Now What?

"Now what?"....It's a question I ask myself alot now.   Now that I've seen the harshness and brutal reality of a 3rd world country like Sierra Leone...now that I've stepped out of my comfort zone and have seen the truth about how I've been living....now what?  What do I do now?

The truth is I don't know what the answer is, but I know my trip to Africa was just the beginning of a longer journey.  Just one piece in a puzzle that is as big as a lifetime.  

I've decided that from now on, though, instead of focusing on all the things I don't know, I will focus on what I do know.   Here are a few things I do know for certain....

1.  God is THE Creator and He loves us.  The Creator of all things.  He knew each person on this earth before they were even in their mother's womb.....including the orphans, the widows, and the oppressed all over the globe.  He knows EACH ONE....just as He knows me.   He loves them just as He loves me.  There is no difference.

2.  God has a plan and a purpose.  One of my favorite scripture verses is Jeramiah 29:11.  It's a popular one that you find on plaques and framed in stores...."I know the plans I have for you.  Plans to prosper and not to harm you...plans to give you hope and a future."  I have claimed this scripture during the hardest times in my life and it has brought me comfort and peace, knowing that He does have a plan and that ALL things work together for good.  Now, I'm claiming this scripture for others...  for children at The Covering, and the millions of children who are still in horrible places...hungry, naked and alone.  He created them and He has a plan.  It's not my place to know why or to figure it all out.

He is continuing to reveal His plan for our family, and I am so thankful.  Each day brings another prayer, another person across our paths, another conversation.  Each day it is more clear that we are NOT to be still, to keep quiet about what we've witnessed.  We will walk forward, one step at a time, following Him as He leads....even when we don't know the destination.

3.  James 1:27  - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.


We will continue to look after orphans and reach out to widows, to the poor and oppressed.  We will keep our eyes and our family life focused on Christ.  


We have come in contact with others who are on fire for God and missions around the globe.  Our hearts and minds are open to whatever or where ever God leads us next.  For now, we are rearranging our lives in order to have less debt and less responsibilities so that we are more flexible both physically and financially. 


Please pray for us as we get our house ready to put on the market and try to find ways both to save and earn money in order to both payoff debt and continue to give and travel, as God leads.  


Thank you all so much for your prayers and support in my first journey to Sierra Leone!  It has changed my heart and my life forever, and I'm so very grateful.  God is truly amazing! 


Please continue to pray for the twins, Gerald and Geraldine.  We sponsor them, along with their older brother and sister.  The twins were sick when I was in  Sierra Leone, and they are not well now.  I have learned that they have been seen by a Lebanese doctor, instead of the normal clinic that the children are taken to.  However, I don't know what the diagnosis was or how they are doing.  Pray that God would hold them in the palm of His hand and keep them safe until they can get the medical help they need.