Faith and water walking go hand in hand. Stepping out of the boat of your life is a risk, and you need to believe that in doing so, you will not sink below the waves. As long as your eyes rest completely on your Savior, you will be completely able to walk on water. That is what our family has done this year.
My husband Michael and I are celebrating twenty-five years of marriage. We met at Pathway Church when we were single and married by one of the pastors. The Lord has gifted us with six children and the blessing of knowing Him. One of our desires for our children has been twenty years in the making. Having experienced the joy of several short-term mission opportunities when we were younger, we wanted our children to have that as well. If you desire for your children to develop a heart for the world and God’s people, they need opportunity. Our church at Pathway has always been very missions-minded and gives its members many short-term trips to undertake. As our lead pastor Todd Carter unrolled our Accelerate campaign, he encouraged our church to become involved in a trip as a way to give to the Accelerate fund, so that is what our family did. Three of us signed up for the Nairobi, Africa trip in 2013, our seventeen-year-old son Zach, our fifteen-year-old son Luke, and myself, Michelle.
We attended meetings, helped plan the work involved, sent out prayer and financial letters and faithfully were immunized against a host of diseases. The day of the trip arrived and with it a fire in the Nairobi Airport that consequently shut down the country. We went back to our home and proceeded to wait a whole year to get to Africa. One of the drawbacks of waiting would be the increased terrorist activity causing our government to issue travel warnings to Americans. The unrest became a risk in stepping out of our boat. We had to make a decision about going into the unknown.
As we look back now, that extra year gave us more heart preparation, projects that impacted more lives, and, overall, a much richer experience. My one word about doing this trip is it was PRICELESS. We are so grateful to everyone who helped us go. The body of Christ is a unit that works best together; the trip was blessed and God was glorified.
Photo by Dan Robertson