My journey to Africa - part 4

Ok, here we go, last part (for now):

As I was starting to spend extended times in God's presence with no other agenda than just to fellowship with my beloved Savior, it didn't take long until he started speaking to me one thing after the next concerning this new ministry with the orphans in Africa. It was really thrilling and I SOOOO enjoyed these special times - still do!

Since this story, it was clear that Rich and I would take a first trip together, which was a real surprise to me (as you can read in the link). YAY - this is getting VERY EXCITING - LOVE it!!!!

And, guess what?

In the meantime, God has put in on a young girl's (19) heart in far away Germany to come and serve us in any way needed - starting the 1rst of September of this year - for a year!

She will cover her own cost and will be able to pretty much run the household and take care of Shayden and Kylie while Rich and I will be in Africa! Of course, with the help of some other people, including our older kids (wouldn't DARE putting it on her by herself... are you kiddin'?!).

AND - we also have the most amazing boarder with us (she's Fijian and uses Nathalie's former room).
She is absolutely incredible with Shayden particularly - and Kylie - like family - we couldn't ask for better people to stay back with the kids during our trip!

Fast-forward to February 2010:

I feel from the Lord to take care of myself better, after a VERY intense few months, with Nathalie's wedding and tons of other stuff happenin...

I need to look after myself if I want to last the distance, and Africa is not for the faint-hearted - nor the faint-bodied (does that exist?) - ya gotta be in shape, at least a little bit!

So, vitamins/minerals and healthy food, here I come, and off to the gym I go (thanks to some very generous friends who are paying for it all!!! Am I blessed or what?!!)

More and more, I find myself thinking, breathing, praying, travailing, crying, dreaming and talking about the passion that God's put in my heart - cuz it's in HIS!
The abandoned babies and orphans of Africa - - - 3.5 million in little Uganda alone!!!
Watch out when you ask the Lord to break your heart with what breaks HIS!

He'll do it - and it hurts - and HIS LOVE will GREATLY MOTIVATE you to do something about it!!!

Rich and I feel that we should go for a little over 2 weeks and the only possible date left in our calendars for the year is the second half of October.

So that's all good and clear - but we still don't know WHICH COUNTRY in Africa we are supposed to start out with. Soooo - pray pray pray some more - and relax about it - waiting...

From every possible side, we are getting bombarded with UGANDA - - - could it be Uganda?

Not necessarily, we really want to go exactly where God wants us to go - and preferably where the need is the greatest ...

Long story short, during a ministry-time at an incredible Heidi Baker meeting in Hamilton that we get to go to miraculously (another loooong story!) it is confirmed that UGANDA IS the country we are to visit this year. A total stranger comes up to me, wanting to pray for me, "hears" the word

- drumroll please ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


UGANDA... - BINGO!

GRRRREAT!!! So - now that the country was settled, I couldn't believe HOW MANY different ministries I came across (thank you God for the internet!) that are working with the orphans in Uganda.
There are way more ministries than we could possibly visit in 2 weeks.

For now, we feel to mostly concentrate on a wonderful ministry of YWAM (after all, that's our tribe and we LOVE the concept!!! look at the video on the website!), but we're still in the process of praying about the details of our trip.

My heart and head are buzzing with ideas of how we can be a support to existing ministries in Uganda/Africa, but ~ one thing at at time ~

for now, the vaccinations have started -

the contacts are happening -

the malaria pills and pretty much one suitcase is already packed (can you tell I'm excited? Even my kids are mocking me for starting to pack so much in advance) -

even the first financial gift towards our plane tickets has come in - YAY JESUS!!!

We serve such an awe-inspiring, mountain-moving, compassionate, loving and JUST God and all we want to be is HIS OUTSTRETCHED HANDS, FEET and SMILES to the hurting, the needy, the lonely, the hungry, the thirsty, the sad, the sick and dying children - HIS kids!!!

These ones are rescued orphan babies in Uganda - well taken care of now - because SOMEBODY decided to DO SOMETHING!!!

The adventure continues ... you bet!