Is it all over?

From some of the questions I have been getting about my plans to return to the UK, I sense there is another question that is being asked behind them all, “Is it all over?” The answer is a resounding, “No!” In my heart I am still ‘KJ in Tanzania’ – though I may not physically be in Tanzania for much longer my heart is still that of a missionary called to serve God cross-culturally. Instead, the question should be, “Where next?”, and this is a question that I am waiting on God to answer over the coming year.

During my time in the UK I will remain a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators UK and of the Uganda Tanzania Branch of SIL International*. This will only change when and if I feel God is leading me in a new direction. Officially I will be on ‘Secondment return period’ (a fancy name for furlough) and ‘Study leave’. As a result, my financial support system will stay the same, with gifts being processed through Wycliffe UK as usual. However, as I indicated in my newsletter, my financial needs will actually be increasing due to the cost of the study program and the generally higher living costs in the UK compared to Tanzania. If you would like to get involved in supporting me through this period, please let me know.

There is a prayer in 1 Thessalonians (1:11) that I recently read, and which I would ask you to pray for me, that our God may make me worthy of His calling and may fulfil every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power. I want to be worthy of the clear call God has placed on my life to ‘go’ and to ‘teach’. I pray that over the coming year God will make it clear to me where it is He wants me to go and how it is He wants me to teach. Thanks for praying with me over the past five years as I have lived in Tanzania, and for continuing to support me in this way as I look ahead.

*SIL International – a sister organisation of Wycliffe Bible Translators. I was sent to Tanzania by Wycliffe UK, and am seconded to the Uganda Tanzania Branch of SIL in my work here.