Yolanda and I really enjoyed our time at ICOM this past weekend (aside from Yolanda being under the weather)! We were thankful to be challenged by the main speakers, learn new things in the workshops, and connect with friends. We felt encouraged by our time there. There was one particular speaker who moved us. He made the case for missions. Of course he acknowledged that he was speaking to the choir, but he got us more fired up, more passionate, and more excited to spread the Gospel to those who haven't heard it. We are more convinced than ever that this is what God wants "us" to be doing. By "us," I am including all of our JM2Z friends (YOU), not just Yolanda and me. You who are supporting us, whether prayerfully or financially, are fulfilling the Great Commission in being a part of spreading the Gospel around the world. Yolanda and I are all pumped up for JM2Z, and are thrilled for all of you who are on this journey with us!

At ICOM, Yolanda and I particularly enjoyed worshipping God with 10,000+ other people each day, led by an amazing praise band. Below is a short clip of this.  Hallelujah! Holy holy, God Almighty, the Great I Am!

We arrived in Wheaton, IL on Sunday evening after the conference. We were thankful to have driven in after the tornados went through, and are praying for all of those who are hurting physically and emotionally. On Monday, we presented JM2Z to a group. They were all receptive and interested, and asked some great questions.  This week we also have a busy schedule meeting with people and getting some errands done.

Yolanda and I feel blessed for continued opportunities to share about JM2Z. We can see God working in so many people's lives. God is faithful, and we are thankful that He is continually with us, and carrying us along the way!

We made it safely to Kansas City this afternoon for the missions conference. God is good. As you can see to the left, we already have the weekend's booklet, and are deciding which workshops to attend. We attended the opening main session tonight, which started out with singing, led by an amazing praise team. Tonight's speaker was from Mexico, and is the president of ICOM for this year. Tomorrow and Friday, we will attend several workshops, along with morning and evening main sessions with various speakers. We have already connected with several friends.

I said that we made it here safely, which was a big answer to prayer, especially with our recent car issue we mentioned in the last blog. Last evening, we drove from Albuquerque to just into Kansas. We got a later than desired start, due to the fact that the mechanics took extra time on the car, which is appreciated because they wanted to get it right. This meant that we had to drive on the little 2 lane highway in the dark. Yolanda was driving this stretch, and at one point, a large semi truck was driving toward us in the other lane, and right next to it was another semi truck, attempting to pass it. So, they were side by side, with the truck attempting to pass in our lane, heading straight for us. At first, we didn't know if this was actually happening, because of course the driver could see us coming. However, it was happening, and when we realized the truck was not going to have enough time to get over, Yolanda made the split-second decision to go off the road, on to the shoulder, even having to go a little off the shoulder. The car behind us had to do the same thing. If Yolanda hadn't acted when she did, we would have most certainly been on a collision course, and not good odds for us with a semi. Did I already mention God is good? Well, He is!

We feel extremely blessed, to "cheat death" once again, in what was an extraordinary circumstance. Maybe these types of close calls on the road happen more often than I think, but in 15 years of driving in the U.S., I've never seen this particular situation before! Did we cheat death? We don't think so. We KNOW that God carried us through that situation. It is very apparent to us that God has more in store for us, not for our own sake, but for His; not that we can do anything good for Him, but that He wants to continue using us, to serve Him, for His glory. We need to do our part to make sure that we do that, as He deserves.

Please continue to pray for our safety as we still have an 8hr drive back to Wheaton on Sunday. Please also keep us in your prayers this weekend as we attend workshops, visit with friends, enjoy fellowship with other missionaries, and are encouraged by the main sessions each day.

Our hope is that our next post will not include any near-death experiences :-)

Well, we are supposed to still be on the road driving towards Kansas. However, we are stuck in a hotel in Alburquerque, New Mexico (the sun setting over Alburquerque right now, pictured to the left). This morning, we left our hotel in Gallup, NM and started our 9.5hr drive to Kansas. (The day before, we had driven over a big dip in the road on the highway, but never heard the car scrapping, but we believe this is when the problem might have started. We had also driven for 4 more hours after this). We started to hear a rattling sound from beneath the car while driving, and when we stopped to fill up on gas, we decided to take a look under the car. We saw a large piece of metal hanging loose from below the car, and although it wasn't dragging on the ground, we decided to stop at the closest Ford dealership and have it looked at. Thankfully, we were only about 15mins away from Alburquerque and were able to find a garage pretty easily. In hindsight, we are very glad we decided to stop and have it looked at, as opposed to having kept on driving and dealing with it once we got to our destination. 

The garage was able to get us in right away, and immediately, the mechanic told us there was a problem. He showed us under the car where the heat shielding had ripped apart, and even though it was only one piece that was hanging down beneath the car, the entire heat shielding was loose. The head mechanic was shocked and said the car could have exploded, due to excess heat to the undercarriage and the gas tank. He said at the least the car should have been on fire because the cardboard shielding above the pipes, closer to the engine, was in contact with the exhaust and it should hae set alight.  Our hearts skipped a beat at hearing this. He then went on to tell us that if we did scrape the bottom of the car driving through the dip, we were lucky it didn't rip apart the brakeline and gas pipe. We would have been driving without brakes, and leaking gas at 75mph (the speed limit was 75 :-) Needless to say, we are feeling very blessed right now. The situation was so bad that the mechanic offered to drive us to a hotel until our car was ready, because he said it could be fatal to keep driving, even for a short distance.

Unfortunately, the car parts needed to be ordered from Denver, but thankfully, because it was early in the day, they will arrive tomorrow morning. Therefore, we probably won't get on the road again until about noon. We will still have 12.5hrs of driving left after that. We are not looking forward to the long drive and then immediately going into the Missions Convention (ICOM) exhausted. However, as I've already said, eveything aside, we are feeling blessed that we are safe. It's unfortunate that the work will put us back several hundreds of dollars and a whole day of driving (not to mention, the hotel we would have stayed at tonight will not reimburse us our money).

We pray every day for traveling mercies and we know others pray for our safety, and so we feel grateful and appreciative to God's protecting hand, His answer to prayers, and His favor on our lives.

As we sit here in the hotel, it has allowed us to work on some things, get some much needed rest, and spend some time pondering the frailty of life and the blessing it is to be alive!

We left Eugene last Saturday, arriving at Pine Valley Bible Conference Center (near San Diego, CA) on Sunday evening. This is where Jessie Gundersen (a JM2Z board member) lives with her family. Her husband works at the camp. On Wednesday, Yolanda had the opportunity to lead a devotional for the camp's staff. She spoke on Isaiah 1:17, "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." Following that, Yolanda was asked to give a brief overview of JM2Z. This gave the staff an idea of what the ministry is about, and provided a preview for her official presentation, which would be the next day. After the devotional time, Yolanda led an educational and fun activity time for elementary age children of the staff members, who are homeschooled (pictured to the left). She told them about Zimbabwe, what children do for fun, food that people eat, what animals they have, and even gave them some language training, by teaching them a few words in Shona.

The following evening, Yolanda presented JM2Z to the adults and teenagers. It was well attended, and they were very interested, asking lots of questions. One of the teens wants to be a medical nurse, working with orphans after college, and she asked about mission trip opportunities with us. It's great to see God working in the hearts of people of all ages! The evening resulted in some new JM2Z friends and supporters.

We will be back on the road again on Monday, arriving in Kansas City on Wednesday. We will be at ICOM (International Conference on Missions) through the 17th. Please pray for us, as we travel. Please also pray that we would learn what we need to at the workshops we attend, and that we have good fellowship with other missionary friends who will also be attending.

Below is a video clip of Yolanda teaching a few Shona words to the children. Can you pronounce each of the greetings?