Chuck just sent this explanation to a friend, explaining what has been happening, so I thought we'd share it with you all. There are MANY details missing, but it gives you a snapshot of what's been going on the last few weeks:
Well, it's kind of a crazy story. We have friends, Sam and John, who were missionaries to Brazil, and Sam had a dream where God told her, "There are 12 of you." This dream kept reoccurring. About a month later, they approached us and asked, "Have you ever thought about being missionaries?" We said said we had both felt the calling to missions at different times in our lives. We told them both of us always felt a calling to Africa, but wherever God would send us, we'd be willing to go. They asked us to fast and pray with them for 2 days about going to Brazil. So we did. During those 2 days, I did some research into Brazil and found that it just wasn't a good fit for us. They continued to pursue going back to Brazil and met with some of their different contacts at Mission Resource Network (MRN). Two days after meeting with them, I had a patient come into the office for his annual physical. He was suppose to see Dr. Myers but got put on my schedule for some reason. From his accent, I could tell he wasn't from Texas. I asked where he was from and he said Malawi, Africa. I asked, "Well what brings you to Texas?" He said his wife's family is from here. We continued to talk and go through the normal questions for a physical. More out of curiosity than anything, I asked "So what is it that you do for work?" He said, "Well, I'm the director of an organization, ORANT, that works with medical professionals like yourself to coordinate medical missions to Malawi." I'm pretty sure I about fell off my little rolling stool when he asked, "Would you want to go? We have a need for a team leader in August from the 3rd to the 13th." I think he was half kidding. I said, "Well, as a matter of fact, I would like to go. Do you have needs for longer term?" He told me they do some short term missions trips of two months. I asked, "What if someone wanted to go permanently?" He said, "We've been praying about just that." He told me he was leaving on a mission trip in a few days and would get back to me after that.
That night, I told Sam and John what had happened. I think we were all in shock. They started making calls, and two days later, they had a meeting with MRN. They imagined the people at MRN would think they were crazy switching from Brazil to Africa, but no one blinked twice! They were very supportive and since that initial meeting, they've heard the phrase "We've been praying for someone to go to Malawi" nearly a dozen times from several different people in several different organizations! Our families will be meeting with MRN next Thursday (please pray about this!).
In faith, I requested the time off work, set up a time to get my passport, and started the process of getting my immunizations updated. But I was starting to get discouraged because I hadn't heard back from ORANT in nearly 3 weeks, even though we knew our contact was back and had met with his board over a week ago. I was feeling like maybe I should have work put me back on the August schedule since we hadn't heard anything. We prayed yesterday morning and asked God for clear direction: we told the Lord we would wait for another week, and if we didn't hear back from ORANT, we would just consider that a closed door and pursue other options. Yesterday afternoon, we got a text from him and he asked if I was still interested in travel with them. He said he will be in contact shortly. So, once again, we wait...But this is the process, isn't it? Waiting on the Lord. But we have renewed hope and we are certain God will work out the details in His timing.
Like I said, there are still many details missing, leading up to this point in our lives, but I hope this gives you a taste of what God has been doing in the Sever household. More to come soon!
