Sometime between 1st and 2nd semester...Africa happened.

I mentioned a few posts ago, that we had been struggling with our future. We knew something had to change with our situation...and sometimes I think people wait around for God, expecting him to speak to them in dreams or billboards. We've always believed that God gave us brains for a reason; if things were pointing us to possibly look into other options for our family, then we needed to walk out on that limb and take a step of faith.

What did that mean? Did that mean we needed to take our kids out of school and put them in a different school? Did that mean we needed to raise more support and move closer to the school so we wouldn't have to commute? Did that mean we needed to work more so we could afford to live in Lima? Or did that possibly mean we should look for a new location of ministry? As in, an entirely new location...

A few years ago, Jeff threw out an idea for our family...I remember it clearly because I was aiding in the 2nd grade classroom and I came into school one morning and said, "Jeff has lost his ever loving mind. He was looking at Seminaries to teach at in Africa!"  I assumed he was a bit crazy and left it at that, but funny enough, every so often it would come up again...and when we were feeling some of that despair of needing a change, but not knowing which direction to head, Africa came up again.

Because it's in our nature to do crazy things, we started by looking through the SIM Needs list, looking for locations that would provide Jeff with a teaching position in a Seminary and me with a teaching job, but also where the kids would get a decent education. We weren't about to pull them out of a great school and then plunk them down in a place that wouldn't meet their needs either.

One place had all the things we were looking for. It was Ethiopia.