Lisa and I made it home: 3 hours early to airport in Zambia, 4 hours Lusaka to Addis Ababa, 2-hour layover, 6 hours to Rome, 1 hour on the ground in the plane (had to stay buckled!) while refueling, 10 hours to Chicago, 4 hour layover, 1 hour to Des Moines, 1 hour to Huxley. We got home 32 hours after leaving the Mika Convention Center, which had been our home-away-from-home for much of our 2 week journey to Africa. The travel is truly the most difficult part of the trip. Pastor Ng'uni (our S2S director in Zambia) has actually suggested that a better pattern than the current every-other-year cadence that Rob and I are in for these trips would be an every 6 month pattern. God will have to help us (physically and mentally - not to mention financially!) if that is what the foreseeable future holds for the ministry. Pray that God would lead and provide if one of us needs to make that trip again this coming February.
To finish up this travel blog, let me make a list of the top 10 things that happened over the past 2 weeks:
- I have a new friend in Dr. Curtis Youngs; S2S has a new friend in Dr. Curtis Youngs. What shape that partner relationship will take is yet to be determined. Regardless, we have a friend and I expect that God is going to be in the midst of that relationship.
- Lisa and I have reconnected with our old friends Frank & Kim. And this time we won't wait over 30 years to connect again. I am certain that God is in the midst of this one. I love the way He kept that relationship on ice...until just the right time, when we all 4 needed it.
- S2S has a new friend in Matthew Youngs, who is an old friend of mine. God has also taken that man on a 20 or so year journey to this point where his life, his father's life, my life and the life of thousands of folks in Zambia intersected in a beautiful way. Watch God do His thing with Matthew.
- I am seeing clarity with the Zambia 5 - our S2S staff - and believe we might soon need the Zambia 8 or 10. Love these men, it is fun to connect God's people across ocean and culture to do His work.
- We all got to spend 10 days with Anita. What a beautiful young woman she is becoming, Lisa and I still believe we will see her in the States one day.
- Speaking of new friends, I wonder what God will do with Reuben Mtolo Phiri. Could God actually use the Honorable Minister of Agriculture in a nation to work with His people to make significant change? See Daniel 1 and Genesis 41.
- He gave grace to 6 Americans (and 1 Ghanaian) to travel into the interior of Africa with virtually no mishaps. Well, minor luggage delays and connection misses...but overall it was reasonable travel.
- The Holy Spirit taught us much about God's Word, and we were faithful to pass those lessons on. 120 or so Zambian pastors are going to remember that they - and a few hundred faithful Americans - can be the answer to the primary prayer of God's people throughout the ages: "...give us this day our daily bread..."
- The Holy Spirit taught us much about God's Word...and we are now praying that many more will join us in the work of the Kingdom of God, once the Kingdom of Heaven has been sorted out.
- We showed up in Zambia, and God met us there.
Brother Rob, the blog is once again yours...here we go!
