Today, October 6th, 2015 was supposed to look much different. October 6th was supposed to be the day before we stepped out into the unknown and moved our family to Uganda. This was to be our last full day in the States for at least a couple of years. We have thought about this day and played out a scene in our minds countless times over the last 12 months.
What would we be doing the day before we leave to move to northern Uganda? We pictured checking and re-checking packing lists and maybe even weighing our 24 totes that will carry all of our remaining possessions again to make sure we are not over the allowed weight limit. We envisioned double and triple checking travel documents and airline itineraries. We would make sure our transportation to the airport was taken care of. And then there's the obvious, the tears would flow as we soaked up as much time as we could with our family and friends before heading out. We probably wouldn't sleep at all tonight......well Gaines doesn't sleep much anyway, but the rest of us wouldn't either this night. Then the day of departure would come.....and we would go.
But that's not what today looks like. About two months ago, "our plans" were interrupted. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, click here.) So as a result, October 6th looks nothing like I had envisioned. Instead, we had seven kids up at 6:30 getting them ready for their day at school and daycare. Kim went to Bible study with the 8th child in tow. Since we would prefer that all of these children have food, I am off to my office (that I didn't think I would even be working at anymore) trying desperately to grasp major lending changes that are taking place in the mortgage business right now (changes that I didn't think would affect me, because hey, I'm moving to Africa, right?). Tonight, I will take 2 kids to soccer practice with the other six in tow. Kim will make a run to Costco.....because we have to buy in bulk. Then, after practice, we will begin the task of cleaning all of the children thoroughly, feeding them, and putting them to bed. Kim and I will then collapse into bed when the last child goes to sleep......and we will do it again tomorrow. No boarding passes. No luggage. No hurrying to gates. No waking up in the country that will be our new home. Not yet anyway. Only the new routine.
This new routine is not what we had planned for. For that matter, this new routine is not what we asked for. But I know one thing for sure, we do not want to waste it. We are one million percent certain that the Sovereign God of the universe orchestrated these plans long before any of us were in existence. Therefore, we do not want to waste what He is trying to teach us through this. (He has already shown me, Josh, things about myself that are not awesome, and needed to be repented of.) We do not want to waste an opportunity to show the Gospel in action to our own children and to the children entrusted in our care. And we do not want to waste an opportunity to lean into Jesus and trust Him more than we have ever had to before. We are beginning to see that this is some hands on training for some of the broken situations we will encounter overseas. And we are thankful for God's grace in allowing us to experience that.
One of my favorite quotes is from missionary Jim Elliot. He said "Wherever you are, be all there." Maybe you, the person reading this right now, find yourself in a situation you didn't expect, or necessarily plan for. Maybe it's a situation you don't even want. Wherever you are, be all there. What is God showing you through it? How can you trust Him more? How can He be brought glory through what you are walking through right now? Ask yourself these things. Whatever your current situation is........own it for the glory of God. Be. All. There. For His glory and His renown.
As for us, we still have a lot of unknowns. We are praying for some clarity in the situation over the next few weeks. Please pray with us. We still don't have a rescheduled date of departure. Please pray for God to move mountains. We desperately want to be in Africa, but until then.....wherever we are....we will be all there. We love you guys and covet your prayers and encouragement.
In Christ,
The Moody Tribe
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Saturday, September 5, 2015
"For My Thoughts Are Not Your Thoughts........" An update on our journey to Northern Uganda.
I once read an autobiography of a Navy SEAL, and he stated in the book that one of the most frustrating things about being a SEAL was when you prepare and practice and rehearse and train and cover every scenario possible for a particular mission, only to have that mission change at the last second, or worse, you are told to stand down.
I am not in any way comparing myself or my family to a group of Navy SEALs, nor do I even remotely understand what they go through in their training. However, I can relate to this particular scenario. For the last 16 months, my family has focused every ounce of our attention on planning, fundraising, and preparing to make our move to the bush of northern Uganda to serve the Acholi people with Four Corners Ministries. We have prayed and fasted. We have spoken in numerous venues. We have sat down face to face with supporters. We have made list after list, and stayed up night after night preparing. As I type this blog, we were 32 days away from taking a one way flight to Uganda.
Then, a few weeks ago, that changed. To protect those we love, I will not go into details, except to say that family members, who are very dear to us, had their children (a 2 year old little girl, and a 4 year old little boy) removed from their home under difficult circumstances. To make a long story very short, for a variety of reasons, no other family members were able to take the children into their home. So Kim and I faced two options: take the children into our home, or let them go into the foster care system and continue in our plans to depart for Uganda on October 7.
Let's step back, first, and look at this logically. We have already purchased 8 one way plane tickets to depart from Birmingham on October 7. We have a home being built for us in the bush that is very near completion. We just purchased a vehicle for our family in Uganda. We have raised nearly all of the necessary funds to go. We have sold our house and live in a 1300 sq. foot home provided by our church. We have sold all of our personal belongings. (We don't even have any winter clothes!!) Oh yeah, and we already have six kids.
Now let's look Biblically. One of our roles in serving the Acholi of northern Uganda is to love and minister to vulnerable children......the least of these, if you will. Another one of our roles will be to serve hurting families. Another of our roles, and this being our primary, is to make to disciples of Jesus Christ.
So we looked at it logically. Every logical reason, says we go to Africa. Then we looked at it Biblically. Very quickly we came to this conclusion: How can we go and fulfill these roles abroad if we are unwilling to fulfill them at home within our own family?
So as of three weeks ago, we have temporarily become a family of ten. As this is being typed, we have four beautiful little girls asleep in one room, three incredible little boys asleep in another room, and an amazing baby boy asleep in a pack n play in our bedroom. This DOES NOT, I repeat, it does not change our Uganda plans other than backing them up a bit.
We still feel very strongly that God is calling us to serve the Acholi people with Four Corners Ministries. We don't know why this has happened right now. Is God testing us to see if we will be faithful? Maybe. I don't know. But we have leaned into Isaiah 55:8-9 more than ever before. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." God has a plan in this. We trust His plan, because it's better than ours. His ways are better than ours. And we rest in that.
We are just not sure of our timeframe at this point. Prayerfully, it won't be more than a couple of months, but we are committed to serving these precious kids for now, and we are hoping and praying that they can quickly return to their mom and dad. Until then, we will love them like they are our own. Our team members at Four Corners have given us their full support and are behind us 100%. This support means more than they will ever know and confirms to us yet again, that we are with the right organization.
I can agree with the SEAL that said it is frustrating when your mission gets changed. I would be lying if we said we weren't a little frustrated with the way that our path had changed, BUT we are not upset or disappointed. Our mission has changed, but it's not less important that moving to Uganda. He has given us a task here, and we will be faithful in it. Pray for us as we adjust to being a family of ten for this season of our lives. Also, pray for our extended family as they work to get their children back. Lastly pray for these sweet babies as they go through this difficult period. Pray that somehow they see Jesus in all of this brokenness.
As always, we are grateful for all of you, friends.
God bless,
The Moody Tribe
I am not in any way comparing myself or my family to a group of Navy SEALs, nor do I even remotely understand what they go through in their training. However, I can relate to this particular scenario. For the last 16 months, my family has focused every ounce of our attention on planning, fundraising, and preparing to make our move to the bush of northern Uganda to serve the Acholi people with Four Corners Ministries. We have prayed and fasted. We have spoken in numerous venues. We have sat down face to face with supporters. We have made list after list, and stayed up night after night preparing. As I type this blog, we were 32 days away from taking a one way flight to Uganda.
Then, a few weeks ago, that changed. To protect those we love, I will not go into details, except to say that family members, who are very dear to us, had their children (a 2 year old little girl, and a 4 year old little boy) removed from their home under difficult circumstances. To make a long story very short, for a variety of reasons, no other family members were able to take the children into their home. So Kim and I faced two options: take the children into our home, or let them go into the foster care system and continue in our plans to depart for Uganda on October 7.
Let's step back, first, and look at this logically. We have already purchased 8 one way plane tickets to depart from Birmingham on October 7. We have a home being built for us in the bush that is very near completion. We just purchased a vehicle for our family in Uganda. We have raised nearly all of the necessary funds to go. We have sold our house and live in a 1300 sq. foot home provided by our church. We have sold all of our personal belongings. (We don't even have any winter clothes!!) Oh yeah, and we already have six kids.
Now let's look Biblically. One of our roles in serving the Acholi of northern Uganda is to love and minister to vulnerable children......the least of these, if you will. Another one of our roles will be to serve hurting families. Another of our roles, and this being our primary, is to make to disciples of Jesus Christ.
So we looked at it logically. Every logical reason, says we go to Africa. Then we looked at it Biblically. Very quickly we came to this conclusion: How can we go and fulfill these roles abroad if we are unwilling to fulfill them at home within our own family?
So as of three weeks ago, we have temporarily become a family of ten. As this is being typed, we have four beautiful little girls asleep in one room, three incredible little boys asleep in another room, and an amazing baby boy asleep in a pack n play in our bedroom. This DOES NOT, I repeat, it does not change our Uganda plans other than backing them up a bit.
We still feel very strongly that God is calling us to serve the Acholi people with Four Corners Ministries. We don't know why this has happened right now. Is God testing us to see if we will be faithful? Maybe. I don't know. But we have leaned into Isaiah 55:8-9 more than ever before. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." God has a plan in this. We trust His plan, because it's better than ours. His ways are better than ours. And we rest in that.
We are just not sure of our timeframe at this point. Prayerfully, it won't be more than a couple of months, but we are committed to serving these precious kids for now, and we are hoping and praying that they can quickly return to their mom and dad. Until then, we will love them like they are our own. Our team members at Four Corners have given us their full support and are behind us 100%. This support means more than they will ever know and confirms to us yet again, that we are with the right organization.
I can agree with the SEAL that said it is frustrating when your mission gets changed. I would be lying if we said we weren't a little frustrated with the way that our path had changed, BUT we are not upset or disappointed. Our mission has changed, but it's not less important that moving to Uganda. He has given us a task here, and we will be faithful in it. Pray for us as we adjust to being a family of ten for this season of our lives. Also, pray for our extended family as they work to get their children back. Lastly pray for these sweet babies as they go through this difficult period. Pray that somehow they see Jesus in all of this brokenness.
As always, we are grateful for all of you, friends.
God bless,
The Moody Tribe
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Outpost or Fort???
So those that know me, know that I have a kind of weird of obsession with all things relating to military special operations, particularly Army Special Forces and the Navy SEALs. I am fascinated by any man who is among the fittest in the world, can jump out of a plane from 30,000 feet at night, land without injury, speak three different dialects of Arabic when he hits the ground, and put a round on target from 1000 yards. That, to me, is an impressive skill set.
So I was watching a show on the National Geographic Channel a while back about a U.S. Special Forces ODA stationed in Afghanistan. ODA stands for "Operational Detachment Alpha". A typical Special Forces ODA is made up of 12 men each with his own specialty. This particular ODA was stationed at a very remote outpost alone and highly vulnerable to enemy attack. It was basically these guys, some support personnel and that was basically it.
The program showed how they lived at the outpost and followed some day to day routines, but was mainly focused on their mission, and what they did. What struck me about this group of men was how pro-active they were in their mission. Their job was basically to find and destroy the enemy. They did not sit around and wait for the Taliban to attack them. They took the fight to the Taliban.
Every single day these men went out into the fray. They went out to battle the enemy. The outpost was not their home. They came back to re-arm, sleep, eat, exercise, and maybe catch a little downtime, and it was back out again.....looking for the bad guys. They absolutely did not hunker down in the outpost, pray they weren't attacked and ride it out until their tour was over and they could go home. They had a job to do, and they were going to do it.
This is a different picture than the forts or fortified cities that we see built throughout history. These were guarded, protected, and kept the enemy from getting in. They were designed to hunker down and fight off the enemy. When an invading force attacked, those inside the forts would defend, and simply hope they weren't overrun. These fortified cities were all about holding ground already claimed and had nothing to do with taking new, enemy held ground.
As I watched the show, it dawned on me that these are two contrasting pictures of the church. Our churches (yes, I know the church is the people, but you know what I mean) were designed to operate like the Special Forces outpost. We come in. We worship. We recharge. We fellowship. We learn God's Word. Some may teach God's Word. THEN WE ARE TO GO BACK OUT INTO THE FRAY. We get back in the fight. We go where the enemy is. We seek out the lost, the broken, the poor. We go to the difficult places. BECAUSE WE HAVE A MISSION. Our mission is to make Christ known, and HE will destroy the enemy.
But I'm afraid it's not like that. Most of our churches have turned into fortified cities. We are hunkering down in the proverbial fetal position among our other Christian friends and waiting on Jesus to come back. We may go eat at Chick Fil A to support traditional marriage, or we may post scripture on Facebook, but we won't dare go to the dangerous places. That would be crazy. So we sit. And we wait.
Make no mistake, our God wins the war. And He doesn't need our help doing it. But He's inviting us to play a role. Let's join Him. He wins.
Today, 147 Christians were slaughtered at a Kenyan college. Tragedies like this should affect us, but shouldn't surprise us. This world is getting darker and it's only going to get worse. Are we, this Easter weekend, going to go into our churches and cover our heads, and ask Jesus what in the world is taking him so long? Or are going to go to the outpost, re-arm and go back out and fight.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12).
Get up and go fight.
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