Hello everyone, I know it's early in the month, but I wanted to go ahead and send out an update on how everything is going. Since I will be leaving for Uganda on the 24th I didn't know if I would have another chance to update you. It is my hope to send an update out every month, if at all possible and if I have anything to update you all on. Thank you for all your prayers, man have they been felt! Thanks to all of you who have responded to these emails, your words of encouragement have been such a blessing and have often times been a way God has answered a prayer.

There have only been a few times in my life where someone has said something to me, directly or even in passing, and God has used what that person said to cut straight to my heart. I would like to share two of those times with you.

I guess any of you that have heard me give my testimony, or a heavily edited version of it I should say (a topic for another email), know that all through high school, college and my early married life I had a bad drinking problem. The result of which was a series of bad events that accured during this period, no doubt God disciplining a rebellious child. But God placed someone in my life, someone I looked up to and respected, and gave that person the right words to say and put me in their presence at the right time (when I was at my lowest).

That person asked me if I had taken my family to church the previous Sunday. I said no, but before I could give my usual laundry list of excuses, all of which were lies, he looked me dead in my eyes and said, "you know your going to be held accountable for the way you lead your family, you know Gods going to hold you responsible". I quietly said, "I know, I know" but as I sat there and those words sunk in all I could think about was how my girls had already turned one and had only been in a church a handful of times. How my wife and I had not had a real conversation for over a year. The truth was that while I was living an ungodly life I was in fact saved. Just what was I going to say to God on the day that I had to stand before him and give an account of my life? How would I, after knowing Christ, explain that I never gave my children or my wife a Christ-like example for them to follow? What if because of my failure as a father, husband and spiritual leader one or more of them spends eternity separated from Christ?

Everything had to change.

I've never thanked my father for the words he said that day. I hope he knows the impact that his warning has had on my life and the life of my family. Because on that day a relationship between a husband and wife, a father and his daughters and a son and Savior began to heal. Thank you Dad for saying exactly what I needed to hear at exactly the right time.

It was 8 months later that I joined my father on my first trip to Uganda to work with ACM. It was also the first time I felt that foreign missions might be something God could lead me to do in the future. A feeling/calling that has only grown stronger with each trip since. How perfect is Gods timing?!?

The second time I want to tell you about was on October 24th 2010. It was the morning our team was to leave the ranch in Uganda. Me and someone (I'm not sure who) drove ACMs truck over to Wayne's house to drop it off along with some stuff the team was leaving behind. As we stood in the house two college age girls (Joy and Sarabeth), who were on a three month mission trip of their own with ACM, came into the house. As we talked one of them said in passing how much we must be missing home, to which I said. "it's not home that I miss but my family," and "if I could have my family there with me I would be home", to which she replied "why don't you bring them then?" The first thought that went through my mind was "easy for you to say! You're young, or younger, single and don't have a spouse and kids to consider!". So I dismissed her comment, said good bye and headed back to the other side of the ranch for breakfast.

As the team ate, the AHI and ACM staff came to say goodbye. As they did so the tears began to fall, from staff members and team members. You may not know this about me, but I don't do emotions very well, especially ones that involve my eyes leaking. But as staff member after staff member came and gave me a hug, most of which were crying, I felt my heart shatter. But I was strong, I swallowed my feelings...bottled them right up. I consoled those that needed consoling and assured them all that we would be back next year. All the while fighting back tears and thinking,"why are you leaving?", "why isn't your family here with you?", "who told you 'later in life'?", "you haven't even prayed about it and asked God 'when', you've only asked him 'if' ", "do you really want to follow Gods will? and if so why aren't you letting him decide when to go?". I bet that Joy or SaraBeth never thought twice about the comment they said to me that morning, but for me it changed everything.

At the same time, back in Birmingham, Alicia was at school telling her fellow classmates how excited she was that Wes was coming home soon. One of her friends, Marie, was asking her about what I do in Uganda. After telling her about the work with ACM, Alicia told her "He loves it so much! He goes pretty much every other year. If he had his way we would live there now!" For the first time instead of someone saying "oh that would be CRAZY!" or "Oh gosh, I could never do that!" Marie asked, "so why don't you?". Alicia stammered around for a while and mumbled something about the kids, but couldn't stop thinking about that question...why don't we? What scares us that God can't handle?

I find it funny that we rarely ever get to see how our comments impact each others lives both for good and bad, I bet if we did we would talk a lot differently to each other.

Oh yea, all those tears that I fought so hard to hold back? They blew up the next morning at the breakfast table in front of my family. I went to bless the the food and instead of saying grace all the family got was a bunch of incoherent sentences and uncontrollable sobbing. Three months later and I'm still crying, Alicia to .

As God breaks our hearts for the people he would have us serve the tears continue fall, and for the first time in my life I'm able to feel others pain, to put my self in their shoes, it's been great. Our family has had more spiritual growth in the past three months than in the past 13 years. Its funny how fast God can do a good work in you if you only slow down long enough for him to do so.

There's a song by Sanctus Real called Legacy and in that song there's a verse that says "all these inventions steal my attention from real life". That is so true! We have found that if would just turn off the T.V., pick up the bible a little more, join a reading group, ask others to pray for us and just focus our attention on the father instead of all that he has blessed us with, His voice suddenly becomes crystal clear.

As Alicia and I sat in church Sunday morning listening to Buddy preach I kept thinking "Man! I know I've heard Buddy preach this same sermon before!" and as I listened I realized were I had heard it from. I heard pretty much the same sermon the night before on a Charles Stanley podcast. And thats not the first time something like that has happened. In fact it's happening all the time. Alicia and I looked at each other as if the same thought had just passed through each of our heads at the same time. I leaned over and said "you know that there's no question about the call", she smiled and said "I know". The call has been confirmed, we are almost certain of the country and the organizations. We are both praying for more clarity on those. Hopefully I'll get those answers in a few weeks.

Thank yo so very much for your prayers

Love the Wilbanks family.

Love

I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while! Just always assume we are crazy busy, you'll be right 99% of the time!! :)

Can I tell you how awesome our God is?!? It's amazing how much He speaks to us when we are actually seeking Him. From the shouts to the quiet whispers, His presence is everywhere all the time, if you stop to look.

That has been one of the greatest blessings of this JOURNEY we are on. We already feel so much closer to our Father, so much closer to each other, and so much more focused on His plan.

A few days ago, I randomly stumbled upon this blog posted on a friends facebook page. I clicked the link and was floored by what I was reading! This amazing girl (I think she is 22 now) started an educational and feeding program for poor and orphaned children in UGANDA (oh yeah, and has adopted 14 girls!)! The things she writes sound verbatim like what Wes has told me for years about how he feels about Africa. This blog and Katie's story have been such a blessing to us and have calmed so many fears that I have about Africa, answered so many questions...it is totally a God thing!

Wes and I have spent every night since I found it, reading aloud and crying our eyes out for these children and their families. Every day we would discuss and issue or a concern about God's plan, and every day God would answer those concerns or issues through a friend, a sermon, our bible reading, or Katie's blog. Even the blog title is "The Journey"! All of the world needs our Savior, but Africa needs Him so blatantly, so obviously. We continue to pray that we can, one day soon, LOVE on these sweet children and teach them the truth (in lugandan AMAZIMA) about God. There are so many of her posts I would recommend you read, but I'll link the first one I read and let you do some exploring on your own! I promise you will be blown away by the work God is doing in Uganda! You can read this post here. Have kleenex at the ready. :)

Katie's posts and her story have a continual theme, loving God's children, all of them. On the last HSBC mission team video we did, I put I John 3:18 at the end, "Dear children, let us not love each other with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." This is truly what Katie does in Uganda and what we hope to one day do there also. But we don't have to wait. There are a BILLION ways we can love God's children where we are. We just need to be reminded sometimes to stop and do it.

Since the day Wes came to me and said, "I think God may want us in Uganda" (which if you know Wes at all was really NOT a surprise!), I've felt like this mission has been Wes'. My purpose would be to love and support him as much as possible, take care of the children and make sure they adjust well, do whatever is needed but mostly in the background. All very noble things, all extremely important things. I feel like our children could also do some amazing service over there and could really change lives…but after reading Katie's blog I've begun to feel like there might be a different mission for me in Uganda. The Lord knows I can loooove me some children! Please pray for us to be open to God's plan for me, Katie Mae, Ashley, Wyatt and Wes, we know He has amazing plans because He tells us so! {Jeremiah 29:11}

Wes and Randy leave for Uganda on Feb. 24th. Please pray for their preparations and all that they need to coordinate before they leave.

I start back to school Feb. 1st. I've very…melancholy?…about starting back. Last time I ended up with a broken foot and in a boot for 8 weeks!! Of course God's timing was perfect with that as well, I just have to be reminded over and over sometimes! I just feel so much is riding on my successful completion of school…please pray for peace about this and that I would remember that I've given it to God. His timing is perfect.

Last week I was able to share our plans with my parents for this first time. I was very nervous about this because I know how much they miss my big sister in San Francisco and aren't super excited about the possibility of my little sister moving away either. This went so well though! They were a little apprehensive but still totally supportive. I know that this is all to God's glory!

Thank you as always for your prayers. We love you all very much!!

Update & Prayers

I'm posting an email Wes sent out yesterday. God is so faithful and is revealing so much to us each and every day! Thank you all for your responses, they mean more to us than you know!

Hey guys!

I hope everyone is doing well. We wanted to give everyone an update on how things are going with the Wilbanks Fam and our pursuit to find God's will for our lives.

First let me thank you all for your prayers and support. It has been such a blessing to us and has made such an impact on our lives already.

When Alicia and I first began to think all this through we were overwhelmed with a flood of logistical questions about what all would be involved in such a transition, not to mention a whole host of worries. Our biggest worry was for the safety of our family, primarily our children, as well as financial support. If you have ever been on a trip with dad and I than you know the first thing we tell you is not to let money be a deciding factor in whether or not to go on the trip, and that if you are willing to go, God will provide the necessary funds. Then here I find myself worrying about how we will support ourselves in the mission field, what a hypocrite I can be!

As Alicia and I have begun to pray about all of our concerns, God has begun to move mental mountains. At some point I hope to be able to share with you all about how God has begun to address our questions and concerns. For right now I will say this, if Alicia and I talk about some concern that we are having or if we can't see how something is going to work, we have learned to expect that the next days bible study or the next sermon we hear will be all about that discussion. This has happened so frequently that we have come to a better understanding of the fact that we are only responsible for faithfully obeying the will of God and for none of the consequences of doing so, what a comforting thought!

God has also begun to bring things to the surface for both of us that need to be worked on. While this process has not been a very pleasant one, we both understand that it's a very necessary one, and will only go to strengthen our relationship with him as well as make us a more effective tool that can be used in the mission field.

Our plan for right now, unless God points us in a different direction, is for Alicia to graduate from Birmingham Southern in the spring of 2012 and then for her to be part of the next team dad and I lead to Uganda. After that we will began planning a 3 month stay with the whole family to live on the ranch in Uganda as if we were full time in the field. Wayne and Mary have told us that 3 months is a good length of time to feel less of a "guest" and get a better idea of what it would be like to live there full-time. Hopefully at the end of that time we will know for sure whether this is where God wants us or not.

Some prayer requests...

1. pray for us to discover Gods will.
2. pray that God will continue to affirm his call
3. pray for humility for all of us
4. pray that as we get closer to God's will that we won't be distracted by the schemes of the enemy
5. pray that we will start living as full time missionaries now
6. pray for the support of family.
7. pray for God's divine timing for all of this to happen
8. pray for ACM and AHI that God would continue to protect and bless the work of all involved.

Once again thank you all so much for your prayers, and know that we are praying for each of you.

Love,
The Wilbanks Fam

Worries, What Worries?

Today's daily devotional had to do with casting our cares into Jesus' capable hands. It includes an exercise of writing down the things we are worried about, praying about them as we give them over to God, and then destroying them, leaving them at the foot of the cross.

I don't consider myself to be a very worrisome person. Maybe I should say "didn't".

As I started to write down the things that I have worried about just today, I was shocked at the stack of little post-it notes that I amounted. Then I prayed that God would open my eyes to any worries I had forgotten that I try to handle myself, worry about constantly, or fret over. The stack got bigger.

Several of these worries had to do with Africa. How will people react if/when we go public? How will we survive financially? What if the reality of Africa is more than I can handle?

As I prayed over these worries individually, several bible verses came to mind.

How he cares for me much more than the birds but even they never have to worry about their lives. {Matthew 6:26} How God will give us the words to say when we need them. {Matthew 10:19} How He WANTS me to cast my cares upon Him because He loves me. {1Peter 5:7} How nothing can ever separate us from our God who loves us. {Romans 8:38} How He knows His plans for us. {Jeremiah 29:11}

How amazing is the gift of God's grace! What a joyfully awesome feeling, to know that He's got me. He has all of my worries, all of my stressors and He can handle them. What a peace I'm left with.

The picture above is what is left of my worries. If you want to know what they say you'll have to talk to Jesus, I left them all with Him.

Obedience

Ughh! My children have been FRUSTRATING me lately!!

It seems like I barely get instructions out of my mouth before they are asking me "what did you want me to do?" "Where did you want me to go?"

I want to scream at them, "If you would just LISTEN to the words that are coming out of my mouth!!" {Chris Rock style}

Today was going that way as usual.

"Girls, please go in the kitchen and unlock the back door"

"Go where?" "our kitchen?" "Do what?" "lock the back door?"

Why can't they just say "yes mam" and do it?!?

I thought I was going to lose it…but then I thought about how often I do that to God.

"Go where God?!?" "Do what?"

I spend so much time asking God to use me, show me his will, tell me what to do, when he has already done that. I know my main purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, I know that He wants me to go and make disciples. So why do I keep asking him

"Go where?" "Do what?"

It's time for me to stop asking God "Why?" and "What's in it for me?" and start saying "yes sir, I'm on my way".

Standing Together

The idea of standing together was made real to me today.

In the midst of catchy phrases like "united we stand, divided we fall" or "one for all and all for one!" the true spirit of standing together with someone in the midst of their struggles is sometimes lost. Instead of a cheesy {but y'all know I LOOOVE cheesy!} overly dramatic idea, the reality is something holy.

"for where two or three are gathered in my name, there I AM with them" NIV MATTHEW 18:20

For the last couple of days I've been going through some major struggles emotionally & physically and on very short notice, today was declared to be the day for them to culminate.

I don't do well with confrontation and am a total people pleaser…though I'm trying really hard to change that into being at God pleaser! :) When people say they are sick with worry, or anxiety, I have a newfound understanding. I was absolutely so anxious about this meeting today that I was angry, upset, and seconds from loosing my lunch in my van!

It might sound silly, but in the midst of this absolutely out of control moment, my current favorite song came on the radio. {HERE IN THIS MOMENT BY BECKAH SHAE, Love it! You can hear it by clicking the link to the right of this post.}

Here in this moment. With. You. Amazing!

I had no idea at the time that Wes had asked you all to pray for me. But I truly felt your prayers.

The meeting went better than I could have ever imagined. I entered it surrounded in peace and left in peace.

You were standing with me. And as we were standing together, Christ was standing with us also.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for standing with me today. Thank you for standing with my family as we travel this journey.

Much love.

The Wilbanks Fam

Struggles

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like all of your best efforts are useless? Like no matter how hard you try to do the right thing, you end up doing the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, feel the wrong thing, think the wrong thing?

I've been having alot of those days lately.

It reminds me of Romans 7:19 where Paul talks about not doing the good he wants to do and doing the evil he doesn't want to do. I can relate! I'm sure we've all had times were we feel that way because of our naturally sinful nature.

It is so easy to fall off of the road of following Christ's plan for our lives when we have these days. Our excuses might be "it's too hard" or "it's useless, why try?"

It gives me so much hope during these times to remember that I can't accomplish this "doing the right thing" on my own. It is only through God's direction and power that I will be able to do the things I want to do and not do the things I don't want to do.

I needed that reminder today.

"Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"