How did we get here?

I guess some of you may be wondering how we got from working and living in Redhill, Surrey to suddenly taking an 11 month old baby and spending three months in the African wilderness?! Well it’s all to do with our faith in God, and what He has said to us. Christianity is all about a relationship with God, which has been restored by Jesus. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, our relationship with God has been restored, and God speaks to us, His children.

Both separately and together, Lucy and I have felt a calling to Africa. What we mean by calling is that God, through His relationship with us, has put “mission Africa” on our hearts. However, we didn’t know any details from God. We didn’t know which country, when we’re to go, how long to go for etc, plus we have a young daughter! What do we do! Well we prayed about it, and after talking to some friends decided to go on a short term mission trip. We wrote to a number of mission agencies, and AIM were the first to respond and come and see us. We decided to go with AIM, made an application with them in mid-September, had an interview with them in late October, they asked us how soon we could go, and we were leaving on a jet plane on the 24 January!

God has really guided and provided for us during this time. Each step of the way He has pointed us in the right direction, and provided for us. He has used friends and even strangers to show us the way. One of the biggest tests of our faith, and biggest testament to God is His financial provision. The first step of faith came for us in January 2009. Our company changed its maternity policy to a much better deal. Lucy was pregnant with Esther, and as her due date was before 1 April, we missed out in it by a matter of weeks. We could have fought for it, and may well have won, but it would have meant that Lucy would have had to have worked for 12 months after returning from maternity leave. We knew we had this calling for Africa, and didn’t want to be tied down, but we desperately needed the money, so we prayed about it, said to God that we’re not going to contest it, and left it at that. In March, our company announced that it was not going to be awarding any pay rises due to the financial climate, but for some unknown reason (God!), we got bonuses that amounted to the additional money the new maternity deal would have given us. Praise God! We got the money, and were not bound by any contract!

Secondly, we had this calling, but had no money to fund the trip. We needed £6500 to go on the trip, but had no savings due to Lucy being on maternity leave and only really living on just over one salary. We were told by Steve Lancaster from AIM, that “if it’s God’s will. It’s God’s bill!” Basically by us taking a step of faith and acting on our calling by God, God will provide. So we asked our church, our company, and the church Lucy grew up in, for support. God obviously guided them, and told people how much to give since we were given just over our total budget!

Thirdly, God has provided for our mortgage. We spoke to our mortgage company in November, and they said there wouldn’t be a problem in getting a mortgage holiday, but that we’d need to apply after our January payment, as we wanted it to start in February. So less than two weeks before leaving, after the January payment had been made, we applied for the mortgage holiday, and frustratingly it was declined! After numerous phonecalls and a long letter, it was still declined. So we prayed, left it to God, and left on a jet plane! Anyway on arrival in Africa, we checked our bank balances for our salary payment, and we’d been overpaid by our company! We emailed to our company, and they said we could have the money taken out of our salary when we get back, and have it spread it over two months. Praise God! The overpayment covers our mortgage while we’re away! We are extremely pleased about this as we didn’t want people’s giving to cover our mortgage.

If you already believe in God, then the above is a great testimony to the awesome provision of God. If you don’t believe in God, and see the above as a series of coincidences, can we encourage you to consider that there is a God that loves and cares for you. Logically there can only be two possibilities. Either there is a God or not. If there is the slightest possibility that there is, surely it’s worth investigating?