One of my coworkers in particular doesn't know what to make of my life (join the club). Recently she said I should write a blog. This is something I've thought about often. I mean, I do have this blog. Which I update infrequently. Even though I've wanted to update weekly. The problem is, I find it difficult to sort through all the possible topics and activities and deep thoughts in order to land on something to write about. So I told my coworker, if she gives me the topic, I'll write. She mentioned two topics, and one was how I ended up going to Africa. For today, we'll go with that.
I had been helping with the School of Power and Love (P&L) for several months, had made some great friends through it, and God had really just been doing a lot in my life. I was also working full time, teaching part time, and seeking direction in a couple areas. I'd contemplated, "now that I'm 35, let's evaluate what I've always wanted in life and which of those things are part of my life." There was little overlap. So basically, I decided I was either going to adopt a couple girls (I was a certified foster/adopt home) or go overseas to teach English in Asia in about a year. You know, normal decisions that people waffle between. (Hi Nicci!) (Marriage is on the list, but you can't just run up to someone and force them to marry you. And, why would you even want to?! That's just weird. And creepy.)
Anyway, it was during this time, December 2013 actually, that one of my friends from P&L said something like, "I had a picture of you quitting your job, selling your things, buying a plane ticket and going overseas in March." I told her there was no way. So many other things were going on, I was so happy with everything in my life, I'd just finished decorating my house and.... well, 3 months was just too soon for all of that to transpire! She told me to talk to Jesus about it. So I did, and told Him all the reasons it was ridiculous: full time job, teaching job (you don't leave those mid semester), house mortgage, I liked Fresno and had vision and God's heart for the area, I liked being a part of P&L, I liked my house, I liked my dog, everything was great, I liked my life. I had absolutely no "leads" or ideas of what could even possibly take me overseas in 3 months, and 3 months is not sufficient time to prepare. I ended my part of the conversation with, "And I just don't want to. But You are my Lord, and I don't want to tell You 'no', so if this is Your idea, You're welcome to change my heart."
Just over a week later, I decided to listen to Heidi Baker. I heard people talk about her, but I'd never actually heard her. So I picked something on YouTube. About 15 minutes into listening, I felt like the Lord said I should see her in person sometime. Which I thought was weird. But I looked to see when she would be in California -- I wasn't about to make some grand trip to hear some random woman speak, I didn't care how popular she was in some Christian circles.
When I searched for "Heidi Baker schedule" Google took me to a website for Iris Global, the name of her ministry (which I hadn't known). Rather than clicking on Events to find what I was actually looking for, I found myself clicking on "Missions." And "Schools". The first one that came up was Harvest School, which is a missions school in Pemba, Mozambique. I thought, "There's no way I'm doing that." Then I came across a discipleship school in South Africa called Father's House. I read the description and thought, "Wow, that's exactly where I am, that's exactly what I want, I wish I could go, but there's no way. I wonder when it starts." It started in March. Within about 5 minutes, I either had the answer to every one of my arguments (in particular, leaving mid-semester, which had recently been broken into quarters and we had several interns) or I had the faith that God would work the rest out. And my heart was completely changed: I wanted to do this crazy thing.
So I began the application process. For a 5 weeks school and the option of a 2 week outreach, with no promise that my job would be available when I returned (it wouldn't be), risking everything for 5-7 weeks. As soon as I submitted the application, I felt like Jesus asked why I wasn't going to Pemba. So I applied for that too. It all felt as flippant as the word felt. "Eh, I'm just going to put aside all these good things and do something else." It didn't make sense, but I also knew it was God.
After that, the timeline went something like this:
2014
January 21 - Accepted to Father's House (happy anniversary, mom and dad!)
January 25 - Put my house on the market
February 5-9 - Help with P&L
February 6 - Received an offer on my house
February ?? - Accepted to Harvest School in Pemba.
February 10-19ish - Friend went through my fully furnished 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house to organize and get rid of things while I worked (I would not have been ready on time without her!)
In February - Buyer said I could leave anything I didn't want, because he didn't have any furnishings for the house, and he would buy it, just name my price.
--- Also during this time, organize not one, but TWO multi-month overseas trips: plane tickets, vaccinations, purchasing items needed, obtaining visas....
February 22 - Garage sale
February 28 - Last day of work
March 1 - Drove to Nebraska with my dog and the things I was going to keep.
--- broke down about 7 hours later. A couple good Samaritans helped. I had to change my route due to snow storms, so all of that added an extra day to my driving
March 3 - Arrived in Omaha. Took the car to the shop and found out I'd driven about 1200 miles with a radiator issue, so that oil and radiator fluid where mixed in the radiator and the oil pan. There was very little to indicate a problem for 1200 miles so I told them they may have to drive around and hit 65 to hear the very soft, random noise. But when the mechanic turned my car on, they said it sounded horrible and they turned it off immediately. They said it would take a week to fix. It took a day -- replaced, uhm, almost everything. $3600 :O
March 5 - Drive to P&L
March 9 - Drive back to Omaha
March 12ish - Fly to South Africa for Father's House
May 5ish - Fly to Germany to see my sister
May 12ish - Fly to Omaha to see the rest of the family
May 21-25 - P&L
May 28 - Fly to Pemba, Mozambique
August 5ish - Fly to Madagascar for my outreach
August 25ish - Fly to Johannesburg, South Africa and spend a week at an Iris base there -- help build portable showers
September 1 - Fly to Wisconsin
September 9 - Fly to Omaha
(I may have helped with a P&L in here... I probably did.)
October 10ish - Fly back to South Africa as Father's House staff
Which basically begins "phase 2" of my time in Africa, which I'll have to write about later, as this blog entry is already ridiculously long (although shorted by the timeline listing!).
Honestly, the only answer to, "How did you do all that??!" is Jesus. Looking at the timeline, the schedule, how much had to happen, how much had to get done, the number of things that had to fall in place, the only possibility is that He made a way. There is absolutely no way I could have done half of that on my own. And honestly, there's no way I'd have the courage to do it without Him giving me His courage. While I like to travel, there's a part of me that's very much a home-body. But He has my heart and can take me to places I'd never dream of on my own. And there has definitely been a lot of that in the last 3 years!
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