Braided Stories
As we’ve been working on Jack Power: Young Lion Running, we’ve found ourselves digging through old photos, remembering stories, laughing about adventures, and recalling what life was like when our family first moved to Zambia with our four little boys and a heart to simply serve. It’s been sobering because time has moved so quickly! And it has been fun because when we look back, we can see God’s fingerprints all over this unexpected story.
As we’ve written Jack’s story in book 2, it has become increasingly clear that his story and ours have been intertwined for a very long time. When young Jack was on a journey of growth, so were we – every single one of us. At a unique crossroads in his life, God placed our family in a position to love, encourage, and help Jack. But at that very same crossroads, God also placed Jack and other super-special Zambian sons in our lives. They became a bridge to a community that would eventually become our home. Through Jack, we learned lessons we never would have learned and have experienced adventures together we never could have imagined.
Looking back now, it is amazing to see how much we needed each other. But it’s even more amazing to realize God was behind it all along – none of it wasted, none of it an accident.
Long before we met, He was writing and creating something special. He was braiding stories our together.
Psalm 139:16 says,
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out. before a single day had passed.
That’s our testimony, and yours, and everyone’s around the world. How incredible! Who would have imagined that a family from the desert Southwest of the United States would become family with young men from a small compound on the outskirts of an industrial city in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa? Distance, culture, language barriers, and oceans couldn’t stop God’s unique plan for all of us.
We can’t wait to share Jack Power: Young Lion Running with you because it tells the story of a season when Jack’s life and our family’s lives became deeply intertwined. In many ways, Book Two is not just Jack’s story, it is our story too. And it is a story that is still unfolding, to this day!
Lions, if you’re facing a speed bump, a setback, a disappointment, or even a quitting point in your story today, please don’t quit. The chapter you’re living is not the whole story. God, the best story writer and the Author of life, is still at work, still writing, and still weaving! Even now, He is moving people, circumstances, opportunities, and relationships into place in ways you cannot yet see. The adventure ahead may be greater than anything you can currently imagine. That’s been true for us, for sure.