We decided, before Christmas, that we were going to spend this summer in Africa (July, August, September) to work with kids and young people. Andy had been asking whether as a Christian one should be living to work or working to live and God said, basically, the answer is neither. Live to give. What a fantastic mission statement for life!
So from that came the decision to take some time out and go to Africa.
It all seemed fairly simple, once I came to terms with leaving my fledgling business for a whole 3 months. Particularly as Andy's employer has a sabbatical policy, whereby employees can take a period of unpaid leave of up to 2 years so long as they give a months notice and negotiate it with their manager (how incredibly generous is that!!!).
The drugs service Andy works for, however, has just lost its contract and department is being taken over by a different organisation in May, which doesn't have a sabbatical policy and only allows unpaid leave in emergencies.
Tricky decisions to make then. Andy felt called to go away to serve. I thought it would be a great thing to do. Left with the prospect of Andy having to give up his job in order to do it and therefore neither of us having secure employment when we come back, ups the stakes a bit. We're going to need to raise a lot of money just to go and to keep things in order here whilst we're gone. If part of our life's mission is to adopt children, I really don't want us to jeopardise it by throwing away our financial security at the beginning of the process. That would seem irresponsible. Not going to Africa just out of fear about money would seem equally dumb. We don't know for sure that God wants us to adopt. Perhaps he has another plan entirely.
Anyway. We've thought and talked and prayed. Don't know what God's plan is. We've decided we will go to Africa, unless God makes it clear that we shouldn't.
After we'd made the decision, Andy's current manager told him that she has been negotiating on his behalf to see if the new organisation will allow him to take a sabbatical. No promises yet, she says. The fact she's negotiating at all is really encouraging.
So here we are trusting God and trying to be sensible!
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