Remembering Mike.

For over ten years Mike built and sold custom power boats in South Florida. Every time we got together he always had the coolest stories he'd share with us about his adventures on the water, always in a boat, with his clients. Mike knew boats. Mike's life was boats.

Until God called him to walk away from it all.

So, he pulled his boat up on the shore, left everything...and followed Him. Just like in Luke 5. Just like Peter, James and John. Just like Jesus' disciples before him, Mike left everything behind for the sake of the LORD.

He sold all his possessions. He left behind his career, his home, his family and friends, his everything. Walked away from it all and followed the Lord's calling on his life to Burkina Faso.

And it was there that Mike and Amy found their greatest purpose.

And it was there, in this little West African nation, that the LORD would set our lives on a crash collision and establish a beautiful friendship with two of the greatest people I have ever had the privilege of knowing and doing life with.

(April 2015- our last time with Mike and Amy right before we moved back to the U.S.) 

We actually "met" Mike and Amy before we even moved to Burkina. A few months before our departure, my dear friend Kelly sent me an email saying that some missionaries from Burkina Faso were speaking at her parents church in S. FL, which she too was visiting while in town during one of Drew's deployments. In true good friend fashion, she stalked them after the service and got their contact info to pass along to me.

I wasted no time in contacting Amy! I was so excited at the prospect of connecting with someone living in Burkina! We emailed back and forth for a couple months prior to us leaving, and she shipped us some tubs filled with orphanage supplies that we offered to check as baggage and bring over for them.

So, about four days after we landed in Burkina, Mike and Amy showed up at our gate! And the rest is history. From that point on they grew to be some of our dearest friends in Burkina.

Mike and Isaak standing with a French hunter watching his freshly killed water buffalo get gutted...they were enthralled.

 Walking through the Yako market, Marvelly is tucked in behind....

 Mike and Amy helping to cheer Steven on at his 6th birthday as her tries to demolish that pinata.

 And Mike, a fellow photo enthusiast, like myself. He always always always had a camera with him. He took our family picture that hangs in my living room today.