Who is my brother?

"By this we know LOVE, the He laid down His life for us, 

and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

 I John 3:16

We had a long chat today about who are brothers are, since we don't have any...there was one who thought this gave us a free buy to NOT lay down our lives! One was confident it must mean Uncle Jay and Uncle Laurence since they were Mommy and Dada's only brothers?!

We read Scripture about laying down our lives for our neighbours and that almost confused the matter more since we feel like we know and love our neighbours on three continents, in about four countries right now...Tom and Gertrude, Simon and Gladys, The van den Heevers, Pap and Nyanya's neighbour with the horse toys among others were discussed along with Fiona and James and Bob...some of our current neighbours!

To this mama "brothers" today means this crew pictured above. 

Oh, how I want it to mean precious African pastors hungering for truth and hope.

Somedays I long for my brothers and neighbours to be university students that are hungering and asking great questions at such a key time in their lives.

Gently I am reminded...we know love by the laying down of life...

Once again, by His grace and in His Spirit, I choose love.

Would you pray with me, they (my family) see Him! That they choose Him! That this journey of life would yield more than we can ask or imagine through their own yeses to Him!

We leave in a few days to revisit our home of the last 8 years.

They will process Africa through a lens of now over a year of it not being where they laid their heads each night. I'm not sure what that will mean or how it will be...but I'm thankful for this gift of time and relationships to grow in Jesus together. Thank you for carrying us as we trust Him and go forward seeking LOVE!