Leaving Malawi

With heavy, yet hopeful hearts, LeAnne and I want to inform you, our dear supporters, that this will be our last year at African Bible College in Malawi. We are pursuing a call to serve Christ nearer home. Our decision has two branches, specific and general.

First, specifically, as only children, LeAnne and I want to be available to our parents as they age. We believe this to be a Biblical value. In particular, we have been deeply concerned about my mother whose neurologist suggests that she has symptoms indicative of Parkinson’s disease. Though she by no means has been diagnosed as such, the possibility behooves our presence! Having lost my brother and father in temporal proximity, the inability to care directly for my mother has long clouded my service abroad.

Second, and more generally, the Lord calls us to preach and pastor at home in order to open opportunity here. We love Africa and are amazed at all the Lord has been able to do through us; but we also recognize that many of our graduates are aching at the chance to fill in spaces that we occupy. I feel a certain privilege in giving them a chance. We will be in a better position, with you, to allow them to make more substantive strides for the Kingdom of Christ within their own culture than we could dream. So, my call to regularly preach and shepherd, combined with our graduates’ eager grab for the baton, makes our decision not only palatable, but also, beautifully, ‘missionary’.

Our plan now, will be to move back to the States mid-April. We long for your prayers as we leave not only work, but also the only home our children have ever known and the many friends we have made. The transition will be complex, but confident that the Covenant Lord has forged this path, He will straighten the twists.

Thank you for your continued support, much more to us than mere money, which binds our hearts together in Christ Jesus and is now a great comfort for us. And as He is apt to do, may Christ secure all glory in this matter for Himself!