Trip 1 (Nov. 2010)

How did this journey start for us………..

In 2010 we heard John Abrahamse (the head of J-life) speak at our church.  In his sermon he briefly mentioned Swaziland.  For those of you that don’t know, Swaziland is a small country inside the country of South Africa.  We had a sponsored child from Swaziland and so the wheels in my head began spinning.  By the time he was done I was already daydreaming about meeting our sponsored child. Soon after that, we found out a group from our church was going to the J-life campus in South Africa to do construction. I encouraged Rob to enquire about the trip and thought how awesome it would be for him to go.  I had a fear of flying, so I knew I wouldn’t go, but what a great experience for Rob – right?

  With a little persuasion from our missions pastor and myself, Rob decided to go.  From day one the group faced many obstacles with the construction of the silos.  Rob recalls vividly standing on one of the roofs of the silos throwing his hands in the air, realizing this project wasn’t going to get completed and wondering again why he ever decided to come, but this is exactly where God wanted him.  Through the provisions of God the project was completed later (after the group left) but better than anyone could have hoped.  

The other part of the trip that God used to begin to break down some of Rob’s boundries was sharing his story at church and also going door to door to pray for individuals in the community.  Tommy and John used this opportunity to expose the group to the culture, build into the community and get everyone out of their comfort zone a bit. In Rob’s mind, he thought – I came here to build not to talk to people and pray for people.  This was the beginning of God stretching and bending us to show us His plan for our lives.  Later Rob could look back and see how God broke Rob’s pride during that trip, as well as remove the boundaries Rob had set up in ways God could use him.