We cannot believe we are here already. As we are writing this blog we are sitting in the Atlanta airport, waiting on our flight back to Africa. Tomorrow our team will be landing in The Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire) and spreading out to meet our new ministry hosts.
This moment seems a little surreal though. It was about this time last year that we were waiting in this very same airport to start our very first month of the World Race in Haiti. If you had asked us a year ago where we thought we would be at the start of 2019, this would not have been our first answer! But God has a pretty good track record of working in ways that are not easily predictable. It’s in moments like these that we are happily reminded of the truth found in chapter 55 of Isaiah.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
(January of last year, we were in Haiti just starting our World Race)
Over the past few weeks, we have received many questions from our friends and family members about why we are going back out to the field and what exactly we will be doing. Here are some answers:
Why are we going back out?
As many of you know, we have not had the most conventional looking start to our marriage. Between living in Greece, doing long distance because of the military, and embarking on the World Race, life has been a little “all over the place” the past few years (quite literally). Although our hearts were set on returning home in December for good, we were also asking God to open a door to remain on the field if that was what we were meant to do. And for a long time He didn’t…
It wasn’t until October that we were asked to pray about returning to the field to lead this years team (R-Squad). After praying about it and seeking out Godly counsel, both of us felt a peace about coming back out for 6 months. Sadly, most of our reasoning for wanting to return to America was selfish…yet we had every reason to return to the field. It’s not bad to live in America—not by any means. But if that’s not where the Lord wants us for the next 6 months, that’s not where we want to be.
What will we be doing?
This time around, we will both be serving as Squad Leaders for the entire group (or “squad”) that we will be traveling with. This will be both spiritual leadership and logistic leadership as we travel from country to country. As the entire squad arrives in each country, it will split into smaller “teams” to spread throughout the country and serve various ministries. Our job will be to travel from team to team, doing life with them, encouraging them and pouring into them—making sure they are fully equipped and ready to do the work of God where they are.
With that said, our mission is still the same. The overall goal of this trip is still to preach the good news of Christ to the nations, bringing the Kingdom of God wherever we go and being the hands and feet of Christ throughout the globe. We recently read something by Ravi Zacharias that beautifully sums up where we are as we enter this new year:
“It is the message of the Cross we will continue to carry as the old year passes and the new one begins. God’s word abides forever.”
Where are we going?
We will still be serving in one country every month (just like we did last year). Those countries are:
The Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire), Ghana, Togo, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Meet Our Leadership Team
These are the two lovely ladies we will be serving alongside of during these next six months. They will also serve as Squad Leaders.
(Pictured Left to Right: Kaydan, Katherine, Leticia, and Katy)
As we enter this next season of life, please continue to pray for us. Please pray for our individual relationships with God, our marriage, our ministry, and that we would lead by example just as Jesus did.
We cannot thank you enough for reading the blog and staying updated on all that the Lord is doing in our lives. If you have any questions about these next few months, please don’t hesitate to comment below or shoot us an email.
Also, subscribe to the blog by hitting the orange “Subscribe” button up above if you want to stay updated on us during these next six months!
Also, if you missed our journey home from the World Race in December–here are the last two videos Kaydan posted to the YouTube channel!
