Emie Update

Hello Everyone,
This is just a quick (laugh now) update to let you know that we are super, crazy busy with big teams coming in. We are getting our 3rd big team in 3 weeks today. This one of 43 people! Heath is doing outstanding with airport runs sometimes all day back and forth, shopping runs for water, putting beds together, organizing projects, answering a bazillion questions, praying for people and doing it all with amazing patience, love and grace! He is being molded in new ways and it is so amazing to watch God depositing more Christ like characteristics in him. I’m just so thankful to be married to him!
I really miss side by side ministry with him. I long to be with him in relating with the teams but the Lord has been very clear that this is a season for Heath to grow in new ways relationally (and it is definitely happening). So I have been more content the last two weeks to be at home, have teams over to our house when we can, pray for them while they are here, and occasionally meet them on the other base when all the kids and I are in a good place to be out for a whole morning! My primary responsibility with the hospitality department is emails (20-40 a day), getting people here and then taking care of all the room reservations making sure we have beds for all the people I say yes to! It’s a lot but it feels like a little compared to all the running around and relational stuff Heath has to do.
I cannot get any of my personal emails right now. They aren’t downloading onto Entourage and I don’t get to the other base often enough to check them online. So if you have emailed me personally in the last week and a half, I haven’t received it yet. I’m not ignoring any of you on purpose! Though I had been reading them throughout the week, I only have time to respond to personal emails on the weekends. Thank you all for loving and encouraging us! We do not feel like we’re forgotten!

Bullet point info:
• Judah is now the proud owner of several chameleons and hermit crabs!
• We now are the owners (and Heath is the PROUD owner) of a 6 week old German Shepherd Puppy named Jehu (Yahweh is God).
• We saw our first faces from home last weekend when Josh and Jess Clark came all the way from Oregon to visit us!! (Well, they came for the Holy Given School!) It is such a gift to have them here! And they came bearing gifts from many of you!! THANK YOU!
• Two weeks ago I got an ultrasound. Things looked good (or so she said in her quick overview). By the measurements, the due date is November 17 and I predicted November 15, so that’s good.
• I got sick shortly after the ultrasound and had some symptoms with the pregnancy that were a bit nerve racking. But I know the Lord has said everything will be ok. It was the battle of trusting Him before I know medically what is going on. This is a different level of trust for me. It’s easy to say I’m trusting when I can find out what the issue is. It’s hard to trust when I have to be in the dark for awhile until I can know the details of what is happening with the baby and my body
• The Lockes have issues with the locks on our doors! The locks are such that when you shut the door, you need a key to get back in! A couple weeks ago, all the Lockes but Asher Locke were locked out! Asher couldn’t figure out why we were all staring through the windows at him! Fortunately (or unfortunately) it is fairly easy to pick the lock when it isn’t triple locked (which we do at night). We are learning to grab the key EVERY time we go out the door!
• We are loving our role as hospitality host/hostess when we hear all the amazing things the Lord is doing in people even in a short period of time here. Being face to face with the orphans, the poor, the desperately ill, the poverty and the Presence of God in it all does something to every person that comes. I wish I could relay all the stories we get to hear of how God has worked in the lives of those we host. They tell us with tears in their eyes of the person they prayed for in the village or the stretching experience when they saw Jesus in the poor or the heartbreaking moments of holding a toddler that rarely gets one on one attention, or the way the Holy Spirit has led them to Scriptures at the right moment, or how the Lord has allowed circumstances to break down Western ideas and comforts (losing luggage, no running water at the base for days, sleeping on sketchy mattresses, having personal items stolen, eating an overload of rice and beans!, riding for 9 ½ hours in the back of a flat bed truck, etc). And the craziest part is that we feel like we’ve known many of them for years! The fellowship of the Spirit is real and amazing! These people are part of our lives for 2, sometimes 3 weeks, but we feel like we’ll never forget them and we are bonded for eternity (because we are!!). Our love for the Body of Christ is growing by leaps and bounds! I wish you could all experience this with us. New Zealanders, Americans, Europeans, Koreans, Australians, South Americans, Africans . . . we are experiencing the NATIONS! What an unbelievable honor! The truths of Ephesians are coming alive.
• Judah turned 5 last weekend!! We had a private party on a BEAUTIFUL beach! We bought beef, barbequed, had delicious chocolate cake (I discovered how to make YUMMY choc. Cake here!), and lots of fun in the sand and water. He said it was his best birthday ever! (Good thing he only has one or two to compare it to!)
• Abiel met her first friend here! Just about when she thought she was going to die of loneliness, a couple came for only 4 days bringing their children. Eliana was 7 and they were inseperable for the entire 4 days! Eli was a God send for many reasons. If our baby is a girl (which I think it may be) her name will be Elianna meaning “God has answered me!” Eli came the day after I started having some questionable symptoms with the pregnancy. As I talked to Eli’s mom, she shared that she experienced the SAME symptoms with her pregnancy with her Eliana!! The Lord was giving me a tangible picture of TRUSTING HIM and confirmation that He answers me through many avenues! I do not take this meeting as a chance encounter or the timing of it to be happenstance. I know the Lord was answering!
• Now that the mission school is underway, there are other little girls Abiel’s age. But since she played so hard with Eli, she has been feeling under the weather for almost a week. Hopefully today we will go meet her new friends! I am so excited for her.


Thanks for all your prayers, emails, support and love. We are more thankful for you than we are able to communicate.

Colossians 1:9-14 have been the verses we are camped on this past week! May you also be strengthened with power so you will have all the patience and endurance you need for every crazy moment in your life!

Blessings from Africa,
Emie for the Lockes