All posts by Kimberly

Selling All

Family, Homeschool, , ,

Over Memorial Day weekend we held the biggest garage sale of our lives, and I confess – I am not a garage sale person. We have never lived in one home as long as we have in Texas, so every closet was full. We have never lived in such a big house as we have in Texas, so each kid had their own room full of stuff too. As we sorted and sorted and sorted, a verse kept running through my head:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…”
Hebrews 12:1

Kent prayed that our garage sale would be a ministry opportunity. I was doubtful. My hopes aimed much lower. I hoped someone would show. I had never conceived of a garage sale that ministered to anyone.

But God had good plans. He not only sent us buyers for hundreds of dollars, but so much more! We had so many neighbors we had never met come by to shop and wish us well. We had a passerby named Samaria stop to shop the first day. She had never seen homeschool books, and asked if she could interview our kids about their homeschool experience.

We answered her questions and talked while others milled around. Suddenly, Samaria felt convicted that she had condemned her sister in Georgia for homeschooling her nephew. She stopped there in our driveway with tears in her eyes to apologize and reconcile over the phone. They hadn’t spoken in weeks and the rift began to heal!

The next day a retired Army chaplain and his lovely family gave us extra cash after buying books & baskets. They stopped in the middle of the driveway to circle our family up and pray over us and our work. It was beautiful. And not like any garage sale I have ever been to!

I had posted some extra drum heads from Joel’s drum set online for sale and had another miraculous conversation I describe here. God provided all the buyers we needed!

Our calling involves moving internationally, and moving internationally requires traveling as light as we can. In order to run the race marked out for us (in Africa), we will cast aside all that hinders. All this stuff will slow us down. We need to run with perseverance.

It can be painful and difficult to let of meaningful belongings. Following Christ in obedience is worth the price, trading temporary comforts for eternal ones. Pray we can wrap up the sorting and selling well, ready to run our race!

The Partnership Process

Church, Missiology, Personal

One cold, foggy February morning I rolled out of bed asking God how to pray. He told me to ask not for one, but TWO new financial partners to join our team today.
I’m stubborn. I refused. It was too much to ask.

The flu had knocked our family flat for over 2 weeks, and I was feeling like I hadn’t accomplished any “real work” in several days. There was no way two new families would start giving when I hadn’t written letters, had coffee dates or blogged anything new in more than a week!

Oh how gently our God teaches us! I knew the still small voice that replied to my stubborn refusal and feelings of unworthiness…

“Is building your team about your work?? Or is it about my work?”

I bit my tongue. He was right, of course. This whole raising-missionary-support thing was not about me, and what I could do. I reluctantly prayed God would add two new families to our team that day, in spite of our illness and inactivity – in spite of the fact that not one new household had joined our team in 3 weeks. I wish I could say all doubt was gone…

God seems to delight in showing his power in “impossible” situations. And despite my weak faith & stubborn doubts, through the fog of flu, we got not one, but two Email notices stating that a new gift had been made to our account! In both cases, they had given in the past week, but the Emails posted that same day.

Oh me of little faith.

I haven’t met an American who likes to talk about money, and we have met several young people with desire to serve overseas, who cannot stomach developing a partnership base for their expenses. Kent’s first assignment overseas was a volunteer position with all expenses paid. He was relieved not to bother with funding. Unfortunately, on his return to the US he was grieved that many friends had forgotten where he was & the work he was doing. Many of the friends who said they would be praying, had forgotten. This was not partnership, and it showed. Paul says, “Did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God’s gospel to you free of charge?” 2 Cor 11:7

It is an obedience filled with faith in God that has us once again building our team to move overseas. It is equally an obedience filled with faith in God that has our partners investing in this work. It is almost a helpless feeling to give up control and throw your entire financial future on the mercy of God. (I grant that none of us actually have control over our financial futures, and all of us depend on the mercy of God. Maybe it is the illusion of control over money “we earned” that we are giving up.)

I learn so slowly! It is a lesson I have learned & relearned & relearned. Patiently, God is teaching us week by week to trust in HIM. He is our Provider. This is his work, his people, his plan, his timing, and for years to come we will be able to look back to this season of partnership development with a confidence that God is the One sending us out. Our own work could never accomplish it.

When our Wycliffe financial statement comes, I am always humbled and in awe of the amazing team of partners who give sacrificially, so we can go. We could never repay their generosity, and it isn’t really ours to repay anyway as it is given to God. Instead we pray for our partners’ families, for their churches, for their jobs, for their health. It is a strong connection. We long to catch up and visit in person whenever possible. We grieve when they grieve. We rejoice when they rejoice. This is partnership.

And I feel like I take all our partners with us to Africa. Their prayers, their gifts are traveling on the back of a motorcycle into the rainforest with Kent to develop an alphabet where people don’t have one. These prayers, these gifts give out that first alphabet chart that makes one of the poorest men on the planet light up saying, “My language is a REAL language?”

These prayers, these gifts carry me into cross-cultural small group ministry where we invest in the local church – whatever weak state it may be in (who can wonder at that without access to God’s Word in a language that speaks clearly?) These prayers & gifts have been with me in times of great danger, in malaria, in rabies, in many many moves, and dark days; and equally in the victories and celebrations as God’s Truth gets translated and then published and then used to transform & heal the broken-hearted.

These are not my successes. They are made possible by a collaborative act of faith, of worship for a Mighty God.
These are his successes.  This is partnership.

Sustained in the Beautiful Hard

Family, Thoughts, Travels, , , ,

The first time I heard it was Sept 6, 1999. In the wee hours of the morning through the jet lag as newlyweds who naively landed ourselves on assignment in Kenya, the dawn was alive with the exotic melodies of birds. Their songs heralded the beginning of a fresh new day, bathing it in beautiful anticipation, proclaiming God’s glory to all. Through all our years in Kenya, Uganda and Congo these morning songs were a constant joy.

Landing in Cameroon two weeks ago, I subconsciously expected everything to be similar to our life in Congo. Sure enough, some of our favorite things about our previous home – morning birds, huge juicy mangoes, choirs singing in church in colorful fabrics – were similar. Oh how I missed those morning songs!! Cameroon has the same freshly roasted peanuts, red clay roads, long handshakes and strong hospitality. To focus on all the beautiful things, I am tempted to reflect on our Spring Break trip as a fabulous success.

But that would not be the whole story. It was certainly not my success. And it would skip the testimony of God’s power in our lives this past two weeks to stop there. Let us never skip an opportunity to tell of his mighty works even when it costs us something. So we will share the detailed truth that it may bring God even more glory.
Each day several friends ask, “How was Cameroon?”
The short story is: “It was beautiful. And it was hard.”
Vibrantly beautiful and
terribly hard
at the same time.
Complex.

Spiritual opposition often feels like all the cards are stacked against you. Nothing went very smoothly, and God intervened over and over and over to keep us moving forward. He sustained us. Our first obstacle was the denial of visas that left uncertainty over our departure like a cloud until God miraculously delivered new visas the exact day we needed them. Secondly, the 24 hours of flights did not always include foods we could all eat, but God brought a flight attendant to bring us special treats from First Class.

Upon arrival in Cameroon, we realized we had left our Yellow Fever vaccination cards in America. They are required for entry into many African countries and some will even vaccinate you in the airport if you don’t have your yellow card! We were stuck at the mercy of the health department officials. They could have refused us entry or forced us into shots then and there. God gave us favor with one of the officials who decided against protocol to accept our photo images of yellow cards on Kent’s laptop. (Later one woman would try to stop us from leaving the country on the same grounds, but pass us because of the work we do.) God’s intervention for the win!

We settled into our guesthouse rooms and crashed. We had not been prepared for the heat and humidity. We knew there would not be air conditioning. What we didn’t know is that March is the hottest month of the year. So 90-degree days don’t sound too hot, until you factor in 95% humidity with a ‘Real Feel’ of 117 degrees! We were sweating through 3-4 sets of clothes each day, which didn’t help us hydrate after the airplanes. We couldn’t drink enough and we had to focus on filtering enough water for the 5 of us to keep up. The heat sapped our energy and melted our brains, putting us in a fog. Sleeping under mosquito nets seemed to make the heat worse. God kept our filter working quickly, gave us a fridge that worked, a fan to sleep by, and sustained us in a way that doesn’t make sense to me even in retrospect.

Within 48 hours, I was not recovering energy or health from jet lag, I was actually getting worse each day knocked down with the flu. Kent left for his conference out of town. While he was away, I was not sleeping much at night. I think I was allergic to the dusty, lumpy mattress. One night, my lungs began to fill to the point where I felt out of breath to walk a few steps. I am familiar with walking pneumonia, and knew I was in trouble. God intervened. One of my friends was taking me shopping the next morning and I asked her to help me buy an inhaler and allergy meds. She just ‘happened’ to have meds and an extra new inhaler sitting in her house that another missionary had given away! Within 2-3 days with the meds and inhaler my lungs cleared and I could breathe again. I haven’t had allergic asthma like that in maybe 10 years, but it hunted me down on this trip.

Kent’s conference was productive and fruitful, but not without difficulty. He was staying in hotel that some days had water and some days not. God got him through and got him home. He returned safely back to us after 4 days and promptly came down with the flu. For a few days we were both down at the same time. I had a horrible stomach ache that wouldn’t go away. God gently reminded me what the enemy was trying to steal, kill and destroy on our trip. He would love us to call it ‘ruined’ and only remember the ‘bad’. We gathered our family to sing and pray. My stomach ache left and never returned. It was a turning point in my full recovery. Kent had enough of the dusty, lumpy mattress and got a ride to bargain for a new one. God granted him favor with the shop and he bought a wonderful new mattress for 70% of the asking price! We started to sleep so much better!

Through the fog of heat and illness, we were trying to tour available houses for our move this summer, but our time and energy reserves were so low. One hour out of the house required two more recovering. This was made only more complicated by the fact that there were no known houses available big enough for our family. The unrest in outlying areas had many displaced colleagues moving into the city in the past years, so there is a housing shortage. We met one Cameroonian colleague who has 25 family members staying with him! We also had no car, the heat was unbearable and we needed to walk everywhere in the muddy clay. Hour by hour, God gave us the strength beyond understanding to get something done.

Our last 2 days in Cameroon were wonderful. We had strength again. And good friends had planned to come and spend time with us. We hadn’t lived in the same country in 14 years. Sweet fellowship. Time to smell flowers, dry laundry on the line, enjoy the first spring mangoes. In the midst of a minefield of obstacles, James, Joel and Anna enjoyed everything! They enjoyed the foods they remembered from their younger years. They enjoyed meeting new friends and attending their new school. Teachers let them jump right in. Joel chased agama lizards and played in the dirt with the little kids. Anna picked her favorite tropical flowers. James immediately clicked with other teenagers who “get him” as a missionary kid. So much glory. So much beauty. The calm before the return storm.

Our last night in Cameroon, I had a horrific nightmare. I can count on one hand the number of times I have been tormented by a dream like that. It had zero connection to reality. It was pure evil. We fought back with prayer and I began to sing praises to Jesus, which our enemy hates. God carried me through. He is victorious!

Our return home was odd in that every single airport was frought with more obstacles. It seemed that we would never make it home. There was a 2-hour delay leaving Cameroon due to trouble with the fuel truck (?!). There was a strike in Brussels for air traffic controllers, so we boarded and sat on the tarmac another 2.5 hours. This meant we missed our connecting flight in Washington DC by 5 minutes and were stranded. All the while, Anna’s health continued to decline. She was sick to her stomach more and more often and hadn’t eaten much in 2-3 days. We were rescheduled, overnighted in Houston and finally made it home (without bags) the next day. The fingerprints of Grace followed us. Airport personnel cleaning up barf for us. A stranger giving us a plastic bag when we needed one. The airport shop having a ‘sale’ on Tshirts and toothbrushes when our kids needed something else to wear. A hotel with free breakfast enough to feed our boys, and free airport shuttles that run at 1am. God’s grace followed us. (Anna has a parasite and is recovering well at home.)

He sustained us. We would not have survived this trip without his help. We not only survived, we accomplished almost all our goals for the two weeks! So how was our trip?

The verse that comes to mind is Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 4:8-
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.
We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.
We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus
so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”

If you read this all the way to the end, I pray you have seen the life of Jesus in this story. I pray this post is like the beautiful birds’ song which proclaims God’s glory to all who will listen. If He can comfort, guide, protect and sustain me when I feel like I can’t breathe in a foreign country with flu and malarial mosquitoes at 117 degrees… He can comfort, guide, protect and sustain you where you are too. He sustains in the beautiful hard.

“But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.”
Psalm 3:3

 

Visas —Just in Time

Travels, ,

Beyond every expectation we had just yesterday morning, we now have visas to enter Cameroon for the whole family! They are multiple entry, and good through August, so we will use these same visas for the move this summer.

Some of the backstory is necessary to fully appreciate the arrival of these visas. You can read the details of the Cameroon Application 1 getting denied in previous post (Visas – Episode III).

Initially there was no reason given, but Kent was able to get them on the phone before they closed. Apparently the background of our photos was not white enough? We scrambled that Friday night to gather the prepaid envelopes & new pictures for Application 2. Our first attempt took 12 days total. We now only had 9 days left before departure.

I should add that our zip code has the most unreliable postal service I’ve ever heard of in the United States. We have had items delivered two streets over, next door or not at all. We’ve had several items damaged by being mishandled. And if we put an envelope out to send, it may wait 5-6 days before they take it.

We discussed the possibility of changing airline tickets, but our kids’ Spring Breaks could not move. We had purchased these tickets specifically for their comparatively lower cost. If we moved our flights back even one day it would potentially cost us $1100/person! We cried out to God for a miracle & for favor. We Emailed an urgent request to pray these visas would return by Monday March 4.

We saw the tracking numbers hand-deliver Application 2 last Monday morning (2/25), as we hoped, but we needed them processed and back in the mail Friday to get them on time in Texas. The week crawled by with our whole family wavering between faith & doubt. Friday afternoon came & went without movement.

We discussed the possibility of flying to WA DC to retrieve them in person, or the wildest idea – to leave the airport and try to get them during our two-hour layover at Dulles! We are carrying a few bags for other people, and we began to feel the weight of missionary kids not getting the books or gifts they needed. This was not only affecting our family.

Friday I left for a weekend Women’s Retreat, where time in worship and teaching bolstered my faith. Many sisters stopped to pray over me. I believed God would take care of us with or without this trip. Still it didn’t seem likely to happen since our passports had not been mailed back yet. No Embassy is likely to work the weekend. I posted the stagnant news on social media.

Within minutes, a sweet friend with experience in embassies in WA DC offered to go Monday morning in person on our behalf. We held out hope they would let her in without an appointment and she could overnight our passports back to us Tuesday for our Wednesday morning departure! We called it our ‘hail Mary’ pass because there were still so many possible obstacles.

BUT GOD heard so many prayers lifted up on our behalf!

Against all the odds and circumstances, on Sunday evening at 6:15pm Kent’s phone beeped with notification that our envelope of passports had arrived in Fort Worth. ?!? There were no records of it ever leaving DC, nor passing through anywhere in between. On a Sunday evening – it just appeared. We were baffled. Was it an error? Kent felt that if they were indeed our passports, it would pop up again soon on the move. Sure enough, at 8:30pm they were leaving the distribution center for the Post Office!

We continued to pack our bags, still hoping it was true, they would be correctly delivered, and they would all have the right visas stamped inside.

So much hope.

Then at 1:00pm, our mysterious envelope full of passports arrived at our house! We tore it open to find 5 perfect visas! And guess what day it was?? Monday March 4. Exactly when we had prayed for them to arrive. We’re not sure how or why, but they are here and our trip is on!

We serve a God for whom nothing is impossible! Thanks to everyone who has been praying for this! God’s faithfulness to hear us and continually guide and provide for us is astounding. Join us in praise and thanksgiving for this miracle! We’re looking forward to a productive trip, and good preparation for our move this summer.

Weeping over Goodness

Music, Personal, Texas Culture

Other than Rich Mullins, the singer/songwriter who has had the deepest impact on my journey been Sara Groves. I own every album, and have never been disappointed in a new one. Her lyrics dig deep and don’t shy away from tough questions or topics. She has traveled East Africa with International Justice Mission near where we lived & worked. Her songs have spurred me through some very dark seasons.

Seeing that Sara doesn’t do commercial tours, and lives in Minnesota, I never dreamed I’d have the opportunity to hear her in person. But for one night, she came to Dallas with some friends to hang out & worship in Dallas. And it was free! Kent insisted that I go.

I have no words for how amazing the experience was for me. During her first 3 songs I sat and ugly cried right in the middle of the church. I was completely overcome at how many things God had arranged for me to be there. I was overcome with the Beauty in the music, in the acoustics, in the poetry… 

God didn’t need to give me the opportunity to see her on stage. We were almost never in the same country or state even. He didn’t need to make it a free concert where we as the audience spent much of the time lifting our voices together in 6 or 8-part harmonies. He didn’t have to clear Dallas traffic on a Sunday evening, or make the crowd small enough for extra seats. He just did. He knew what would bless me beyond measure.

And after my heart was filled & soul spent, we chatted with her in person! It was the cherry on top. I not only heard Sara Groves from the 10th row, but got to worship with a glorious group of musicians. We not only sang together, but got to fellowship afterward! I was speechless. Even 2 days later, I weep tears of gratitude for just how good God is – his Goodness to bless us with some of our deepest desires before we know to even ask.

He didn’t have to be so Good. 

But He is.

“He withholds no good thing from us.”

15 Years

Personal, Thoughts

I was walking in the door of our little university apartment after a long day teaching boisterous third graders. Kent was soon to graduate with his MA in Linguistics, but his university schedule varied. He was already home, sitting on our couch with a grin. He made me listen to the answering machine message right away. (And stood behind me with a camera, ready to capture my face on film. Yes, film.)

The message announced that we were voted in as new members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. June 6, 2001. I knew I would always remember the date. For six months we had been filling out essay questions, getting physicals, taking Bible tests, etc. Everything that could have gone wrong – did. I’ll save those details for another post.

The Committee was to vote at 9:30am in Florida on membership. We’d been told that our file could not be considered because it was incomplete. Kim’s Medical Document had been MIA in the postal world for quite some time. We had sent it from Oregon in plenty of time. No one knew where it was. Our Member Application Guy (he had a much cooler title I can’t remember) walked to the meeting discouraged & decided to stop in the mailroom one last time “just in case”. Everyone knows the mail doesn’t come at 8:30am… The form was there! Our file complete by miraculous means. And we were voted in, against the odds.

So began a journey for Kent & I to learn more & more to trust God and wait for his perfect timing. And what a journey…

15 years
3 kids
17 moves
3 languages learned
French Alps
Cameroonian hillside
Kenyan family
Congolese home
Becoming Sr. Members
Kent – a Linguistics Consultant
Countless flights & frights
The sheer delight on the faces of those reading their own language in print for the first time.

Looking forward to the next 15!

Passports

Travels,

After two days navigating passport application processes, all our paperwork is in! Please pray they arrive safely in good time to get the Visa process going for this summer.

BTW Kent’s Proposal Defense was successful & he is now “ABD” All but Dissertation!