Darren Wenz: It's about relationships

Our Kenya team has been meeting every two weeks for the last four months and I have enjoyed the opportunity this has given our family to get to know our fellow mission team members better, pray about the trip, and to consider the purpose the Lord has for us on this trip.  This trip perplexes some who want to know what the tangible results will be of the trip.  We aren’t building homes, digging a well or providing any physical improvements to the area.  If this trip were all about building I think the Lord would be sending someone besides me.

I have learned one of the best ways to describe this trip is relational.  Some people might read this and think that visiting Meru is just a chance to see Africa and for our family to learn about a different culture.  That opportunity is undeniable, but if you were to attend one of our mission team meetings I feel confident you would get the sense the Lord is providing more than that for this trip. 

I spent a year in Australia after college and I can still remember an older couple in the city of Kilmore where I worked who introduced themselves to me when I visited their church. They became my church community and truly gave me the best glimpse into the magnitude of the Lord’s capital C church.  The relationships we have with our two sponsored children, Ronny and Risper have helped our family consider the larger world and the work God is doing. Our relationships with Ronny and Risper have grown over the years.   I imagine many who have been sponsoring children at UPPC can relate to this experience.  The opportunity to be able to visit them, I pray, will give our family along with our sponsored children a chance to get a better understanding of the size of the Lord’s sovereignty.  We can read about the heights and depth of God’s love but to see it and experience it in such a unique way is something I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of.

There will surely be difficulties along the way. You don’t travel thousands of miles with 5 children and 1 teenager, let alone 8 adults, without some challenges.   Even with all the preparations and meetings we have been a part of, I still wonder if we are prepared.   With the trip less than three weeks away I pray you will join me in praying for the Lord to have our hearts, minds, and bodies where we need to be as we leave on July 28^th.  I look forward to returning and sharing with our church community greetings from our brothers and sister in Meru!