My journey to Africa - Part 1

My most vivid memory from my childhood is playing in our playroom (yes, we were spoiled to have a play-room for us 6 kiddos!) with my older sister Heidrun. My favourite play was with dolls and teddies - picking up abandoned babies off the streets. Again and again and again... I LOVED it!


I was one of those "baby-crazy" girls, early on.

Started baby-sitting when I was 8, then doing it almost daily from age 12 onwards...

When I became a teenager, I remember asking my mom if there was an orphanage in our city. I would have LOVED to volunteer there, but there was no such thing in Germany ( at that time).

I would spend the money I earned with babysitting to buy (and knit/sew) baby-clothes for needy families with babies. I would buy parenting magazines and other books about baby-care.

Fast-forward to Rich's and my wedding (I know, the photo is kind of embarrassing, but we didn't have a professional photographer and our photos were a bit of a disaster). During the ceremony, one of our YWAM-leaders had a "picture" - he saw us surrounded with many children of different colours, way too many to be our own. YAY! We both wanted lots of kids (12 or so ~~~ it changed after we had the first - hihi) and had a sense that one day, we were going to minister in Africa, although we knew our first "assignment" from the Lord was to French Polynesia.

While we were in French Polynesia, a couple from the USA came to speak at one of our "King's Kids" camps and prophesied over everybody. I don't remember the details of what was said to us but I do remember that it had something to do with us ministering in Africa at some point. From that point on, everybody there knew that ONE DAY, we'd be ministering in Africa in some way.This photo - sorry for the bad quality - all these pics are scanned - was at the airport in Tahiti as we were embarking on an adventure to the USA and Canada with 40+ Polynesian King's Kids (Target World in Atlanta prior to the Olympic Games and outreach in Canada) - see our 3 little ones in tow?? Rich waving in the background - oh, funny funny...

Several years later, still in Tahiti, I woke up one morning with a dream. It was one of those VERY vivid ones that you just KNOW mean something: in it, several spiritual leaders told us that NOW was the time to head to Africa. This was totally out of the blue as we were just getting back into ministry after being gone from Tahiti for a while.

Half-asleep, I went to the toilet (sorry, but this is my morning routine and part of the story...) and as I was sitting there and finally really opening my eyes, looking at the floor, what did my little eyes spy?

Nothing else but the words, in bold letters - - - AFRICA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I was blown away and just knew that I knew that I knew that this was from God.
By the way, the letters were written on the front cover of a YWAM-Magazine that must have ended up in that strange place for some unknown reason... hmmmmm

End of part 1 - enough for today