Why we are moving to Africa?

At a family wedding last weekend and talking with family many of them the same question -- WHY?  The answer is typically long but here is my short version -- click here for the full story.  To me there are the three main reasons:

1.  To Serve

Several years back, our family had one of those tough years where it seemed like a lot of challenges all came at once.  Out of that tough time we emerged with a stronger faith, stronger family and the realization of how deeply blessed we were.  That sparked in us the need to give back and as our commitments grew both time and financially we kept wanted to give back more.

2.  To Learn

We also wanted to teach our family about the world and how it lives without all of the stuff we have in the U.S.  We wanted to learn about being with people, deeper relationships as well as about another part of the world.  Most importantly we wanted our children to learn these important concepts. 

3.  We Were Called

This is probably the hardest one to explain but the set of events that happened that led one of us to saying "we should move to Africa" was definitely not all of our doing.  It was on a date night and what started as a one week in Paris ended up a year in Africa.  Wow!  It took us a while (me a lot longer to process this) but in the end the more we talked and learned about doing it the more we felt it was what we were supposed to do next.

So what started as a set of personal crisis ended up in us deciding that we were truly blessed and that we had more to give back.  The journey so far has been amazing and I can't thank all of our friends, co-workers, church families and family enough for their support and questions.  Now some final packing and in 6 days off to start the next phase of our journey.

Troy