As leaders, Josh and I have relentlessly pursued the Lord’s heart in how to move forward with the vision He gave us. Even when there doesn’t seem to be much momentum in some areas and things shifted when we returned from America back in June, we know the Lord has been working behind the scenes to prepare us for the next steps AND WE’RE OKAY IN THE WAITING. A word that He has given us on a few occasions is, “If you build it, they will come.” Has He fully revealed to us what this means….no. However, we know He has been faithful in the first two steps that He showed us – land and garden. The rest will come one step at a time so long as we stay in obedience to His leading.
In life I’m sure we’ve all experienced, at one time or another, ourselves starting to get ahead of His timing or leading. This is why it is so important to continually check in with the Lord on what He wants to show you or speak to you about. When you get checks, concerns or red flags in your spirit, listen to them and invest time and prayer into hearing His heart in the matter. This doesn’t mean become paralyzed and fearful that you’re going to get it wrong so you just do nothing or bail out when the going gets tough or things don’t go the way you expected, but His grace is sufficient when we do get it wrong and He is faithful to get us back on track as we listen to His voice and submit to His ways. As you know in my last post, this is what we did with the realignment of Four18 Ministries and it becoming a “sending center for missionaries” and not our ministry title. We hope our last blog post cleared that up for everyone. We, along with other missionaries that feel called, will utilize Four18 Ministries to simply funnel secured, tax-deductible donations through. Josh and Matt will both still remain on the Board of Directors at this time. You will see that www.Four18.org has been updated to reflect these changes and is currently undergoing further modifications. You can still donate to us directly through this site as the Lord leads you. For a list of our current needs, updates, etc., we will be primarily posting these items on our personal blog site: Mason Family Missions
Josh and I feel we were sent to South Africa as pioneering missionaries. This description I found best summarizes our thoughts. Pioneers are people who prepare the way for others. Being a pioneer means having a vision. This means seeing beyond yourself to the possibilities in the world around you. Pioneers can see opportunities where others may only see obstacles. They see promise where others only see confusion or problems. We believe the Lord has called us into a season of charting new territory as pioneering missionaries while we serve Him all across the nations (currently in South Africa). We realize not everyone is called to pioneer or lead others in the same capacity. That is why the body of Christ is so great – we’re all created uniquely with different giftings, skillsets and passions, and yet when we come together and work in unity, it’s absolutely beautiful what the Lord can do with these differences.
One thing that is strongly on our hearts as leaders is we want to be ones that empower people to follow their hearts and passions. We’ve been discerning in our spirits for quite some time that something wasn’t right and asked the Gagers to pray about their commitment to our vision, collectively as a family, to see if it’s something they feel they want to be a part of during this time of their lives. We made it clear that if their family isn’t in unity with being here it won't work. It would not be healthy or wise for them to continue staying here divided. We agreed on them spending 2 weeks in prayer to seek the Lord’s leading. We wanted them to have peace in their hearts through this decision process, so we let them know that if they feel led to leave, we will bless them and honor their decision with no hard feelings. After much prayer, discussion and counsel, we came to realize that we and the Gagers are in different seasons of our lives. Although we initially invited them to join us in South Africa thinking they would help co-lead this vision, it became clear in all of our hearts that the timing for that is not now. Matt and Bree recently shared with us that they feel the Lord is leading them back to America. Bree feels like the Lord gave her the choice, and she is choosing to return to America to be closer to family and help with needs there. Matt feels like the Lord also confirmed with him that his family needed to return. They plan to continue getting healed, better equipped and prepared for what God has for them next, but most importantly, they’ll be focusing on strengthening their family, marriage and relationship with the Lord.
Upon arriving in South Africa back in June, the Lord has been doing a mighty work in the hearts of the Gager family. He has brought much healing and restoration in their hearts and is rebuilding a stronger foundation in their marriage and family. It has been beautiful watching the transformation that has happened in such a short amount of time, and we are thankful to have been a part of their journey in this stage of their life. We know that the Lord wants to continue healing and restoring other relationships in their lives, and we are anticipating a great outcome from this that will release them to walk in greater freedom! The Lord has taught us many things during these past 5 months with the Gager family, and we believe we have grown in wisdom, love and honor during a time that the enemy wanted to kill, steal and destroy through division.
Prior to the Gagers moving to South Africa, we all spent some time together in McCall, Idaho at a cabin to bond and talk about things before our joint departure to South Africa. We were blessed by our friends, Billy and Katherine, with this gift. Some people from their church, whom we didn’t even know, came over to worship with us and pray over our families. One of the words the Lord gave to the Gager family was, “God’s going to encounter you when you get there. Your whole family – there’s going to be some kind of encounter. Your family’s going to be blessed and touched because of that. There’s an encounter that’s coming. You have to “go” to have it. You can warm up to it from here, but you can’t have it like you’re going to have it there in Africa. It’s yours!”
The Gagers have received many God encounters while here in South Africa and to God be the glory!! Matt had gotten a word from the Lord that this farm would be a place of healing and restoration. The Lord also showed me that the healing and restoration was especially for Bree. That word became a reality for their family personally, and we are overjoyed with the continued work He is doing in their lives.
Josh and I appreciate your prayers as we continue to move forward here in South Africa. Please pray that God would bring like-minded and like-hearted people that are 100% committed to serving the Lord here with us and that we would have greater wisdom and discernment on His timing for when to bring others here.
We bless Matt, Bree, Abby and Eric with honor, love, peace and joy as they continue their journey with the Lord whatever that may look like. Please pray over their transition back to America and that others will be gentle and sensitive towards them and their decision to move back. It was not an easy one, and not everyone will understand it. Please pray that their hearts and time as family will be protected once they return and that people will honor their need to spend time away from others in order to process things with the Lord. Please pray that their next steps will be made very clear to them and that no spirit of confusion or doubt will have its way in their lives. Who knows, maybe one day they will be back in Africa. We are thankful for their compassion in caring for the animals on the farm, for their helping hands with daily chores and preparing the land for crops, for their hearts to love on children at Sonskyn Valley and for their love and support towards our family. They brought much laughter and fun to us, and we are grateful for their friendship! Be sure to ask Bree about the lion she saw, haha!! We love you Gager family and are cheering you on in the walk ahead of you!!
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