We are a family in love with Jesus Christ! Our family is planning to head to Emi-Woro, Kogi State, Nigeria sometime around Christmas this year for a two year VISA mission through Free Methodist World Missions.A few years ago Jim and Barb Stillman, missionaries to Eastern Africa for 37 years, spoke to a group of about 40 of us at our church. Devin and I kept looking at each other with eyes that were getting bigger and bigger! We were filled with excitement as we saw how regular folks were being used to support the clergy and the members of the Free Methodist church in Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Burundi. We loved the images of church worship and felt an immediate connection to the people we were seeing. A light bulb went on as God used their dedicated lives to show us that simple people such as the Myers family can be used to further the work of the kingdom in Africa.
We have been through a lot of change in the past 10 years or so, and the good things are all from Jesus! Our love for people, cultures, and travel gave us a desire to do mission work "someday." We hoped to travel and do service and mission work after our boys (Jack, age 9 and Ben, age 6) finished school. As we continued to open up our lives, our plans and especially the timing shifted to a “whatever, whenever, wherever” attitude. It has been inconvenient, and at times difficult, but we can both say that we have heard from the Lord and have made every effort to be obedient, and have been incredibly blessed! Our level of faith continues to soar as we are learning more about WHO we are trusting.
In January of 2008, we entered into a time of prayer and fasting that led us both to hearing a very sure call to “sell our home and get our house in order.” We were sure that the home was the physical dwelling, but the “house” to focus on was the personal/spiritual/relational. As we took steps toward selling our home, almost immediately, we began to feel a strong pull to do a long term mission with our boys, and met with our Pastoral staff to share our hearts in February. In April, Devin went with our church to the school in Emi-Woro, and it was very confirming for him. We were able to eliminate all debt except our house payment, and started homeschooling with thoughts to a future in cross-cultural missions. We decided to apply through Free Methodist World Missions and finally submitted our application in December of 2008.
We are overjoyed to be working with Phyllis Sortor in Nigeria. She is an amazing woman, and if you haven’t heard her tell of the beginnings of this school, check out this link: http://www.childcareministries.org/ministry/fulanilittleshepherds.php