Race Across America

... Well it felt like a race, anyway. From April 14 to June 9 we slept in at least 24 beds, traveled in five states, visited and spoke at three of our four supporting churches, helped to host 6 Africans and 8 future African missionaries at the Pepperdine Bible lectures, collected numerous resources for our ministries in Rwanda, helped to host a Church Planting Movements seminar, did some training with a mission team destined for Angola, networked through conference calls and face to face meetings to promote kingdom work in Africa and Rwanda in particular.

It was especially fun to host our Rwandan colleague, Charles Kabeza, at several churches and Christian Universities. There was great interest in the Xtra Mile Ministry that Charles founded in 2007 and which is now serving 600 genocide orphans in five districts of Rwanda. We are praying that new partners will join in supporting this work that is giving new hope and a future to so many.


Then the last week, the highlight of our time in America, was a family vacation. Our two boys' families live on the same street in Anthem, Arizona and they housed and fed all fifteen of our family. There were outings with the grandchildren, projects with the grandchildren, a trip to the Grand Canyon. And each night after the little ones were in bed, we took the chance to hear in turn each one's life story and to recount the ways we could see in retrospect the marvelous works of God in our family. For Nancy and me it was a time of learning about how children and especially Third Culture Kids experience the world around them as they are growing up. The effect of those times of sharing was to draw all of us together in a deeper, richer relationship as a human family and a part of the family of God. Lord, thank you for this time of life when we learn so much from our kids!