disclosure, however: What really gets to me is the uncertainty of not knowing how long this will all take. The most anxiety-provoking question that kind, well-meaning people ask me is “When are you going?” (The answer is “When the support is raised.”) The problem is that I want to CONTROL the process and CONTROL the timing. “Hah!” you may say. This entire process is a spiritual discipline of releasing control and trusting that God’s timing is just right. Arghhhh!! But yeah, I know. It’s good for me.

So I’m relishing the opportunities I have to meet God’s people in so many interesting places, and trying faith-fully to relinquish control over how God’s going to bring this all together. When I’m able to keep that straight it’s actually quite fun. This past weekend I was at First Presbyterian on Hilton Head Island, SC, leading a retreat for sixty lively women on Saturday and sharing some thoughts about the gospel and culture at a mission dinner on Sunday night. Tuesday I found myself having lunch with a group of leaders from a church near Charleston, SC, sitting on our hosts’ cozy screened porch overlooking beautiful salt marshes and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. (Thank you, new friends at Rockville EPC!) This weekend I’m preaching at a small church near Charlotte, NC. Here’s the upcoming itinerary:

• Sun 18 Sept - Garden Memorial Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, NC

• Fri-Sat 23-24 Sept - EPC Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic, Virginia Beach, VA

• Sun 25 Sept - Kempsville Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach, VA

• Wed 28 Sept - Galatia Presbyterian Church, Eagle Rock, VA

• Fri-Sat 30 Sept-1 Oct - EPC Presbytery of the Southeast, Dalton, GA

• Tues 4 Oct - Christ Community EPC, Montreat, NC

• Sun 9 Oct - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Burlington, NC

• Wed 12 Oct - Northampton Presbyterian Church, Hampton, VA

• Sun 16 Oct - Englewood Presbyterian Church, Rocky Mount, NC

• Sun 23 Oct - Northminster Presbyterian Church, Madison Heights, VA

• Sat 5 Nov - Hope Presbyterian Church, Raleigh, NC

• Sun 6 Nov - Peace Presbyterian Church, Raleigh, NC

Please pray for safe travels. And if I’m going to be somewhere in your vicinity, let’s meet for a Starbucks at some interstate exit!

The goal of all this is to help train emerging church leaders in the developing world. As I think you know by now, in my new role as international Theological Education Specialist for Serge – in partnership with EPC World Outreach and based in Dublin, Ireland – I get to serve the Kingdom of God by teaching in theological institutions alongside Serge's church-planting efforts in Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe. I’ll help Serge develop and strengthen partnerships in theological education. I hope also to equip others to participate in theological training in cross-cultural settings. But rather than me telling you why this is so important, I thought you might enjoying hearing some of my former African students tell the story in the video above. (Next month I'll let you meet some of my students in India.)

If you feel the Lord prompting you to become a partner with me in global theological education, now would be a great time to let me know. Thanks! You can give here to Serge or here to EPC World Outreach. Otherwise, please pray that the Lord provides everything needed for this ministry to go forward. And pray that I have the patience to trust him and to trust his timing – which seriously, may be the bigger miracle...

Shingles

I went all the way to India for the month of July and came down with an exotic case of… shingles?! Sometimes these juxtapositions of the exotic and the mundane in my intercultural life surprise even me. And sometimes that mix is part of the blessing. It reminded me of the time one of our students in InterVarsity’s Kenya summer program broke out in chicken pox. She and her Kenyan host family in a far-away town called to let us know. “Are you OK? Do you want to come back here to Nairobi to recuperate?” No, she was fine, just a bit itchy. As it turned out, the church lay leader hosting her also happened to be the chief medical officer for the district. His family took great care of her and she went home with a relational bond few short-termers experience.

Fortunately, I had a not-too-painful case of shingles, on my shoulder and down one arm, and fortunately I already knew an Indian dermatologist within walking distance of my guest apartment on the SAIACS campus. Some of you remember my first encounter with Dr P two years ago:

Me, walking into clinic without appointment: I have a mole on my arm I’d like to have removed. Is that possible?
Dr P: Yes.
(Pause)
Me: You mean right now? Or do you want me to schedule an appointment and come back?
Dr P (glancing up at overhead lights): Well, since the electricity’s working right now, and it will only take about 10 minutes, let’s do it now. Have you ever had a reaction to local anesthesia?
Me: Never. But I see what you mean – if I did, we’d have a problem.
Dr P (with twinkling eyes): No, you wouldn’t have a problem, you’d be gone. I’d be left with the problem.
Me: Good point. Can you give me some idea of what the fees are going to be?
Dr P: 250 rupees [US$4]. Is that alright?

I left minus one ugly mole that had bugged me for years and with a new appreciation for medical tourism in India. I’m glad that I feel enough at home in Bangalore now that after a fruitless search on Sunday for an accurate diagnosis and meds – on the back of a motorbike driven by one of my students, which is a whole ’nother story – I could walk to Dr P’s clinic on Monday and get the right help. But, she explained, she was going to double the shingles antiviral dosage she usually prescribes, because of my American height and weight compared to the average Indian woman (thanks, Dr P), and to match US protocols. “OK, I’ll trust you on that.” “You have to,” she twinkled, “You have no other choice.” A day or two later she passed me on the street on her own motorbike and cheerfully stopped to see if I’d gotten everything I needed. Which I had, except that this turned out to be one of those treatments that apparently kills the bug one day before it kills you. I spent about half of my month in India teaching for three hours in the morning and then languidly draping myself across the sofa for the rest of the day.

Frustrating, because I felt like my reduced energy level kept me from being as involved with students at the South Asia Institute for Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) and with local friends and acquaintances as I usually get to be during my annual visits. So being the somewhat compulsive type-A person I am, I made a list. Here’s what God graciously allowed me to do this month: 

• Teach an MA course in biblical hermeneutics to 19 emerging ministry leaders from all over India – and grade all the assignments and exams (yuck)
• Record eight video lectures for SAIACS’s new online course in biblical interpretation for Indian Christian lay leaders
• Do a workshop on online teaching for SAIACS faculty members
• Preach at SAIACS chapel
• Have a series of lovely one-to-one conversations over tea with former students and young ministry leaders I’ve gotten to know. Friendship-cum-mentoring.
• Serendipitously reconnect with friends from my former church in the UK who are now working in theological education in India
• Serve as external examiner for an MTh thesis for the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology
• Follow up with a graduate from my alma mater (UVA) who’s Hindu but also a spiritual seeker, and introduce him to leaders at the church I attend in Bangalore
• Make some progress on my thesis for my MA in higher-education ESL (yeah, need to get that finished sometime soon…) 

I felt a lot better after I made that list. Although I suspect the Lord isn’t quite as worried about the productivity quota as I tend to be. And then on my way home at the end of the month, just as I was wondering how in my shingles-depleted state I was going to manage the long flight in a terrible airplane seat (because I’d bought my ticket too late for the better seats), collect my car in Washington, DC, and then drive the two hours to Charlottesville without succumbing to jetlag, Emirates suddenly upgraded me from Dubai to Washington. So instead of being packed among the sardines at the back of the plane, I spent 13 hours enjoying a luxurious flatbed seat, champagne, my own minibar with juices and Perrier water, high-tech audio and video, and gourmet meals on real plates. The flatbed alone was enough to make it blissful. And restful. Isn’t God good? I felt like he was reminding me that he knew exactly what this daughter needed at that moment and he cared. (The downside: I'm now utterly ruined for normal air travel.)

Now I’ve had a week at home in Virginia to move slo-o-owly and catch up on a few things, and tomorrow I’m going to the beach with friends for a week. Then when I come back from that… it’s time to kick into gear again reaching out to friends and supporters about my new role as an international theological education specialist with Serge (formerly World Harvest Mission) and EPC World Outreach – based with the Serge team in Dublin, Ireland, and traveling out to teach and work alongside Serge’s church-planting efforts in Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe. As of today I’m at 44% of the needed ongoing financial support. It’s those promises of ongoing monthly and annual support that determine when I can ‘go active’ and relocate to Ireland. Still praying that the Lord will bring this together in time for me to leave at the beginning of January 2017. Soon I'll be visiting churches throughout the mid-Atlantic and southeast US talking about this new ministry and what God's doing in the world. Hope to see many of you along the way!

What I did at SAIACS in Bangalore, India, last month when I wasn't lying on the sofa with shingles 

 

Lights, camera, action for the new online lectures - notice our very high-tech teleprompter 

Intensity in the SAIACS library (yes, they're working on their assignments for my course) - love these students!

Hello from Bangalore

I’ve landed in my happy place again for the month of July. A brand new group of seminary students – current and future ministry leaders – from all over India eager to improve their skills in reading and interpreting the Bible. A cozy apartment overlooking the grassy academic quad, with tasty Indian food at every meal. Friends and former students I’ve gotten to know over the years, and reconnecting with the church and home group I was part of last year. What’s not to like?!

I’ve been coming to the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) since 2005, and it continues to be one of my favorite academic communities anywhere. I particularly love the way SAIACS blends those two pieces, ‘academic’ and ‘community.’ So grateful for opportunities to know and mentor these students both in the classroom and on a more personal level over meals, worship, and sports – even if I did wash out of the croquet tournament in the semi-finals this week...

Being here also reminds me why I’m convinced theological education among emerging churches in South Asia and elsewhere is so strategic. These students will return to churches and ministries throughout the sub-continent, sharing the Good News and shaping Christian faith and practice in God’s small-but-growing kingdom among India’s 1.2 billion people. According to the 2011 census, Christians currently make up only 2.3% of the population in India.

With students like these the multiplication factor of theological education is amazing. This is my fourth SAIACS class in the past two years, a total of 58 students. That may not seem like a significant number, but if you imagine that in their ministry contexts each of those students is involved in the spiritual growth of, say, 50-100 other people, the total potentially impacted by these four courses comes to something like 3000-5000 people. It puts flesh on 2 Tim 2:2 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” Throw in the 85 students I’ve taught in my Fuller courses in the last year, use a similar multiplier, and there’s another 4000-8000 people in various parts of the world. That’s some scary responsibility – and believe me, I feel it. But I also love it. That privilege of being right at the heart of helping people read and understand the Bible in their relationship with God and as they share God's word with those they’re reaching out to.

My big focus in 2016 is getting to the point where I can do this full-time again. And make a living at it, since except for the part-time Fuller courses I’m currently an unsalaried volunteer. In my new role I'll be an international theological education specialist based with the Serge (formerly World Harvest Mission) team in Dublin, Ireland, and traveling out to teach and work alongside Serge’s church-planting efforts in Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe. So excited!

I was very grateful to attend Serge’s triennial ‘company conference’ in Spain in May and feel God whispering words of confirmation: ‘Yes, this is where I’ve called you now, to this ministry, with these people.’ Every three years all Serge workers come together to worship, learn, laugh and cry together, and (hopefully) get built up enough to go back to their assignments around the globe. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to meet Serge people from different countries and do some brainstorming and dreaming together about how I might help them in various forms of leadership training and theological education. Lots of possibilities.

Then in June I flew to Detroit to attend the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), where in a beautiful evening worship service I was commissioned as a new missionary with EPC World Outreach. Serge was also confirmed at this GA as a mission partner of the EPC. Although I’m the first joint appointee, it looks like I won’t be the last – several good conversations at GA with EPC-ers also considering joining Serge.

So here I am, all official and ready to go. The last big step is watching God pull together the team of financial partners and committed pray-ers to make this happen. (No, the EPC doesn’t fund missionaries from a central budget. Darn.) I've had some wonderful one-time gifts, and as of today I’m at 42% of the needed ongoing financial support. Not too bad for this point in the year, but still a ways to go in time for the goal of moving to Ireland at the beginning of January 2017.

While I’m waiting to see how God is going to build that support team, I’ll just hang out here in India this month, following the passion he’s given me to help strengthen his global church – and enjoying some very yummy Indian food :) 
 

 

MAY - Serge Company Conference in Spain

Hundreds of dollars cheaper to fly on Tuesday instead of waiting till Saturday when the conference starts?
Sure, I'll go early and explore Seville with my buddy-since-9th-grade, Laurie. Co-adventurers!

 

The Serge family minus those we can't take pictures of for security reasons. I'm in that crowd somewhere... 

 

JUNE - EPC General Assembly

Commissioning service - with everyone else's faces pixelated for security reasons

 

So grateful for the Serge peeps at EPC GA with me! - Chrissy, Josiah, Lindsay, Barbara

 

JULY - India

Hermeneutics (biblical interpretation) class at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS)

 

How I got here from there

“Is theological education something new for you? Have you ever taught before?” I was sitting with a lovely couple from North Carolina a few weeks ago, talking about the possibility of their church supporting me as a missionary. If you know me well, you’ll understand why I was startled by the question. Then it occurred to me that their question made a whole lot more sense than my assuming everyone already knows my story. Apologies! Some of you have been on this ministry journey with me for decades but quite a few of you are just joining in. So for newer friends, let me try to explain some of the back story.

I first got involved in world missions through my InterVarsity Christian Fellowship group at the University of Virginia. I spent one college summer (1980 – yes, I’m that old!) in Benin, West Africa, in what felt like the middle of nowhere, helping a single woman missionary who was training local pastors. It was hard, exciting, crazy… and wonderful. And it’s what the Lord used to grab me for a future I certainly had never expected. To get the training and ministry experience I needed so that I could someday go back to Africa with something useful to offer, I worked in campus ministry with InterVarsity at UNC-Chapel Hill and the College of William & Mary for several years, then went to seminary at Gordon-Conwell near Boston, served on church staffs in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, moved to England to do a PhD in New Testament Greek, and became ordained as a Presbyterian minister. Along the way I got married and raised a family.

Finally, in 2000 my husband and I and two daughters (then 10 and 12) moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For seven years I had the privilege of teaching New Testament, biblical interpretation, Greek language, and academic writing at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology and other institutions. In 2008 we moved to Nairobi, Kenya, to teach at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, the flagship institution of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA). The Lord also gave me opportunities in theological education beyond Ethiopia and Kenya. From 2007-2011 I was Accreditation Officer for theological schools throughout Africa for the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), an agency of the AEA (fulfilling my inherent need to be in charge of everyone...). I still do occasional project work for ACTEA. I also started traveling to India to teach at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) in Bangalore, something I still do regularly and absolutely love.

Sadly, ours was one of the ministry marriages that didn’t make it. After exhausting the counseling resources available to us in Kenya we returned to the US in 2013 to seek more help, but in 2014 my husband chose divorce. I found myself ‘home alone’ in America, living in a culture that felt new to me after 17 years overseas, cut off from my work, my home, my friends and my church in Kenya, and not knowing what the future held for me. It was a dark time – as those of you who’ve faced your own dramatic losses, serious illness or other major life challenge can certainly imagine. I’m so grateful to have had space and time to grieve, for the surprising ways God provided for me financially, for old friends who’ve held me up along the way, new friends God’s sent into my life, and fantastic counseling support from Faithful & True (yes, this is a recommendation!). Then about a year ago, I felt God saying “It’s time” to move forward. I transferred my ordination into the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), started teaching online for Fuller Theological Seminary, and began reaching out to mission agencies to see what opportunities there might be at this point for someone like me.

And now here we are. Everything God has done in my life comes together in this new role as a traveling international Theological Education Specialist for Serge, in a co-operative appointment with EPC World Outreach. Years ago my husband and I were part of a group of friends looking to serve in Africa together. Serge, formerly World Harvest Mission, is the organization our group joined, eventually launching a new outreach in western Uganda. For the right reasons at the time, my husband and I went a different direction but stayed in touch with these friends. Now I get to pick up with Serge where I left off 25 years ago!

I’ll be based with Serge’s team in Dublin, Ireland – the least evangelized English-speaking country. (Learn more about it here.) My responsibility is to bring my international experience in theological education to Serge’s work in Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe. Living in Dublin puts me five time zones and seven flying hours closer to these fields of ministry than if I tried to do this from my home in Charlottesville. I’ll get to serve the Kingdom of God by teaching in theological institutions alongside Serge’s church-planting efforts, helping Serge develop and strengthen partnerships in theological education, and inviting and equipping others to participate in theological training in cross-cultural settings. I’m in awe of what God is doing in this.

When does this all happen? Our target date is January 2017. But in reality I can’t go until there’s a solid base of prayer and financial support. One-time gifts are great, and ongoing monthly or yearly pledges are even better. It’s those promises of ongoing support that tell Serge and EPC World Outreach when they can ‘release’ me to move overseas. Maybe the Lord is nudging you to become a partner in this ministry? If so, you can give using the links to the left. Thank you!! Or, email me at sblack@serge.org and let’s talk about it more. (And a BIG thank you to those of you who are already giving!)

Meanwhile, I’m waiting as patiently as I can (admittedly not always that patiently) to see what God does with this and how he continues to provide for me in these unexpected twists and turns. Slowly I’m learning to trust that the story he’s writing for me isn’t finished yet. I'm right there with whoever that psalmist was who said (Ps 71:17-18):

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might
to all the generations to come.

Our 'Africa Team', circa 1989. That's me on the right. (Was I ever really that young?!) This group - minus our family - became the nucleus of Serge's work in western Uganda. 

Faces obscured of one family currently living in a high-security location

Finally got there! Memories from Ethiopia, Kenya, India and beyond...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My missionary kids then... and now :)