Over time, the sojourn to Africa begins to make a little more sense to us… The other day Slick had a tiny bit more insight into the great “why” of it all. A voice of experience once told us, if you think God might want you to become a pastor, try every other road first. If He wants you to be a pastor, nothing else will work.

Not long after, both of us reached a point where being in full-time ministry seemed to be the only right response to the immense gift God had given us – the gift of His Son, through whom we can have a relationship with God Himself, which is the very definition of eternal life.1 So off we went to Africa, the quintessential Mission Field, with the wholehearted support of many godly advisors.

Were we all wrong? We know sans doubt that God wanted us in Africa…and we know just as certainly that He led us back to the US a short seven months later. An obvious reason “why” eludes us, but we now see several results. First, had we never gone to The Mission Field, but instead entered straight into traditional ministry, we would always wonder when times were hard if we’d made a mistake – if we were supposed to go be the missionary pilots we’d dreamed of since we were young. Now with assurance born of experience, we say, “no, that is not where God would have us.” Second, our mindset for the last several years has transformed into one of fulltime ministry. Now in a “secular” job, we still view ourselves as fulltime “ministers,” fulltime workers in God’s Kingdom. It is a step closer to how we all know we should think: what we do is irrelevant; who we are is His ambassadors to our little corner of the world wherever that is – and that is our fulltime “profession”.

So Africa has taught us some valuable lessons, but I have to admit that as we heal and move on, we thank Him daily for placing us in a place our hearts humbly and simply enjoy. I think He is pleased with that, too. Slick used to often say, as he watched God work through him in lives and situations, that he liked being a tool in God’s hand. He says that less frequently these days, hoping that as he continues to mature, God would use him as something other than a hammer! 🙂

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.2 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.3

1 John 17:3
2 John 3:8
3 Isaiah 55:8