May Recap

May has been one jam-packed month for us. We started off the month on our Support Raising Road Trip, and are ending it with a productive day in Zambia as we settle back into our little life here. There have been speaking engagements and health mysteries in between there, and we’re excited to update y’all about both of those.

After it took a pretty penny to go back to the States, we are now on the other side to assess, “Was it worth it?”

Visiting with family and friends is priceless of course, but putting that aside, was it worth it?

Absolutely.

We are back in Zambia with a refreshed soul, a refined vision, and a replenished support account.

Let’s take a break before we dive into June and just praise God and thank Him for these 3 victories He’s accomplished in and through our lives by His grace.

1. A refreshed soul: We wish we could spill our guts out and share every detail of the events that occurred during January-April. For security and other reasons, we simply cannot. But trust us when we say that even one event/occurrence/hardship out of the 4 of these that happened over that time period would be enough to deal with for an entire year. So what about 4? How do we process that? Honestly, it’s been overwhelming. We’ve had to figure out what it looks like to deal with traumatic situations and hardships to be better equipped to handle them next time and to properly deal with the emotional toll it took on our lives and our marriage. It’s with the greatest gratitude in my heart that I get to share that God did a lot of healing during our time in the States. Not because He owed it to us, but because He loves us so much that He wanted more for us than our own confusion, doubt and anger. We’re still works in progress, and will continue to be as new experiences come about, but I can honestly say that we have grown greatly in our understanding of God’s character and grown together in our young marriage. And that is the greatest gift.

I thought setting a time frame to be refreshed meant that it would happen in that way, but that’s funny considering I can’t control time or control healing within. I now know that God is perfect in His timing, and that even if things seem delayed or off-course to me, He is doing exactly as He needs in His perfect goodness. Anxiety can be replaced with peace. Control replaced with trust.

Thank you to our friends and family who have loved us and cared for us so intentionally and sacrificially over this past season in the States. We have been spoiled by you, loved by you, and healed through God working through you. Maybe you think a snow cone at a picnic table or a homemade dinner was just a simple gesture. But it has impacted us deeply and encouraged us greatly. We are so grateful for those of you who love us enough to walk through tricky seasons with us, to lift us up through your prayers, and to lean down far enough to pull us out of the ick.

2. A refined vision: Each support presentation/party and speaking engagement gave us the opportunity to re-learn and re-evaluate why we do what we do. And if we believe that what we do is God’s will for us. Bet you didn’t know all that was running through our minds in addition to the speaking jitters, right? ;) But for real, it was so good for us to get to share our ministry and our mission with friends, family, and strangers-turned-dear-friends. With each passing flip through our slideshow, our motivation and confidence grew greater and greater.

We are meant to serve with Clothed in Hope together. For as long as God wills.

So we wanted to share OUR vision as a family living in Zambia, working at Clothed in Hope:

We believe HOPE is real and hope is alive in Zambia. Jesus is here, and He is performing miracles in the lives of Zambian women and their families. We believe He’s given us a heart for these people to empower them socially and financially, but most importantly to empower them spiritually. We believe the program is bigger than a few sewing machines and white boards. We believe the freedom these ladies experience can only be explained through Jesus. He is setting captives free. He is proclaiming freedom over the oppressed. He is granting these ladies a crown of beauty instead of ashes. Through the Gospel of Jesus alive in Clothed in Hope, we get a front row seat to witness lives being redeemed, made new, set free.  As the Bardi Family, we believe God has graced us with the opportunity to join in the stories He is re-writing here in Zambia, turning despair into HOPE for women and their families all across Zambia. And that is just so exciting!! We see and we know that God is greatly at work here, and He’s invited us in. An incredibly humbling invitation, and one we can’t believe we get to accept. We are dedicated to forming intentional relationships with the ladies and children we get to work with, to share the hope of Jesus with them, and to empower them to embrace the identity and freedom Jesus has proclaimed for them. We are co-laboring with the other women God has raised up to do His work in Ng’ombe, to be a light in the darkness for His glory. And that is such a blessing.

3. A replenished support account: Time to get real on this one. Programs need money, people need money. And money matters to God because it’s an area that we pretend doesn’t exist so we don’t have to trust Him with it. When I say we, I really say we because I’m definitely in that category. Unplanned and unexpectedly, we found ourselves in a really tough position financially earlier this Spring. One that was threatening to pull us out of Zambia. Yet we felt God affirming our mission and our lives here every step we took, so that led to a lot of confusion and such. One of our main reasons for going to the States was to connect with more people to invite them to join us in our work in Zambia by supporting us prayerfully and financially. We were going to give it one last push as we felt God was directing us to be back for this season.

The whole process was actually really scary. Before we left Zambia we were on a bread, eggs, veggies and rice diet, which is far better than the majority of the world, but still a hard reality for us to deal with, especially as newlyweds with other ideas of what we “deserved” for starting out this whole marriage thing (sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?!). Some great friends of ours here reminded us that the call to follow and serve Jesus isn’t promised to be full of financial blessings. But it is promised to be full of spiritual blessings and the closeness of Christ, which is far greater. They encouraged us to press on, to eat those rice and veggies with hearts full of gratitude, as God will never forget about us. We are in His hands. And that word has helped us press on.

During the support raising road trip and season in the States, we were so encouraged by (the most unlikely) people who felt a stirring in their hearts to join us and be a part of what God is doing in Zambia through Clothed in Hope. We made so many new friends, and were blessed time and time again by people’s prayers. But fear kept us from seeing most of this goodness in real time. I feared it still wouldn’t be enough. That God didn’t know what He was doing. That we were alone in our struggle. That I was crazy for thinking the prior thoughts.

Fast forward to 3 days ago. The big day. The day we would re-evaluate our financial standing and edit our budget to see how long we could stay here. Our lease is up in August, and we didn’t share this with many people, but we were convinced we’d just have to pack our bags and head out in August. But God. But God used every single gift, big and small, to provide for our every need. But God lavished unfathomable mercy and grace upon us while we doubted Him and His ability. But God chose to allow us to stay here in Zambia, for reasons far beyond what we can understand.

So for the big news: We are up 25% of our monthly support commitments and are now at 55% of our support goal!!!

With a huge flood of extremely generous one-time gifts from old friends and new friends, we are now able to stay through the end of 2014 based on where we stand financially at this very moment!!! That is HUGE!!! We are so grateful, as our hearts desire is to plant our roots here and begin real life here in Zambia.

We are still working to reach our support goal so we can continue to live here for 2015 and beyond, but instead of thinking how much remains to do, we will PRAISE GOD for what HE has done- for bringing us to this place and for grace upon grace when we least deserve it!!

To sum up this entire lengthy blog post in one word: grace.

It has been a season of grace, and we are grateful to carry that with us as we usher in a new one having just returned to Zambia. The page has been turned; we are opening a new chapter. This is just the beginning now and we are so excited for all that lies ahead.

Oh and before I wrap this up, thank you for praying for my health! I’m feeling much better and the pains are lessening in frequency and intensity. God has worked through each of you.

We are beyond grateful for your involvement in our lives, whether we get to talk to you frequently or we’ve never even met. You are a blessing to us and a treasure to Jesus.

Zikomo Kwambiri (Thank you very much)!

Love,

Amy and Wyatt