Today Is The Day - Zambian Missions Trip Day One

The day we have been waiting for is finally here.   Many of you have prayed for, contributed financially, donated items and are waiting in great anticipation with us to see what God is going to do through this trip.  

Some of you may just now be joining the journey and we invite you to join us in this journey.  Our Pastor (my husband) and our head Deacon Jim are joining a revival team for a missions trip to Zambia Africa.    

Mark has a burden and desire to train fellow Pastors for the work of the ministry.  While in Zambia Jim and Mark will get to speak at a Zambian Pastors Conference.  This conference started out with 50 Zambian Pastors and now is to almost 300 Pastors including some from the Congo.  God has poured out great blessing as the men have prepared and we are waiting in prayerful expectation at what God is going to do.  

This trip will also be filled with other ministry opportunities including:

• Speaking at a Youth Conference
• Visiting orphanages
• Visiting and speaking at Zambian churches
• Visiting native villages
• Going to a couple village schools
• Helping with a village farm
• Going to a blind and deaf school
• Going to a nursing home
• Ministering at a hospital
• Evangelizing through a sports clinic
• Visit a medical clinical
• Visit a town well project that we were able to help dig

The schedule is filled with awesome opportunities, but these are just opportunities without the Lord.  We are praying a couple of things:

1. That God will go before them and pave their way.  That He will open the hearts and minds of the people they will be ministering to and that many lives will be transformed by the Gospel.
2. We know without a doubt that God has called Mark and Jim to go.  Because of that we are asking for Him to do a mighty work in and through them.
3. We are asking that God use the Pastors conference for His glory to reach and impact the country of Zambia and the Congo.  
4. That this is not just another missions trip, but that the God of heaven and earth will bring many people to His Son as a result.  
5. That teens will be convicted of sin and get their lives right with the Lord.
6. That the Pastors will be renewed and revived through the preaching of God's Word. 

Our hearts are filled with so much expectation in what God will do.  We can't wait to share with you how awesome our God is and how mighty His works are!

Today, as we dropped the men off at the airport. satan was at work, but we already had our first answer to prayer before the plane took off.   At the checkout counter, there was confusion with seats and placement.  Our guys had reserved a specific seat due to some back issues and during check in the seats they had paid for were not available.  

As we headed home we prayed that God would make everything right and give the guys the seats that God wanted them to have.  After talking to Mark on the way home, he said it just didn't work out and that there wasn't much chance they would get the seats they had reserved.    Forty-Five minutes later I got the call proclaiming that God worked everything out.  Their seats were secure and even better than they had thought...not first class, but good!  :)  

I am not sure when we will hear from the guys, but I will keep everyone updated with the news.  

In the morning, I will order my prayer to You 

and eagerly watch.

Psalm 5:3b

Valerie

Jim and some of his family

The whole school sending them off

It was so neat seeing the staff,  school children, and teens surround Mark and Jim this morning before heading down the road.  

The whole team getting ready to check in.  

Ticket counter fun!

One last goodbye