The Retreat

We are so very grateful for y’alls prayers, emails of encouragement, calls to check in, and faithful friendship in this past week especially. We have received each one of them and God has really used each one of you to show us more of Himself during this season.

The week has just about finished up, and after much prayer, we have arrived at a decision. This past week has been one of the hardest for us. But once we made this decision, we felt a wave of peace wash over us, like a faint light has started to appear in the midst of the darkness of this season. And we know that is the Holy Spirit. So here goes:

We will be boarding a plane in just a week and a half, on March 31, to come back to the States for a month and a half, to return back in Zambia on May 15.

This decision wasn’t an easy one to arrive upon, but we truly feel it is God’s will and grace for us right now. We know that we have been called to Zambia and it is our hearts’ deepest desire to be here for the long haul. But this season of immense difficulties brought us to a place of feeling backed into a wall of either leaving completely, or sticking it out with an all-too-real possibility of burnout at any moment. God in His great grace showed us another way, His way, to be able to stay while still tending to the heaviness on our souls.

We have felt in our hearts that this is our retreat. The definitions of retreat are the following: a strategic withdraw; a place of refuge; to withdraw especially for shelter; the act of withdrawing as into safety or privacy.

Our souls are tired and wounded from so many things that have occurred this season. We are physically okay, but we feel God is calling us to retreat. To take a step back to let Him care for our souls. We really feel this is a strategic withdraw, one that will only equip and empower us to come back stronger, healthier, and readied to be effective in our lives here in Zambia and with Clothed in Hope. We are not giving in or giving up. We are gaining strength. We are resting. We are shutting off to allow the Savior of our souls to heal and restore us. We could continue trekking on our own strength (the little that’s left), but that would only lead to burnout, bitterness and a whole lot of mess. A withdraw isn’t a forfeit- it’s a strategic move to come back to fight difficulties harder than ever to proclaim the victory of Christ in every aspect of our lives.

Our Abba Father is saying Come, find rest in Me. Let Me heal you. Let Me restore you. I love you not for what you do but for who you are. And I find you worthy in Christ.

We’re leaning on Luke 22:39-46 when Jesus withdrew during danger of his arrest and impending crucifixion. In the midst of pain and the ultimate battle (of which He knew of the Victory, even), He went away to be alone. He didn’t work or preach, but He just was still and silent in the presence of His Father. This passage also shows that Jesus in His aloneness was visited by an angel for strength.

Now we know we ain’t Jesus, but we are so grateful for this example of withdrawing in the face of danger, not out of shame or giving in or forfeit, but so that Jesus could be encouraged by the only One who could do that for Him- God our Father.

Our time at home will consist of 2 seasons:

1. Sabbath rest, retreat, withdrawing, shutting off for the entire month of April. No work, no emails, weeks without social media (gasp). All so that we can be alone with the only One who knows the pain we feel and also gives the healing and comfort we so desperately need. We are excited and expectant for this season to just rest and be for our future health, sustainability, and longevity with our lives here in Zambia. To say this retreating is much needed would be the understatement of the century.

2. Support raising. Another large part of the difficulty of this season has been our financial situation. We are trusting God in the desert but are continuing to pray for the rains of provision to come down. We are currently sitting at 35% of our monthly support goal and do not currently have enough coming in monthly for both food and rent. We have never been without a meal and we do have a roof over our head, so we will continue to gratefully trust God to provide knowing that He will never fail us. We need to spend some of our time at home support raising, because it’s not just about our financial situation, but it’s about inviting others into the Kingdom work that God is doing through lives here in Zambia. We cannot tell you how many times we have powerfully seen this to be true, and it just excites us so much to get to share the opportunity with others to be involved in life change of Zambians 6,000 miles away.

With this quickly-approaching season of America life for us, we do have some pretty big needs we would like to share with y’all:

1. Prayers: Please pray for our month of rest and healing, that God would meet us in our hurt and difficulty and that we would come to understand His love in a whole new light. Pray for a stillness in our busy spirits in a world that tells us we are as important as our busyness and schedules. For me (Amy), this will be the hardest- to just be silent and see that as productive in the long-run knowing that time in the presence of Jesus is never time wasted. Please also pray for our time support raising, that those two weeks would help us become fully funded, that God would provide people with willing hearts who want to partner with us in all that God is doing here. Pray for miraculous provision that would allow us to really see Zambia as our long-term home, a place we can let our roots grow deep and raise a family one day.

2. Funds: Our plane tickets home cost us $3529. We also will incur many expenses while at home with traveling for fundraising, food, other costs of living. We are inviting you to be a part of this season of rest for us, and would be richly blessed by any amount you feel led to give to cover these costs of travel and such that we are in great need of. Any amount would be so helpful. You can donate to either of us for our expenses here: www.clothedinhope.org/our-team.

3. Supporter referrals: If you know of anyone at all who would like to host a fundraising event, or who would like to meet with us to hear about our work and God’s work here in Zambia, we would love to chat with them! Just shoot us an email and we would love to work something out: amywbardi@gmail.com or wyatt.bardi@gmail.com. We will be in Raleigh, Florence, Columbia, Charleston, Brevard, and Aiken for sure, but would gladly add on a few more cities to our support raising road trip.

Or if you, yourself, feel like it’s time to join the Bardi Party adventures in Zambia and be a part of what God’s doing in and through us by grace, we would love for you to join our support team today with a monthly donation commitment. Like I said before, we are currently living off of 35% of our support goal, so grateful for all those who have chosen to join us, and excited to welcome many more people to our team for us to become fully funded and fully able to stay in Zambia for years to come. God is doing huge things here and He is inviting YOU. 

----You can sign up for monthly donations by clicking the “Donate” button and checking the “Recurring” box here: www.clothedinhope.org/our-team

Thank you for your support as we prepare for our retreat to the States. And thank you for caring about us as people. We can’t wait to share with y’all all that God does in this season and are so grateful for this opportunity.

We love y’all,

A&W

“Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

1 Peter 5:9-11