Shipes on Mission: Immeasurably More!!

Eph 3:20 ~ "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

We have had an Immeasurably More few weeks!! So incredible it's just plain hard to put into words. This morning I was reflecting on all the Lord has done and was in tears and speechless. 'Thank You'just seems too little to say.

We have known since we arrived in Botswana that our mission was to reach Leaders of Children. We have worked in lots of churches and children's ministry conferences but God continued to impress upon us that the Leader that has the most influence on a child is his or her teacher. God gave us a vision to do a conference for School Teachers. We were unsure what that would look like or how we would manage to do it, so we began to pray for direction. When Scott mentioned this vision with our friends, Pam and Steve Workman, they shared that they had been dreaming and praying about doing the same thing.

We began to meet together and pray and brainstorm about the possibilities. We watched God open doors as we prayed. Scott and I knew of two teachers that we definitely wanted to be a part of this conference. I wrote my dear friend Karla Hafner and told her to begin praying and ask Lisa Avins if she would be interested as well. Karla wrote back and said that they were both very interested but knew that it would only happen if God made the way.

We continued to watch God open doors as we prayed. Karla and Lisa talked with their principal and got permission to ask for the time off of work to come. We prayed for favor with the superintendant and within a few weeks they wrote and told us that they were given the time off with pay and subs provided. GO GOD (Immeasurably More)!!

We prayed about how we should promote and invite teachers. In our finite minds we thought it would be best to only invite teachers from the closest villages to Gaborone, since we would not be able to lodge them. Pam, the headmaster at the The Learning Centre School, was invited to speak with the ministry of education about the conference. When she arrived at the ministry things seemed to be in chaos so she texted me to pray. A few minutes later the deputy secretary came out and said , "Yes we know about your conference. We are very excited and are appointing 300 teachers from all over the country to come. We will pay for their lodging and their transport costs." He also said, "People have offered to help our schools by sending sports equipment, or setting up computers, but none have ever asked to invest in our teachers. We are hoping this will not be the only conference you have like this!" Pam could hardly believe how GOD had done all of the work and we were just left to praise HIM - (Immeasurably More)!!

We prayed over details, invited more speakers, and began to prepare topics to present. The week finally came (last week) and we got to watch God at work ~ AMAZING (Immeasurably More)!! All of the teachers came. They were very receptive of all that was presented. They began to see themselves in a new light - as the ONES given a unique opportunity to change the world... one child at a time. On the last day of the conference, Steve Workman, pastor of Desert Streams Fellowship, presented the Gospel. 207 people scribbled their names on little pieces of paper (just torn from their notebooks) stating they had prayed to recieve JESUS as savior and Lord!! - Praise be to God!! (Immeasurably More)!!

When I reflect on the week all I can do is give thanks!! Thanks to everyone that prayed! Thanks to Lisa, Karla, Amy, Barbara, and Pam for speaking Truth into the lives of the teachers of Botswana. Thanks to Scott for his energy and passion that he freely pours out!! Thanks to Steve and Pam for being obedient, for hosting the event, and for sharing the life changing message of Jesus! Thanks to The Sumter School District teachers and friends for giving so generously for the 100's of prizes given away to the teachers of Botswana. Thanks to Our AWESOME GOD - for saving souls,for changing lives and perspectives,for giving teachers a reFreshing outlook, and for using ordinary, broken people like us!!

Hope you enjoy some of pictures of "ReFresh"