One Week 'till Blast Off

Well, hello everyone.

I have finally gotten this blog started, but I guess I'm still on time since we haven't left the country yet. I got my passport back today with a bunch of visas! My old passport had nothing but Frankfurt stamps on them. That's the only place I flew in or out of internationally prior to this. For Jon, it's his first time needing a passport and it's going to get really exciting really quickly!

So it is Thursday today. Next Wednesday, April 13th, we are taking a night-eye flight to Cameroon in french speaking central Africa. This will be our first time in Africa and we will have been in 4 countries by the 22nd. Cameroon, Benin and Togo with the Regional Director (RD) for French speaking Africa, Jim, and then we'll be spending a week in Ghana with our West Africa RD (english speaking west africa), Pastor Elorm.

Don't worry. We'll take pictures, and I'm sure there will be much to tell. But before all of that begins, and I inevitably get behind in story telling (though I'll try not to of course!), I think I had better give a nice background summary for those of you who have only heard snippets of what's going on and why we're going to Africa for the next few years.


The Background Story:


Once upon a time... in a land far, far away called Florida (and a stranger land you may never see), filled with retirees who hang out at Costco everyday, New Yorkers who think they know how to drive, islanders who learned a very different style of driving, and a freeway, the I-95, which has been deemed the most dangerous stretch of highway in the United States (I'm not kidding)... there was born an organization called Book of Hope, renamed OneHope International. Jon and Lisa had never heard of OneHope when they decided to move to Florida six months into their marriage. Their plans for their time there turned out not to be God's plans, but it seems He had something else in store for them.

Anyways, enough of the story-book story (Princess Bride anyone? *singing* "my life is like, a story-book story. It is as real as the feelings I feel."  haha oh the late 80s...). We had never heard of OneHope, as I'm pretty sure none of you had either, yet it is a missions organization bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to children all over the world! Our goal is to reach 90 million children with God's word this year!

We started going to a Sovereign Grace affiliated church in Fort Lauderdale area. After going a few times this guys sitting behind us introduced himself. His name is Chad, and not only did he warmly introduce himself, he decided to ask if we'd like to come over and have lunch with his family (his awesome wife Jeannine, and his four super great kids). When we took up his offer the next week and had lunch with them, in conversation Chad asked if we'd ever thought about going overseas. We said that we really want to travel, but we're not sure in what capacity or how possible that would be. And he mentioned, very briefly, no details, that there was a need at OneHope, where he is the vice president of Global Ministries (I'll try getting to explaining what that and other things mean at some point), to send someone to Africa.

We'd never thought of going to Africa specifically. We wanted to travel all over Europe, and we wanted to go to various parts of Asia, but we hadn't really considered Africa. Well, after that fateful lunch, we started thinking about it. And we each, individually, got more and more intrigued by the idea and started asking ourselves "why not?". We started going to the same home group as Chad and Jeannine on Sunday evenings of which, it turns out, several other OneHope people were a part. We finally then met Tom at church. Tom is the vice president of Global Operations, and he was the one looking for someone to send to Africa. We liked Tom right away, and we liked all that we heard about OneHope. And we finally got a small idea of what the position was that he was trying to fill. We also found out that he was looking for someone who was willing to commit at least 3 years to living in Africa. This was heavy, and we felt the weight of this choice for the first time.

We went home and talked about it. And thought and prayed about it. And talk about it some more. We were tempted by the idea of going back home to California. Comfortable, beautiful SoCal where we could be near family and friends. But what would we do if we went back? Scrounge for whatever jobs we could get, and barely be able to pay the ridiculous rent? probably. So, it was either that OR we go to Africa. Experience so many new things. Get challenged to grow and learn like never before. And be doing it all to advance God's work in the world, bringing the Gospel to the next generation, sharing the hope that we have in Christ with kids who don't have much to be hopeful about. What an opportunity! Why would we choose anything else? Oh, and did I mention how much they care about taking care of us? not only would we get to be a part of this good work and experience all of these things, but we'd also get paid to do it, so that we're not completely broke when we get back to the states.

So, I guess I don't need to say that, after talking and interviewing with Tom and meeting other OneHope peoples, and after talking with our families, we accepted the job. That's why I started this blog after all!

We've been working at OneHope as the Operations Coordinators for Africa since mid-January now. We oversee operations (I'll try to put together some sort of job description to help you understand what we actually do and will post it soon) for all of Africa, excepting Northern Africa, which is grouped more with the Middle East due to the overwhelming Muslim influence. There are 53 countries in Africa. It's really big. Sub-Saharan Africa is split up into 4 regions for us. Southern, Eastern, Western (Anglaphone/English Speaking), and Francophone (French speaking countries in Western & Central) Africa.

I'll explain more about what we, specifically, will be doing for OneHope in Africa, and I'll try to give you a better idea of what OneHope does and how, but that's not an easy task, and it will not be a short post, so I'll save that for later. (you can do a little of your own research on OneHope by reading stuff on their website http://www.onehope.net). Sufficient to say, we are going to Africa. We want to keep everyone back home informed and in touch. I'm pretty sure we're going to have plenty of experiences to share and stories to tell. And we're definitely going to need prayer support as we go to a very new place, with a new job, and will be meeting new people. We know that our Heavenly Father is faithful and will give us grace and strength and provision, and we look forward to sharing with you what He is going to do during our years in Africa.

We love you all, and we do and will miss you.
Thank you for loving us, and supporting us, and being excited for us! Know that we are in God's hands, and that He has good plans for us.

Feel free to post comments, ask questions, whatever!

Love,
-J&L