Hello friends of His Voice Global!

My name is Mark Semmelbeck and I am Chairman of the His Voice Global Board of Directors. I hope you are all well and healthy and staying sane during this extended time of social distancing. I believe this has been a difficult time for us because God created us to be social creatures. I for one can spend a lot of time on my own reading and doing my own thing but after a while I need human interaction or I become cranky and depressed.

However, I believe that good has come from this time also, as we have had time to evaluate what is important to us. I miss my parents who live around the corner from me but are locked in due to the high risk the virus poses to seniors. I miss my son, daughter-in-law and one year old grand-daughter who live in Dallas that I have not seen in over three months. I miss my church and Sunday morning worship. Zoom, FaceTime and HouseParty are all wonderful inventions but my family and friends are three dimensional and 2D meetings can only satisfy our need to connect for so long!

But this will pass and normalcy will return, albeit slowly, I’m afraid. I want to share with you today some stories of faith, planning, provision, and renewal.

Let me begin with a story of faith of our founders, Vernon and Amber Burger. Some of you know that the Burgers are in the process of adopting a 4 year old girl named Rahama from South Sudan. This has been a long process but Vernon had planned to travel to Kenya in late January to finally bring Rahama to the Burgers’ new home in Houston. I traveled with Vernon to help bring Rahama home so Amber could stay with Titus, Justus and Silas. But unfortunately due to the vagaries of bureaucracy, we came home without Rahama. This was indeed a sad and frustrating trip. But Amber and Vernon have not let this event dampen their resolve to get Rahama home ASAP. In fact, to speed the final leg of this process, they decided to move back to Missouri, as adoption is a state-based process and beginning that process over again in their new home of Texas would have meant more delays. So from the first of February when we returned from Kenya to the first of May, the Burger’s sold their Houston home they had lived in for 3 months and found a house two doors down from the one they had left in Missouri. During all this they continue to be faithful to lead our organization and help those around them on a daily basis. It is true that if you want to increase your faith, hang out with faithful people!

The last three months have also seen a lot of planning for the future at His Voice Global. Mike and Megan Elkins who lead our missionary team in Arua, Uganda were visiting supporters here in the U.S. when the Covid-19 lockdown in Uganda resulted in an extended stay here. But this unplanned interruption allowed them to work on a plan to provide a number of computers for the college and trade school students they minister to and support. These students, most of whom live in or near the homes of our three missionary families, come from the orphanages we supported for many years in South Sudan. This is another way my faith is strengthened -  to see these incredible young men and women, who survived almost continual civil war in their homeland in less than ideal living conditions, to become these impressive and faithful students working toward a future with hard work and incredible resiliency!

 Finally, I have seen provision and renewal happening during this time of upheaval. The Ward family was on a brief holiday in South Africa when the closed borders of Uganda stranded them. Fortunately, a friend of His Voice was able to arrange a place for them to stay until they could arrange transportation back to the U.S. Certainly more renewal time than they were planning on but they are making the best of it.

I know I have seen my own faith increased, a time of planning for what is next and a time of renewal. My business partner of 20 years and I made our exit from the energy business at the end of 2019. My wife Roc’C and I decided to take a 3 month rest before deciding what is next. Well, the social-distancing and lockdown have made that both easier and less fun. But we have seen God at work in our relationships and in our thoughts about the future as we make this transition. We pray together more and we are back to planning our future, much like we did when we were first married. But now we talk about spending time with grandchildren rather than raising children of our own. At least that part is much less stressful!

His Voice Global still has big plans for 2020 and you will hear about those in subsequent updates. We would appreciate you keeping us in your prayers as we will lift you up in ours. Perhaps a deeper and more earnest prayer life will be one of the biggest changes we experience in our lives as a result of this current challenge. If so, I think that would be a good thing.

 
Grace and peace,
Mark Semmelbeck
His Voice Global Board Chair