"Pit" Stop

I am sure that many of you are wondering why we suddenly just disappeared off of the blog. The last few weeks of our orientation are sort of a blur for me. Since most of you are our faithful prayer partners, I am going to be completely honest with you. During a stressful part of our training, I (Jan) began to have panic attacks. There were many days that I was barely able to get out of the bed and put one foot in front of the other. My stomach was so nervous, I was unable to eat. I encountered sleepless nights and long hard days. We were able to finish our training and even go through our commissioning service, but due to my health, we lost our medical clearance. We were sent back to Conyers for me to receive treatment and to heal in hopes that we would still be able to go to Kenya at some point in the future.

God blessed me with a wonderful Christian physician. She felt a connection with me right away as she had just been asked to go on a mission trip to Kenya. After finding the correct medication, she then credited her co-physician, the Great Physician, with a miraculous healing. I now know that God had a few things He needed to reveal to me before I proceeded with His call to international missions. I am feeling stronger and more committed to missions than ever before.

To read the complete story of my healing, click on Stories and Prayers on the right side of the screen and go to “Jan's healing”.

Now, back to our last few weeks of training in Virginia. We want to introduce you to K, our final quadmate. K will also be going to Africa for two years on the Journeyman program. She will be traveling all over taking pictures of what is happening in missions across the world. She is a very talented photographer and I am confident you will be seeing her work in future publications.

Paul and Marlene McKay flew up to Richmond to attend our commissioning service and then drove us back to Conyers by way of a short stay in the mountains of North Carolina. It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for us. Thanks P&M, we love you.

Time Out

Since we have been back in Conyers, we have been staying in the basement apartment of our wonderful friends, Dennis and Julia McClendon. They have not only opened their home to us, but also their lives. They have ministered to us in so many ways over the past 2 months. There have been many others who have reached out to us during this difficult time with words of encouragement, acts of service, and prayers.

We spent this time, attending many doctor visits and counseling sessions and hours of prayer, scripture reading and meditation. We had one very exciting day when our second granddaughter was born on July 16. Meet beautiful Miss Layne Eden Ross. She is now growing well and adjusting to her new family.

It has been a strange time of limbo as we waited to see if we were to begin packing our suitcases to go to the mission field or looking for jobs to stay here. God revealed so much to us about Himself and about His call on our lives. We are excited to tell you that as of today, we have received official medical clearance to go to Kenya. Jeff, Jan and Molly are scheduled for departure on Tuesday September 9, at 4:40pm! God is Good!

Get Ready Week 4

Well, life is speeding by at a rapid rate and we are learning so many good things that will be of great use to us on the field! There have been some presenters here that travel all over the world training others. Some of our sessions have been on Chronological Bible Storying, Pioneer Evangelism, Universal Disciple, and Spiritual Warfare. This week we will be doing T4T, this is Training 4 Trainers, teaching us how to train new believers to share what they have learned with others and in turn train them. Many hours of sitting in classes but we also spend time practicing our skills we learn.

Last week we had time slots for working on our prayer cards, creating wills, signing legal papers and learning about filing taxes overseas! We also have classes on how to prepare for culture shock, how to handle conflict and learning skills we may need on the field like driving a stick shift on the opposite side of the road! Look out Nairobi!

We are not allowed to have TVs in our quads, so our entertainment has been quite different. Jeff had become intrigued with jigsaw puzzles and we play a little Bible Trivia. For exercise, Jan walks with other ladies and Jeff is still playing ultimate Frisbee with the guys. The past three days were 103 degrees with a heat index of 112, so most folks stayed indoors as much as possible. We have a few movies that we are required to watch that relate to our region and culture, so we watch them on our computer.

Three times during the training we are having “Special Lunches”. These are lunches that are possible foods we may be required to eat in different regions of the world. We are required to try everything. This week was a Mediterranean meal with meatballs, and a cucumber relish that had to be eaten with our hands using a flatbread that we torn into strips. It was really quite tasty.

Meet B and W! They are two more of our quadmates who are from Jackson Mississippi. They will be going to serve in East Africa. B is an engineer and will be participating in a water project in their region. They are great folks to be around and we have really enjoyed spending time together and learning how God has worked in their lives. We are excited to see how God is going to continue to use them on the mission field.

Get Ready Week 3

A word of explanation; blurred faces are for security reasons.

We are having a wonderful time learning more about the African people and their culture. Our regional associate here in Richmond and his wife invited us to their home for an African meal. We were able to help prepare the meal and then enjoyed eating it together African style (with our hands). The ladies bow as they serve the men who eat first in a separate area. The ladies eat seated on the ground. We had ugale, made with ground cornmeal and water, cooked to a thick paste consistency. (This is called sadza in Zimbabwe). We also had turnip greens cooked with tomatoes and onions, coconut beans, chapattis (a flat bread made with flour, oil and water) and fruit salad made with mango, papaya, bananas and pineapple. The evening was finished off with a hot cup of freshly made African chai.

This Sunday’s cultural worship was led by our African teams. We spent the week learning 5 songs sung in 5 different languages. Africans are very active worshipers and so we had hand motions to go with each song. We held the service outside on a hillside with only a drum for music and no PA system. We dressed in our African attire and everyone sat on the ground, men on one side and women and children on the other. The sermon was preached in Swahili. While he was preaching, a breeze began to blow, the lake began to ripple and the tall grass in the fields began to sway. It was as if God was making His presence known among us. The scripture text was Joshua chapter one. As he continued to preach on, “Do not be afraid”, the wind began to roar as it grew stronger and the trees began to bend, the sky darkened but no rain fell. There was an awesome sense of peace in the midst of the storm!

After we had returned to our quad and the sun began to set, the sky lit up with a bright beautiful golden glow on the tops of the trees. This was followed by full double rainbow filling the sky. In the center of the rainbow were some powerful strikes of lightening. It was as if God was reminding us of His promises and that even in the midst of or storms, we were not to be afraid, He will be with us wherever we go.

Meet our quad mate, Sarah Maddox. She is a UGA graduate from McDonough, GA. She is part of the Journeyman program and will be going to Johannesburg, South Africa to serve at the Baptist International Missions Services office there. We call Sarah our social butterfly. She loves people and being involved in everything that is going on!

Get Ready Week 1 & 2

Well we finally did make it to the International Learning Center in Virginia to begin our Field Personal Orientation (FPO). Due to two week delay we are being challenged to work into 7 weeks what normally takes 9 weeks. The first few days were very intense with classes going from 9-5 everyday! We had three days of training regarding Spiritual Warfare led by Dr. Jerry Rankin. It has really made us aware of the vital necessity to be on our knees in prayer and in God’s Word daily.

We are now living in a Quad. This is a house with 4 small apartments with bedrooms, a bath and kitchenette in each corner. Then there is a sitting area in the center. Our quadmates are two young couples and two single girls. One couple has a 5 month old baby. We will introduce each of them to you over the next few weeks.

Meet Chris and Katie Nalls and baby Abigail. They are going to serve as church planters in Mozambique. God does some interesting things: Katie went to Berry with our son Jeremy and Chris went to UGA with our daughter in law Jamie and also served in Mozambique as a Journeryman while Jamie was in Mozambique.

This is the group that we have our “House church” with on Sundays. We are joined for church by two other couples going to West Africa. One of these couples has two small children a one year old girl and a two year old boy.

Sunday night we had a mapping ceremony where each family came forward to introduce their family and tell where they were going. We would then place our picture on the map of the world in the region where we were going. It was an inspirational time to hear how God was calling different people to different people groups to do a multitude of different tasks.

One exciting aspect of our orientation is getting all of our SHOTS! We have already had two clinic days and have more to come.

We are also challenged to make sure we get plenty of exercise each week. We actually have to keep an activity log of our exercise. Jeff decided one night to play ultimate Frisbee for 2 hours! He was sore for 2 days!


Please pray for us to have strength and endurance as we are challenged to stretch beyond our normal learning curve!
Pray for discernment to prioritize our time as we have class assignments, physical assignments and goals to meet each week.

False Start

One of the first lessons we learned about doing Cross Cultural missions is to be “flexible”. You never know when plans may change or go a different direction. Well, we were tested before we even began our orientation! On Saturday as we were preparing to leave on Sunday for our 8 weeks in Richmond, Virginia, we received a call that orientation would be delayed two weeks. Participants at the International Learning Center contacted a bad virus last week and they are going to have to close the facility to totally disinfect and sanitize everything! So the schedule will be pushed back two weeks and now we will be leaving around May 11.

Since we have sold all of our furniture and moved out all of our belongings, we will not be staying at our house. Some wonderful friends, Dennis and Julia McClendon, have offered us their downstairs apartment. Even though this has caused a little confusion, we see many blessings in the delay. We can’t wait to see how God is going to make all things work for His good through these events. His timing is always perfect!

On Your Mark

Upon receiving our official confirmation, we immediately placed our house on the market and began making preparations to go. We have now had two large “Moving Out of the Country” sales and sold all of our furniture and many of our “treasures”. It was been a very humbling experience to discover how much “stuff” two people can collect after 36 years of marriage and 20 of those in the same house! Even though the house has still not sold, we are continuing to move forward in faith, trusting God’s perfect timing.

We have dispersed some of our belongings among our family and friends and the rest we are packing in large crates Jeff built to house our boxes. These will be stored in a friend’s barn for the next three years.

We will be leaving on Sunday April 27 for Richmond, Virginia where will be attend two months of Field Personnel Orientation (FPO). We will return to Conyers for the month of July as we await the arrival of our second granddaughter before we depart for Kenya on July 30.

Present prayer requests include:
Calmness and focus for these hectic final days of packing up and moving out
Our hearts and minds to be prepared for the assignment God has given us
Our families during this time of separation
The sale of our home

Answering the Call

God has been doing a wonderful work in our lives over the past few years as He has been preparing our hearts for the call He would place upon us. After several mission trips to Zimbabwe, our hearts became burdened for the African people we came to know and love.

Our hearts also became connected with missionaries Barry and Marleen Robinson, who have given their entire lives to serving the Lord and the people of Zimbabwe. It was their dedication and example that inspired us to seek God’s direction for our own lives. As we began to pray, we felt led to apply for a three year term through the Masters Program with the International Mission Board (IMB) requesting to serve in the Central Eastern Southern Africa (CESA) Region.


After months of completing extensive applications, references, autobiographies, essays and examinations, we were invited to a conference at IMB for our final interview. At this conference we were matched with a position as the Assistant Logistics Coordinator (LC) for Kenya. We will be living in Nairobi, Kenya and will be responsible for providing the logistical support necessary to free up time for other missionaries to utilize their gifts and strengths in church planting activities allowing unreached people groups to hear the gospel and be discipled.

The position will allow Jeff to utilize his knowledge of carpentry, plumbing, electricity, auto mechanics and such. His previous management experience will come in very useful for working with the large number of national employees. His great trouble shooting and problem solving skills are most likely going to be used daily. So we can see that God has really been grooming him for this position all his life.

Jan loves her job description! “She is free to choose her ministry opportunities according to her gifts and desires.” She will help with the LC responsibilities such as travel arrangements and recording keeping but will also have many opportunities for working with women and children through discipleship, community health care, craft production, AIDS/HIV awareness and women’s groups. It is so easy to see how God’s hand has prepared her over the years! The great part is He is giving her the desires of her heart!