In the beginning

We're going to Niger... why?

It started in the first part of March.  We made a commitment in late March and told our kids and friends on April 2, 2011.

Here's how we explained it to our kids.  (Note:  It must not be a good explanation since they still had many questions.)

Dear Molly, Mike, Dani, Asher, and Abbie, (we were with Michele, Lance, Jane, and Josh in Florida at the time.)

I'm writing to tell you about a major decision your mother and I are making.

When we are in the van together for long stretches, we talk a lot.  We process a lot of things and this time we found some common themes.  

One of the things we discussed was what are we going to do for our 50th Anniversary that is coming up.  We talked about a trip but we've done that many times.  Then about a party but that isn't really us.  So then our thoughts went more along the lines of the Katrina Relief we had done before.  We talked about doing something useful.  We have repeatedly grown in our faith when we have been outside of our comfort zone, doing things, at least in our minds, for God.

We talked about the hunger quotes, pictures, videos, facts, and Biblical passages that I had gathered for Outreach at Colonial.  It made quite an impact on me, and then sharing them with Sally, on us.

Not connected with either point above, we got an email flyer from Eric Hagman, Tracy Jennings' husband.  They are with Wycliffe Associates in Kenya.  The flyer noted four places/jobs where they needed volunteer help.  For some reason we emailed back just to see what kind of help they needed.  Some time later we got a response that said to contact a man in Orlando.  We did.  The help they needed was for a center manager/host in Niger, Africa for a year.  We talked it over and while Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world (9th) with rampant starvation due to a drought and the most undeveloped country in the world, we did not want to commit for a year so we called them back to say we weren't interested.  Frankly, a year was just too long to be away from our family at this stage in life.  We thought that was the end of it.  They called back and said how about 6 months.  (This back and forth, on again/off again process ,was exactly the same process that we went through for Kazakhstan.)

We talked about why do we have to go to Africa to help the poor when they are right in our backyard.  But the thing that got us is that we knew we just wouldn't (and haven't) make a six month commitment of this sort at home.

In short, we were feeling led to do this.

So we said we would go.  The six months are from mid-Sept to mid-March.  Being away for six months is really going to be hard for us.  We will miss being with all of you.  We will try to get home for Christmas but I doubt it.  (Which we now know we will not be home.)

We will tell you more when we get home.

Love,

Mom and Dad


We are also very excited about being in a totally new place for us, meeting new people, experiencing new situations, and getting out of our comfortable lifestyle.  We can't wait to go.