Are We Really Safe?

I thought I was prepared for the upcoming moments of the day.  They told me it would be this way. And yet the moment the AK-47 and the shot gun fired I jump out of my  seat and hit the floor face down.   Heart racing, pounding in my ears, hands shaking I sneak a look at the one’s firing the guns.  They yell, “Don’t look at me!!  Give me your phone and money!”  I slide my bag as gently as possible across the floor and with trembling hands reach into my bag and get out my wallet and set it on the desk for the ones that are robbing me.   I rest my head on the floor and wait for it to end.  The yelling quiets and I hear, “Let’s get out of here! The cops are coming!”  One guy flies by me and then………SILENCE.

“ACEDEMIC MODE!”

This was the first of many situational role playing models that were simulated during the next 6 hours for our safety /security training.  They explained the importance of being prepared and not paranoid.  The goal is to know that we are able to go to Cameroon with a plan of action and awareness of situations that may occur.  We were told over and over again to remember Matthew 10:16- Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

This was just part of the 11 days in training with CMDA and Samaritans Purse for our medical mission work.  Chris and I were taught about cultural awareness and the differences that we may experience while abroad. We were given a tour of Samaritans Purse and shown the many aspects of the organization that is sending us.  Let me just announce that we were given wonderful training and information, and  I personally came away from the experience encouraged and at the same time slightly overwhelmed by the gravity of moving. 

I am extremely thankful that we are going with an organization that tracks their Missionaries and makes safety a priority.  This gives me great comfort as that is one concern that not just myself but almost every other family there expressed.  I know that ultimately safety can be an illusion, but in Christ is the safest place anyone can be.  I found this scripture; or rather this scripture found me and it brings me back to place that I can be assured.  Joshua 1:9- Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. Isn’t that awesome!! 

As always please keep us in your prayers during this time of preparation and transition.  If you will look to the right column there is now a space where you can enter your email address and it will add you to the loop to be notified when a post is made.  Please feel free to enter your email address there.  If you have any questions or things that you would like us to join you in prayer about you can email us.  It would be our honor to pray for you. 

The Giffords

“The Will of God will not take you where the Grace of God cannot protect you.”

June 2016 Update

The past month has flown by in a rush of activity.  We have done some travel for a wedding of a family member and were able to speak with the pastor of a church in the town we were visiting.  This was an enjoyable time and we were encouraged by the words that were spoken during our time together.

We have put our home on the market for sale and have had several people come to look at it.  There are not any offers on the table as of yet, but we know that God has a plan and the house will sell the moment it is supposed to.  However, let’s be honest the waiting, for Chris and I, has been trying.  We are people of action, and are once again reminded that we are not in control and reminded to Be Still and Know that He is God.

Raising financial support continues to be a slow process, but we are moving forward and know that what we are doing and where we are going is the plan and will of God for us at this stage of our lives.  We continue to pray that we will stay in line with that and keep our hearts open to the will of God and leading of the Holy Spirit. 

Please continue to pray for us. This is one need that every person can meet. If you would like to email us please feel free to do so.  We would love to hear from you and stay in communication with you.  You can send a message to emergent2016@gmail.com . Also if there are any of you that would like to meet up with us before our departure please let us know via email. We would love to discuss our plans and future with you. Thank you for your love and support for us.

 

The Giffords

“The Will of God will not take you where the Grace of God cannot protect you.”

Chris Passed Boards!

Hello all! I hope that this post finds you all well and blessed. We have been in run, run, run mode as you saw in the previous post on 5/12 and that has not changed yet. 

Since 5/12- We were able to present to our home church Holy Trinity Orthodox Church on 5/15 and were able to gather many prayer partners and were given wonderful financial support. We are once again blessed by the kindness and support of those who after hearing what our mission is are willing to back us and go with us on this journey.

Biggest news of the month is that CHRIS PASSED HIS BOARDS!!!!! Whoot Whoot! We are proud of him.

We also had a garage sale this past weekend. Overall, it was good and we were able to make a little money. It did cause some emotional strain, but we made it, and are feeling a lot better 5 days post garage sale. We are also very aware that we have a ton of things left to sale that did not get sold or did not even make it to the garage for the sale. So........that means another one is on the horizon.

This week on Tuesday the kids and I had run some errands and were discussing the events of our day. Micah got up and went upstairs to get something. When he came back he handed me $7.

I said, "Buddy, you only owe me $3 for the baseballs that you bought at the store out of your money from the garage sale."

He replied, "I know, but we need the money more to go to Africa. You keep it."

My heart just melted at his response. This is the boy that has had some major ups and downs during this journey to Africa. Right then: It showed me that though it may be hard at times for him to accept or get excited about going to Africa he is willing to go where God is leading us as a family, and also that he in support of it.

I pray that we continue to lean on Christ and trust that He always be in charge of the path our lives will take.

We pray that you are blessed and that Christ continues to guide you.

In Christ,

Ashley and Family

"The Will of God will not take you where the Grace of God cannot protect you."

Christ Has Risen!!

We have had a full month since our last post. We celebrated Pascha in Wichita, KS, presented at The Eagle's Nest Church, drove to Nebraska for a funeral, and in between that worked and attempted to get our home ready for selling.

We are so blessed that The Eagle's Nest welcomed us and were able to give us prayer and financial support. It means everything to us. I personally enjoy being able to attend from time to time when I am in Wichita, KS and see the familiar faces from my childhood and the new faces who are kind and welcoming to my family and I. We truly appreciate your love and generosity.

We were able to have some New friends to dinner on Tuesday, 5/10 the fellowship was welcome. On Wednesday, 5/11 Dr Dennis and Nancy Palmer came to our home for dinner and fellowship while they were here for a short time from Cameroon. They visited with us and are so full of experience and knowledge. We are grateful that they carved some time out of their busy schedule to send an evening with us.  (I know that we are going to learn a lot from them in the coming 2 years.)

Chris will be leaving this weekend for a Tropical Medicine course in Minnesota. He has been gearing up for the travel and the intensive course that is ahead. This has required many hours sitting in front of a computer doing modules and listening to lectures. (Glad I am not him. Yikes!)

On Sunday 5/15 we will be presenting at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church to explain our upcoming mission work and hopefully to gain more prayer and financial support. We want to state our thankfulness for the doors being opened to us and the opportunity that we are being given by our church.

We thank you for all of your encouragement and support. We pray that you are blessed beyond measure through Christ. Please message us or comment if there is anything we can pray for you all about.

Ashley and Family

"The Will of God will not take you where the Grace of God cannot protect you."

 

Completely Speechless

 
Have you ever had that moment when you are just going along in your day to day life and then, WHAM! The air is sucked from the room, out of your lungs, and you sit speechless stumbling around for the words to say? This is me Tuesday. And I do not think it is too far a stretch to say that it was for Chris also.

Let me back up just a couple of days for me to lay a foundation for you to be able to understand what makes this moment as astounding as it is. Chris took his boards for Family Medicine on 4/4 and the weeks leading up to that have been stressful for him (and us as we all feel the effects of the ones we love most.) He took is board exam and then the waiting game began to see if he passed. This leaves a certain level of underlying continual unease. We have also been working toward completing many tasks such as taxes, prepping house for sale, and making a schedule to speak at churches to raise support for our time in Cameroon. So, with all of this we have struggled off and on this last month.

This last weekend we looked at the finances, support that has been raised thus far, and determined how much Chris would be able to work starting July. We soon saw that if he works as much as possible we would be able to cover the expenses of his student loan payments while we are in Cameroon. However, that does not cover the kids’ education costs, Visas, insurance, and travel expenses for the kids and I. Chris was expressing his concerns and I was experiencing a huge weight in my chest about the obstacles that are laid out before us. At one point I turned to Chris and said, "Hey, we have not seen the statement for March. Let's just see what it says. Hopefully there will be more support and we can be encouraged to keep moving forward."

So, that brings me to this month’s statement and the moment the air disappeared. Chris called me at work and told me on Tuesday that we received this month’s statement. He told me that we had one person/or group that donated a substantial amount. They were not identified in anyway so that we can send them a thank you or call them. But, let me just say that the amount that was given will allow us to purchase plane tickets for the kids and I, the school fees for the children, and at least 1 round of Visas for the kids and I. At first I did not believe him when he told me I could not fathom what he was telling me. I even had to log into his email to check for myself. I was in AWE. In addition to that we also had additional people who gave financial support that we sent letters to. We are so grateful and humbled by their belief in what we are doing. We are beyond blessed by this, and we cannot say thank you to all of those of you who have given, and those yet to give. We were also once again reminded that God is in control and he takes care of his children.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We covet them most. May God continue to bless you all!

Ashley
"The Will of God will not take you, Where the Grace of God cannot protect you."

Anniversary gift from Chris.

Financial Support Recieved

Hello!! I just wanted to give an update how we are doing this week. We are in the Great Lenten Fast and are blessed to be able to attend evening services at our church. It is a time of prayer and diligence. We welcome the time of reflection.

We received our monthly statement from World Medical Mission of financial supporters. We are so thankful to our friends and family that have been able to give. We appreciate your gift and kindness. It is encouraging to us to know that we are continuing on the path that we believe Christ has set us on.

Please keep us in your prayers. We have many, many, many decisions to make. Below is a copy of the letter that was mailed out to all of those that we had the address for. I know there are more of you that did not receive this letter. Thank you for your time, words of encouragement and support. I pray you have a blessed day.

Ashley, Chris and Family
"The Will of God will not take you where the Grace of God cannot protect you."
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Greetings Friends and Family!

It is with great joy that we enter 2016 as we have many exciting things to share with you about what the Lord has been doing in our lives. I will be taking my family medicine board exams and finishing my residency program in June. As this chapter comes to a close we will be transitioning to a new adventure!

As many of you know Ashley and I felt called by God back in 2004 to begin preparing for medical missionary service. So over the last 12 years we have been training and working in the medical field preparing to fulfill this calling to serve God as medical missionaries. Ashley has completed her training as a licensed practical nurse and served in a variety of settings including pediatric, kidney and infectious disease clinics and I am now a family physician (soon will be board certified) with a broad-scope of training in obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency care, and general medicine with several international experiences that have provided us the valuable skills we will need to serve God through medicine.

We have been accepted by World Medical Mission (WMM), the medical division of Samaritan’s Purse (SP), to participate in the Post-Residency Program (PRP), a program for doctors who are just completing their residency training program and have been called to full time overseas medical mission work. WMM/SP have seen how effective mission hospitals around the world have been in reaching people for Christ. These hospitals are centered on doctors who have dedicated their lives to full time Christian medical mission service. Over the last several years they noticed a problem developing in the mission hospitals, there are fewer and fewer doctors committing to full time service and hospitals around the world have had to close their doors. They found that many young doctors had intentions of going overseas to serve in a mission hospital but have to stay to work and pay off loans before they go and many circumstances prevent them from ever committing to full-time service. So the goal of the PRP is to bridge the gap between residency training and full-time missionary service. WMM will send us to work with an experienced missionary physician at one of several mission hospitals in need that they have partnered with for a two-year term.

We have officially been accepted to come to Mbingo Hospital near Bamenda, Cameroon in Africa. We will be working with Dennis Palmer and his wife Nancy who have spent nearly 35 years there building an academic medical mission training center. It is a 330-bed hospital with a full laboratory, an ICU, a full time pathologist, and high quality internal medicine and surgery residency programs. This is a rare mission hospital. Their hope for us is to consider starting a family medicine training program to take over the obstetrics and ambulatory care services of the hospital. We plan to leave in during the month of November, 2016.

As part of our preparations we have to build a team of partners. We are asking you to become our partner by committing to pray for us regularly. Right now we need prayer support to raise up a team of lifelong supporters, to make good and wise decisions about our belongings (house, cars, and literally everything we own), about what curriculum to use as we learn about home-schooling our children, whether we need to learn French, that our objectives for the next 2 years will become clear and focused, and that God will open doors for us to share the work he is doing through our ministry.

We also ask you to prayerfully consider becoming a financial supporter. WMM will provide us with a modest stipend and financial support for housing, food, and my airfare. However, this will leave a shortfall of nearly $5800/month to pay for our VISA’s, passports, travel expenses, and vaccinations for Ashley and the kids, home schooling curriculum, insurance (health, life, emergency evacuation, and malpractice), maintenance of all our certifications and licenses, and some sort of transportation when we get there. Apparently it costs between $90, 000-100,000 to keep missionary families on the field. We believe we can do it for less. We are asking you to commit to giving $25, $50, $100 or more monthly or giving gifts annually of $100, $250, $1000 or more.The donations are tax deductible and 100% of the funds you donate will be held in an escrow account by WMM/SP for our exclusive use. They do not keep any administration fee. The remaining money not used during the PRP will be transferred to the mission agency we transition to at the end of the two years. Our prayer and hope along with that of WMM is that we will be able to continue full time medical mission work when the two years is complete. In order for this to happen we are asking you to join with us now in service to the Lord. Please let us know how you would like to partner with us. There are two ways to give tax-deductible gifts. Fill out the enclosed form and mail it in to the address on it with a credit card or check made payable to Samaritan’s Purse with Chris and Ashley Gifford in the memo or you can go to www.samaritanspurse.org, select World Medical Mission under the WHAT WE DO tab, then select Support a Missionary, then type in Chris or Ashley Gifford and pay online through their secure website. We are really grateful for this opportunity in our career and are excited to see how God uses us all to further His Kingdom through this ministry!

We have a blog at careinthevalley.blogspot.org where you can follow our journey and/or an email emergent2016@gmail.com where you can contact us about how you want to be involved. Please write and give us your email or mailing address to receive our quarterly newsletters. We are developing a schedule to be able to come and talk to churches about our work and would like to meet with you to discuss this opportunity for you to serve with us in Cameroon. Let us know if your church would like for us to come and share!

May God Continue to Bless You and Keep You,

The Gifford’s

Chris, Ashley, Micah, & Micaja