It's Now or Never!

By Tim

I can’t believe 2009 is over, and another year is about to begin. Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday when we were bringing in the new year of 2009 with our friends in Connecticut, when we had another entire year in London to look forward to… and what a crazy year it’s been. A birth (my niece), a death (my grandmother), becoming completely debt-free, and economic collapse affecting business, U.S. citizenship for Natasha after a 5-year wait, and sadly, an unexpectedly revoked South African citizenship shortly thereafter. This has been a challenging year in many ways. I’m one who often thinks I’m in control. But if I were truly in control, 2009 would have gone a bit differently. No deaths, no economic downturn, no lost citizenships. No surprises, just forecast, positive calculations coming true. It’s been exactly 5 years today since I left the engineering industry, but I’m still very much a numbers person who strives to be correct and a messenger of good news – while trying (unsuccessfully) to be in control.

Alas, my success rate isn’t close to 100% - by far. After 32 years, you think I would have learned by now. I cried when I got my first imperfect score on a quiz in 1st grade. I felt I had failed when someone temporarily bumped me from the #1 ranking in my high school class. At one point I thought I might have been throwing away my undergrad and graduate training when I decided to ditch my engineering career to be a product manager in the marketing industry. But time and time again, things aren’t as bad as they seem. After all, perfection isn’t everything; using my God-given talents to the best of my ability to impact my life and those around me, is.

I have a history of trying to keep things in control – even merely trying to keep my horizon fixed – and failing every time. When I was a junior in high school, I had the opportunity to go to the Governor’s School of Art for a summer session. I was the runner-up in final selection and someone got sick just before the session began and cancelled, so the full-ride grant was mine if I wanted it. I remember the phone call with this news. No one was home except me, and the caller needed and answer right then and there; the program began the following Monday. I was afraid to take a chance. After a brief pause I said no, but thank you anyway. With some surprise, the caller said okay and we said goodbye. I felt conflicted after I hung up the phone. I knew I had passed up an opportunity, but I was sheepishly relieved to have not taken a daring chance to leave home for part of the summer. Maybe it was an opportunity “of a lifetime”, maybe not. But it was, at least, an opportunity to expand my horizons: to meet new people, learn new things …explore, dream, discover. But instead I kept my horizon fixed and static, and left wondering what could have been.

But God is so good, and works through my fear and poor decisions by taking me places, and through it He’s helped me to take more risks – and have no regrets.

When I wanted to choose the ‘safe’ school for university, He prompted me to push the envelope a little – and take the path where fewer friends were going, and home was (a little) further away. When I gave in to a friend’s persistence to make me try out for the cheerleading team, I discovered and took the opportunity to get in the best physical fitness shape of my life (and yes, meet some girls!). And when I (finally) decided to act on a crush and ask a girl out, He led me through an important experience that left me heartbroken and crushed at the end, after I had tried unsuccessfully to put my identity and security in the relationship. And when I wanted to join a fraternity, He guided me to the place where, a couple years later, when I was heartbroken after the failed relationship, I met Jesus for the first time through some amazing brothers in Brian, Micah and Billy – and was it the place where I would have least expected to meet Him! Since then I’ve taken more chances, met the love of my life in Natasha, moved overseas, been to more countries in the last 3 years than in the previous 29 years combined – and I’ve enjoyed the ride immensely, through thick and thin.

When we take chances in life – whether we succeed or fail – we expand our horizons regardless, and we risk what we have. If we don’t take a chance, we ultimately fail because change inevitably happens whether we like it or not. We can either let the world pass us by, or take our own route in the chaos. It’s all about perspective, and where we put our values.

In just 45 days, we’re taking a chance and a new chapter will be beginning. For now, it’s a relatively short one – just 5 months – but certainly long enough to make a considerable and life-long impact on myself and others around me. I truly consider it to be a chance of a lifetime, and I’m not letting this one pass me by!

Visas and Vaccinations

By Natasha

Ok... so now we have less than 70 days to go before our departure date! And the reality of what we are about to embark on is really starting to set in. Like Lana mentioned in her previous note, we are right in the thick of preparations. And things are only going to get busier and crazier as we approach that mark.

One thing we haven’t mentioned yet is that we have been meeting every Monday night for the past few months to plan and prepare for our trip. What we do is we get together for a meal, do a Bible Study together, give updates on the to-do’s on our list and then do some route planning (which is quite complicated believe you me!) and then some time to pray. Some weeks we’ve gone completely off topic, but it was all so good and necessary… for example, one week we spent the entire night talking about conflict and resolution! How invaluable is that? Especially considering we’re going to be in each other’s faces for about 6 months?!!

I can’t speak for the other 3, but for me personally this time together has been truly incredible. It is not always easy as we all are so uniquely different (personalities, sense of humors, desires and passions), and in the beginning planning took forever as our different desires sometimes drew us in 4 different directions on the same map. But God is totally in this, and the closer we draw to his heart, desires and passions for this trip and our lives, the more alike our wills and desires have become. It is really awesome to see such a dramatic change and to see God bring us together as a team and now even more than that… a unit!

So, we’ve started the visa processes and in the first week we got our Ethiopian visa! Then we had our passports translated into Arabic (needed in some of the North African countries). It really is just a stamp in your passport that translates everything on the information page. Last week we applied and got Egyptian visas for all but Nick, since we’re still waiting for his new South African passport from the South African consulate. As the only one without a full-time job, I have made it my responsibility to handle the applications and quite enjoy visiting all the different consulates and embassies. The procedures for both visas and the translation were very straightforward and simple and only took a couple of days each – unlike the horror stories we read about in our books and online. So we feel really blessed in that regard.

That being said, we have come up against our first obstacle – to be able to visit Libya, we need a tour company who will act as tour guides, escorts and translators while in the country. It is also the only way we can even try and get a visa to be able to enter as we need a tour company to essentially invite us into Libya. But since Tim and I both will be traveling on our US passports, we are having some trouble finding anyone who will be willing to act as our representatives in Libya. Their arguments are all the same: Libyan visas are impossible to obtain for Americans and that they can’t do much about that. Hey, but we believe in a God that does the impossible all the time… so we will keep on looking until we find someone who will be willing to do the impossible on our behalf!

Nick and Lana (praise God) only need to get 2 more visas, but as US passport holders we need around 11 more! A huge difference from our Dual-Citizen travel mates traveling on their UK and SA passports. But we all knew and foresaw that from the beginning stages of planning. The challenge comes in getting as many as possible in the time that we have leading upto the trip… can’t get them all now, since they might expire by the time we actually arrive at the different countries’ borders. In other words, we need to plan it so that we get 6 months visas in January that we can just barely use in May or June before they expire. But again… a challenge we look forward to.

We are getting in touch with so many amazing people and organizations to work with and as we are setting up our visits, we can see why God has led us to the routes we all decided on. I am so excited… seriously bursting with excitement to get involved in all these missions and projects! Lana and I will get plenty of opportunities to play with the children, hug and show Jesus’ love to the widows and orphans and pray for the sick. And the guys will get plenty of opportunities to partner with the ministry leaders to disciple and encourage, and to get their hands dirty with hut and well-building projects!

On the vaccination front, Tim and I (barely) just completed round 2 of the jabs! We are getting a total of 8 shots… well, since Tim is a bigger guy… he’s getting a few more jabs than me. Anyway, I say barely completed as I almost didn’t make it through this second round. I made the mistake of letting Tim go first and watching as I was filming him… well, in the nurse’s words he “sprung a leak” and after the sight of the blood, I started feeling queasy and apparently turned white as a sheet. I am embarrassed to admit, but I royally freaked out… they had to all but pin me down to give me those shots. It took about 15 minutes, but I made it through with a sticker for my bravery from the nurse non-the-less! The actual jabs are really not that bad… it’s the pain afterwards that kills you! Nick and Lana have their first round this week!! Good luck you 2!!

Thanks for all your support guys… we are truly moved and touched that we have so many good friends and family getting involved in some way or form! Please keep spreading the word for us, as our circle can only reach so far. And also please keep praying for a Libyan tour company, the other visas and vaccinations, and our Land Rover Driving Experience this coming Sunday. Thanks so much!