Christmas Letter 2025

Well, it's not springtime yet, so this is not the latest I've ever posted our Christmas letter:)

If you didn't get our Christmas card, here's a chance to catch up on the last year even though the new one is already full steam ahead with an exciting year on the horizon. Enjoy the update!

Dear Family & Friends,                                                                                                                            December 2025

Engage. When our pastor started 2025 in January, he asked us to seek a word from the Lord for the year ahead, and this was the word I heard in my heart. It’s the word I’ve filtered many decisions through this year, and the Lord has not failed to show up every time I chose to engage.

Engage has many meanings, but for me, it meant to choose to put myself actively in gear rather than auto-pilot, to take a step forward despite the apparent obstacles, to take a risk rather than play it safe. As I look back over the year, I see where the choice to engage meant new growth in many different areas of life for both myself and my family.

Savannah turned 18 in October. This year she fully engaged and continues to engage with the tough decisions that come with adulthood. She chose to play her last season of club volleyball in the spring where she led her team well as both setter and captain. In lieu of volleyball, she chose to invest more time at church, joining the student leadership team. She fully engaged with college applications and was accepted into all her top choices: Samford University, Berry College, and University of North Georgia. She prayerfully awaits financial ai`     `d and scholarship offers before deciding, but I am impressed by her perseverance to do what needs to be done to continue moving the process forward. In the meantime, her senior year course load consists of taking three dual enrollment college courses and working as a team lead for yearbook all while holding down two jobs and saving diligently to pay for her new car. I know she spends time in the Word seeking the Lord and trusting Him for the guidance she needs to make all these new and often difficult decisions. She shines, and it makes my heart soar to watch her begin to spread her wings. She’s ready to launch, and she’s going to do exceptional things.

Weston turned 16 in August, and I’ve seen the shift from boy to young man wash over him this year. In February, he started varsity as a freshman for the high school soccer team, enjoying a season that took them to the region playoffs. During club soccer season last year, he engaged in extra work attending extra practices to make a higher-level team this year where he now leads as the team captain. I’ve watched him learn what it looks like to lead, the highs and lows, and he’s a better young man for it. With Georgia Tech as his goal, he began a higher-level rigor of courses his sophomore year, and I’ve watched him fully engage, taking responsibility, putting the work in, owning his hangups and mistakes, staying determined to excel and perform at a high level academically. Most importantly, I’ve watched him come home and engage with the Lord in his quiet time after school every day, and this might be the most impressive factor to his transition to manhood—taking personal responsibility for his own relationship with the Lord. He is a quiet force to be reckoned with, and the Lord is going to use Him in mighty ways.

 

Joey engaged this year with new work in the international realm of Chick-fil-A all while doing his day job in financial services. His ability to navigate hard conversations never ceases to amaze me, but more impressively is how he’s chosen to engage in the pursuit of our marriage and the pursuit of leading his young adult children. Devotions with Dad, family meeting discussions, marriage counseling just for the sake of getting better—he engages across all areas of our family, leading well, setting a high standard for our children to follow. He sees me and values our relationship above all else other than his relationship with the Lord. We are fully aware of the empty nest years knocking on our door, and we are making plans to open that door with authority in a few years and march right through it, hand in hand, come what may, and embark on the next journey of our marriage, fully engaged together.

But the knocking of those years on that door is not lost on this Mama-heart. When your youngest starts driving themselves to all the things, the Mama-world tilts at an odd angle and begins to spin in a way I’m still not sure I enjoy. I both celebrate the godly growth and maturity of my children and silently cry for the season of childhood innocence that has passed—pretty much on a daily basis. I am deeply grateful for the meaningful part-time work the Lord has provided for me as the Admissions Manager for Amber Grace Community (ambergrace.com). This work challenges me to engage in self-growth instead of self-pity, tackling new concepts and skills instead of wallowing in what ifs, worries, and concerns for the future of my changing family. When I want to shy away from difficult or awkward conversations and fade into the background of my own life, the Lord whispers gently, “Engage,” and in obedience, I stumble awkwardly through hard things only to watch Him come alongside me, fully supporting, fully showing up where I am lacking. Where I am not enough, Jesus always is.

He has not failed to show up once. Prompting me to lead Bible studies for women in my home weekly, I watch the Holy Spirit join us and move mightily and gently every week. When I feel like I’m completely failing at connecting with my kids in their new young adult worlds, the Lord calls me to engage with Him in prayer for them, and somehow, no matter what happens next, I’m at peace knowing the Lord is connecting with my kids when I can’t.

It’s not lost on me why marriages at this stage of life tend to end. If you don’t choose to engage purposefully in continuing to build the relationship with the best friend you married, it’s tempting to believe the lie that going your separate ways after the kids are gone will be easier, especially when most likely you have each developed your own interests and circles of friends at this stage of life. I encourage every couple reading this, choose today to engage with your spouse, preferably on a weekly date night of some format. Exactly like a relationship with the Lord, marriage requires purposeful, intentional connection, and those connections are a choice.

I’m grateful my Jesus chooses to engage in a relationship with me, my husband, my kids, and every one of His children on a moment-by-moment basis. He is always present, always there, waiting like a Gentleman to be included in the moments of your life. Christmas is a celebration of His engagement with His children, His pursuit of relationship with humanity to make a personal relationship with Him possible. To fill the God-shaped hole in each of our souls that sin carved, God sent His only Son to live a human life, fully God and yet also fully man, to become the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sin, an atonement imperfect humanity had no hope of ever attaining for themselves. Jesus is Hope. He is the Resurrection and the Life that empowers His children, His true followers, to live a new life in Christ, through Christ, with Christ. With God and God with us. Emmanuel. Never alone. Always connected to Love, Power, Joy, Peace, Truth—all the deepest desires of your heart and soul—Jesus is the answer.

Praying this Christmas season, you choose to engage in a new way with the God of the Universe who humbled Himself to become His creation in the form of a baby only to die in payment for your sins all so you could spend eternity in His presence, in relationship with Love Itself. But the greatest gift of all may be how He chooses to show up today, in the midst of my sin, in the midst of my screwed up thinking and choices—He still shows up. For those who believe in and follow His Son, who confess their sins and claim Jesus as Lord, He forgives and He shows up. How can you engage anew today with the God who is constantly knocking on the door of your heart, asking for engagement in your own life?

May you receive a fresh blessing as you choose to engage with Jesus this Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

	Joey, Jennifer, Savannah, & Weston Durham

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:5-8

Christmas Letter 2024

This Christmas letter is the most I write during this season of teenage years in my children's lives. Believe me, life is happening...fast. Lessons are being learned and the Lord has been in constant motion in our lives since our move from California in 2021. But with the kids older and active on social media themselves, and my own life filling in with other pursuits the Lord keeps introducing, I find my time to write is limited in many different ways. One day, I believe the Lord will write the book in my heart. Maybe He already has in all the journals I keep, but I trust His timing.

The internet is not real relationship. For those who read my words here, thank you. But you and I both know, if I were to never post another word again and share on Facebook or Instagram, most people wouldn't care. My relationships are in my home and within the six feet of influence the Lord orchestrates around me every day. I want to choose to engage there, not here. I encourage each of you to do the same.

But posting the Christmas letter is a tradition, so enjoy, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours.

Dear Family & Friends,                                                                                                      December 2024

When I sit to think back over this past year, the word that comes to mind for our family is growth. With two teenagers in the house, our life is a constant rollercoaster in all the good and hard ways. I’ve learned to rely on Christ as my seatbelt and to take the days moment by moment. It is a good, hard season, priceless and pressing, proving my Jesus faithful and true, over and over again and again.

Savannah turned 17 in October, currently tackling junior year with maturity and grit. I’ve watched her navigate volleyball, friendships, her job at Chick-fil-A, and the increasing demands of school with grace, determination, balance, and an indominable spirit. She shines even when the clouds loom. Thank you to those who supported her on her Guatemala mission trip. That experience touched her heart, and she looks forward to returning in May. I’ve watched her mature in her relationship with the Lord, digging into His Word, partnering with friends to grow deeper together. Her growth in the Lord is what has anchored her through tough decisions and hard conversations. He is the source of her joy, and I am so proud of her.

Weston turned 15 in August, adding another driver-to-be to our household. I’ve watched him navigate soccer, friendships, and relationships this last year where he has been learning invaluable lessons. He has grown in his ability to communicate with coaches, teachers, friends, and even his parents. He has weathered disappointment and success with a steadiness found only in scripture. As a freshman, he continues to excel in his high-level courses, motivated by his career aspirations. I’ve watched him purposefully seek to hear from the Lord and respond in obedience. The Lord is his anchor and firm foundation, and I am so proud of him.

Joey is my rock star. He rides this rollercoaster of teenage parenting right beside me, and we scream and raise our hands and grip tight through the turns together, holding onto to one another with the Jesus seatbelt holding us both securely in place. He has grown in his ability to communicate and lead our family toward Jesus. His voice in our kids’ lives during this season is invaluable, and he accepts and steps up to the challenges. There’s really no one better at having hard conversations. I depend on his authority and wisdom and trust in his leadership. At work, new challenges have presented themselves, yet he endeavors to always grow and learn from them.  He doesn’t give up or lose heart but looks to the Lord to lead his conversations and objectives, loving, leading, and serving those around him as best he can. We have both grown together in our marriage this past year, engaging in some intensive and difficult counseling, learning how to change and meet each other where we are after twenty-three years of marriage. I wouldn’t want to ride this rollercoaster with anyone else.

Me? Well, in 2023 the Lord told me to “cast a wide net” where my interests were concerned, and this landed me volunteer opportunities at the Georgia Aquarium on top of continuing in leadership with Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). But the biggest fish caught in that net was my part-time job with Amber Grace Community. Five years of praying for “what’s next”, of praying for a job I can do on my own schedule still allowing me to be present when my kids get home from school, of praying that job could pay me what I’m worth, and the Lord answered in only the way He could by providing abundantly above and beyond all I could ask or imagine. I just had to wait on Him, His timing, and His provision.

Amber Grace is a non-profit organization currently building a residential community for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities on Berry College campus in Rome, GA, and I get the honor and privilege of being their administrative assistant. Working for my aunt and uncle building a community for my cousin is the cherry on top😊I am humbled by the opportunity, in awe of God’s perfect timing and provision, and excited about what the future holds for this organization. Onward and upward, as we like to say.

Looking back, I can see how the Lord has grown me in my ability to be still, to seek space where I meet Him, abiding and relying on Him for my daily strength. He has grown me in my relationship with my children and my husband, but mostly with Him. Opening my home to lead Bible study over the summer once again, I experienced the firsthand presence of the Holy Spirit and how He moves to speak and teach and reveal truth in the gentlest, most affirming, convicting ways. He is not a God waiting to slam the judge’s gavel or poke around in my life like an inspector looking for areas of improvement. His Spirit is Life and Breath and Light. The more moments of my day I’ve taken over this past year to engage with Him in personal conversation, contemplation, and just enjoyment of His presence, the more peace, clarity, direction, and fulfillment I have experienced.

Friends, have you made space in your life for Jesus yet this season? This year? Do you have fifteen minutes at the beginning of your day where you can sacrifice some sleep to meet Him for tea or coffee? When your emotions swell and threaten to overwhelm, do you recognize them as phone calls from Jesus? He wants to talk to you right then and right there about whatever you’re feeling. Can you say no to scrolling, so you can say yes to staring out a window and listening for and inviting Him to speak to you? Could you take a walk together instead of watching a show? My favorite is to turn the radio off in my car, envision Jesus is along for the ride (because He is), and just talk to Him, out loud like I would a friend. Where can you make space for what, I promise, is THE most important relationship in your life?

He stands at the door and knocks like a gentleman. He combs the hillside looking for the one lost lamb. He sets a table for us in the presence of our enemies. We hear Him in the still, small voice spaces of life not the fire and wind chaos. He calls to us in our wildernesses and meets us in the fiery furnaces. He shows up in the quiet of Christmas night born as a baby in a manger. He pursues us, longs for us, comes TO us because He loves us. For no other reason than a love we cannot fathom but long to experience.

Christmas is a time to look back and remember and rejoice in our Savior who came in the quiet, in the still, in the mundane, every day, ordinary space of a simple night long ago. He came to live among us, be with us, usher in a new kingdom, live a sinless life all so He could die for our redemption, so we could have a way back to the Father who created us to enjoy His fellowship. Who created us with a God-shaped hole only He can fill, and Jesus paved the way for that fulfillment with His own innocent blood.

New Year is a time to look forward in anticipation with new hope, new goals, new resolve. As I continue to study Revelation in BSF, I am reminded to look forward to Christ’s return as well—with new hope, new goals, and new resolve. The Lamb born in the manger will return as the King of Kings with a fanfare and entrance this world has never known nor can imagine. Find Him in the quiet, friends, because the next time we see Him, you will want to be considered one of His own.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” Luke 2:14

Grateful we are children of the Most High. Praying God’s peace over you and yours this Christmas season. Praying you find ways to make space, to make room in the inn of your heart and life for the Soon and Coming King.

Blessings from our family to yours,

Joey, Jennifer, Savannah, & Weston Durham

Becoming Sin

I used to think the battle for our souls was waged the three days in the tomb. You've probably heard some creative orators imagine the battle that took place in time, space, and history during those three days Jesus lay buried in the tomb, postulating the possible stories of death's defeat and life's victory celebrated for all time and history in His resurrection.

But as I study the crucifixion of Christ this week before Easter Sunday, I feel my eyes have been opened, and I am astounded and humbled. 

Every step of Christ's ministry here on earth, He raged a war against the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. The battle began as soon as His heart beat miraculously inside the womb of a virgin girl who thirty something years later would weep at the foot of her child's cross.

Jesus came to earth to do exactly what His people, the Jews, wanted Him to come and do--overthrow an evil, oppressive kingdom. It just wasn't Rome. It was bigger than Rome. So much bigger. No, He came to wage war and defeat the principalities, the powers, the rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness of this world. (Ephesians 6:12) He came to destroy everything and anything separating His people from eternity in His Father's presence.

So He became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). In His human form, God the Son became the very disease that plagued His creation and slaughtered it once and for all--for all mankind, for all eternity.

What does it look like to become sin?

It looks like an innocent man who lived a life of peace and miraculous provision, freedom, and healing for all who encountered Him to be accused falsely. For this man to be treated to one of the most unjust trials in the history of trials only to be condemned by not just Jews who were suppose to know Him, who should have been studying for His arrival and known the signs of prophecy He fulfilled, but to also be condemned by the indifference and cruel apathy of the Gentiles under Pilate's cowardly sentence. Becoming sin looks like suffering injustice, indifference, apathy, having a blind eye turned, and cold hearts in charge.

How the Jews must have hated him! In their self-righteous hypocrisy, they schemed for the murder of an innocent man choosing to release a known criminal instead. To become sin, Jesus bore their hatred, vehemence, murderous hearts, their jealousy, ignorance, fear, and pride. His battle looked like bearing suffering with dignity and self-control. Always speaking truth. 

Even when they stripped His dignity. Skin ravaged, probably hanging in strips from His flogging, He endured the shameful mocking of bored Roman soldiers who treated Him like their afternoon entertainment. They did not know Him. They didn't care to. Their hearts were foreign to the words of God, unlike the Jews steeped in them. They fashioned a crown of thorns to shove on His head for fun. To make fun. The mocking robe of purple they threw across His beaten back must have felt like sand paper on His open wounds. Only for a rough piece of heavy lumber to be strapped to His back. Only for it all to be ripped off His body again. I'm sure some of the blood from His wounds at started clotting around the cloth pressed into His back only to be ripped off once again. Agony! Torture! To become sin, Jesus carried the weight of humiliation, cruelty, the depths of the depravity of a human mind and heart to the hill of Golgatha, the place of death.

Take note of every detail friends, we are watching the Creator of the Universe battle our greatest enemy for us, in front of us.

Naked. Completely exposed. Blood dripping over every sinew of His form. Nailed with scientific precision to be lifted up between two known criminals, yet Jesus takes center stage. There in utter torture He would suffocate in front of a watching world on a hill near the entrance of Jerusalem where all coming to celebrate Passover would be sure to see Him. King of the Jews. Innocent. Not giving up His Spirit one second before every prophecy was fulfilled concerning His death. Not one prophecy went unfulfilled. He didn't give up His Spirit until He had fully become sin, right there on the cross for all to see, for all history to re-read.

As sin, Jesus was mangled beyond recognition. Scripture says He was so disgusting in form, many could not even look at Him (Isaiah 53:3). As sin, the sky darkened over all the land as He drank the full cup of the Father's wrath and for the first time in all of time, the Son was physically, emotionally, spiritually severed from the Father's presence. Forsaken. If you read the details, every Gospel account together, and if you ask the Spirit to open your eyes and open your heart, you see Jesus become sin, what sin looks like, what sin smells like, what sin feels like, what consequences sin ravages on our souls. What we always complain is so hard to see and understand because it exists in a spiritual realm is right there in front of you, on display, for all the world to see on a perfect, innocent, spotless human. 

You want to know what sin looks like? What it does to the heart and soul of a man or woman? Look to the cross. Don't pretend it's not real. Don't turn away and believe the lie it's not that big of a deal. Don't be indifferent. Let your eyes gaze upon the picture of sin, the very real proof and evidence, the unseen we're always asking to see. Gaze upon Christ on the cross, and let the nausea, repulsion, and anger be turned back upon yourself because my sin put Him there.

My sin put Him there. My rebellion. My need for control. My selfishness and self-righteousness. My pride. My greed. My jealousy. All of them. All the sins. They are mine, and He took them and became the picture of them, so I would understand their cost. A cost I am incapable of paying despite all my good intentions and positive thoughts and right motivations. In the eyes of God, my life looks like the ravaged form of Christ hanging on the cross. That is what sin does. That is what sin looks like.

And until a perfect sacrifice was made we were condemned to that fate, that gruesome fate, eternally severed from connection with God. Living tortured, broken, scarred, shame-filled lives, marred inside if not also out.

But the more I study the crucifixion, the details, the intention of Christ, the more I believe we are watching the battle for eternity be fought in front of our very eyes. Satan threw his absolute worst at Jesus, tempting Him to give up His mission with every excruciating breath. Yet, we watch Jesus stay the course. Fulfilling every prophecy to the last detail. What the crucifixion of Christ shows is the innocent Son of God, human in every way we are human, yet also one with God the Father and God the Spirit--we watch Him become sin before our very eyes.

And in willingly and purposefully giving up His Spirit at the exact perfect time in history, we watch our innocent, perfect, omnipotent, obedient Lord defeat sin. He became sin and crucified it on the cross.

He became sin and crucified it on the cross.

No other human in history could have done this. Born of the seed of Adam, we are all born with sin (Romans 3:23). That ugliness already exists within us from our first heartbeat. It's in our DNA. Only God Himself in His perfection could have planned a way to save us. So now, once again, as in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of all mankind, we have a choice. Because there can be no true love without free will, so there must always be a choice.

At the fall of Adam and Eve, Satan thought he had stolen our choice, and for God to make a way for another one once again for all time, He had to provide a better choice, one we could better see and understand the consequences, counting the cost of our choice. The choice not to eat the fruit of a physical tree or not, but the choice to eat of the Body of Christ or not, to be one with Him in the Body of Christ by the body of Christ or to be separated from God belonging only to sin. There only ever has been and only ever will be two choices.

Christ willingly bathed Himself in the blood of our sins, so we could choose to be cleansed by that same blood, wrapping our sinful lives in the righteousness of Christ's sacrifice, the innocence of His sacrifice. We can now choose sin's guilty rags or Christ's innocent robes. We can choose to live in an eternity of filth or in an eternity of the cleansing, bathing Light of Christ. We can choose separation from God or unity with Him forever. We can choose death or life.

I cannot help but love my Jesus for the hurt and unimaginable pain He willing endured both emotionally, psychologically, and physically on my behalf, in my place, for my sin, choosing to do something I could not do even if I had wanted to. I LOVE Him for that choice He made. I am moved to a deep realization of gratefulness I too often forget. Satan, this world, this flesh, too often distracts me from the love, devotion, and gratefulness I have for my Jesus.

May we all take the time to truly appreciate the cost of having a choice, and the Love it takes to be able to willingly give that choice to children who despise their Father, their Creator, in their ignorance. Because sin breaks, bruises, mars, ravages, and fatally wounds every aspect of our senses, yet God loved us enough to send His only Son to not just die, but suffer, becoming sin, in our place, just so we could have the CHOICE to choose Him again.

Whatever you think you know of God, whatever false image of judgement, wrath, suffering, indifference, etc. that may be stamped on your heart or mind of who He is, I pray the scales of blindness and the walls of false, self-preservation will fall this Easter season in light of the reality of what God orchestrated just to give us the opportunity to choose Him again. Knowing too many still wouldn't choose Him, God the Father sacrificed His only Son to give us all the same chance anyway. The same choice. The same chance. Equal opportunity.

WHO DOES THAT?!?!? Who do you know who would willingly, intentionally do what Jesus did? Because whoever that person is, they deserve my whole heart for my whole life.

Christmas Letter 2023

I know. It’s February. That should tell you something about life (LOL!) But I can’t write more blogs without first publishing this first. I’m a little OCD like that. Enjoy!

…………….

Dear Family & Friends,                                                                                                                          December 2023

 

On December 31^st, 2022, Joey’s grandmother turned 100, and on September 1^st, 2023, my grandmother turned 90. It only seems fitting to honor these two women with our Christmas card while compassionately acknowledging Joey had another grandmother go home to be with the Lord this year as well. A reminder of lives well lived. A reminder of the legacy of the love of Jesus Christ. A reminder of the importance of the Lord’s emphasis on family, God’s family, our eternal family. A reminder of the mantra which has woven like a thread of thought throughout the tapestry of my life this past year: God wants your whole heart for your whole life.

 

Instead of one word, I’ve heard this phrase whispered into my heart and mind throughout my days this year. God wants my whole heart for my whole life. What does that mean? What does that look like? How do I live that out? These matriarchs of our family have lived lives answering those very questions, and I am forever grateful for their legacy of faith, love, and family. Each of us benefits from the generational blessings their faith adds like compound interest to our own lives.

 

Weston took a big step in his own faith this year choosing to be baptized in October at the age of 14. I have observed the growth of his faith by watching him continue to dig in and choose to rise to the challenges set before him. He has grown in his soccer abilities, choosing to condition and hone his skills in his spare time. He maintains high grades in the highest level of classes as an 8^th grader, but more telling of his character may be the friends he chooses to invest in. I admire the way he is boldly unmoved by the opinion of the crowd while also meeting people where they are as they are. He started his first job in February as a soccer referee, and he continues to prove himself faithful and steady. He is an excellent son, and I am proud of him. More importantly, he is a child of God who seeks after Jesus.

 

I’ve seen Savannah blossom and grow in her own faith through her commitment to her own personal Bible study and her willingness to host and help lead Bible study on occasion with her friends. She worked through hard things learning how to be a setter for the first time in volleyball this year. Playing as a setter for both her club and JV school team as a sophomore, she showed perseverance, resilience, and a willingness to put in the hard work to grow and improve. She continues to earn high grades in her Honors classes while balancing an active social life. She is a good friend. Being reliable and responsible, it was completely natural to hand her a set of keys when she turned 16. She started working at Chick-fil-A in June, and I look forward to seeing what doors the Lord will continue to open for her enthusiastic, creative mind. She is an excellent daughter, and I am so proud of her. More importantly, she is a child of God who seeks after Jesus.

 

Joey and I have held the status quo in many respects. Joey still enjoys the work of leading a small but mighty team of awesome people.  He also enjoys taking on small side projects to keep him engaged inside and outside of Chick-fil-A. His commitment to weekly Devotions with Dad is impactful. His presence in working together to intentionally raise godly teenagers is needed and appreciated. Raising teenagers is hard, but he shows up. He engages. Every day. We are committed to the calling of a godly AND healthy marriage for the benefit of our children to the glory of God, and for us, that means marriage counseling. It’s not easy. It’s scary hard on some days, but God’s best is always worth pressing toward. We are blessed when He is honored. I am grateful to be bound in covenant for all our lives to a man who values the mission of faith, marriage, family, and servant-leadership—in that order.

 

I have enjoyed spending my time and energy as a BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) leader and being present for my teenage children. This season of parenting for a stay-at-home-mom has been challenging. I have struggled with the questions of my own worth as my children’s physical need for me continues to diminish daily, but I have grown in my knowledge and appreciation of my relationship with the Holy Spirit as I learn to lean into His guidance for the spiritual, social, and emotional development of healthy teenagers. Maybe I’ll go back to work. Maybe I won’t. What I’ve been learning is how to lay my heart’s desires and concerns at the feet of Jesus then let them go, let Him have control, let Him lead. Where the Spirit blows, I follow because Jesus wants my whole heart for my whole life, and He’s teaching me how to give it to Him in daily, tangible practices that look a whole lot like spiritual disciplines such as solitude, silence, and confession. For me, these are not the fun disciplines to practice, but I am seeing how necessary they are for Jesus to have my whole heart for my whole life.

 

Visiting our missionary friends, the Sawyers, in Kenya at the end of the school year was an eye-opening experience. A soul-shifting encounter. I would encourage anyone reading this to go read the four blogs I wrote about our trip. (One, Two, Three, Four) Living in Kenya for those 10 days was an immersive experience in what it looks and feels like to give your whole heart and whole life to Jesus. Every interaction felt like it had eternal meaning without striving for eternal impact. It felt like cracking open a door to something maybe our future after kids might hold. Not that we feel led to be missionaries (at the moment), but that I felt called and at peace living a life where learning about Jesus, talking about Jesus, serving in honor of Jesus was invigorating. My purpose for life so full!

 

Our culture of excess and access means more distractions and barriers to overcome when it comes to living this life of giving Jesus our whole heart for our whole lives, but I believe He is capable of teaching us if we will give Him the time to teach. So, will you give Him the time to teach? 

 

My missionary friend, Laura Sawyer, recently posted this on her Facebook page, and it rings in the back of mind now:

Voddie Baucham preaching at the funeral of Mwansa Mbewe: “It’s always amazed me how people spend their lives not having time for God, being too busy for Him — but hoping to go to heaven for all eternity and be with the God for whom they had no time for. NEWSFLASH: When you die, you will continue your same relationship with God!”

 

Maybe that’s too bold or in your face for a Christmas letter. Maybe that’s offensive, but Jesus said hard, bold things also. He was the Son of God who came as an embryo in a uterus, so He could experience every moment of our sinful human existence only to sacrifice His perfect life for OUR eternal salvation, for OUR ability to have direct access and relationship with the God of the Universe, and then upon ascension back to heaven He left His Spirit as a gift for His followers to continue to live powerful lives drawing others to His kingdom with their love, compassion, and bold stand for truth. Is this you? Are you His child? If not, why not?

 

There’s no better season than Christmas to consider the Greatest Gift of Jesus and what He means to all humanity. It is why we celebrate after all. Or has the excess and access already gotten the best of your own heart this season? Jesus wants your whole heart for your whole life, friend. How can you begin the journey today of giving Him that gift this Christmas season and for every day that follows? Because once you know Him, you realize He deserves nothing less.

 

May the gift of a soft heart and teachable spirit be yours this Christmas season as well as the joy that comes from the gift of His presence (Psalm 16:11).

 

Joey,                                        Jennifer,                                      Savannah,                                    & Weston Durham

Kenya: The Vision & The Opportunity

Webster’s dictionary defines mission as 1) a specific task with which a person or a group is charged, 2) a pre-established and often self-imposed objective or purpose, 3) a calling or vocation, 4) a body of persons sent to perform a service or carry on an activity, 4) a ministry commissioned by a religious organization to propagate its faith or carry on humanitarian work, 5) a local church or parish dependent on a larger religious organization for direction or financial support, and 6) the act or an instance of sending.  These are the person, place, thing definitions. All of these are what Travis and Laura have worked to establish in Kenya.

Mission as a verb, an action, means to send or entrust with a mission; to carry on a religious mission among or in. The Sawyers are both—missionaries missioning with a mission on a mission. In essence, they embody the word mission. They are fulfilling the GreatCommission by spreading the Truth of Jesus Christ, but they are also the hands and feet of Christ on the ground and in the community fulfilling the call of every believer to go and be ambassadors for Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

When they began, they were sent by a larger organization that has since diminished. In response to that organization’s decline, the Sawyers started their own mission organization through which they collect and distribute support. Straight Up Missions currently supports six other missionaries located in Romania, Kenya, France, and Haiti. But that’s it. It is not a large organization. In essence, SUM (Straight Up Missions) is simply an umbrella under which these missionaries can receive help with their legal documents and accounting. Short of paying for the salary for the one person who does this for them, you can be assured every penny you send goes directly to the needs of each missionary and their God-ordained mission.

Yes, each missionary family needs monthly support. Travis recommends most do not enter the mission field without $5000 of monthly support. However, he is very up front with the numbers. He shared his family of six pulls a monthly salary that is a small fraction of that monthly number. With that monthly support, he also pays for insurance and a plethora of other generous endeavors on the mission. When they told me they personally sponsor a large number of the children on the mission, I had to assume the money comes from this support. The difference an American dollar can make in Kenya is mind-blowing. Travis has calculated that just $250,000 would allow him to finish every building project currently planned for the future of the mission! $250,000 won’t even buy you one house in some parts of the United States, and he could finish building schools, boarding houses, apartments, soccer fields, additions to the clinic, and so much more!

My favorite part about being partners with the Sawyers is their ability to share needs and post picture updates for how your money is being used and spent. There was a need for washing machines for the laundry of all the clothes for the children who board at the school. He posted the dollar amount, and it was an amount we could give at the time, and as simple as that, we were partners in providing means for the children at the mission to have clean clothes. Sometimes he needs funds to continue building projects. Sometimes he needs to provide desks for classrooms or school supplies. Sometimes a student or child needs a sponsor. The needs are many, but I appreciate how they only ask for what I would consider the imminent needs. When you follow them on Facebook or Instagram, you don’t feel like they are constantly asking for money—even though they could. They also give you glimpses of how the money has been used and the difference it is making on the mission. They provide snapshots of Kenyan life and updates about the current ministries and progress of the church in ministry. They can show you how the clinic helps the community and also celebrate the school’s achievements. When you give to the Sawyers, you don’t feel disconnected by miles of ocean, you feel connected through the work of the body of Christ.

So now what? What is your opportunity? I’ve mentioned several already, but the harvest is ripe in Sekenani! Here is what I know, what I observed and heard, and what I can offer…

Travis needs people who are called to missions. A full-time medical staff person would be life changing. Maybe teachers. Maybe chefs. I’m not sure there’s a tradesman who couldn’t be put to work on the mission, but he needs you to be passionate about Jesus first and foremost. Any other agenda or purpose is secondary to leading these people to Christ and living lives filled with Christ-like integrity. Ultimately, his goal is not to bring outsiders in to be in charge of all the things. He needs servants willing to train and teach the people with high levels of integrity fueled by their love for Christ, so others can follow your example, and the people can begin to help themselves and help each other more effectively. Could you raise $5000 a month in support so you could be sent? Would you even entertain a conversation with Travis about what this could look like? It’s been a long time since I sat through a mission’s service at any church I’ve attended in the last twenty years. When I was in high school, churches used to constantly support and send. I don’t know where that falls on the priority list of church business these days. I don’t know who’s promoting the sending and the going, but the need is still very real.

The Sawyers need more givers. You can even designate to what you’d like to give—the Children’s Home, the clinic, Mara Christian Academy, Ten31 projects. Travis has visions and plans for decades of progress. He wants to build a soccer field not just for school athletics, but a place where the community could gather to watch football (soccer) games together which opens up more opportunities to connect and minister and spread the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel. (Soccer is not America’s sport, but in case you’ve missed the memo, it’s the rest of the world’s. Building a soccer field and offering a communal location to watch games is the equivalent to churches hosting Super Bowl parties.) 

Ten31 is an ingenious plan to not only provide more jobs in the community, but to funnel funds back into the mission through the sale of gasoline. Travis would like to build shop spaces and apartments at each of the gas station locations. Some of these shops could allow some of the girls from the Haven (girls who have graduated secondary school) to possibly start their own businesses, such as hair braiding. The apartments could allow income revenue from rental, providing jobs for the people who would oversee these businesses. He would like to equip each gas station with a local “grocery” store and possibly a snack shack. His ideas are endless and only limited by the amount of funds he’s able to procure.

The secondary school is still in need of finishing. It is their current imminent project with a fast-approaching deadline for the following school year. The school will need to be outfitted with supplies in the coming months on top of finishing building. While the dollar stretches further in Kenya, Kenya is not immune to the rising costs of building materials. As each month passes, materials become more expensive. Buying in bulk sooner at lower prices would be wise if the funds were available.

There’s a dream of adding a boy’s home also. Unfortunately, there are more girls who come to them in dire circumstances, but that does not mean there are not boys in need also. But that’s another building and more staff and more food and more need.

There are plans to expand the clinic to include a labor and delivery room along with a room for quarantine purposes (which is needed for many of the diseases they treat). There’s a need for a new X-ray machine and other medical equipment.

The opportunities are endless. With the vision big and God bigger, there is a sense when you visit that the winds of change and progress and growth are only beginning to blow.

Maybe this all seems out of your pay bracket. Maybe these projects are too sacrificial an ask. But maybe sponsoring a child is not. Girls in the home and children at the school are constantly in need of sponsors to help with costs. I believe $30-$40 a month can send a child to school. Comparable to Compassion International in cost except you could actually ask for updates on your child in real time, inquiring about specific needs or desires, and truly invest directly in a child’s life. I’m not knocking Compassion International. (Our family sponsors two children through them as well!) I think they do as good of a job as they can on the large scale they operate, but here’s an opportunity that’s just smaller and can be a bit more personal.

Travis is also good about posting big and small needs on the mission on his Facebook page. Unfortunately, Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms do not always place them at the top of your feed, so you may have to be more intentional about favoriting them or just purposefully checking in from time to time yourself. Odd how that happens. Good people doing good things often do not get highlighted in our feeds. Wonder if that’s by someone’s design? Hmm. But I digress. (Most people know I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist when it comes to government and media, and I’ve read all of Frank Peretti’s Piercing the Darkness series and C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters—fictional pieces, I know. But still, I’m not opposed to blaming the devil for anything when it comes to social media, advertisement, or promotion on those platforms.)

So grateful my God is bigger than any roadblock Satan can scheme to throw up! So grateful technology can be used for good—to connect, to close gaps in distance and time, to bring face to face what could not be twenty years ago. Grateful for pioneers of how to operate missions differently like the Sawyers who demonstrate how technology can be leveraged to bring not just people, but cultures closer together, who can account for every penny ever sent their direction and show you proof of where it went and how it was used, who understand the purpose of missions is helping the people, not helping themselves.

I’m not sure how much you give, how sacrificially you give, if giving is something you’ve never even considered, or if you give to a million different charities already. My ask would be to dig a little. Dig into the study of God’s Word and find out what promises He fulfills for those who give. Dig into your heart and uproot and take a good hard look at anything rocky or weed-like keeping you from having a grateful, giving heart. Dig into your pockets and find some change to spare. Dig into your charities. Do a little deeper research. How are they being held accountable to accomplish with God’s money what you think you are supporting? Ask hard questions and hold them accountable, and if you can’t find suitable answers, be a better steward of the finances the Lord has given you. Dig in. Be diligent and ask the Lord to guide you in wisdom and understanding. Don’t just blindly stroke a check or automatically pay someone every month without knowing what you are supporting.

Does the money you send to support your child actually support him/her? How would you know for sure? Did the gifts you purchased actually get to a child who needed it? How would you know? Are the missionaries you support using your money to build a house for themselves or the people they are sent to serve? How would you know? Do you just take the organization’s word? Your missionary’s word? Have you seen proof recently in photos, emails, or newsletter updates? I ask these questions not to discourage giving, but to encourage accountability. Even missionaries and the organizations they work with and for are sinful humans. They make missteps. They fall short at times. Corruption exists within any business as a result of sin, and no business is without sin. That doesn’t mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater! That means as an investor you check on your investment from time to time, and if the company you’re investing with isn’t doing a good job or won’t make changes when held accountable, then you prayerfully consider investing somewhere else.

And maybe you just need to go see it all for yourself.

Travis loves people to come and stay and do life with them. He loves people to see how they live and what the Lord is doing in person. Their family is a gracious host, and to sweeten the pot, he has a relationship with one of the best game drive (safari) drivers in the area. The plane tickets to get there will cost you more than the rest of your trip including the game drive. It’s not an easy place to reach. Almost 24-36 hours of flying time plus a 4–5-hour drive when you land is no joke, but if you’re making this trip with comfort in mind, then you’re going for the wrong reasons. While I felt we were hosted with the utmost of hospitality and the best of what the Sawyers had to offer, you are in Africa, not the United States. There’s a motto I like to live by in life currently, “Keep your expectations of life low, but your expectations of God high, and you won’t be disappointed.” Our family was not disappointed in the least by our visit. We slept in safety, had hot water for showers, and were fed well.

My kids have already asked to go back. Lord-willing, this won’t be our only trip to Kenya ever. We will see how the Lord guides and provides. But if you can go, you should pray about going. If you can give, you should pray about giving. Like I said, do a little digging and see what the Lord uncovers in your heart, your life, and your finances. There’s not a penny we’ve given we regret. Not one.

How is the Lord calling you to dig in? What will be your response to what you find? Praying you are blessed in your efforts to sacrificially give. And if you need a place to start, you’ll find no better place than with the Sawyer family.

 

To find out more information about the Sawyers and the mission, please find them here:

Website:https://straightupmissions.com/

Facebook: Straight Up Missions, The Sawyers in Kenya

Instagram: @sum.travis @laurainthemara

Kenya: The People & The Mission

I have often wondered what it must have been like to live in a world pre-Holy Spirit. In my study of the Old Testament this past year, I began to realize there are instances where the Spirit was sent upon certain people in the Old Testament, but He did not reside with/inside God’s people. God the Father dwelled with His people in the Tabernacle and the Temple, the Holy Spirit did not dwell personally with the people. He couldn’t. Their sin separated God and man constantly. This is why constant animal sacrifices were needed. This is why God promised a new covenant. (Jeremiah 31:33)

When Christ came, God the Son, completely God and completely man, to sacrifice His perfect life in atonement and payment for all sin, for all mankind, for all time, He created a way for God to dwell with and in us. Hence the ability for the Holy Spirit to be sent and indwell the believers of Christ. Ever since the Holy Spirit was sent to indwell the first apostles, He has been spreading and dwelling and taking up residence with believers in Jesus Christ ever since. Where He lives, the fruit of the Spirit can be found. (Galatians 5:22-23) Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are fruits of the Holy Spirit. Proof He is present and working. Where His presence is lacking, you see less of these fruits.

When the early church began to spread, the Holy Spirit began to spread with each person who believed. The more concentrated the believers in Christ, the more presence of the Holy Spirit. The church grew and expanded. More love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control was experienced in communities where the Holy Spirit resided. I’m no fool. No community is perfect. Never has been. True believers in Christ have always walked the narrow path and been in the minority, but as I’ve mentioned before, God has a miraculous way of multiplying Himself through His people. If there’s just one true Christ follower in your neighborhood or on your street, you benefit from the fruit of the Spirit that flows out of their home in intangible ways you can’t quite explain. Even if you are an unbeliever, the fruits of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life overflow into yours. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control are not attainable without some influence of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing good in this world that cannot be attributed to God. Period.

For centuries now, cultures where the Gospel has been preached and accepted more prevalently have thrived more abundantly. Cultures where the Gospel is persecuted still live imprisoned by their gods, their idols, their false teachings, yet their underground churches thrive and experience a life for which our desensitized American church longs. America and countries where the Gospel is free to be preached take for granted the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit on the country as a whole. When something is taken for granted, it is often not used, accessed, or appreciated to its full potential. These countries long for, pray for, and have experienced revivals in their histories because believers and non-believers repent of their sins. The Holy Spirit awakens in old residences and fills new ones, and everyone in the community experiences the blessing of the fruit.

Now, imagine a world where there actually were no believers to begin with. Imagine a world where the name of Jesus is completely foreign. The idea of Jesus is completely foreign. Because there is no Holy Spirit indwelling in anyone, imagine what a world lacking true love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control might look like. What are the opposites of each of those attributes? You can read about it in the Old Testament. God alludes to what the world was like when He created rules in the Old Testament for His people that made them different from the surrounding nations. History outside of the Bible records well how the world functioned. Men ruled the women. Women were often viewed as property with no rights. Their use and value were in bearing children, producing heirs, gaining a dowry from marriage, forging alliances by the unity of two families. Think of the atrocities that can arise from such a view of women: rape, incest, female genitalia mutilation, other physical and sexual abuse, and polygamy to name a few.

The god of men is wealth because that is not just how they thrive, but how they also simply survive. What happens when a people become solely focused on their means of survival? They lie, cheat, steal, betray, slander, gossip, murder—all in the name of surviving or getting ahead. These people are unfaithful, untrustworthy, disloyal, petty, corrupt, lack integrity, and often childlike in their thinking. The highest bidder gets their loyalty, wife, child, land, cattle, or anything else they can sell, and you might be the highest bidder today, but someone with a higher bid might come tomorrow, so they leave their job you gave them with no notice and go. Drunkenness and addiction become people’s only hope when their god of wealth cannot be attained. It’s the only place they can escape the misery of their life. Imagine that kind of world. Maybe you can. Maybe pieces of this sound familiar.

The number of children men have is seen as a sign of prosperity and status, yet also a burden to provide and care for. Child labor, malnutrition, neglect, beatings, favoritism of the oldest son—all of these and more are results of this world view, this lack of Jesus, this need for the presence of God to indwell. And these neglected, malnourished, beaten children are the future of the people, so why wouldn’t the cycle persist for centuries? How do you break the cycle? Where do you even begin?

You give them the Truth of Jesus. You bring the Holy Spirit into their midst, and by the power of Christ flowing through you, through the Spirit, you start to hand out the fruits of the Spirit into the six-foot sphere of influence around you. And the little children start to come because the world has not yet jaded their hearts and minds, despite the atrocities they have already endured. Because all any child wants in any culture is to be seen and loved unconditionally. They don’t care about gods yet. They will flock like fireflies to the Light of Love. Real Love. And when the children come, and they are loved well, you begin to win the heart of the Mamas because every mother around the world loves and appreciates someone who loves on their babies, who shows them how to love their babies well or better because all Mamas just want to be better Mamas unless they are deeply broken. And when the women start to come, the heads of the men pick up and begin to watch and turn. Who has their wives’ attention other than them?

This is what Travis and Laura have done on the mission. They started in the church, preaching Truth and Light on Sunday, then living during the week according to how the Scripture says to interact with others, spreading and shedding the fruit of the Holy Spirit everywhere they stepped.

And the children came. So, they built a school. Because somehow the people figure out a way to afford schooling for their children. Many children are even sent away to board at their schools even at a young age. Families know at a minimum their children will be fed and housed. In the poorer villages and towns, most family homes only consist of 1-3 rooms in a house. These rooms are the size of modest, American walk-in closets with 2-3 children sleeping in a full-size bed. Sending the children away to school if they can just makes sense.

So, the Sawyers started Mara Christian Academy on the mission, and they are able to educate the children in Christ and academics during the week. I'm not sure how many of the children who attend are actually sponsored by Travis and Laura themselves, but I know they do their best to meet the needs of as many children as they can. They try hard not to turn any away who come in dire need. Many of the families of the school children began to attend their church on Sunday. The fruit of the Holy Spirit continued to spread.

Over time, the Mamas recognize the Sawyers are helping. The Sawyers are giving their children something they cannot provide, so they send their children to them for help. Girls in need of haven and safety. Girls escaping early marriage and other abusive acts. Girls in need of food and shelter and a safe place to heal from heinous acts. So, the Sawyers started a children’s home for girls. They hired a local social worker who advocates for the children and is a liaison between the families, the government and court cases, and the Sawyers on the mission. Her name is Miriam, and now I’m crying because the significance of that Biblical name just hit me as I typed. Miriam watches over the children. The children escaping atrocities. She advocates for them and finds them safe space, just as Miriam did for Moses in the house of Pharoah. Some coincidences are just worth smiling about and praising God for being involved in the simplest of details.

So, the children are coming, and the Mamas are coming, which means the men are coming now too. The Holy Spirit is blowing and passing out fruit everywhere it spreads. I’m not sure the order of operations from this point forward, but the 35 acres of the mission now holds a complete primary school with a secondary school being built. The mission will educate children ages 4 through grade 12 when all is built. The Sawyers added a medical clinic, school boarding buildings for girls and boys, a kitchen to feed all the children, a laundry to clean all the clothes, a bath house for the boys and the girls, and boarding for all their staff. They started a training academy for anyone in the community who wants to be trained in how to study and teach God’s Word. Travis meets individually with the men interested in being discipled and teaches them how to preach. Because many of the girls who graduate are not in a safe position to return home yet, they built the Haven where some can live a little while longer until they feel they can leave and thrive safely off the mission.

Travis was able to obtain his permanent residency within the last year, so he now has the ability to buy property in Kenya. With this ability, he worked to brand a gas station called Ten31 to be run off the principle of 1 Corinthians 10:31. The profits from every gas station are funneled directly back into the mission after paying employees with the hope the mission can become self-sustaining over time. I want to expound on this idea more in another blog, but my point is, the Spirit is moving in Sekenani, and the harvest is multiplying. It’s beginning to multiply outside the city boundaries of Sekenani.

Families, children, youth, young men and women, old men and women are coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is taking up residence in their lives and in their homes, and they are learning how to rightly read, understand, and teach God’s Word. Many women are given audio Bibles in their own language, and while they cannot read the words yet, they can quote you the truths of God’s Word because they listen to it non-stop everywhere they go. They carry this Bible in a little zippered pouch like a necklace around their neck, and they listen while they haul water from the well back to their homes. They listen while they wash their clothes by hand and lay them to dry over bushes. They listen while they nurse their babies and work to cook for their families. They listen and the fruit of the Spirit is feeding this impoverished community. In some ways, some of these women are more full and more alive than many women I meet in the States. Their physical poverty mirrors our spiritual poverty and vice versa.

Oh, the conviction of taking for granted my access to the Word of God in my own language, in my own home! Woe is me for taking for granted the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, for choosing to do my own rowing instead of putting up the sails for Him to blow.

“Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for my callous heart, for my desensitized eyes, for my deafened ears. Forgive me if I have quenched, grieved, or ignored the Holy Spirit in my life. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Help me see the offensive ways in my life, so I can turn away from them and back toward You. Thank You for the gift of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Thank You for still working, always working for Your children’s good and Your glory. Keep working, Father! And if I can help, open my ears to hear, and I will go with a grateful heart because You haven’t given up on me yet!”  (Colossians 1:11, Ephesians 4:30, Psalm 51:10, Psalm 139:24)

To find out more information about the Sawyers and the mission, please find them here:

Website:https://straightupmissions.com/

Facebook: Straight Up Missions, The Sawyers in Kenya

Instagram: @sum.travis @laurainthemara

Kenya: The Missionaries

If I have one regret from this trip, it’s that I did not get one picture with our two families together!

Travis and Laura came to Kenya May 5^th, 2006 with their oldest two children, Sarah & Summer. They moved into a tin shack of a home in Sekenani, Kenya, right outside one of the main gates to the Masai Mara Reserve in January 2007.  The Sawyers came to join alongside the work of some previously sent missionaries. (SO MANY stories to tell there!) But it wasn’t long before they found themselves the only missionaries left to do the work alone and on their own. In the years that followed, missionaries would come and go to work alongside them, they added two more daughters, Savannah and Skyler, to their family, and under the God-given vision and love for these people, the mission grew.

Travis is a visionary builder in every sense of the word. He literally, physically plans and builds things, even in his sleep (by his own admission). Trained to draw architectural plans, lay foundations, operate heavy machinery, and construct, he has built homes, schools, and structures throughout the community over the years, not just on the mission property. He is a rural, mountain man raised in the North Carolina Appalachian region, so if you’ve ever wondered what the language of Swahili in a southern drawl sounds like, he’s your man. I’d call him a redneck, but his passion for Christ and love for these people erases any negative connotations of that stereotype when you meet him. He lives to serve, to lead his family well, to protect them and the people God has put under his care on the mission, and ultimately to spread the Gospel truth of Jesus Christ to everyone he comes in contact with, whether it be the local chief, mayor, local authorities, or even government officials. He is respected in the community by those who know him as a man who has actually made a difference in improving the community, and he is often slandered by those opposed to the truth. He can talk all day, every day, non-stop. He has enough stories to fill three volumes of books, and every day they live is a chapter of a book. He is the Sekenani Energizer Bunny for Christ, and his vision for the future of the community is inspirational, and by the power of God, he’s making it happen. Also, someone I don’t have pictures of (LOL), he just rarely sits still!

Laura is a Titus 2:3-5 Mama. Read it. She embodies every word. Her Mama-heart pours into everyone on the mission. I met her in high school when we worked together at Sweet Spirit Christian Bookstore. She loved the Lord then, deeply, sure in her faith, steadfast, calm, and fully ready to commit her life to Christ through missions even at a young age. In many ways, not one thing I admired about her then has changed to this day. She is quiet, kind, loving, but sure and ready with an answer from Scripture for everything she believes. She’s not argumentative, but immovably convincing in what she believes. In the face of disturbing news, disappointing facts, frustrating irritations, concerns with sicknesses of her children, I watched her remain calm, collected, and at peace. She expresses her feelings, acknowledges them, but she remains at peace, centered, and constantly continuing to move forward, taking the next step, counting the cost, and moving forward regardless. For eight days, I watched her make meals from scratch—including biscuits, muffins, and hamburger buns!—keep her house clean and organized, washing laundry with no working dryer, preparing her family of six to leave for the States for the next four months, all while making space and time to listen empathetically to the Mamas in the community who needed to speak to her, the children on the mission who just needed her hugs and hand holding, her own children who were wrestling with their own emotions about this upcoming visit to the U.S., and me. In the middle of all these things, she took the time to care about who I was as a person too. Oh, and she taught Bible study with different groups of women at least three times during the week we were there!

I know. This makes them sound super-human, but they’re not. They are simple and real and sure of who they are in Christ. He gives me hope for the future of mission organizations. In a system where corruption and the pursuit of business and profit has too often overshadowed the actual work of the Lord needing to be accomplished, Travis is the example for how it can be done right. She encourages me as a wife, mother, and woman of God. Being just those three things is enough. If I am filled up with Jesus, I will impact the world around me in not just ripples, but crashing waves being the most Christ-like wife, mother, and follower of Jesus I can be. Those three roles in life are enough when embraced and valued fully. Those three can define who I am for the rest of my life. They can be the answer to the question “What do you do?” every time, and I don’t have to cringe inwardly wondering if that’s enough. I watched it be plenty and more for Laura, and I am encouraged from this day forward it can be plenty and more for me.

They’ve raised four beautiful and completely different daughters while living in Kenya, all of whom love Jesus deeply, each one gifted uniquely. The two younger, Savannah and Skyler, are the same age as my kids, so it was a blessing to watch the four of them bond, and to see my kids meld and mesh so quickly into the daily life of a missionary kid. Their fast friendship was ministry to all of them in many respects. Being introduced to some of the local mission teenagers gave my kids the experience to make friendships in Christ on the other side of the world, and the gift of technology allows them to still stay connected. As always, watching the Lord work in the youth of our generation, no matter the culture, fills me with hope and joy and a renewed motivation to keep running this race for Christ. It’s a long, hard marathon at times, but the fruit you experience when watching the Lord work in the lives of others, especially children, has always filled my soul with hope like an energy shot or gummy along the way during the race. God is working. Constantly. He never stops. He pursues the people He loves relentlessly from one generation to the next. Fix your eyes on the prize of Himself at the finish line and take note of who’s running with you along the way. You are NEVER alone. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Travis always tells the people there are those who are sent and there are those who send. Both are necessary and as much needed as the other. He tries hard to convince the locals that what they see him able to do and accomplish is not a direct result of his own wealth. He talks about his supporters, his senders, with the people, so when you go to visit them, the people are full of love and gratefulness and show appreciation through the gifting of items they sell to make money for their families. For as little as they have, the people are very generous. As a family, it has been a joy to be senders for the Sawyer family. For over twenty years now, we have given monthly in some format to the mission. There were months or years where it seemed like finances were too tight to give, and I believe there was a time when we did stop giving for a season, but it never felt right, and it never sat well with my heart. I don’t believe much time passed before we decided to send the money once again.

In this day and age of great strife, need, corruption, inflation, and economic instability, it’s easy to justify funneling your funds to other needs in your own home, life, and family. It’s easy to become disillusioned with well-meaning organizations when you discover the corruption and lack of accountability that exists inside those organizations. It’s easy to believe your money is better served close to home under the watchful eye of your own discernment. And maybe, in some instances, this is a prudent stance to take, but not in the case of the Sawyers. Every penny you send goes directly to investing in the mission and local community. I think I will expand on this in another post, but for now, my point is everyone needs to be either someone who is sent or someone who sends. In both aspects, you are fulfilling the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20.

There have been times in my life I have felt guilty about my inability or unwillingness to actively pursue the Great Commission. I used to believe it was necessary to be gifted in evangelism with a call to missions to give this commandment feet and traction in obedience. Joey and I experience great joy, satisfaction, and pleasure in supporting the missional non-profit organizations the Lord has led us to. It’s not a check we stroke every month begrudgingly, although we obediently do strive to give sacrificially. But more importantly, I have come to believe this is how the Lord has gifted us to help fulfill the Great Commission. This is the part He’s gifted us to play. I believe anyone with the privilege of living in a first-world country has been gifted the talent to give something to further the kingdom of God, and I’m not just talking about your tithe, I’m talking about something deeper, more purpose driven. Money you give knowing you are being obedient to further the kingdom of God specifically. Tithe is an act of gratefulness to God which He has always designed to support the Body the of Christ and the servants of God. (Numbers 18:21, Nehemiah 10:37-38, Malachi 3:10) Sacrificial giving, whether it be $1-$1,000 more and in addition to your tithe, is how the Great Commission is fueled in today’s society. It can be an act of worship and faith to actively further the kingdom of God. I can smile and rejoice in every soul saved and every child educated and sheltered at the mission in Sekenani because the Lord allowed us the gift of fueling the Great Commission being fulfilled there. (2 Corinthians 8:2-7)

It's not about dollar amounts. It’s about being faithful stewards of what the Lord has given, of what already belongs to Him. (Matthew 25:14-30) Like all things in the Bible, it’s not about the outward amount of money, it’s about the motivation of your heart to give. (2 Corinthians 9:6-7) We used to pass around the offering plate for missions every Sunday night in the Baptist church where I grew up, and I remember placing my quarters in that plate as a child. I believe with my whole heart God honored every quarter given in faith and sacrifice.

Are you the one being sent or are you the one sending? Every one of us is one or the other. It is how we fulfill the commission of Christ when He ascended into heaven. He left us (for now) to be sent or to send. What part of obedience do you play? Can you lay your head down at night in peace knowing you are using the privilege, gifts, and talents of your place in time and history to further progress the kingdom of God here on earth? (Esther 4:14) He will return as soon as every tribe and tongue hear. (Matthew 24:14) Don’t just say, “Come Lord Jesus, Come.” Be a tool in the process and be blessed through the sacrificial obedience. 

To find out more information about the Sawyers and the mission, please find them here:

Website:https://straightupmissions.com/

Facebook: Straight Up Missions, The Sawyers in Kenya

Instagram: @sum.travis @laurainthemara