… that when Lydia and I returned from a 10 day mission trip to Zambia, Africa in June of 2009 that our entire family would be moving there for almost a year! Yes, you read that right. The Stearns family is moving to Africa to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to make His name known in Zambia. We will leave this June and return April 2012. As you might be thinking, this is not possible unless God has worked mightily. He has. Let me explain.
Responding to a Biblical Mandate
In 2009 when Lydia was fifteen, I determined to take her to a third world country and serve Christ side by side with her as a part of my response to the Biblical mandate to disciple my children. 
That summer we went to Zambia in southern Africa, a country with 70% unemployment and where most people live on $2 per day in pitiful surroundings without good food and water. While we were on that trip, I could see Lydia grow in her trust in Christ daily. I was so proud of her and grateful to God for such an opportunity.
New Priorities
What I did not anticipate was the impact that being in Africa would have on me: I fell in love with the African people. 
I saw God moving in a way I hadn’t seen before. I had the privilege of worshiping with Zambian believers who lived in material poverty yet possessed such spiritual wealth. The minute I landed back in the U.S. and set foot on our soil I knew I was different. Twenty months later I still am. Since I have returned, I have looked at my life and its trajectory differently. In showing me that the Church in that part of the world needs so much help, God has massively rearranged the priorities of my life to the point that living in Zambia looks so good to me!
This is Where It Gets Exciting
Upon our return from Zambia, Lydia and I shared with our family our experiences, and God began working. 
My sweet wife, Shelley, was not only curious as to what the Lord was up to, but she very soon began seeing that He was uniquely at work in us and that perhaps our family might serve at some level in Africa in the future. Meanwhile, each of our six children separately came to me and asked if they could go to Africa, saying they were going to save all their money and asking how much they would need to go.
By late Fall of 2009 I was deeply convicted about the tremendous needs of the Zambian people. At the same time I saw that God had blessed my household with strength and stability. At that point, I began praying about our going and serving for an extended period of time. By Christmas, Shelley and I knew God was leading us to move to Zambia for about a one-year mission. As we considered the needs of our family and the ages of our children, we focused in on going for the period from June of 2011 through April 2012.
Currently we do not believe God is leading is to serve as long term full time missionaries — but we would have never foreseen serving there for eleven months, either! Yet we do feel that God has blessed us with a heart for Africa. We hope by His wisdom, grace, and might to have an ongoing lifetime impact there.
Because I could write an entire separate letter as to God’s work in my own life, I have instead listed some thoughts that I recorded in December of 2009. You can read these thoughts on separate link by clicking here. These will communicate some of my heart to you, as well as a glimpse of how God has been removing blind spots in my life.
