Swazi, party of 12!

Oh friends. You would struggle to believe the stories if I told you. How God has let us wander around a bit, waiting on Him to define who is to travel with us, when we would travel, how He would provide...It's such an adventure just getting ready for the adventure of a mission trip!!

Months ago, the first people who committed to this team were my chiropractor Denise and her husband Brad. We've known each other a long time, and I was so thankful to have them on board. Rather early on, I asked Denise about the possibility of their son Josh, a great musician and singer, coming along, since this year we were really praying for more males as well as a worship leader. She said she would ask him, but it ended just not being something he felt he should consider.

It wasn't much longer before our church's worship pastor, Robert, said he would consider going with us as part of the team. We planned and prayed that God, funding, and circumstances would allow him to join us. As time went on, we began to assume Robert was going to be leading worship for us in Swaziland, though he was always careful to say that he was still taking steps to go, but did not ever say he was positive he would. Things seemed to be falling into place just like we had prayed.

When we learned a couple of weeks ago that Robert felt God had clearly closed the door for him to come with us, I was disappointed, but also not very surprised. I had felt some hesitancy that things would work out, not in a pessimistic way, but just prompting of the Holy Spirit to wait and trust, even in disappointment. His certainty and the peace we all felt was good confirmation that God was up to something beyond our plans. When we trusted so much in Robert's ability as a worship leader, and experience as a short-term missionary, we were not leaning on God as much to guide us, and we hadn't even left yet! I love that Robert was humble enough to surrender the position of leadership we were wanting him to have, and also his spot on the team, with absolute trust that his desire to go wasn't as important as what we needed to experience and without pressure to please us as a team.

We sat and discussed as a team. Without Robert, we were really close to having all the money necessary for our expenses. That sounded really good and we were happy to think of a positive spin on something disappointing. Then Denise and Brad thought maybe Josh would consider going in Robert's place. They talked to him over the weekend, but with barely three weeks' notice, he was understandably hesitant to commit, with work commitments and college resuming soon.

Over the weekend though, there were a lot of prayers said, and the Holy Spirit kept working. This past Monday morning, Josh called his mom to tell her he felt he was supposed to join our team! We really are beyond thankful that not only do we have a worship leader, but another young man who can be a great example to the kids we will meet. God is so gracious to bring those to our team to encourage us and be part of the group for a season, like Robert, and then to move in hearts and work out details for a late change (to our way of thinking) to the final team.

As of Friday evening, we finally have tickets!! The joy in our hearts that this milestone has been crossed is just unreal. We are so thankful!! God definitely has worked, in HIS timing. We had planned to buy tickets LAST Friday and just did not move forward with it, even after touching base with the travel agent. Now we can look back and see that there was a reason the Lord kept us from only buying 11 tickets. We are so glad to be back to 12 team members, and ask you to keep praying for us as we prepare to leave. We have the final funds to still gather, and supplies we need to take to the children. We have seen so much provision and answered prayer and just keep sharing these stories to hopefully encourage you as they have us!!