There and back again...

Hello friends and family,

I am speaking to you from the other side of the world now! On June 7th we flew out of Jacksonville and set off, but don’t worry America we will be back in November 2025! Just a small wait. We left within a week of receiving the news that we were fully funded and ready to launch!

It has been a wild entry into our position on the International Operations Department and to illustrate I want to paint a picture of our schedule in the last month. Our month went as follows:

On July 7th we set out to Zambia. After two days of travel, we arrived in Livingston and settled into our safari tent where we will be living for the next couple of months. We had eleven days to settle into Rapid 14 and rest before our next trip. Victoria was able to be a part of assisting on a video shoot for two of Overland Missions Music's videos only a few days after arriving at the base.

At the end of our first week, we then drove on the 18th and 19th from Zambia to Johannesburg, South Africa. From there we had two sleeps before hopping on our flights to our first recon of the year in Southeast Asia. After a 10-hour layover in Hong Kong and an overnight in Malaysia, we landed in an undisclosed location in SE Asia. (For the sake of our ministry there, we must be vague in telling the locations publicly.) We spent 4 days in the main city, then took a four-hour ferry ride to an island off the coast. Our main purposes in going were to spend time investing in the team that will soon be launching, and additionally to help them start the process of procuring land. We spent four days on the island adventuring around on mopeds (Yes, Victoria wore a helmet, for all who were wondering). After three nights there, we drove up to attend church in one of the villages, rode to the ferry, and headed back to the mainland. We only spent one more night there, said goodbye to the team, and started journeying back to Africa only eight days after we had arrived in SE Asia. So, after two more days of flights, we made it back to Johannesburg. As you can easily tell, our pacing has been an expedient one, to say the least. (Below is a photo from sunrise on the island.)

When we got back to Johannesburg, we were so excited to acquire and familiarize ourselves with inarguably our most important ministry tool; our vehicle!! A large focus of our fundraising in the U.S., before we headed overseas, was raising funds for adequate 4x4 bush-capable transportation! And wow did God show off! Our vehicle has already proven to be an amazing asset and we are so thankful to the lord for providing it and we are so thankful to you all for being obedient to him in sowing into it. With every mile, sorry kilometer (it’s Africa), we drive we are reminded of the Lord’s faithfulness to our family and the support and backing of our partners back home.

We just arrived back in Zambia on Friday, July 12th. We just picked up the vehicle as it sat at the customs office of the Botswana/Zambia Border for a little over a week. The process of getting vehicles approved for import can sometimes work at a snails pace. Now we are in Livingstone, the closest town to the base, to have our registration completed, which also can sometimes be a slow process of running a lot of errands like having it approved by Interpol.

Testimony:

While in Johannesburg in the past few days, me and Victoria were doing some shopping at an outdoor store. While Victoria shopped inside, I was outside watching the car. While outside, I got to chatting with one of the parking lot attendees. His name was Phillip. Phillip and I connected for a few minutes and when it was time to leave, I felt a desire to give him a generous tip for helping with security in the parking lot. The only problem there was that we had no cash on hand. So, even though it was a bit out of the way, we were back at the outdoor store after an hour or so of running other errands and grabbing cash on the way.  We found Phillip where we had left him. I rolled down the window and felt the Holy Spirit give me a question. “Was your dream to be in this parking lot?” A strange, almost offensive question, but I took a step out and asked to his surprise. He told us of how he had taken this job after falling on some hard times and that the job didn’t even come with a salary; he worked only for his tips. I told him how this parking lot was not the end of his story but merely a beautiful beginning and that God loved him and was going to use him in this world. As I went on, I said that He had a plan for his life beyond parking cars. God knew of his dreams beyond that asphalt, and He was going to make a way. After giving him a generous tip, we blessed him and said goodbye.

This may not be the flashiest testimony I could share, even from the past month, but it is my favorite. The reason is because I have been Phillip. And I would guess many of you reading have also been Phillip. Maybe you were just working a job just to get by, unaware of the plans and purposes that God has for us, much like some of the first disciples of Jesus. Fishing, day in and day out, unaware that one day, God would walk by and see more in them than a boat and some nets. Unaware that God saw the potential to change the world in a few young men fishing in their father’s boat.

And so, although our time with Phillip was very brief, I believe in just a moment, lives can be utterly changed. I saw and felt hope and faith come over Phillip and I am sure he now knows that God has more for him than what he sees.

These little meetings that God has for us are so important. We must remember that we are not ministers only on Sunday morning and that we are not waiting for the convenient moment to exercise our role in the great commission. The great commission is for every moment, and any soul that is hungry to hear should hear. And so, if we listen closely, we can hear when those moments are knocking at our door. In the sanctuary on Sunday morning, or in the grocery store on Monday, at the DMV, or even in the parking lot of the outdoor store.

God bless,

Ethan