Dear Friends and Family,
We can't thank you enough for all of your encouragement and support in the past two months. We've been overwhelmed by your generosity. You've helped bring us to the threshold of leaving for West Africa. And… we have some good news! We have enough money in our support account to be able to purchase plane tickets and begin this adventure. As we write this letter (January 15th), we are in the process of finalizing dates and purchasing our tickets. We are anticipating a departure date in mid-February. By the time you get this, we will have a date set. Thank you again for your support and prayers.
Since we're in transition, we don't have a lot of “news” to write of yet. Instead, we thought we might use this space to answer a few of the most common questions we receive when we tell folks that we're moving to Africa 🙂
Why would you move overseas?
What do you think of when you think of your vocation? What is your vocation? Vocation is a word, rich in meaning, which has been misunderstood in more recent history. Nowadays people think of their vocation in terms of their career, but the Latin root of vocation is voco which means “call.” Our vocation or calling is separate from and above our career. I think it would enrich our lives as Christians to seek out and identify our own individual vocation and orient our lives around that. For some our vocation will be fulfilled through our day-to-day jobs and for some it will be fulfilled outside of them. The important part is seeking out what our calling is in life and orienting our lives around that. For this time and season Erin and my calling has lead us to the majority world. God has laid it on our hearts to go and serve with the poor in Christian community.
Why Africa? There are so many who need help right here in the States.
This is true. There are many needs right here in the States. I feel like our own eyes have been opened to this even more so as we've lived in North Omaha these past two years. There is a perpetuating cycle of poverty passed from generation to generation in our inner-cities. The solutions to this perpetuating cycle of poverty in the States are relationally based. What children of the urban poor need is not another program or just a little more money, but caring Christian men and women to give their time and step into their lives. Instead of avoiding our inner cities, we should follow Jesus' compassionate response to engage in the problems and issues in these youth's lives.
So why ARE you going to Africa? 🙂 Well, while there are many needs right here in the States, the needs overseas are quantifiably greater. And asking this question reveals something about our own us-them mentality. After traveling abroad and fellowshipping with believers around the world, I've had to temper my own ardent nationalism. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in our own country, but when it translates into an us-first them-second mindset, something needs to change. The reality is that, as a nation, we've been richly blessed. But I don't believe we've been blessed solely for our own aggrandizement. God has blessed us materially so we can invest to see His Kingdom come.
Personally, Erin and I have felt so richly blessed having two sets of loving, caring parents. In moving to Africa for a season, we will have the opportunity to be a mother and father figure to some children who may otherwise never experience love in that way.
Is it dangerous?
For those who have seen the move Blood Diamond and those who have heard that Sierra Leone was recently involved in a decade-long civil war, this is a very relevant question. The easy answer is that it isn't as dangerous as you might think. Peace has returned to the country since the end of the civil war in 2002. The UN has had an ongoing presence there and Sierra Leone just had its first independent free and fair elections this past September. There was a peaceful transition of power.
The main “dangers” we will face are pickpockets downtown, potential theft, or playing frogger in crossing the street (ie avoiding traffic). There is always the risk of malaria or other minor sicknesses, but we don't feel fear these things. We believe that fear and anxiety should never stop us from doing the work that God has called us to do.
Please continue to pray for us as we transition from life here in the States to Sierra Leone. We sure do appreciate it. Stepping through this doorway of departure and goodbyes is not always as easy as they make it sound in the missionary biographies… Yet, we embark on this new journey filled with hope and expectation.
There should be automatic deduction forms included within this letter for easy monthly support. Sorry about the mix-up, as they were not included (as mentioned) with the last update letter. We hope that you are all doing well and we look forward to journeying with you!
Blessings,
Chris and Erin