Family Planning

We're planning to expand our team family . . . by five! No, no one is pregnant with quintuplets. Instead we participated in the conference call evaluation for Anna Linhart and the Johnson family. Anna is a teacher from North Carolina who has long had a heart for missions . . since she spent two years in Africa as a child when her parents worked at a school in Niger. She graduated with a degree in teaching and will come to work both with our missionary kids and cross-culturally with Ugandan children. Travis and Amy Johnson visited us in January, and we are so thankful that the visit was used by God to move their hearts towards Bundibugyo. Travis is a family medicine doctor completing an MPH at Harvard (well, we can't ALL go to Hopkins) and Amy is an educator with a master's degree and international experience. They have two children, Lilly and Patton. We eagerly anticipate working together, and growing into friendship while we do.

Family planning is an important part of health and survival. I pulled out an old prayer list from the summer of 2007 in which we anticipated Ashley, Sarah, Heidi, the Clarks, and two as-yet-to-be-found guys (Nathan, as it turned out, was one, and Scott Will will join as the other). For the last two year's we've been in the "spacing" phase of family planning, refraining from additions while we made sure to bring that 2007 list to life. When the Clarks land in a couple of weeks, that process will be just about complete. . . Which means we're ready to grow again. So today's conference call is analogous to the positive pregnancy test. We know new members are on the way, but there is a lengthy gestation before we actually see them. Anna and the Johnsons will spend the next six to nine months growing . . in grace, in prayer, in connection with supporters, in readiness to survive outside of America's protection. They will write letters and make phone calls and speak at churches; they will participate in WHM's Sonship spiritual formation program; they will attend MTI's pre-field cross-cultural orientation; they will shop and plan and say goodbyes. And we will have that time to be ready for them, to consider the impact of our changing family structure and dynamic, to make their entry into Bundibugyo as smooth as possible.

As in biological family planning, our plans may not always be God's plans (said humbly by the doctors who managed to have four kids in five years while "planning" . . . ). But we would like to see these five joined by several others, sooner rather than later. We still need a family willing to partner in education (could be administrators, counselors, pastors, handy-people, not just teachers); a couple or a young man to disciple and counsel Ugandan late teen/ early 20's post-secondary school kids; and a couple to serve as team leaders for us while we're on furlough. By faith, we hope to share more news of Great Expectations with you soon.