We have known and loved this family before they uprooted their family from suburbia Midwest and moved to Liberia to reach people with the gospel of Christ. My kids know their kids, and consider them like family. My wife and I love the parents not only as people we enjoy spending time with, but also because of their incredible love of Jesus and the gospel, and because of the faith they exercise when serving Christ. We love that they are not perfect people, but they are submitted to Christ and walk in faith to degrees that seem extreme to most American Christians. We have watched as God send them to Liberia and they went with a great example of abandon for Christ. There home is now Liberia, West Africa.
They have seen many struggles and trials over the last 3 years of ministry. Some of which, we have little reference to understand the level of burden and heartache that comes along with these kinds of trials. Though our communication with them is sometimes spotty, we stay connected with them through prayer. When they write e-mails or message us to share prayer requests, we hear amazing examples of God’s faithfulness and also the emotion of sorrow and difficult weight to bear.
God has done something fascinating and immensely gracious to my family through all this. Although we are not there with our friends, we hurt with them when they hurt. We are ecstatic and do happy dances for hours when they rejoice. God has tethered us to people that are a lightening rod for His purposes, provision, and care. As a result, we hear the stories of God’s faithfulness to our friends and the tremendous things He is doing through them and what happens is this: our faith grows. God becomes more tangible in the eyes of my kids, in our minds, and in our hearts. We get to observe specific instances and overarching themes of how our God is relevant, powerful, responsive, sovereign, and caring in situations that are far beyond our current way of living. Yes, we can see God work wonders in and around our lives here as well. But we get a quadruple dose of this testimony to our hearts when we are connected this way to another family who is actively serving Christ in ways we are not. Because we are connected with this family, because we know what’s going on there, because we hurt, pray, bear burdens, and rejoice with them, we can tangibly corroborate the heart of God that we read about in scripture and see in our lives with huge amazing things happening in West Africa. And we grow in worship of our God.
Can I be pragmatic and frank for a moment? Everybody needs this. I'll cut out the 10 paragraphs explaining why and how for now, and save that for another post. But God intends for us to be spurred on by other people who are serving God in ways that we are not. (They could even be next door.) And, He intends for us to become that kind of “witness” to other people who do not know Him the way we do.
Now, back to our situation. Recently, our friends have endured some significantly difficult trials and losses. They are hurting and we are hurting with them, to whatever degree we can from afar. The parents are grieving, the kids are processing all that has been happening. We have never felt so far away from them wishing to be so close. Then a few days ago, one of these dear people asked if we would come to them. Specifically, they asked if we would bring our whole family to Liberia, West Africa to spend time with them, fellowship with them, encourage them, worship with them, to care for them. I’ve never been so humbled. At the same time I’ve never been so invigorated to go do something so out of reach with such desired speed.
Please pray with us. My wife and I began immediately to pray about this request, and after about a day, we both were beginning to understand that God is calling us to go. We would need to completely clear our summer plans and projects, and we have no idea how long it will take us to mobilize our family and the funds, and then go. But we desire to go for at least a week, maybe two, to spend time with our friends. Please pray with us as we respond and start taking steps.
