Moving....

We have written many posts over the years that we have been in Zambia but this is probably the hardest one to write. As you all know, because of the recent early retirement incentive, Africa lost a lot of IMB missionaries. The cluster that was most affected in the area of leadership was East Africa. So, since January Kevin has been the interim leader for this cluster as well as the Zambezi Cluster. It has been tough leading two clusters and we have been looking forward to the day that a new leader was named for East Africa. Imagine our surprise when our new Affinity leader met with us and asked us to leave Zambia and the Zambezi cluster and move to East Africa to be the Cluster Leader there permanently. We were stunned, scared, and pretty sure that we would say “no!” To us it just didn’t make sense. We know this cluster, we are effective, and we feel like we are just hitting our stride. We did, however, agree to pray about it. For three weeks we prayed, tossed and turned at night, cried, debated (with God and each other), thought, sought counsel etc. and we could just not get a peace about going. So we decided that no answer meant to keep doing what we have been doing and stay in Zambia. We agreed to wait until the next day to let our leadership know we were going to say no. However, that night and the next morning the Lord spoke to our hearts clearly confirming that we should instead say “Yes!”
So, after 19 years in Zambia we are changing our address to Nairobi, Kenya.  We need plenty of time to say good-bye well, so we will not be moving until the end of September. Even though we don’t completely understand God’s thinking in all of this, we do understand what He is telling us to do, and so we go in obedience. We love Zambia and these people, and it is hard to imagine loving another place in the same way; but we believe God will do that. This is where our children were raised and this has been the setting for the best years of our life and ministry; it’s hard to walk away from that, but we believe that God has even greater things in store for us. So we move forward, with some apprehension, but also with a growing excitement and joy. Pray for us as we go through this transition, and pray that we will come out on the other side as a living sacrifice and a sweet smelling aroma to our King.