With a confused heart

Hello my friends and supporters of all kinds.  The last couple of weeks have been difficult at the school I "volunteer" at.  The deal was I volunteer and the kids get scholarships. Well, last week I was called in and told there had been changes to SARS (South African Revenue Service) ie...tax man. And it's no longer legal for me to volunteer and my kids still remain getting scholarships. So we waited and waited and waited.

Today, I met with on the head HR guys at our school corporation and our head bursar. And, tomorrow is my last day at Waterstone College. It is with a heavy heart because I will miss all the relationships I have built over the last 4.5 years and miss the kids. One the other side, I am quite excited to see what the Lord has planned for the next stage of my missionary life.  The kids will continue to get scholarships this year and Matthew was offered one for his final year next year. Grace will need to apply or we are considering homeschooling.  Please be in prayer as we transition.

Romans 6:33-34 What you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what He wants you to do. Then he will give you all these other things you need. So don't worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Love 

Missionary Monday 6

This is Palgrave. He is the country leader in Ghana, Ghana is in West Africa. This is his family. His wife Irene and children, Ruth-Janelle and Steve. I believe Palgrave went through the J-Life training in 2007. So, he has been around longer than we have. He has a great team around him to help him in the disciple making movement in Ghana. This year, Palgrave has been instrumental in growing disciples outside of Ghana. He has helped Nelson from Sierra Leone come to J-Life and continues to meet with him now that they are both back in west Africa. 

• Pray for Palgrave and Irene and their children, That the Lord would grant them wisdom to raise their beautiful children and to make time for their marriage.
• Pray for Ghana as they continue to grow the work being done there
• Pray for the outreach past Ghana's borders that is happening. 
• Pray for Palgrave as he continues to help Nelson through his first year in J-Life.

Missionary Monday 5

Today we have 2 exciting things happening....First a guest writer....David Even. YES folks, you got it right. My husband wrote this blog about the second exciting thing....GOD THINGS happening in Burundi. 

Burundi? you ask...where the heck is Burundi and what is God doing there....Well first a geography lesson. Burundi is in East Africa just south of Rwanda and west of Tanzania and east of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  Who is in Burundi? you ask....Bosco. His picture and story are below.

Bosco in Burundi Mar 2015 through Mar 2016

His name is Jean Bosco Mutebutsi, he likes to be called Bosco. Until about two months ago he lived in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. Burundi held its national elections early in 2015. Following the results of that election – total chaos…! Rioting and killings were the order of the day – every day.

While Bosco was with us for our annual Summit he was hearing from his friends back in Burundi. A great number of his friends were leaving the country. They were all telling him “do not come back here, it’s not safe”. One of his friends even managed to secure a flight for Bosco so he could leave directly from the airport to Rwanda.

But after much prayer Bosco was sure the Lord was telling him to stay. So he stayed. The rioting and killing continued all around him. But he was able to make more progress than he had before! He has added good, committed people to his team and they have gone into new regions to train the church leaders in disciplemaking. In short, he has seen a great increase in fruit because he was obedient and stayed where the Lord put him.

We have since been able to help him move to a somewhat safer location and the rioting and shootings have diminished.

Please pray for Bosco and his team to continue seeing fruitfulness in the work of the Kingdom to which they’ve been called.

Missionary Monday 4

This week's Missionary Monday is about a new country to J-Life, Sierra Leone. We are so excited to have Nelson Coulson from Sierra Leone come and train with us for the first 6 weeks of this year. We are so thankful for the Lord who puts connections and people together for the furthering of His kingdom. 

Nelson's story of how he came to know about J-life is only one that God can orchestrate. He was walking along the road one day feeling very down and despondent. His walk with the Lord was not where he wanted it to be.  A big wind came up and this flyer flew into his body. So he grabbed it and put it in his pocket. Later that evening, he reached in his pocket to find this flyer that spoke of youth ministry and discipleship. The flyer was about GYI (Global Youth Initiative) which J-Life is a part of this organization. So he contacted the name on the flyer and they said there is a man in Ghana that you can speak to about discipleship and youth ministry in Africa. This was Palgrave, our country leader. Because of the ebola break out, they were delayed in meeting, But the Lord used this flyer about GYI to connect Nelson to J-Life. I think of all the testimony flyers we have handed out over the years on mission trips with Grant and think that God uses those pieces of paper. 

• Pray for Nelson and his wife Juliana
• Pray for the ministry to spread throughout Sierra Leone 
• Pray for Nelson to implement what he learned in the 6 weeks in South Africa
• Pray for Palgrave as he continues to journey with Nelson

Missionary Monday 3

This week Missionary Monday is about Florence and Leo Fokoua. Florence is the country leader of Cameroon. They have been with J-Life since 2008.  Cameroon was one of our first northern French speaking African countries to come to J-Life. Florence and I became fast friends at summit in 2009. She is joy to be around. She exudes the love of the Lord. I affectionately refer to her as the queen and Leo the king. I don't know where it came from, but as you can maybe see from their picture, they are royal members of Christ's family.  Florence and Leo have 3 daughters, Gladys (20), Ariel (14) and Jodie (10). Gladys is an adopted member of their family. If you are in youth work long, you know that eventually you have adopted sons and daughters. We have many from over the years. Florence has a vibrant ministry that reaches beyond the borders of Cameroon. She is a champion for J-Life and our French speaking countries.

• Pray for Florence and Leo and the girls 
• Pray for the new ministry center being built
• Pray that Florence would continue to reach the youth of Cameroon and beyond

Missionary Monday 2

This week I am going to feature Zoe and Adam Zogar. Zoe is the country leader of Liberia. They just celebrated their 1st year marriage anniversary. They had to put off their marriage because of the ebola epidemic in 2014/2015.  We are blessed to have such a young vibrate couple in Liberia.Despite the ebola epidemic, ministry continued to happen, just on a smaller scale. Liberia was one of the worst hit countries and many things shut down during this time. There was very limited travel, even between towns and villages.  Adam is on Zoe's team and helps a lot with the financial side of things because he is an accountant. We look forward to see what the Lord has planned in 2016 now that ministry can be back into "full swing".

• Pray for opportunities to have GC2 groups (discipleship groups)
• Pray for their young marriage to be blessed and not strained under ministry demands
• Pray for expanded outreach and new connections

Say what?!?!

I know, I know....your flabbergasted I am writing, but one of my New Years resolutions is to blog at least 6 times this year...for all you bloggers who blog everyday, well I know it seems like little, but for me it's big.  Been gone for a year.  And honestly I don't know what happened. Just stopped.

Anywho....

J-Life Summit 2016

Summit is where all 20+ Country leaders and some team members get together for a week of training, mentoring, sharing, learning, worshipping, and encouraging one another. The leadership team shares vision for the next 4 years. Its a hectic week for everyone with all the traveling and meetings, but well worth all the effort for us all to be together. I am only there a little bit because I am at school with the kids, but love visiting with all of our people when I can. They are such amazing people who share the love of Jesus and want to share His life with others.

It's amazing some of their stories, of which I will be sharing over the next few weeks on "Missionary Mondays". I know typing this now commits me to doing it on Mondays. Eeeks. I can and will do it. People keep me accountable. If you don't see a story....get onto me.

In case this video doesn't work....here is a Facebook Link to Video

So, this is the week of faces except for the final celebration dinner which I will put up pics tomorrow.  The internet has been super slow. It's taken me ten tries and all afternoon to get this video loaded.  

love serving together....

liz