God's GREAT plans...

...are so often different from the plans I come up with on my own.

It has been an amazing, yet interesting, couple of months! As Mackenzie and I have been preparing for the journey to Africa that lies ahead of us, God has continually been reminding us of the truth that He is in control of every last detail. Our plans have changed somewhat since that last time I updated you all...but I am so encouraged that even though our plans are different now than when we began, God's plans for us have not changed whatsoever!

About a month ago, we received word that Samuel, the leader of the orphanage and ministry we would be working with in Musoma, Tanzania, was in a serious and life-threatening car-accident. Since then, he has been healing at a miraculous rate, but is still recovering from many injuries. As a result, the ministry's expansion has been slowed and Africa Inland Mission has made the decision to withhold short-term teams from this placement site for the time being.

In the next few weeks after we received that information, we were waiting to hear from Africa Inland Mission about where they would place us next. Would we still be able to leave at the end of the summer? If not, when could we leave? And what would we do in the meantime once our summer jobs were over?

While these worries and fears were very present in the first week or so of waiting, God soon convinced me that I had to surrender all of them to the Lord and TRUST with every part of me that He truly is holding it all in His hands. Everything initiates in Him-- the creator and sustainer of it all.

We recently received confirmation that our new placement will be in Rundu, Namibia. (This is in the south-western part of the continent). It still looks like we will be set to depart late in August or early September. In Rundu, we will be working at The Sanctuary- which is a haven for children (mostly orphans) in Namibia who have no where to go. They provide holistic care for the children including: food, clothing, housing, medical care, and education.

It has been stretching, humbling, but also an incredible blessing to live in the reality that I have no control over the happenings of life and never had any to begin with! From the beginning, God has known what He was going to do with our "Africa plans," and none of the following information has come as a surprise to Him. I love knowing that and find all the comfort in the world from trusting that He will accomplish all of His purposes. That takes me giving up any plans or expectations that I have to acknowledge that God's work is always going to be more than I could ever ask or imagine. I truly believe that he is going to do just that: more than I could ever ask or imagine.