General Update and Prayer Request

As many of you know missions isn't always easy and so updates aren't always sunshine and rainbows. 😢 I try to share both sides because that's real life, some days are amazing and some are incredibly hard. The last 3 days have been very difficult days. As Caitie, Karson and I were at the airport picking up visitors (who are doing great by the way!) we got word that there was some drama between the staff at home. Wednesday and Thursday were spent trying to make sense of the stories we were being told. We could tell there was definitely MORE to what we were being told. After hours and hours of meetings and meeting with some people multiple times we had a much better picture of what was going on and it meant we had to make some big changes to our staff and the way we do things here.

After talking with several people we decided we needed to hire a private company to provide security at Mercy Ministries and release all of our current security guards. This was no easy decision. We've not wanted to do this (it has been recommended to us multiple times) because we have always wanted to work with local community members, but over the last few days we have realized that this isn't always possible. We also had to release our drivers, which has been crazy hard for us. 💔

Please pray for our family during this transition and time of hurt. Many of the staff that were released today have been with us for a while and so making them leave hurts. But, I do know we will grow from this and I know that God is sovereign. The former staff members that had been impactful in the ministry here, God provided and He also saw fit to reveal their true hearts to us. God is so good to bring about the needed changes even when it hurts. I'm learning (rather SLOWLY I must admit) that hurt doesn't just mean yucky and bad. Yes, being hurt stinks, but usually we can learn so much from the situation and choices that brought about that pain.

Thank you for your prayers and love! Thank you for your understanding (I've been slow answering private messages and emails). Thank you for trusting us and standing beside us when things are hard. Please keep praying for us, life is definitely different for us now.

*Just as a reminder if anyone private messages you and asks for money they aren't working with us. We NEVER ask for money in that way.*