How God Ruined My Life

This is a talk that I gave at Greenwood Community Church last month. It is the audio from the talk. Fortunately, you don't have to look at me while you listen. Again, thanks to Greenwood for allowing me to share.

If you are a part of a church that might be interested in having me come to speak, let me know. I would love to share our story with as many people as possible.

Thank You Greenwood

There are moments in life when you have to step back and shake your head and say "only God...". Only God could have orchestrated the day that we had yesterday with our friends at Greenwood Community Church. It was amazing.

Guest teaching is always a challenge because I am unknown to the community. But both times I have taught at Greenwood I felt like I was at home. God just speaks at Greenwood and it is amazing to be a part of that.

Dozens of people expressed interest in financially partnering with us (and if you are one of those people, my email address is in my profile on the right side of this page). But beyond the new friendships and relationships, it was so great to see all of the elders and staff members who we have talked to over the last year and a half, who took the time out of their Sunday schedule to come over and encourage us as well.

It is clear to me that besides TNL, Amy and I have no greater friends in a church than Greenwood Community Church.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone at Greenwood for the opportunity to share. It was an enormous blessing and encouragement to be a part of your community. We look forward to seeing what God does through our partnership along the way.

Calling

"All of ministry is calling.  It is either discovering your calling or living into your calling."

~Dave Terpstra to Jared Mackey in India (I was jet-lagged at the time, but it still sounds right on this side of the pond).

Sometimes God calls us specifically.  He wants us to go somewhere specific (like Mozambique) or do something specific (like be a counselor or pastor or teacher or computer programmer).

Sometimes God calls us collectively.  He wants a whole church or home group to pay attention to something.

Sometimes God calls us lovingly.  He wants us to spend more time with Him.

But sometimes God calls us generically.  He simply wants us to respond.  To begin to serve.  To learn to listen.  To discover what is next.

That is how God began to call Amy and me to Africa.  Sure, looking back I can connect the dots.  But at the time, they just looked like dots.  Generic dots.

I'm speaking at Greenwood Community Church on the 16th on the subject of calling, and as I am putting together my story, I am realizing how obvious it seems on the back end that God was calling us to Africa.  But at the time, it was just about sponsoring a kid through Compassion International, joining the One Campaign, and supporting friends who were missionaries.

I guess the lesson I am learning is to follow God's generic calls, not just his specific ones.  You never know where something "generic" might lead...

Cost-to-Benefit Ratio

Decision making often requires discovering the cost-to-benefit ratio of different variables. Many times in life there is no perfect choice. Right now, we are weighing the costs and the benefits of where to do our langauge study of Portuguese. Mozambique offers the benefit of learning to speak the language with the right dialect and only having to move once. Brazil offers better language schools and being able to focus our time on our study and on our family.

Right now we are leaning towards Brazil because of the quality of the school we can attend and the ability to focus on fluency, not just survival in a foreign country. However, we can't afford to send our kids to international schools in Brazil. Which means we are considering putting our first grader, kindergartener, and preschooler in an all-Portuguese class where no English is spoken for a whole year.

So how crazy do you have to be for something this crazy to no longer seem crazy?

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions

Below are the 10 most Frequently Asked Questions people have about our move to Mozambique, Africa. Feel free to ask more or follow up to any of these at daveterpstra@WorldVenture.net or amyterpstra@WorldVenture.net

#1 Why are you moving to Africa?

The simple answer is that we are moving to Africa because that is where God has called us to go. Over the last several years we have felt an increasing burden for what God is doing on the continent and the role that we could play.

Starting in college when we sponsored a child in Ethiopia through Compassion International, God has been increasingly growing our heart for Africa. In the last three years through conversations and trips we have continued to feel that burden increase, and now it is clear to us that we need to go.

As Dave has taught at TNL again and again: you can’t do everything, you can do something. What is the something that God is calling you to do?

Moving to Mozambique is just the “something” we are called to do.

#2 How did you make the decision to go?

We have certainly put a lot of time and prayer into the decision to move to Mozambique, but one conversation changed everything. We had been discussing the possibility of moving to Africa one day after our kids had all graduated from high school and moved out of the house.

Then we had a conversation with our friends who are missionaries in Guinea (West Africa). After we had told them that we thought God wanted us to work in Africa one day after our kids had left the house, they threw down a challenge: why do you think God is comfortable waiting for your kids to graduate high school while his people need you in Africa right now? We didn’t really have an answer to that.

#3 Why Mozambique?

There are a number of reasons on the surface why Mozambique is such a good fit for us. First, we have friends there who will be our teammates on the field, Rodger and Lynne Schmidt. Also, our skill sets fit into Mozambique’s needs (see #5 and #6 below).

But the actual reason that we are going to Mozambique is that it is the country where we were sent. Our new boss at World Venture is Glenn Kendall. We simply asked him to send us where he thought we should go in Africa. Knowing our strengths and desires, we felt like he would make an excellent choice. In addition, we also knew how hard it would be to go from being our own bosses to working for one, so we thought we should practice submission before we left.

#4 But what about the kids?

Abigail, Jacob, and Alyson are really excited to go! Just ask them. They talk about Africa all the time and little Alyson sounds about as cute as can be when she says "mo-za-beek"

We don't think we are doing harm to our kids by choosing to raise them in a third-world country. In fact, perhaps in the long run we will be doing them a favor. Our kids will grow up knowing people with AIDS, being able to speak other languages, and knowing first-hand what life changing ministry looks like.

Our hope is for them to attend international schools as they grow up. But they certainly still need your prayers. We hope to find friends who will commit to pray for one our children every week.

Let us know if you would like to do that and we will keep you on a special "kid" mailing list.

#5 What will Dave be doing?

Dave will be working with pastors and other church leaders in Mozambique. There is an emerging group of 20 and 30 something pastors who are trying to lead fledgling churches in the country. However, they don't have any support. And even worse, their family members are dying of AIDS and the children are going to bed at night hungry because of their lack of resources.

Dave wants to connect the pastors of Mozambique to African and Western resources that will help them develop their churches, their families, their communities and themselves.

#6 What will Amy be doing?

Amy will be working with orphanages, churches, schools, and the government of Mozambique on behalf of children. She has degrees in Child Development and Early Childhood Education and will be using her experience in those fields to act as an advocate for children.

Her hope is that every child in Mozambique would grow up in a family, not an orphanage, that every child would attend a school where they were taught by skilled teachers, and that every child would be connected to a caring, Christian community.

#7 What langauge do they speak?

The national language of Mozambique is Portuguese. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until 1975 when it won its independence in a Marxist revolution. However, Portuguese is spoken primarily in the capital and other major cities. Throughout the rest of the country tribal languages are spoken.

In order to learn Portuguese, we will be spending 9 months to a year in language school in Brazil. Brazil is the largest Portuguese speaking nation on earth, and the best language schools are found there.

#8 Is it safe?

Mozambique is safe as far as African countries go. There is always danger of being robbed simply because we will be perceived as wealthy, and there are so many hungry people who just want to survive. However, Mozambique has been stable for several years and we pray that will continue.

#9 How can I help?

1. Mozambique will be a lonely place for us at times, and so we want to stay in contact as best as possible with our friends and family here in the States.

2. We need you to pray for us and for the work that God has called us to do.

3. We need financial partners who will be part of our team. If you are interested in partnering financially in what God will be doing in Mozambique, just write us at daveterpstra@WorldVenture.net or amyterpstra@WorldVenture.net

#10 What is TNL going to do when you guys leave?

The pastor and other elders of TNL have a plan in place for hiring a new Teaching Pastor. Dave will still be teaching until April of next year, so there will hopefully be enough time to locate someone new who God is calling to TNL. You can read more about the progress and plans at www.tnl.org/pastorsearch