Life-on-life

We are so excited to head back to Tanzania in June, Lord willing!  It has been an amazing year of growth and challenge and searching and waiting...
of course, none of it wasted...
and in the meantime (which is when God seems to do most of His heart-work) we have learned much about ourselves and our God.

We left Tanzania with a desire to have more time for discipleship, life-on-life.
We had several options open to us, which quickly narrowed down in our minds to the two we thought were the best fit for us according to our gifts and desires.
We applied to and were accepted with a wonderful mission, SIM.
And in the end we are being sent out through our church again, to partner with another team of missionaries in Tanzania who are committed to discipleship of village churches and people.
We are more than thrilled to work with marriages and families.

In our debrief in CO last year, after talking through our various options, one very wise person said, "Look at what you naturally are drawn to."  That was easy.  Marriage is one thing we are always drawn to, families are what we have a heart for.  We have always been in awe at the way God has put   amazing couples and families in our lives to learn from.  We had thoroughly enjoyed being part of putting children into new families at Mavuno.

People ask what our best preparation for the mission field has been.

That's easy too.

Being discipled by Wayne and Leslie for the years we were in Bozeman before heading out was our greatest preparation.  I'm not talking about casual Bible study together, I'm talking about people who love you enough to get in your face and really challenge you.  I'm talking about people willing to tell you that "you haven't really gotten to the heart of that 2-year-old because he's still disobeying!"  And knowing that they would do anything for you and truly want the absolute best for you.  They are the people we still call when we reach a stalemate and can't figure out for the life of us what to do.  They have been used by God to RADICALLY alter the direction of our lives by their counsel and wisdom.

They were some of the first in a series of people who have taught us what it looks like to be and make disciples. And, of course, the point of discipleship is always to pass it on.

We are so excited to go back with the purpose of doing just that.

II Tim 2:2 "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will be qualified to teach others."