The Lockes

Hello Dear Team Africa!!

I think I'm ready to come out of hiding . . . for a few minutes anyway!
I can't believe it has been an entire year since we landed back on the soil of good ol' US of A. And it has taken that entire year to recover! As I have been reflecting on our time in Africa and the few months following our return to the States, I am in complete awe and unexplainable thankfulness for how the Lord used you, our incredible team, to support, love, pray for, and bring us to a place of rest and refreshing again. YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!! And I'm not just saying that!

We have met many, many missionaries in our journeys over the years. Many of their stories of their support systems are very sad. Often missionaries get sent out with a big fan fare, rarely to hear from their supporters or "team" during their difficult days on the field and ESPECIALLY upon their return FROM the field. Many feel they cannot be real with their supporters for fear of losing necessary funding. Because of our anonymous giving, we felt total freedom to give you our yuck! And we did! And you responded in such love and grace, we just can't imagine it being any other way! Thank you for helping to make our experiences very different from those who feel so isolated in their service in foreign lands.

As we left for Africa two years ago, we were sent out miraculously as God used you to provide the necessary finances to get on the plane with our 17 bags and 3 kids! Once in Africa, we never once felt abandoned. You were faithful to email just at the right time (Praise God for technology. . . 25 years ago, that would've been impossible!!). You would email things God was asking you to pray for and it was SPOT ON! Many of you, I was able to build wonderful relationships with as email prayer pals! We were truly surrounded in prayer. And we always had what we needed monetarily. There were weeks it would look slim, but then God would prompt someone to give and we'd have exactly what we needed . . . over and over again. And as Heath has updated once before, we "made" more money as missionaries than he is making at a "real" job! That is miraculous and such a testimony to your faithfulness to care for us and respond to God in giving when He prompted. THANK YOU!

Mozambique was an incredibly rich experience for all of us, while South Africa proved to be much more trying. The uncertainly of what we were doing there, how long we were to be there and what was next, ON TOP OF having our 4th baby, made the stress of missionary life very difficult. Yet once again, we never felt abandoned by God or by you, HIS Body! Over and over your prayer confirmation was direction for us as the Holy Spirit would tell you things only He and we knew!

The love and care that we were given from Kent and Shay at the Ehmke house (the one we lived at in South Africa) and the friendship and fellowship from Richard and Sheila and others in Nelspruit was invaluable. Thanks so much for loving us and enduring with us through our difficult days! I was a basket case to be sure!

God's provision through YOU to get us back to the US was another amazing miracle. And everything preceding our landing in Portland, Oregon was the love of God manifested tangibly through you! Two weeks prior to leaving South Africa, we had no where to live upon returning home. Then God shows up through Mike Thaler and offers us a beautiful place to stay for 3 months! We got "home" and the house was set up and livable, complete with towels, sheets, beds, crib, soap, shampoo, dishes, warm clothes and a month and a half supply of food! For all of you who were part of that, we will never forget it. You blessed us beyond what we could've thought or asked for at that point. You provided a place for us to come home to and we felt anything BUT abandoned by our friends and team!

Those three months were so difficult in the reverse culture shock and wondering what the heck we were supposed to do next! Yet again, we had you to cry with, sob our guts out with, tell our jaded, processing thoughts to and to pray with! You know who you are! Thank you for letting us be so real. It made our restoration process so much quicker than it could've been. From toilet paper and diapers to friends GIVING US their mini-van, we couldn't recount all the ways that YOU, our friends and teammates have given to and been there for us.

Thank you to all of you who housed us, loved us, supported us financially through those awkward months. The Truaxs, Stagers, Bocseris, Kinds, and then the Georges whom we told we'd be there for 2 weeks and left 3 months later!!!!! I'm telling you, our friends are full of hospitality. We have so many crazy, unbelievable stories of true hospitality and the family of God working and providing for other parts of the body, it's bizarre!!

We truly have not taken any of your love, gifts, prayers, hospitality, financial support, and most of all friendship for granted. And I know in my attempt to give honor to you, our friends and supporters, I will miss mentioning some really big things, moments, or gifts. But they are not forgotten in our hearts and minds. My journals tell it all!

And as we could never repay you for such acts of love and kindness and sometimes sheer obedience, we continually pray that the Lord will bless you beyond what you could imagine for the sacrifices of friendship and love and gifts given to us for the Kingdom of Heaven.

It has been a wonderful 5 months of living in our own little house, with our own little space and our own little family. The Lord told me this would be a greenhouse time for our family where he was tenderly caring for and growing us in order to send us out again. It has truly been this. I am coming alive again and loving life again! YEAH GOD! Hiding has been the best thing in the world for me and the kids . . . a little rough on Heath but he's enduring for our sake!! Ministry, though on a much smaller scale, continues to be amazing as we meet on Tuesday nights to pray. The Presence of God and power of the Holy Spirit is just amazing.

And the biggest miracle of all is that I am LOVING and fully embracing the role of motherhood like never before in my 10 years of marriage. God had to take me through the last 3 years to bring me to a place of fully surrendering my heart and this time in my life to Him by giving it to my family wholeheartedly.

So thank you. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Forgive my hiding! I will return (it may be 17 years from now but I will return!!). Jesus is ministering to us and continuing to minister through us. Someone asked me if I'm enjoying living in California. I said, "I would've enjoyed living on the moon at that point! I just needed somewhere to LAND for a longish period of time!" So yes, I'm enjoying Cali, but most of all, I'm enjoying routine, stability and hiding! This is the first time in 10 years of marriage where all I have to think about is my family! I think I'm considering this my sabbatical!

Ok, that's enough for one "outing!" Love and blessings and abundant LIFE to you all! We LOVE YOU!

Emie for the Locke Family