Two Months and Still Smiling

Now that we’ve been in Malawi for over two months, I thought you might like to hear the story of how we got here.

We lived in a small town in Texas, where John was the director of a non-profit rec center like the YMCA, and I was homeschooling our boys. Our house was attached to the facility, so we literally lived at work. It could be a bit invasive at times, but it was also a blessing in many ways, the greatest of which were the friendships that developed through seeing the same people every day and spending unscheduled time with them. The result was a weekly Bible study group that became our church. 

Because our group was small and had no ties to any of the locally established churches, when John and I shared our desire to return to the foreign mission field, we couldn’t imagine what the mission would be or where the support would come from. The group joined us in prayer and even committed to considerable financial support, but nobody could have anticipated what God did next or how quickly He did it.

We received a long and very detailed email from a missionary couple in Africa who had been involved in well drilling for twelve years. We met them at a missionary event in Colorado almost a decade ago. The email told us it was time for them to move back to the States, and they would like for us to consider taking over their jobs in Malawi. They explained that they had everything in place for us to step into a furnished house and to assume a non-governmental organization that had taken years to establish. They told us about the great need in Africa and said they believed, based on our stateside ministry, that we were just the people to pick up their baton. It might have seemed abrupt, except for our prayers targeting that exact subject. We called a dear friend and mentor to get some feedback. He said it couldn’t hurt to check it out and offered to pay for the survey trip. Before long, we had left the kids in Colorado with John’s family and were on a plane to Africa.

After spending several days touring the country and getting an education from the missionaries and some of the locals, we felt the need to pray about our further, long-term involvement. We were willing to come but knew it would take a miracle to get us here. We weren’t part of a church and had no prospects for long term support. After getting positive responses from our kids, we began to pray specifically about support. A couple of days after returning to Texas, we used our limited knowledge of the situation in Malawi to publish a video on GoFundMe. We knew it was a long shot, and we even had some church leaders tell us it was crazy and would never happen. Ironically, the money started trickling in.

At the time, I was facilitating paint parties like Painting with a Twist at the rec center. Because I had so many other irons in the fire, I had been looking for a replacement. One of the homeschool moms, who also happens to be an art teacher, mentioned to me that she was interested. I invited her to a party, she loved it, and voilà, she was suddenly the new facilitator. At the same time her husband was getting to know John through the homeschool PE program. He told John how much he appreciated the way he made it more about the kids’ inherent value as children of God and less about their athletic abilities. Little did we know this couple was part of a church that had been praying for missionaries to support. They saw our video and showed it to their church leaders, who then asked to meet us. We went to church there and were immediately at home. Five weeks later, the church committed to sending us to Malawi as full-time missionaries. Yes, I said five weeks. Amazing, isn’t it?

In defense of the naysayers, this really was a miraculously unorthodox fundraising campaign. We’ve never felt more confirmed about a calling, and we don’t want to rush into anything, so we and our supporters have agreed to consider the first year as a time to learn the language and culture of our new home—a time to lay a firm and lasting foundation. We're expecting great things over the coming months and years. Thanks so much for being a part of it.  

If you want to see the video we originally posted on GoFundMe, you can watch it here. This should catch you up to speed. Also, find us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter to see what we see as we learn the ropes and settle in to our new home. We post photos almost daily, and sometimes more. We love reading your feedback.