New Beginnings

Another year has come and gone.  It’s amazing what can happen in the course of 365 days.  2016 has been an incredible year and Chris and I have an abundance of things to be grateful for.  God has worked in so many different ways and taught us so much about His grace and what it means to walk by faith.

As 2016 comes to a close and we look forward to the New Year, we just wanted to take some time to share with you all what God has been doing in our hearts and where He is leading us in 2017.

For over a year now, Chris and I have been sensing that God was preparing us for something new.  I don’t know if you’ve ever had that feeling, but it’s both exciting and scary.  You know change is around the corner, but you don’t know when or what it will look like.  So you just keep walking.  And praying.  And trusting.  Sounds easy, but it’s not.  At all.  We have not always been the best at waiting, but we’ve tried.  And God has been merciful.  And always faithful. 

As we shared our hearts with friends and the Haven of Hope family, the phrase that kept coming up again and again was, “We just feel like God wants to do more here in Zambia.”  Vague.  We know.  But for some reason, our team at HOH believes in that vague impression.  They have encouraged us every step of the way and decided that if God has more to do, they’re willing step into the unknown with us to discover what that “more” is. 

The thing about trying to figure out other ways to serve in a place like Zambia is that the options are ENDLESS.  Seriously.  There is so much that needs to be done and so many people who need the hope of the gospel.  The possibilities are endless.  And while Chris and I are so excited to get to work, we want to make sure we are following exactly where God is leading.  During our trip to the US, we felt God saying that this would be my last year teaching at the school in Luanshya.  It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make, but we knew 2017 was going to be a year for stepping out, trying new things and learning as much as we can.  We started praying about what this “stepping out” would look like.  Rather than spending a year sitting around while we wait for God’s direction, we started talking about the possibility of interning with another ministry.  We brought the idea to the Haven of Hope team and they supported us 100%.  We want to spend some time learning from a ministry that is serving in ways we haven’t experienced before.

For awhile now, we have started feeling God put a burden on our hearts for street kids.  Street kids are, as you can probably guess, children who live on the streets.  You can find children of all ages on the streets, many orphaned and others just running away from bad home situations.  The majority are boys, but there are some girls as well.  Most of them are addicted to alcohol and inhale things like glue to get high.  They have experienced horrific things on the streets, and reaching out to these children is HARD.  We know that jumping into full-time ministry like this wouldn’t be a wise decision on our parts, so we want to get exposure and wisdom about how to minister to these precious souls.  We don’t know for sure if God is calling us into this type of work, but we will never know unless we try.

We are thankful to have found a ministry called Abba’s Heart Zambia that has agreed to let us intern with them in 2017.  They have been doing street kid ministry for 10 years in a city called Kitwe, which is just an hour away from us.  They have a home for some of the boys they’ve rescued from the streets, while also doing outreach to those still living in those conditions.  Chris and I will get to spend our time building relationships with the children, assisting with their education, discipling them and simply investing in their stories.

We are so grateful for both of the leadership teams at Haven of Hope and Abba’s Heart.  We are grateful to Haven of Hope for believing in the call that God has placed on our lives and for allowing us to use this year to explore where He wants to take us next.  We are grateful to Abba’s Heart for being willing to let us come in and be a part of their team so we can learn and be better equipped for what He wants to do through us.

We know this is a big change, but we are SO excited for this new opportunity to serve in this country we love so much!  We are ready for whatever God wants to teach us in this new year.  We know it won’t be easy…in fact, it will probably be harder than we can possibly imagine.  But we are thankful for so many people we can count on to encourage and pray for us along the way. 

If you would like to give financially to this new year of ministry, you can continue doing so through Haven of Hope.  Just send your donation to Haven of Hope at 403 S Allen Street Suite 112-A, State College, PA 16801 with a note stating it is for the Zimbas.  Also, we are always praying for more people to join our team of monthly sponsors!  Please let us know if you would like more details.

THANK YOU for all your support through this journey!  We can’t wait to share what God does next!