When Moses approached Horeb, the mountain of God, curiosity led him to a bush on fire. “When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am’” (Exodus 3:4).

So it is with the call of God. When he sees our intrigue, our willingness to come closer, he calls us. Our daughter Valerie discovered God’s call in 2008, one year after graduating from Taylor University. That call beckoned her to the world’s second largest and second most populous continent, Africa.

Two years earlier after Valerie heard an African missionary pray for over 20 minutes, she felt the outpouring of God’s love for all people. “I really wanted to fall in love with Jesus more. When you lose your life, then you will find it. I felt like I was supposed to lose a few things in Africa,” said Valerie.

In October 2007, dressed in dark green khaki with a blonde pony tail bouncing under a baseball cap, our 5’ 2” daughter walked alone through security gate number eight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Her smiling backward glance caught our tears but radiated her courage and excitement as she traveled to a mission school in Pemba, Mozambique. There she would stay until Christmas.

“I don’t like the word ‘missions,’” Valerie noted, “because everyone is called to be a missionary. It’s just a term for location. You’re spreading God’s Word, shining the light wherever you are, so location doesn’t really matter.”

During those two months Valerie took classes and visited bush villages where her outreach team showed The Jesus Film in their native dialect, gave testimonies through an interpreter, and played music.

After returning to the States, Valerie knew she would eventually serve Jesus again in Africa. But since no ministry openings in Pemba were available at the time, Valerie decided to move to Kansas City and wait upon the Lord. God kept Valerie’s fire for Africa burning even while she worked at Starbucks. Her friend Carly Cerak had also returned from Africa in December 2007. Carly had taken the same Pemba mission training and then had traveled with a friend to Kenya to work with street kids in the city of Mombasa. When Carly returned to the States, she moved to southern California to be with friends.

In May 2008 Melissa, a Mozambican missionary, contacted Valerie saying she needed her help. The missionary who had planned to help her with a prayer and fasting event had decided to go to Israel instead. “We wanted to call the nation of Mozambique back to righteousness—to repent of sin, repent of witchcraft, and turn back to God,” said Valerie.

After a quick decision to help Melissa, Valerie left three weeks later from Indianapolis with a suitcase full of thrift store clothes, a laptop, and a few books. When her work for the prayer assembly concluded, Valerie felt God’s release to leave Mozambique when a friend donated the exact amount of money she needed to join a short-term mission trip to Israel. There they served for two weeks in a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem.

During this time, Valerie began to receive e-mails from Carly Cerak, who had returned to Kenya in June along with her sister Whitney. Because it was now August and Whitney needed to return to college for her senior year, Carly would soon be in Kenya alone. However, Valerie did not have enough money to fly to Kenya and was not convinced working with street kids in Mombasa was God’s immediate plan for her life.

But the fields of Boaz are located near Bethlehem, and Valerie sensed God was speaking to her through Ruth’s example. The last night in Bethlehem Valerie had to decide if she would take her scheduled return flight to South Africa. She had no money to stay another night in the Christian hostel or enough money to fly beyond South Africa to either Kenya or back home.

Praying and crying, Valerie stayed up the entire night. She reread Carly’s last e-mail, concluding she felt led to go to Kenya and be Carly’s “Ruth.” When she arrived in South Africa a day later, Valerie used her last six dollars to access Carly’s e-mail and phone number at a local Internet cafe. Also in her e-mails, Valerie discovered that another friend had given her $500, a direct answer to her prayers but not enough money to get to Kenya.

Stranded and waiting in South Africa, Valerie took the time there to relax, reflect, and pray. During that time Carly received a check to support the fledging ministry to street kids in Mombasa. The check was enough to cover a two-year lease on a three-story house Carly envisioned as a youth center. When the check was received later than expected, the price for the house, due to the fluctuating exchange rate, had been lowered $1,300—the exact cost of a flight for Valerie from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Nairobi, Kenya. Valerie arrived in Kenya on August 29, 2008.

The teenage boys the mission team had befriended lived on Maboxini Street, slang for “in boxes.” Here children from all over Kenya congregated living in boxes after running away from abusive families or after being orphaned. Most of the kids are male and heavily addicted to sniffing industrial strength glue, scavenged from local business dumpsters. Mombasa police frequently raid Maboxini and take the boys to prison, a place where more abuse occurs.

Carly and Valerie needed to find a place to live near the newly leased youth center before Carly’s apartment lease expired. Days went by with no apparent rentals available. Carly and Valerie knocked on a door near their leased house. When an older woman named Margaret opened the door and learned about their need for housing, she offered them her upper room. There they stayed until they decided to make the ministry house their home. At the same time, a minister and his family from Pemba were looking for a place to live. Soon after the girls moved in, Salito, his wife Sondra, and their three boys joined them.

Days were spent mingling with the boys on the street and inviting them to the house for Bible studies, meals, and church services. In December 2008, eight teenage boys along with a young mom and her two-year old son, traveled with Carly, Valerie, and Salito’s family to Nairobi for a national prayer event. Upon their return to Mombasa the street kids were ready to leave Maboxini and begin a new life. The three-story house, now called the Rapha House of Prayer, filled up just in time for Christmas.

“The house we thought would become a center has become a home and we’ve become a family,” said Valerie.

For Mario, Enoch, John, Samuel, Alan, and Mohammed, the three-story house has become their sanctuary. Carly and Valerie have become their spiritual parents, wanting them to know the Lord and be changed into the men God wants them to be. Mario dreams of being a preacher, Enoch a college graduate, and Samuel a high school graduate. The others are still searching. God’s call is sometimes mysterious and always on fire. His call to Mombasa rings loud and clear. |L