THANKFULNESS!

Post Card Photo

Kenya Thank you

Rod and I work for Mission Aviation Fellowship here in Congo.  Part of the job is finding supporters in the states to partner with us in ministry.  When we left to go overseas over 22 years ago, we were a young married couple expecting our second child.  We visited many churches and homes sharing about the ministries we planned to do in Zaire, Africa.  We were often surprised at those who stepped forward to support our ministry.  I learned quickly not to "expect" support from anyone.  Often the one who we thought we were sharing our ministry with and who was actually catching the vision were two different people.  Like I said, "That was over 22 years ago!"  Many of those people are still supporting us to this day!

Supporters bought us this truck to get through the roads here.

I have a goal of thanking those ministry partners with a personal note every six months.  There were years when our children were small and I was homeschooling them that I didn't make that goal.  After a while I was convicted of a need for me to show thankfulness and got back at it.
 I am in that process right now.  There are several observations I  have been making.  First, once again you never can predict who will remain faithful for 22+ years as part of the support team.  I wonder if these wonderful partners knew when they made that commitment that it would be for such a long time.  We have actually had people stop us and ask when we think we have done enough.  Then again we started out telling people that this was our lifetime career.  
Second, almost every one of these partners are special and bring back memories that make me want to write a story about them or give them a badge of honor.  There were two that I didn't know  who in the world they were but I had a great time googling them.  Lydia and picked out our favorite of a particular name on Facebook.  We liked the one who was playing with his kids. :)  That's okay if it wasn't him.
I had one time I didn't know who that ministry partner was and I "thought" she was a lady we had met in a church in Ohio but her address was California.  I put off making personal contact with her for so

Christmas Card Thank you note

long it was embarrassing.  When I finally did contact her I found out that we had never met her, she had picked us from a list of names and loved our ministry.  I learned to stop procrastinating after that.  Too bad the lesson didn't stick permanently.

Christmas Card Thank you note!

A third lesson is humility.  I am an American whose roots go back to the hills of Tennessee right after the American Revolution as well as various other lines including the ones who greeted those relatives coming over the hills.  We don't depend on other people, we pull ourselves up by our own boot straps. When we became missionaries we had to learn to reach out and ask for support from others.  There are times I am so humbled by those people who sacrifice regularly so we can serve the Lord here in Congo. 
Fourth lesson, most of these people that support us financially also support us through prayers.  Actually, many that I have no written record of pray for us.  I wish I could send each of them a thank you note every six months too.  Maybe one of these days I will do that with the whole mailing list just to make sure they all get thanked.  Prayer can be work but it is the way many barriers are overcome and the way we remain here in Africa for so long.  Thank you if you are praying for a missionary whether it be Rod and I or someone else.