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
