OK, today is a day to try to get most everything done prior to our 2 week adventure, with final preps tomorrow before go-time early friday morning. Mow the lawn...and make sure someone is ready to keep that up while we are gone. Work, work, work. As a professional real estate agent, this is the time of year that much is being accomplished on behalf of my clients. I have a couple hour meeting this morning working on a commercial leasing project that we are very excited about. I've got a bunch of running around to do, picking stuff up in preparation for the trip. I had a 3-hour open house planned for today...that got cancelled yesterday - so that will likely free up the time to mow! I've got a podcast interview scheduled for later this afternoon...can't wait until those start to drop. Then dinner with faithful friends who I'm sure want to cheer us on. And then will end the night with a zoom meeting with our partner organization ZIAP (Zambia Iowa Agriculture Partnership), I'm sure you will hear more about them later.
Wow, I am so grateful for my great real estate clients. You know who you are. To be gone for 2 weeks during this time of the season isn't just a hardship on me, but it can be on some of them as well. I've got some properties that I need to get sold, and some great friends and clients that allow me to put that on hold for 2 weeks. What a blessing that is. However, I do have Ethan and Bo and Dennis and Danielle as wonderful teammates to keep things going. And Brady and Julie will be working in the background to keep transaction moving smoothl. And certainly brother Rob, who is also a realtor, is available in a pinch. It is fun to see how God organizes things to allow His work to be completed.
I was just reading Romans 14 this morning in preparation for the sermon I will be delivering on Sunday at a church in Lusaka. Verse 3 reads, "One who eats must not look down on the one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him." I know, I know, this is written by Paul in relation to various food laws, restrictions and convictions. But for our S2S purposes, what a great reminder for me. I will be confessing to my Zambian friends that my relationship with food in America is to try NOT to eat too much of it...becuase there is so much food readily available and affordable. And this confession will be to many, many folks who are desperately trying to figure out how to get ENOUGH of it. What a diffiuclt and beautiful partnership Jesus has given us.
And then later in verse 17 Paul says, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking..." and I will be annoucing to our brothers and sisters in that hungry place the absolute truth of that statement; but I will be reminding then that the kingdom of God is about SHARING. And sharing food is what S2S is good at, it's what Jesus was good at.
Thanks again for your partnership in this ministry. Let me get today behind me. Tomorrow will be a day of packing and preparing...here we go.
Rog
.jpg)
