Where in the world are the Worthington's going now?

Well, many of you have been wondering and speculating about what God has been laying on our hearts to do now. For most of you this will not come as a surprise...since we have told you that "if we ever left Crabapple, we would be applying for mission work overseas".

That is exactly what God is leading us to do right now! We don't know when, where, or even if God will choose to place us overseas but we know without a doubt He is calling us to apply.

We have begun the process of applying and we are finishing the second of three stages of our application with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. We have had several conversations with the Regional Officer for Central, Eastern and South Africa (CESA) and there is a media/IT job available in the area that we, as a couple, have done mission work in.

This would be a short term assignment (2-3 years) called Intenational Service Corps. We have been praying about this position since it was posted over 2 years ago. We are not sure if we can apply for this position or not, but we should be hearing something from the Regional Officer soon. We are open to going anywhere that God leads us...though our heart has been for eastern Africa for several years now.

Our schedule (as the IMB see it) will be to finish applying by October and then going to the screening conference around April. After that, we would be attending an 8 week orientation in August...with a departure date for the field sometime in October 2008.

This photo shows the Missionary Learning Center (MLC) in Richmond where the conference and orientation takes place...it's beautiful!

We are simply in the process right now. Nothing has been decided and no plans are made. We are walking in the wisdom of James 4:13 which challenges us:

"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go t this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

God is the leader and we are simply following in the light for our path today. God will close doors if this is not His plan for our lives and we trust that fully. We simply want to have you join to pray for us and our families. They have been supportive and encouraging. They are amazing! What a blessing to know that God had already told them that this might be coming...what a great God we serve!

Thanks for being patient as we have been working through this step with God. We are humbly walking this road day by day. We will keep you posted as we know anything and the journey continues. Thanks for being on the journey with us!