This made me cry.
http://vimeo.com/17025038
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Testimony PART 12 of 12 Jesus had dirty feet
Now God works in mysterious ways and that is evident in this story. A couple years back my wife and I attended our High School reunion. There we reconnected with an old friend of ours who is an atheist.
When we returned to Canada we wanted to set up a website but we did not have the skills to set it up ourselves. So I posted on Facebook asking if any of my friends knew anything about setting one up.
I got an email from my friend saying “hey you know I own the 2nd largest web design company in Canada right, I’ll do your website for free.” So there you have it, we had an atheist create our Christian website.
I want to encourage you to do a couple of things. I want to encourage you to donate to missions and I want to encourage you to get out outside the wall of the church. I can describe to you what it is like to be a missionary. But I cannot describe what it feels like or what it smells like.
I have to tell you something though. I have found that the world is a messy place and if you choose to go out into it you are going to get some of it on you.
There are going to be things that haunt you, that you cannot figure out why or how this could happen to the person you are talking with.
But you know what? When you get a little bit of that mess on you, you create a clean spot on that person you are talking to.
Jesus walked around in sandals, Jesus had dirty feet. If you want to truly walk with Jesus and truly want to touch the world for Christ you are going to get dirty.
However, the more you go out into the world, the more you become like Jesus, the more His love grows inside of you.
You start to see people differently, that bum is no longer something disgusting to be avoided, he is your brother, your child even, someone to love with all of your heart. That prostitute that gave her child to her drug dealer is someone you must help, someone you want to love.
When Jesus is truly inside of you, you cry, and you JUST LOVE!
Please check out our website Just Love
When we returned to Canada we wanted to set up a website but we did not have the skills to set it up ourselves. So I posted on Facebook asking if any of my friends knew anything about setting one up.
I got an email from my friend saying “hey you know I own the 2nd largest web design company in Canada right, I’ll do your website for free.” So there you have it, we had an atheist create our Christian website.
I want to encourage you to do a couple of things. I want to encourage you to donate to missions and I want to encourage you to get out outside the wall of the church. I can describe to you what it is like to be a missionary. But I cannot describe what it feels like or what it smells like.
I have to tell you something though. I have found that the world is a messy place and if you choose to go out into it you are going to get some of it on you.
There are going to be things that haunt you, that you cannot figure out why or how this could happen to the person you are talking with.
But you know what? When you get a little bit of that mess on you, you create a clean spot on that person you are talking to.
Jesus walked around in sandals, Jesus had dirty feet. If you want to truly walk with Jesus and truly want to touch the world for Christ you are going to get dirty.
However, the more you go out into the world, the more you become like Jesus, the more His love grows inside of you.
You start to see people differently, that bum is no longer something disgusting to be avoided, he is your brother, your child even, someone to love with all of your heart. That prostitute that gave her child to her drug dealer is someone you must help, someone you want to love.
When Jesus is truly inside of you, you cry, and you JUST LOVE!
Please check out our website Just Love
Testimony PART 11 of 12 The Green One
When we returned to Canada we contacted PAOC missions and had our first meeting. We went into the meeting assuming we would be going back to Malawi as we had already served there and we already knew some of the Chichewa language. However, once again God had other plans.
Darcy McAllister, our interviewer suggested that we all spend the next 10 days in prayer and seek God’s guidance.
So we went home and started to pray. On day one of prayer I had a vision of a map of Asia. I saw Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This came as a total shock to me because I had never even considered going there.
I said which one God and God said “the green one”. Now at the time I had no idea what that meant so I went and got the atlas and opened it to the Asia section. There it was Thailand was the green one.
I said ok God now I need 3 witnesses to confirm Thailand. I had 2 mentions of Thailand within the first hour and the 3rd came that evening. Now remember Thailand isn’t real high on the conversation list of people in Brockville.
So there we have it, Thailand it is and yes God we will go.
Other things have lined up in Brockville that have shown us that we are on the path that God has laid out for us.
Our ministry is called “Just Love” and the man in Thailand is that we will be working with in the slums is in the process of creating “The Just Love Foundation”, coincidence, maybe?
Stewart Hunter, while at Highway Pentecostal Church, spoke on missions.
At the end of his talk a collection was taken. I looked in my wallet and I had $100 to my name. I gave it in order to bless a missionary somewhere out there.
Monday morning came and the door bell rang, standing there was the mailman with a package and my mail. I opened the letters to discover a medical over payment check, a check for our Charlotte rent deposit and my 1st unemployment check, which had been tied up in red tape for almost 3 months. Praise God! I believe that God rewarded me for my obedience in giving to missions. Not only did we receive the checks but they were hand delivered!
Please come back for part 12 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Darcy McAllister, our interviewer suggested that we all spend the next 10 days in prayer and seek God’s guidance.
So we went home and started to pray. On day one of prayer I had a vision of a map of Asia. I saw Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This came as a total shock to me because I had never even considered going there.
I said which one God and God said “the green one”. Now at the time I had no idea what that meant so I went and got the atlas and opened it to the Asia section. There it was Thailand was the green one.
I said ok God now I need 3 witnesses to confirm Thailand. I had 2 mentions of Thailand within the first hour and the 3rd came that evening. Now remember Thailand isn’t real high on the conversation list of people in Brockville.
So there we have it, Thailand it is and yes God we will go.
Other things have lined up in Brockville that have shown us that we are on the path that God has laid out for us.
Our ministry is called “Just Love” and the man in Thailand is that we will be working with in the slums is in the process of creating “The Just Love Foundation”, coincidence, maybe?
Stewart Hunter, while at Highway Pentecostal Church, spoke on missions.
At the end of his talk a collection was taken. I looked in my wallet and I had $100 to my name. I gave it in order to bless a missionary somewhere out there.
Monday morning came and the door bell rang, standing there was the mailman with a package and my mail. I opened the letters to discover a medical over payment check, a check for our Charlotte rent deposit and my 1st unemployment check, which had been tied up in red tape for almost 3 months. Praise God! I believe that God rewarded me for my obedience in giving to missions. Not only did we receive the checks but they were hand delivered!
Please come back for part 12 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Testimony PART 10 of 12 Flat lined in Denver, Burnt out in Charlotte, The Voice of God
We returned to Denver for a short time before moving onto Charlotte North Carolina.
Now at this point people start to wonder, is this guy American or what. No, I am Canadian, born and raised in the Ottawa Valley, not leaving until I was 27.
While in Denver another remarkable although scary event happened. I died.
At 36 I died on the operating table. It ends up that I am allergic to a couple of anesthetics. I found myself in God’s perfect light. If I had any doubts of Gods existence they were eliminated that day.
When we got to Charlotte we were tired. We decided that we would just sit at the back of the church and try to go unnoticed. But once again God had other plans.
We ended up at a church call New Hope Worship Center where we spent the next 2 years helping with their children’s ministry.
New Hope was the perfect place for us. We were able to recharge our batteries until God once again said NOW.
I was sitting at my desk working away when I heard God say NOW. I immediately recognized God’s voice. It was time to return to the mission field.
I called my wife and told her that God had said it was time to go.
I spoke with my boss and we arranged a good breaking point in the project for me to leave.
I decided that at that point that I would no longer be bi-vocational but would serve God full time. Now it is important to understand that “I” decided but we will get back to that later.
People sometime ask how do you know it is God’s voice?
There are some standard answers to this question, it must line up with scripture etc.
This is absolutely true, but I have also found that the more time you spend with God the more you tend to recognize his voice.
A lot is seen in hindsight; as you look back over the event you see how God connected the dots to get you to the exact place at the exact time He wanted.
God also lines things up for you in advance and you are able to see the path.
For example:
There we were sitting in North Carolina, we already knew that we were going to move to Brockville to help out at my mentor Pastor Rick Lott church, but we had no idea where we were going to stay. We searched the internet for housing that would fit our family and our budget. Since we no longer had an income, our budget was rather small.
We found a very small, very old duplex that we could afford and we said ok God we will live there because we will follow you.
But God had other plans. You see at the same time God was speaking to my in-laws.
God laid our housing situation on their hearts and they decided that they would buy a house in Brockville and rent it out to us at cost. Praise God!
So instead of an old run down duplex we ended up in a lovely little bungalow. But that is just the beginning. The house is only 1.7 km from the church and the house came fully furnished, including all dishes, pots, pans, bedding towels etc.
This was huge because we did not own anything; our furniture etc in North Carolina had been rented.
Please come back for part 11 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Now at this point people start to wonder, is this guy American or what. No, I am Canadian, born and raised in the Ottawa Valley, not leaving until I was 27.
While in Denver another remarkable although scary event happened. I died.
At 36 I died on the operating table. It ends up that I am allergic to a couple of anesthetics. I found myself in God’s perfect light. If I had any doubts of Gods existence they were eliminated that day.
When we got to Charlotte we were tired. We decided that we would just sit at the back of the church and try to go unnoticed. But once again God had other plans.
We ended up at a church call New Hope Worship Center where we spent the next 2 years helping with their children’s ministry.
New Hope was the perfect place for us. We were able to recharge our batteries until God once again said NOW.
I was sitting at my desk working away when I heard God say NOW. I immediately recognized God’s voice. It was time to return to the mission field.
I called my wife and told her that God had said it was time to go.
I spoke with my boss and we arranged a good breaking point in the project for me to leave.
I decided that at that point that I would no longer be bi-vocational but would serve God full time. Now it is important to understand that “I” decided but we will get back to that later.
People sometime ask how do you know it is God’s voice?
There are some standard answers to this question, it must line up with scripture etc.
This is absolutely true, but I have also found that the more time you spend with God the more you tend to recognize his voice.
A lot is seen in hindsight; as you look back over the event you see how God connected the dots to get you to the exact place at the exact time He wanted.
God also lines things up for you in advance and you are able to see the path.
For example:
There we were sitting in North Carolina, we already knew that we were going to move to Brockville to help out at my mentor Pastor Rick Lott church, but we had no idea where we were going to stay. We searched the internet for housing that would fit our family and our budget. Since we no longer had an income, our budget was rather small.
We found a very small, very old duplex that we could afford and we said ok God we will live there because we will follow you.
But God had other plans. You see at the same time God was speaking to my in-laws.
God laid our housing situation on their hearts and they decided that they would buy a house in Brockville and rent it out to us at cost. Praise God!
So instead of an old run down duplex we ended up in a lovely little bungalow. But that is just the beginning. The house is only 1.7 km from the church and the house came fully furnished, including all dishes, pots, pans, bedding towels etc.
This was huge because we did not own anything; our furniture etc in North Carolina had been rented.
Please come back for part 11 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Testimony PART 9 of 12 Malawi
I look back and have to laugh. You see, I got myself all stressed out trying to implement God’s plan. But it was God’s plan and it had to be done in God’s timing and for God’s purpose.
Our move to Malawi was exactly that. The timing was perfect. You see at that time the mission was disheartened. They had had a number bad experiences with some short term mission's people and the idea of taking another short term family was troublesome.
There was also an ongoing building project that was seriously distracting one of the missionaries away from his core duties at the Bible school. I wouldn’t say that the missionaries were burnt out, but they were on the road to it; too much work and not enough hands. Again, God’s timing. Had were gone to Malawi a year and a half earlier we would not have had the same healing presents to the mission, nor would we have been able to take over the building project. God’s timing for God’s purpose.
Our time in Malawi was a stretching time for us. We had never see poverty like that, we had never see death like that and we had never smelt death like that.
Before going to Malawi we had read an article in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper about how the hospital in Lilongwe Malawi didn’t have any surgical gloves. While still in Canada we went around to some churches and friends and did a glove drive. We ended up will a full hockey bag of boxes of surgical gloves.
The Hospital was our first stop in Malawi and this was our first real look into the 3rd world. The smell was so bad in the hospital that I chocked back vomit. There were people lying everywhere. The halls were full of the dying, just laying on the floor on a grass mat.
What was once a water feature in the center of the hospital was now a mop bucket where the janitor dipped his mop to clean up the sick that was all over the floor.
In the yard of the hospital was where the families of the sick and dying lived. You see in Malawi the family must cook and bring food to their sick relatives. As I looked out over the hospital grounds I saw hundreds of small fires with ladies stooped over a pot stirring a mixture of corn flour and water that is locally called Nsima.
We found Nurse Monica Bottoman from the newspaper article and gave her the gloves. Mrs. Bottoman is an amazing example of God’s love. She is a woman giving hope to the hopeless, a woman working without gloves in a hospital, in a country where the HIV rate is hitting 60%.
Before I got to the hospital I planned on taking some pictures. Pictures I thought would inspire people to give, and to pray for the people of Malawi. However, as we walked back through the Hospital my heart broke. The Hospital was so bad so horrifying that out of respect for the dying I did not take any pictures. The drive back to the mission was silent. None of us could process what we had just seen, what we had smelled.
Over our time in Malawi we were involved in a number of outreaches. Jodi and the children worked at the Crisis Nursery loving on HIV positive babies. This again stretched us for the babies that were being loved on today where dead tomorrow.
I was given the opportunity to head up the building project, to layout an irrigation project at the PAOC’s Lifeline Malawi in Ngodzi and the privilege of preaching in a village church as well as at the Bible School.
There were a few more memorable moments; we got to be a part of an old-time tent meeting and a 3 night open air viewing of “The Jesus Film” in a village made of mud and straw. Most of the people there had never seen a white person and even more had never seen a white child. My twin daughters’ hair was the thing to touch.
Malawi was a time of great change for our family. We truly became more Christ like, we learned to look past the smell and appearance of people, and we learned to love people right now because tomorrow they may be dead. We learned that we could not feed and clothe the world but we could share Christ and the hope of an eternal life with Him. You see we could feed and clothe the homeless of Milwaukee but how does a family of 5 feed and clothe 10 million people? We learnt that the most important thing in all the outreach is to show the love, hope, and salvation that Jesus Christ brings.
Eventually we ran out of money and or time in Malawi came to an end. We cried, and cried and cried some more as we left that little country. It was like leaving a loved one.
Please come back for part 10 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Our move to Malawi was exactly that. The timing was perfect. You see at that time the mission was disheartened. They had had a number bad experiences with some short term mission's people and the idea of taking another short term family was troublesome.
There was also an ongoing building project that was seriously distracting one of the missionaries away from his core duties at the Bible school. I wouldn’t say that the missionaries were burnt out, but they were on the road to it; too much work and not enough hands. Again, God’s timing. Had were gone to Malawi a year and a half earlier we would not have had the same healing presents to the mission, nor would we have been able to take over the building project. God’s timing for God’s purpose.
Our time in Malawi was a stretching time for us. We had never see poverty like that, we had never see death like that and we had never smelt death like that.
Before going to Malawi we had read an article in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper about how the hospital in Lilongwe Malawi didn’t have any surgical gloves. While still in Canada we went around to some churches and friends and did a glove drive. We ended up will a full hockey bag of boxes of surgical gloves.
The Hospital was our first stop in Malawi and this was our first real look into the 3rd world. The smell was so bad in the hospital that I chocked back vomit. There were people lying everywhere. The halls were full of the dying, just laying on the floor on a grass mat.
What was once a water feature in the center of the hospital was now a mop bucket where the janitor dipped his mop to clean up the sick that was all over the floor.
In the yard of the hospital was where the families of the sick and dying lived. You see in Malawi the family must cook and bring food to their sick relatives. As I looked out over the hospital grounds I saw hundreds of small fires with ladies stooped over a pot stirring a mixture of corn flour and water that is locally called Nsima.
We found Nurse Monica Bottoman from the newspaper article and gave her the gloves. Mrs. Bottoman is an amazing example of God’s love. She is a woman giving hope to the hopeless, a woman working without gloves in a hospital, in a country where the HIV rate is hitting 60%.
Before I got to the hospital I planned on taking some pictures. Pictures I thought would inspire people to give, and to pray for the people of Malawi. However, as we walked back through the Hospital my heart broke. The Hospital was so bad so horrifying that out of respect for the dying I did not take any pictures. The drive back to the mission was silent. None of us could process what we had just seen, what we had smelled.
Over our time in Malawi we were involved in a number of outreaches. Jodi and the children worked at the Crisis Nursery loving on HIV positive babies. This again stretched us for the babies that were being loved on today where dead tomorrow.
I was given the opportunity to head up the building project, to layout an irrigation project at the PAOC’s Lifeline Malawi in Ngodzi and the privilege of preaching in a village church as well as at the Bible School.
There were a few more memorable moments; we got to be a part of an old-time tent meeting and a 3 night open air viewing of “The Jesus Film” in a village made of mud and straw. Most of the people there had never seen a white person and even more had never seen a white child. My twin daughters’ hair was the thing to touch.
Malawi was a time of great change for our family. We truly became more Christ like, we learned to look past the smell and appearance of people, and we learned to love people right now because tomorrow they may be dead. We learned that we could not feed and clothe the world but we could share Christ and the hope of an eternal life with Him. You see we could feed and clothe the homeless of Milwaukee but how does a family of 5 feed and clothe 10 million people? We learnt that the most important thing in all the outreach is to show the love, hope, and salvation that Jesus Christ brings.
Eventually we ran out of money and or time in Malawi came to an end. We cried, and cried and cried some more as we left that little country. It was like leaving a loved one.
Please come back for part 10 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Testimony PART 8 of 12 Denver
The one that stuck out was in Denver Colorado. You see we had been trying to live in Denver for years but it is a very clique place. If you aren’t from there or you don’t know someone from there you just don’t get into the engineering offices.
I spoke with the engineering company and I told them what I wanted for money they said oh no, we pay $3 more an hour than that and we will give you the following for free: fully furnished housing, utilities, cable, local phone, maid service, a rental care, gas, food, dry cleaning and you can send your other laundry out, free flights home every 3 weeks or since your family is with you free flights anywhere you want to go for you and your family every 15 weeks (so long as it is the same price or cheaper than flying home), oh and we will pay for your rental car, gas and food when you fly somewhere.
Ok God! I think that counts as providing.
You see we didn’t have to spend any of my wages. We saved them all for Malawi.
When we arrived in Denver we went to the closest Assemblies of God church.
Now for those of you that are not familiar, Assemblies of God (AG) and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) are the same fellowship, just different names on each side of the border.
Ok, a little back ground is in order. At the time we were in Denver the Assemblies only had 3 missionary families in Malawi. Guess what? On are very first Sunday we walked into Grace Community Church which is the home church of Larry & Rhonda Allen one of the 3 missionaries in Malawi. Now take a moment to figure out the odd of even being in the same state let alone the same town, let alone the same church; impossible right? Well let me add a little more to that, we also met Neil & Joy Allen that day; Larry’s parents!
Over our time there Neil & Joy pretty much adopted us. They showed me perseverance and what it is to serve Jesus for your whole life. They showed me what “old” Christians look like. Now I say that with respect. I am not just saying that they were seniors; I am saying that you can see Christ in their eyes because Christ has lived in them for a long time.
You would think we would learn but we are rather hard headed so Jodi and I started to figure out how the Malawi side of Gods plan would work out.
We knew we were to stay for 365 days in Denver and then go to Malawi. Ok we told ourselves, that means that we need to be in Malawi in September. What are we suppose to do there and where are we going to stay. Now at the time we had 3 children, twins girls 9 and a son 3.
We started to investigate places to stay and organizations to partner with. We can upon “Youth with a Mission” (YWAM) and they accepted us into their discipleship training program but that would not start until January and we knew that God wanted us there in September.
We tried and tried to figure out where we would stay from September until January. We hit one road block after another. Finally we said ok God, we trust that you will keep us safe and prove for us.
We went to the store and bought a tent and 5 sleeping bags. Yes we where going to camp in Africa!
Time passed in Denver and God remained silence regarding our African living conditions and we became resigned to the fact that we were about to spend 4 months in a tent.
It was our last week in Denver and we started to pack up our belongings, still no word from God. In 4 days we would get on a plane to Malawi. In 5 days we would be camping. But you know what? We were at peace with it.
Then it came! 3 days before we were to get on the plane the Assemblies of God in Malawi called and said that their guest house had opened up and that we were welcome to stay there! Yeah! God is so awesome and God provides.
Please come back for part 9 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
I spoke with the engineering company and I told them what I wanted for money they said oh no, we pay $3 more an hour than that and we will give you the following for free: fully furnished housing, utilities, cable, local phone, maid service, a rental care, gas, food, dry cleaning and you can send your other laundry out, free flights home every 3 weeks or since your family is with you free flights anywhere you want to go for you and your family every 15 weeks (so long as it is the same price or cheaper than flying home), oh and we will pay for your rental car, gas and food when you fly somewhere.
Ok God! I think that counts as providing.
You see we didn’t have to spend any of my wages. We saved them all for Malawi.
When we arrived in Denver we went to the closest Assemblies of God church.
Now for those of you that are not familiar, Assemblies of God (AG) and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) are the same fellowship, just different names on each side of the border.
Ok, a little back ground is in order. At the time we were in Denver the Assemblies only had 3 missionary families in Malawi. Guess what? On are very first Sunday we walked into Grace Community Church which is the home church of Larry & Rhonda Allen one of the 3 missionaries in Malawi. Now take a moment to figure out the odd of even being in the same state let alone the same town, let alone the same church; impossible right? Well let me add a little more to that, we also met Neil & Joy Allen that day; Larry’s parents!
Over our time there Neil & Joy pretty much adopted us. They showed me perseverance and what it is to serve Jesus for your whole life. They showed me what “old” Christians look like. Now I say that with respect. I am not just saying that they were seniors; I am saying that you can see Christ in their eyes because Christ has lived in them for a long time.
You would think we would learn but we are rather hard headed so Jodi and I started to figure out how the Malawi side of Gods plan would work out.
We knew we were to stay for 365 days in Denver and then go to Malawi. Ok we told ourselves, that means that we need to be in Malawi in September. What are we suppose to do there and where are we going to stay. Now at the time we had 3 children, twins girls 9 and a son 3.
We started to investigate places to stay and organizations to partner with. We can upon “Youth with a Mission” (YWAM) and they accepted us into their discipleship training program but that would not start until January and we knew that God wanted us there in September.
We tried and tried to figure out where we would stay from September until January. We hit one road block after another. Finally we said ok God, we trust that you will keep us safe and prove for us.
We went to the store and bought a tent and 5 sleeping bags. Yes we where going to camp in Africa!
Time passed in Denver and God remained silence regarding our African living conditions and we became resigned to the fact that we were about to spend 4 months in a tent.
It was our last week in Denver and we started to pack up our belongings, still no word from God. In 4 days we would get on a plane to Malawi. In 5 days we would be camping. But you know what? We were at peace with it.
Then it came! 3 days before we were to get on the plane the Assemblies of God in Malawi called and said that their guest house had opened up and that we were welcome to stay there! Yeah! God is so awesome and God provides.
Please come back for part 9 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Testimony PART 7 of 12 What is a Malawi?
One night Jodi and I were sitting in the living room and God said “Malawi”.
Once again we looked at each other and what?
Malawi? God had spoken Malawi to us both at the same time.
What is a Malawi? We had no idea so we googled it and sure enough Malawi was a country in Africa. God had finally given us our country.
We said yes God we will go.
I had learned to obey God, but I hadn’t quite figured out His timing yet.
I said ok, God wants us in Malawi. How will I make that happen? I called a company that I had worked for in the past and we moved to Green Bay Wisconsin. This was my answer, more money, which should get us to Malawi.
Guess what, I jumped the gun. I wasn’t listening to God and we had the worst 6 months ever. You see this was supposed to be a job in Green Bay. We rented a nice house with a huge back yard. This was the first house we had lived in, in 8 years; it was going to be great. That is if we had gotten to live in it.
What I didn’t know was that this job was 100% travel so we ended up living in a hotel in St Paul Minnesota for 5 months, only returning to our great house on weekends to cut the foot tall grass!
There were a couple of highlights. When we where home we attended Central Assembly of God. Pastor Ed Garvin and his wife Jodi were inspiring to us. They allowed us the privilege of helping with their children’s ministry and with their 4th of July outreach. These opportunities expanded our experience base and would come to great use a few years later. I have come to realize that God puts you or allows you to be in places for a reason. We don’t always understand why, but that’s ok too.
With the traveling back and forth to St. Paul it was impossible to save any money.
After 6 months of this I got really mad at God. I said God you told us to go to Malawi, this is your deal so you have to provide for it! The only thing I am going to do is turn on my resume.
The next day I got 13 job offers before noon.
Please come back for part 8 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
Once again we looked at each other and what?
Malawi? God had spoken Malawi to us both at the same time.
What is a Malawi? We had no idea so we googled it and sure enough Malawi was a country in Africa. God had finally given us our country.
We said yes God we will go.
I had learned to obey God, but I hadn’t quite figured out His timing yet.
I said ok, God wants us in Malawi. How will I make that happen? I called a company that I had worked for in the past and we moved to Green Bay Wisconsin. This was my answer, more money, which should get us to Malawi.
Guess what, I jumped the gun. I wasn’t listening to God and we had the worst 6 months ever. You see this was supposed to be a job in Green Bay. We rented a nice house with a huge back yard. This was the first house we had lived in, in 8 years; it was going to be great. That is if we had gotten to live in it.
What I didn’t know was that this job was 100% travel so we ended up living in a hotel in St Paul Minnesota for 5 months, only returning to our great house on weekends to cut the foot tall grass!
There were a couple of highlights. When we where home we attended Central Assembly of God. Pastor Ed Garvin and his wife Jodi were inspiring to us. They allowed us the privilege of helping with their children’s ministry and with their 4th of July outreach. These opportunities expanded our experience base and would come to great use a few years later. I have come to realize that God puts you or allows you to be in places for a reason. We don’t always understand why, but that’s ok too.
With the traveling back and forth to St. Paul it was impossible to save any money.
After 6 months of this I got really mad at God. I said God you told us to go to Malawi, this is your deal so you have to provide for it! The only thing I am going to do is turn on my resume.
The next day I got 13 job offers before noon.
Please come back for part 8 in a couple of days
Also please check out our website Just Love
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