The Layton Family History in Congo - Next Chapter

The Layton Family History in Congo – the Next Chapter

When I wrote the below post Tuesday about my family’s history in Congo, I would have never expected or written the next chapter in this story this way. But I know God has written all our days before there was one of them, as I quoted in my sermon last Sunday (Psalm 139:16). And I know He is and will be always with us as the same Psalm says, and has good purposes that are far bigger than us and what we’re going through in His manifold wisdom and grace, as I also shared last Sunday. The pain is real and deep but the precious promises of God’s Word are as well, and I am so thankful for what God has already taught me through His Word, and will teach me.

Lord-willing tomorrow I leave early to fly to D.C. with our friends the Wilmarths, then to Congo Sunday or the next chapter in God’s story for our family in that country. I say “the next chapter” because I know this is not the end of the story which God is writing, but it is the next chapter and I have to go one page at a time. We don’t have God’s “Table of Contents” for our life, but as of right now, the outline for next few pages is:
- Arrive Monday noon (please pray for God’s grace in the weather on East Coast which could affect or delay our travel, which God is of course sovereign over as well)
- Tuesday will be busy around town doing whatever necessary to get the exit visas for the Wilmarth’s twins, #1 objective of this trip, which we’re all eager and prayerful for God’s grace in
- Wednesday 8/31 at some time will be a small private burial for our son that I will share some things at. This will not be a public or church event. In God’s providence, there are less than 10 of us who know the situation and Didier feels it best to keep it that way, at least for now. In their culture, if the church knows of this loss, they will be at Didier’s house 24/7 for a week and would need to be fed and would prevent us from getting much else done. I trust his wisdom and God’s and don’t want attention drawn away at all from the #1 object of this trip so am thankful for that as well.
- Also I will be delivering a couple suitcases full of gifts and practical things from our church family here to the orphanage and Didier’s family in the spirit of 2 Cor. 8-9, which is my great privilege to try to be for them as Titus was for the Corinthians
- Lord-willing my friend Gabriel Wilmarth and I hope to have time to also build a raised garden for the orphanage
- Didier has asked me to preach at their church 9/4 AM through him as an interpreter, which I am honored to do and ask your prayers that I would have time and ability to do adequately without normal preparation time. He said I don’t need to share anything about my son but to preach a message on the importance of God’s Word in the life of a Christian. This will be a great privilege and honor to seek to minister to the Congolese people that my great-grandfather had such a heart for, and who I wanted to minister to in some way after meeting Didier last summer. I pray God will help me minister to them and especially Didier and his wife for the good God intends, to borrow words from another Joseph (Genesis 50:20).

Thank you for your continued prayers and love and we look forward to see what God will write in future pages and chapters of our story, for His glory.