What a journey it has been. We have come home, just a quick 2 year stay in South Asia with the IMB, and it has come to an end already. We enjoyed our time, saw much fruit, even saw successful church planting through what God had equipped us to equip others with. It did not come from us, but God channeled it through us to those who could be most effective. We feel extremely blessed to have been in the place God put us that people would reach out to Him.
There was sadness in finishing and saying goodbye, committing the church planters to the grace of God's word and the work that He called them to. There was sadness in leaving a place that became our home so easily. There was sadness in saying goodbye to so many close friends- neighbors, church planters, business owners- all of them cried when saying goodbye, which made it harder. We were covered by God's grace in coming home, no travel problems- only a long journey. We came home and were greeted by friends we had left behind 2 years ago, and rejoiced as they were able to help us with all 12 of our suitcases!
No rest, however as we returned in time for the Christmas season, and after about a week of jet-lag, trying to find things we needed for daily survival, and driving on the wrong side of the road and nearly giving my in-laws a heart attack, we shopped for gifts for each other and for the kids- the first real mall shopping we had done, talk about reverse culture shock! My son accepted Christ in July, and we shared our joy with our home church as I baptized him- what an incredible joy!
After Christmas, we packed and headed down to our next journey- a Missionary Training School in the Atlanta, Georgia area. We are currently living in a local community with a team from our home church preparing to go and live in Thailand. Our vision and purpose is to multiply disciples, leaders and churches to spread God's glory in that place. During our time in Atlanta, we are preparing ourselves by team building, training, community ministry and fund raising (we are no longer with the IMB but are being sent our through our home church).
The plan, is to be in the Atlanta area for 5 months of training through Global Frontier Missions, and then, if our funding commitments come in we will be able to join the team which will move to Thailand in July of this year. If funding is not complete by July, we will stay back and raise support for however long it takes and join the team later. We are way excited to be part of what God is doing and what He will do through our team.
Thanks for checking in- more blog posts will come, so stay tuned!
