ready or not, here we go!

Ephesians 6: 19-20

 "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.  Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."

You are my hearts desire, Jesus.  Reveal yourself to us!  Please show up and show off on this mission trip.  We are waiting in expectation to see your glory revealed!  Use us, break us, renew us!

Ok friends and family!  It's go time!! 

Our first flight leaves Thursday morning at 5:55am.  We are flying from Charlotte, NC to Washington, Dulles.  From there, we will fly to JFK and then it's a straight shot to Johannesburg, South Africa.  That is a grand total of about 20 hours of flying!

From the airport in Johannesburg we have a 5 and 1/2 hour bus ride, with our team, to Manzini, Swaziland. 

We are have our IPods and sleeping pills all geared up and ready to go!

We cannot express our gratitude to those of you who have helped to support us financially and through prayer!  We ask for continued prayer for safety and for the Lord to bless our efforts.

Tonight we are putting the finishing touches on our packing and getting the dogs all ready to go to "grandma and grandpa's" house!  Good luck mom and dad, and thank you!!

I'm sure it'll be a restless night of sleep, especially considering we are leaving for the airport at 4am, but we will manage. 

We could not be more thankful for this opportunity.  I recently read this quote -

"God wants to pour His life and love into you,

so that you can give it out to others."

My prayer and plea is that the Father would pour His love and life into Joseph and I, and our team, so that we can give it away to those around us.  Those who have never felt His love before.  We want to see the Spirit move in our lives and in the lives of those we are serving. 

At this point, our excitement is far outweighing our nerves, but I'm sure they'll show up in due time, and probably outstay their welcome.  But, we pray that Jesus would remind us that we are His beloved, His precious children.  When we feel we don't have the strength, He is strong in our place.  When words fail us, He speaks through us.  We have nothing to fear nor worry about it, He will NEVER forsake us.  Thank you, Lord!

 

We love you all and thank you again!  We will not have internet access while in Swaziland, but we will be journaling.  We plan to share all our adventures and photos with you when we return! 

Blessings,

Allison and Joseph Owen