Prayer and Preparation Update

If there is one thing I have learned the past month or so, it is this:

• When you jump into God's River, the destination is inevitable!

In other words, God is so gracious to honor our surrender to Him. As we totally surrender to Him, he multiplies our time and resources by taking care of the details. Some examples in our journey are:

• We have a serious prospect for the sale of our home without utilizing a realtor or even putting up a sign! (Pray with us over the details, we have a major meeting with the potential buyers this week) The potential buyers are also Christians and have a serious interest in our mission work.
• Even though we have not begun asking for support, friends, family, and people we did not previously know are asking how they can contribute! (Pray as we work out these details. We will have information on how money should be contributed as a tax deduction very soon)
• God continues to lead people into our lives that have the expertise to help us with things such as travel, insurance, new skills, etc. (Pray that we are wise in our decision making over these details)
• God has moved on each of our hearts, individually, to extend our commitment to two years. Jullianne came home from a weekend retreat last week and shared with us over dinner that she had something to share. She told us that she felt God was telling us to stay for two years. This was an answer to my prayer!

Additional prayer opportunities:

• Favor as our sponsor applies for our VISAs.
• Opportunities to share our vision with others.
• Richard Isindu, our sponsor in Kenya. Pray for his strength and continued anointing in his work.

May God richly bless all of you as you continue to provide prayer support for God's work in our lives.

David, Janene, and Jullianne

PrayerWalk to Africa

Hello friends,

When I take my daily walks in and around our quiet town, I take time to reflect and speak with our Savior. Well, yesterday God spoke to my Spirit concerning a fun and motivating project that each of you may choose to participate in. The first thing I heard is that He wanted me to walk the distance to Africa between now and the time we left! After doing some quick calculations in my head, I realized that would require walking over 30 miles a day until we leave for Africa. I said to myself that there was no way I could do that, so I began to think I had heard wrong.

Then I realized that God was speaking the same Word to me he had spoken that morning. He was reminding me that I could not do this alone. Just as I needed to have many people praying for me to be an effective missionary, I would need many to accomplish this 8400 mile trek to Africa. “Thank you, Lord for reinforcing this to me.”

So here is where each of you comes in as the Lord leads in your life. I am asking you to seek God for participation in a project of combining our walking miles as you pray for my family’s preparation for and work in Africa. If you can’t walk and God still wants you to participate, you can ask someone who would like to walk for you while you pray.

I will provide updates of progress on a weekly basis so we can all see what we can accomplish together. This will give us a vivid picture of the power of many praying for one purpose.

There will also be incentives for those who participate (We really want to encourage your praying!). For those who walk 50 miles, we will provide a T-Shirt especially designed by Jullianne. For each additional 50 miles you will receive a pin of some sort to be determined. I believe God’s purpose in this is to draw us together in His work and the T-shirts will be a continual reminder to pray. Wear the shirts as you walk and perhaps you’ll have an opportunity to share Christ when you walk!

Finally, please respond with your desire to pray for us (even if you don’t walk). This would be a great encouragement for the days ahead.

May you be richly blessed!

David, Janene, and Jullianne Waldrop

Initial Mission Trip Announcement

Greetings in our Lord,
Some of you already know of our Family’s plan to go to Africa as missionaries for a season. Janene and I (as well as Jullianne) developed a growing burden for the African Continent since our scouting trip to Botswana a couple of years ago. Some of you even know of God’s calling on our lives to go into missions that we have run from over the years. God has so graciously and mercifully given us this opportunity to redeem the time and we have set our faces towards him and our lives to the task that is set before us. I glorify Him for His long-suffering with us in our disobedience.
As we have been preparing to go, we have daily recognized a great need for prayer support. We have understood, as never before, how vital it is that like-minded believers pray together for God’s guidance in their lives. Because all of you have sown into our lives so richly at some point in our lives, we are requesting that you bless us once again with your intercession during this critical time in our preparation. At this point we have identified the following needs for prayer:

• Where in Africa are we to go and who would God choose to sponsor us? Four locations have been placed before us and the more I have prayed, the more I am unsure what God is speaking. This is what has prompted my realization that I really NEED prayer support. At this time we are considering the following locations:

1) South Africa – Cape Town or Johannasburg. Our previous pastor is ministering in Africa and is based in Cape Town and has been used by God to stir our hearts for the seed God planted in our hearts years ago. In Johannasburg, we have become acquainted with a leader on two separate occasions who has offered to assist us in any way possible
2) Botswana – This is the country we visited a couple of years ago. We were moved by the need in Gaberone as well as an established ministry in Maun.
3) Kenya – Our good friend Sarah Brickman is now in Nairobi working with Dove Ministries. Her parents (previous pastor and wife) have greatly enriched our walk with the Lord and worked with us in some very difficult times. We have also recently met a wonderful man who is a native of Kenya working to build churches and schools in some of the poorest areas.

• Daily guidance as we make decisions to get rid of the ‘stuff’ we have accumulated over the years. It’s amazing the junk we keep. We need to hear from God what we should keep and what to get rid of. This is especially difficult for Janene.
• Continued Spiritual growth as God works in our hearts to prepare us for the work.
  

This is a start. I would also ask that you do a few of other things:
Let us know that you are praying for us and share with us any Word you may receive on our behalf.
Share with us any others you know who would be interested in hearing about what God is doing in this work. We would be honored to share with them, as well. If they do not have email, we will send letters if we have their address.

**Please share with us anything we can pray with you about. God’s principle of "Give and you shall receive" works in prayer. We want to be invested in praying for those who pray for us!
Welcome to our God-given adventure! We glorify Him for all that He is doing. We will share more with you later. God burdened me this morning to get this out quickly. If you would like for us to share our calling with your friends or church, we are available.

Thank you for your time and may God Bless
David, Janene, and Jullianne

Purpose of My Blog

I told one of my darling daughters I had no idea what to write on my first blog. She said I just needed to get started, so here I am.
I hope I will be able to chronicle my family's journey into missions to include what God tells me along the way. It is my desire to intrigue you with God's workings in our lives and what He might be saying to you as we journey together. This blog will hopefully feel like a journal as you read it, but I will try not to bore you with some of the details. Feel free to communicate with me as your words will be used by God to speak to me as well.
Let's have fun together as we experience the wonderful world of God's calling in all of our lives.