God is Good!

Arise at 4:00 AM with the excitement of the “it’s-finally-here” day. Blessings on Diane Roth who rose at the crack of dawn to take two of us and team luggage to SFO by 6:30. Check in, settle in at the gate, then the “mechanical problem with the plane” announcement. Delay, delay, delay. Twelve hours and much patient rescheduling of missed connecting flights later, we fly to Chicago. Sound annoying? Actually, after fairly frantic prep days prior to our trip, the forced sitting with a wonderfully patient Goma team was quite relaxing. A gift of a day of rest. Our stay at the Raddison Hotel in Chicago was paid for by American Airlines. 2:00 AM pancakes with Mary Ellen at the 24hr. IHop hit the spot. Now we await our flight to Brussels where we’ll be put up at a hotel there again, with a full day to tour Brussels. While we waited in San Francisco, hour by hour given “one more hour” promises by American, it felt perfectly natural for all of us to just give our plans up and trust His plans to be superior to ours. And man, were they!! We’re relaxed, enjoying one another, and mostly looking forward to serving with our beloved friends at HEAL Africa. God is good, all the time.

-Charlotte Martinez

Did the E-ticket say AM or PM?

Hello from warm and muggy Chicago!

I thought this greeting would be coming from Kigali, Rwanda but it's going to take just a little longer than we'd planned to get from the Bay Area to central Africa. Our e-ticket said that American Airlines flight 1612 would depart San Francisco International airport at 9:35 AM. Well, that's not what happened. We arrived at the airport at 6:45 am. We checked in. Everything was going perfectly. Just as I sat down at Gate 66, ready to mark task #1 off the list and enjoy a double cappuccino and a little breakfast my phone rang. I thought to myself, who could this be? I looked at my phone and it said "American Airlines". That's nice. They're just confirming that our flight will indeed depart on time at 9:35 AM. As I was listening to the message Ashley Verinsky confirmed what I was hearing. Our flight was delayed until 11 AM. That meant that there was still a chance that we'd just make our connection to Brussels, Belgium out of Chicago. That delay quickly turned into 11:30 AM. Now we had a problem.

If you've read my First Pres. Messenger article you'll know that my default mode is to start strategizing almost immediately in moments like this. We did go into problem solving mode (nothing wrong with that) but this time I did pray and others on the team did as well. After about 45 minutes on the phone with American Airlines we had new reservations out of Chicago and Brussels but because Brussels Airlines does not fly to Kigali on Fridays that means we'll have an overnight stop in Belgium (not bad) and arrive in Rwanda on Saturday (2 days later than we'd planned).

The 11:30 am departure time from SFO turned into 12:30 pm which became 1:30 pm, 3:00 pm, then 5:00 pm, the 3:15 pm (which was just cruel), and finally 6:30 pm. I love airports and airplanes but even I was ready to get out of SFO by the time we were finally on the plane. American Airlines never did fix the broken aircraft we were supposed to be on but instead finally put us on a plane that arrived from Miami. So many of the original passengers on our flight had given up or transferred to other flights that the 767 to Chicago was less than half full. I haven't seen that in a long time.

The team is doing well. Bridget Nolan is rearranging our plans in Kigali and we hope to be in Goma on Sunday. Thank you so much to all of you who are praying for us. It truly is not by might or by power or by ingenuity or the ability to stragegize our way out of challenges but it is by God's Spirit.

Grace and peace,

Tim

Psalm 31

There are many details and errands to do in preparation for this trip. It seems it's all I'm thinking about as we get ready to go in a week! I read Psalm 31 this morning and it became my prayer:

My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty;

I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.

Yes, Lord, may I still and quiet my soul in preparation for our time in Goma, so that you might do your work in me.

As You Wish

The Princess Bride is on my list of top ten funniest movies. There is one line in the film that is at the heart of the story. Quite surprisingly, this three-word sentence spoken at the beginning of the film and again at the end is at the center of your story and mine. In fact, Jesus himself uses a version of this line and it is the greatest prayer he ever prayed. If we committed ourselves to praying this prayer during our trip to Goma and throughout our lives we would never be the same.

Gary Moon describes the scene in the Princess Bride where this key sentence is first spoken. “As the movie opens, we see the heroine going about chores on a farm. Her name is Buttercup. Soon we meet a young man who works on the farm and answers to the name Farm Boy. Whenever Buttercup asks Farm Boy to do something for her, he always replies, “As you wish.” That’s all he ever says to her. As they grow into their hormones, Buttercup seems to be developing a crush on Farm Boy. One day as he is about to leave the room, she asks him to fetch her a pitcher, which is within easy reach for her. Farm Boy walks over, then stares into her eyes, lifts the pitcher, and whispers, “As you wish.” In that moment, returning his gaze, Buttercup realizes that every time he has said, “As you wish,” he was really saying, “I love you.”

For 2000 years those who have the greatest spiritual sensitivity have been trying to teach us that it is this one line, spoken to God, that opens our lives to remarkable experiences with God. There is no greater expression of love than to say to God, “As you wish.” In John 14 Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” When our prayer is, “As you wish,” we are saying to God, “I love you.” Brother Lawrence writes, “It is good for us to remember that our sole occupation in life is to please God.”

To be perfectly honest, there are moments when it is easy to factor God into my decision making process and pray, “What do you want me to do, Lord?” But there are times when it doesn’t even enter my mind to consider what Jesus would have me do. There are moments when I genuinely don’t know what God wants me to do, even though I’ve sought God’s wisdom. And then there are times, more often than I really want to admit, that I know exactly what God wants me to do and I simply refuse to do it.

What I’m discovering is that as I learn to say, “As you wish”, I open myself to the transforming, life-changing, empowering work of God’s Spirit in my life who then invites me deeper into the work he is already doing in the world. May this three word response be on our hearts and minds as we seek to be Christ’s servants to one another and to the people of Eastern Congo. I am excited for the journey ahead!

Tim

The Heart of a Servant

Below is a message sent by the team leaders to the rest of the team as we prepare for our depature on July 14th!


The Heart of a Servant

At the heart of our partnership with HEAL Africa is our commitment to humbly give ourselves to our brothers and sisters in Goma. We’re going to Eastern Congo to serve in the ways they think best. We’re traveling to Goma with gifts, skills, and friendship to offer. We are going to be working alongside some truly remarkable people. Be open to learning from our friends in the Congo and from one another. Be attentive to the Holy Spirit. Stay grounded in the Scriptures. Be faithful in prayer. Trust the goodness and faithfulness of God.  Jesus Christ has called each one of us to  this ministry and has gone a head of us and will go with us into the heart of Africa!

Grace and peace!

- Tim, Mary Ellen, and Evans

Gearing Up to Go!

We're less than a month away from departing for Goma! Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We are still raising money and are only $6,000 away from reaching our fundraising goal by June 30th!

If you would like to donate any items for us to take to the trip, please contact us with your ideas and we would be happy to respond to your request. The sooner you let us know, the better!

Kinshasa Orchestra

On the other side of the country, in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, there is a fascinating video of the Kinshasa Orchestra. It's amazing to see the variety of people who come together in their common love of music to perform such magnificent pieces.