Mercy and I never saw ourselves as pioneer cross-cultural missionaries back when we were pursuing our university studies. We both arrived in Cape Town South Africa in different years as fresh-faced, happy-go-lucky Kenyan youth. We were simply keen on completing our degrees, following Jesus the best way we knew, and going back to Kenya.
Yet after we graduated and got married, we found ourselves being asked to consider opening up the Navigator work in Mozambique. And after praying over it, we said yes! Right now, we are learning Portuguese, a language that was completely foreign to us a few years ago. We look about us and see a people and culture that is very different from our Kenyan one. How did we get here?
“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow” wrote Paul to the Corinthian church. Both Mercy and I received an incredible Christian heritage from our God-fearing parents. We didn’t know it at the time, but those (often lengthy!) family devotional times around the table, and those (often lengthy!) Sunday services were being used by God to prepare us. God’s Word was always close at hand during those early formative years under their care.
Bruce and Tricia—the American Navstaff couple stationed in Cape Town—and the rest of the South African Navigators team exposed us to a missional way of thinking. Our lives mattered in God’s big picture and we dared to believe that! They faithfully watered the seed that had been planted in infancy! And now, as we faithfully trust God to lay foundations of local labourers here in Mozambique, our parents continue to remain our biggest supporters. May we live up to this wonderful heritage that has been passed down to us!