I rested in my Aunt’s tight grasp and
laid my head against her shoulder. With
a note of trembling in her voice she asked, “I don’t have to let you go now do
I?” Her cry was that of many others and Oh
how my whole being wished that I could stay here in the arms of my family and
friends and yet I knew that I must do my Father’s bidding over comfort and
desire. I absolutely hate good-byes especially the ones that could be forever,
and yet God has asked me to once again say Good-Bye.
It really all started in November
of last year (2012) with a unique email from a returning missionary and a
desire to serve our Master. The email
came as a reply to an email that my parents had sent about John Lello’s
death. The email told of the blessing
that the Lord had given this returning missionary and how many Sunday pastors
had accepted the Sabbath. It also told
of how God had lead in the raising of a Bible worker Training School with the purpose
of training the natives to reach their own people and ended with this sentence,
“and we are now looking for a family to come and direct this school.” It became extremely evident, over the course
of several emails, that this missionary was wanting our family to be that
family.
This was not the first time that
someone had thought our family was the perfect match for their need and like
every other request for help we prayerfully considered the option, this time
with some reservation. First, this
returning missionary was returning from Kenya, a place that none of our family
had EVER thought of being missionaries, and second we did not have the
resources to fly our family of six anywhere, especially to Africa! We had done mission trips by faith before and
recognized this inability on our part as God’s opportunity. But was He leading
us here?
As we frankly talked these things
over with the missionary he had one request, would dad at least come to Africa
and meet the people and check out the school before we made our final decision. As much as our family dislikes being
separated, we realized, as we talked and prayed about it, that this needed to
be done. As a consequence, mom and us
kids, found ourselves waving good-bye to our dear father on the second of April
for a two week exploration trip to Kenya. In those two weeks Dad met the people, saw the
school, traveled and witnessed firsthand how much Satan hated the work that was
being done for the Kenyan people.
In the next few months we found
ourselves vacillating with the decision
that must be made in regard to going to Africa or not. Many factors weighed into this decision which
made it no simple matter. For months we
wrestled with the Lord and pleaded with Him to release us from this calling.
One evening I remember being so
very discouraged and far from God that I went into the woods and began to cry
tears that had no real explanation. When
I returned to the house I found that I was not alone. Each of my family members
was facing a valley of depression so deep and terrifying that it scared each of
us. As we shared with each other we
began to recognize that this depression was clearly linked with our vacillation
over our calling to Kenya. Each of us
saw clearly that we must make a decision about Kenya. Dad asked each of us to write a paper clearly
outlining how we felt God leading or how we did not feel God leading us to
Kenya. We chose to review our papers
Thursday morning.
Immediately I began thinking about
what I was going to write in my paper.
In all honesty I had no inclination to go to Kenya. In the months of waiting, everything that
would have attracted me to want to go had vanished like fog before the morning
sun. I had no feelings to base what I
wrote off of, just fact and fact alone.
As I examined the evidence it became extremely plain to me that God was
indeed guiding us to Kenya. Why? I could
not tell nor do I have a clear answer today, but I do know that when God asks
something of us it is for a purpose.
Thursday morning dawned bright and
early with the cheery face of the mid June sun.
With excitement and nervous anticipation the family gathered for
breakfast. This was the day, the day that held the destiny of our future in its
hands. What did the future hold in
store? What would be the decision of
today? No one knew but we each felt that
today we needed Divine Guidance and for this we earnestly entreated the Lord to
grant.
After breakfast we cleared the
table, did the dishes, got our papers and rejoined for our family sharing
time. Before reading we knelt together
and said a word of prayer, once again asking for the Lord to guide, bless and
direct in our meeting. When we rose from
our knees we waited eagerly to hear what everyone had written, for while
writing our papers we had been careful not to share what we wrote or how we
felt with one another because we did not want to bias any one’s mind one way or
the other. Starting with Jonathan and
ending with dad we each read our papers.
All were written slightly differently with various points brought out in
each one, but the message was the same. Every
member in our family felt that God was leading him or her to go to Africa. The
evidence was clear and decisive.
Each paper was simply from that persons
experience and was written strait from the heart. There was not a dry eye around the table that
Thursday morning as we realized what this may cost us personally. No, not time or things, we had learned that
these were all counterfeit treasures.
What it could cost was our lives.
We recognized that by going to Africa we would become larger targets for
the devil. Where we willing to give up even our lives? Yes, we decided with trembling heart, we
were. Kneeling again we each committed
ourselves to God and told Him that we were willing to go, willing no matter the
cost, willing even if some of us never returned. Rising again we hugged one another as if this
was the last time we might have the opportunity.
We still needed plane tickets to be
able to go and yet we had done all we were required to do. Just as Abraham was required to lay Isaac on
the altar we must lay our lives on the altar, the knife was symbolically raised
and only God knew the outcome.
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Nearly six weeks past and still we
did not have enough donations to cover the cost of the plane tickets. With the inquiries of our family and friends
and our own anxious wonderings, the time had passed with snail’s pace. Our prayer was ever, “Lord what wilt Thou have
us to do? Is Africa the place? We have committed to go and yet we cannot unless
you provide for our plane tickets.” In the waiting our feeble faith longed for
the assurance of God’s will.
It was Sabbath night and during
worship, as our family shared our desire to know God’s will, I remember
requesting to sing the song 316 in the SDA hymnal. The words of that song fit so perfectly with
what I and my family were feeling at that moment. “…the body henceforth be Thy silent, gentle
servant, moved only as by Thee. Its members every moment held subject to Thy
call, Ready to have Thee use them or not be used at all; Held without
restless longing or strain, or stress, or fret, or chafings at Thy dealings, or
thoughts of vain regret….” As we ended
sundown worship with prayer we once again told the Lord that we were willing,
to be used or not be used, according to His great plan for our lives.
Sunday morning came and went with
no sign of an answer. Lunch passed, over
which we talked, once again, about Africa, our plane tickets and the work that
must be done. While we kids worked on
our dish chores, mom went over to the computer and decided to just look at what
plane tickets were costing to fly to Nairobi. Within a couple minutes she came to the
kitchen, face aglow. “Kids, guess what I
just found?” she asked knowing that we would not know and yet wanting to get
our interest. “What?” we all chorused eager
to hear about mom’s latest find. “I just
found plane tickets that are under a thousand dollars apiece!” Mom’s excitement
could not be contained. “You did?”
someone asked, not doubting her but simply surprised at the news. “I have never
seen tickets to Kenya that cheap,” mom continued, wonder spreading across her
face, “the lowest I have seen is over twelve hundred dollars and ranging all
the way up to four thousand just for the economy class! I am going to check and
see how much money we have in donations. But before I do, shall we pray that
God’s will be accomplished?” Reverently kneeling we entreated the Lord that if
these cheaper plane tickets were in His perfect plan that we would either have
enough donations or they would hold at that price until we did have the money,
but if we were not to go, would He please shut the door so that no man could
open it! Circumstance played out such
that we could do nothing about the tickets that day. With believing hearts we prayed over and over
again that God’s will be done.
The next morning as I was checking
my emails I happened to see that mom and dad had a few new emails and one of
them displayed a title that went something like this, “Conformation of your
Expedia tickets.” My heart stood still
in my chest. Were we really going to
Kenya? A few hours later dad informed us
kids, “Our tickets are purchased for Kenya, we are leaving October first.” It
was final, we were going. The sacrifice
had been made and it was yet to be seen just what that sacrifice would cost
us.