Ready....Set...Go???

Are we really ready for this? Are you ever ready for something like this? We've been whittling down the to-do list (and yes, adding things I remember, just so I can cross those off too). Did I mention that I'm the only member of my family not on drugs right now? No...literally. Dan and Savannah are coughing up "lung butter" (Dan's charming term - I prefer phlegm, just for the spelling pleasure). And Kylie is trying to get the fluid out of her ears so she can hear. Her phobia of waking up and finding herself in the same condition as Helen Keller is hitting a little close to home. No deaf jokes near her, please. :)

Aside from the laundry, cleaning, packing, restocking, how do you prepare? I'm sure we'll see things we couldn't even fathom. I'm sure we'll be stretched in ways we can't even imagine. And I'm sure we'll be thrown some loops that will baffle us all. Most of what we've conjured up in our minds won't match the reality of our experience. I don't think I can ever be equipped enough for this.

But, of one thing I'm sure of: We serve a Mighty God. I was reminded this morning in Psalm 143,

"Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,

For in You do I trust;

Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,

For I lift up my soul to You." (v. 8)

He can direct our steps, and just as He has done so far, He will continue to do. So, we'll pack one more bag, check off one more item on the list, and trust. Trust that He is able, faithful, and desiring to lead us in the path He has for us.

As our next two days involve lots of long flights, layovers, and possible frustrations, please join with us as we pray, "Lord, Your will, not our own."

453. Update blog.

Preparation

Here we go! Just over two weeks until our dream of heading to Africa becomes reality. Now the time crunch starts- have I scheduled all the appointments? Can I start checking things off of the "to do" list? Is everything in good repair for our house sitters? Am I ready? Not just physically, but am I ready?



How do you begin to get ready for a dream you've had for 16 years? How do I erase all my preconceived ideas so I don't spend the entire time in disbelief? Lord, what will you do with our hearts when we get there? I'm scared. I'm nervous. I'm excited. I'm ready....almost.

How did we arrive at this place? Well, In 1994 God gave me (Tiffany) a heart for Africa. I wanted to go. I wanted to study. watch. read. absorb. Despite taking several other big ventures and trips, I never was presented with the right opportunity to go.

1998, Dan and I married. I'd mention Africa, Dan shrugged his shoulders, "yeah, sure, Africa would be fun." But no great passion was stirring him to join pursuing this dream of mine.

2000, Kylie joins our family. 2002, she starts talking about going to Africa. (My heart goes flutter, flutter). We ask her, "Kylie, do you want to go to Africa to tell people about Jesus?" In her honest, childlike response she states, "No, I want to see the wild animals." Out of the mouths of children....

2003, Savannah joins our clan and we're up to our eyeballs with pottytraining, strollers, diapers, pacifiers and the practicality of taking our family to Africa is looking to be...well, not...

Fast forward a few years... Years of growing up, learning from the school of hard knocks, and feeling restless. Here we find ourselves in Northern California - Dan is working at the job of his dreams, I'm schooling the girls and watching them grow in amazing leaps and bounds. I start conjuring up dreams of traveling the world, immersing into other cultures, and "living" school. I suggest living abroad, thinking Latin America as an obvious choice because of my Spanish-speaking abilities.

God steps in again. Dan attends a leadership conference where he is rocked with a broken heart for what is going on in Africa. He comes home, not talking about new ways to lead at church, but talking about AFRICA! This was completely off of my radar and took me by surprise. We started looking into some options that would use his medical skills, my teaching background, and would be open to families with small children.

Our search yielded surprisingly few options. We let it subside for a couple of months and thought it might have just been an emotional stirring.

However, God wasn't done with us. Mid October we attended a benefit concert for Courage House, a local California organization involved with rescuing girls from child sex trafficking. I'm still amazed at how the Lord weaves things together that seem to have little relevance! While others there were getting their hearts broken for the lives of young girls here in Sacramento, we were getting ours broken for the people of Africa.

The first song of the concert was a take of Brandon Heath's, "Give Me Your Eyes." In a song that we'd heard dozens of times, now a new twist and tug on our hearts would stir us. A Kenyan rapper named Samu bursts into worship in Swahili during the musical interlude. Words of praise and petition in Swahili to our Father caused Dan and I to become incapable of denying this calling. We looked at each other teary-eyed and knew. Africa is something we have to pursue.

We remembered an organization called Iris Ministries at which two of our friends have served. We started looking more into their mission statement and beliefs, and realized this could be a good fit for our family. While they do medical work, they also do community outreach, Bible schools, orphan care, and they embrace serving as a family. Long story short(er), we're checking it out for three weeks to see if it's a good fit for us and perhaps a longer stay in the future.

What will we do? A variety of things- holding babies, reading books in the library, playing games, going on community outreaches to the people who live in the villages, at the dump, and the urban areas of Maputo, Mozambique. Dan will work with their clinic at times. We'll observe how some of the orphan houses work - the baby house, the girls' house, the boys' house. We'll play games. We'll help. We'll be willing arms and legs to relieve the long term workers. We'll look for ways to plug in and see if this could be a place where we could fit in permanently.

Oh yeah, and we'll take a visit to Kruger National Park to hopefully see those wild animals that Kylie (and Savannah) are so thrilled about. (Check out the link to see the incredible video shot there a few years ago by tourists).

Will you join us on our travels? I'll try to update as often and thoroughly as possible, though I'm not sure how consistent our computer accessibility will be.

We are excited and expectant to see what the Lord will do during this time. Will you please lift us up in prayer?

Please Pray:

1) for our safety as we travel and are exposed to new bugs, viruses and diseases. Pray that the Lord would protect us and we'd be wise with our decisions.
2) that we'd be active in seeking out ways to be useful during this time and make full use of our talents and gifts, finding that "click" of belonging and being purposeful, not just for Dan and I, but Kylie and Savannah as well.

3) for the Lord to speak clearly and specifically regarding what is next for the Bergman family.

4) for the girls: that they would experience the Lord in a deep and personal way during this time, find their purpose during this trip, and even direction for their path of life.



I believe if you click on the "subscribe to all updates" posts button on the top left corner, you should be able to get automatic email notification when we've updated this website. This will probably be the best way to stay in touch with us during our trip.


We fly out on March 30th from San Francisco to New York, then to Johannesburg, South Africa and on into Maputo, Mozambique arriving on April 1st. We'll be at the Zimpeto base of Iris Ministries until the 19th when we start heading back, through the same stops. April 13th & April 14th we'll be on safari in Nelspruit, South Africa at Kruger National Park.


We are grateful for friends and family to be a part of this journey with us as we embark on the unknown, taking a big step of faith (mixed with a little trepidation, and a lot of excitement).


We love you!

Dan, Tiff, Kylie & Savannah