Its HEEEERRRE!

Somebody pinch me. Seriously... pinch me. I am going to Africa on Monday. No matter how many times I say it, it does not seem real. I remember the night my friend Alissa and I were going to go to Heartland for worship and for some reason she ended up not being able to go, so I went by myself. Which I have never done before or since. For some reason I am weird like that... not wanting to go places by myself. But that night I did. I remember walking in and seeing Leanne Goff there. I knew as soon as I saw her that I was there to talk with her. I knew she worked for a missions agency and actually that night (at home with the kids) Brian was going to apply to Iris Ministries for us to go to their 10 week missions school. We knew Africa was where we were called to serve and Heidi's ministry was the only one we knew of there and we LOVE and respect her ministry A TON. Long story short, Leanne ended up praying for me during worship and was telling me about what GMA (Global Missions Awareness) was doing in Tanzania. She told me there was another couple our age who felt called to Africa as well and they were going to be taking a trip there in January ( this meeting was like 6 months ago ) and we should join them. That night Brian and I had already had it planned to go to our good friends Josh and Alissa's house to pray about where and what exactly God had for us in the mission field.
So later that night we went to Josh and Alissa's and I told them about the conversation I had had with Leanne. I was still talking and I looked over at Alissa and her eyes were full of tears, but I wasn't sure why or if she was crying. But she was :) . She said that as soon as I said Tanzania she had felt the Holy Spirit so intensely that she just started to cry. Brian and I were both like ... wow. So we had a great night of praying with our friends and walked out of their house feeling so confident and excited about God's leading. I remember getting in the car and just laughing and telling Brian " This is one of the most life changing days for us so far. We woke up thinking we were going to Mozambique and then go to bed knowing Tanzania is where we are supposed to be. "
All of this to say... I remember everything about the moment when Leanne said we should go to Tanzania in January. And now its here. Time goes by so quickly. I am so so so excited about our trip. There are no words to say how excited. We feel so lucky that this is what Father God has called us to do. We should have Internet access there so I will be blogging while we are there to keep track of all that is going on. Please continue to pray for peace for me with leaving the kids. I think as soon as I get on the plane I will be ok, but until then it feels overwhelming thinking about leaving them for that long. Thank you for all your prayers.... we cherish them more than you know.