From team members with a newborn:

A few days ago my wife and I brought our six-week-old baby boy to the land to which God has called us to serve. A land overrun with malaria, rich in sweat and hardship, teeming with rats, mosquitoes, cockroaches, bats bigger than our son—and full of unreached people.

Neighbors immediately welcomed us, happy to have us back and honored we would bring our baby to live among them. Everyone stared and whispered but loved the little “mzungu” (white person).

Within two days, our baby got his first marriage proposal. A grandmother who couldn’t have been less than 140 years old (okay, maybe closer to 80) with gray hairs hanging off her chin, was wonderfully happy we had returned safely. When she heard of our new baby boy, she declared that she would wait for him to grow up and at the proper time marry our son. I didn’t wait to find out what the “proper time” meant to her.

Our son is a key to relationships, a key to unlock people’s hearts and doors on the island. Local ladies are his “island grandmothers” eager to babysit him. At a graduation ceremony with lots of very important people from high levels of society, we were swarmed with people wanting to hold our son and have their pictures taken with him.

Why do we bring our baby here? Because we love these people. Because this land is filled with hundreds of thousands of people who are on the wide road, headed for the wide gate that leads to death. Because God deserves the glory from our neighbors. We bring our baby here because God has called us as a family of three to serve and love these people and to share “Life” with them.

These islands are a fabulous place to raise a child and we are thrilled to be here!