Trusting the Lord

Hello, we are the Grohmueller Family! Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our family and take part in this journey with us. For those that do not know us personally, my husband Karl-Peter and myself Kailey, have been blessed by God with four beautiful children to nurture and most importantly lead to Christ; their names and ages are as follows: Tucker (8), Leighton (6), Colt (4), and Wynona (2). Karl- Peter is a very talented jack of all trades, having dabbled in many lines of work over the years, but always holding a sincere passion of livestock and anything on horseback. I, Kailey, have my Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing and after 6 or so years of hospital work both Karl-Peter and I prayerfully decided that I would stay home full time. We homeschool our four little ones and are truly grateful for the opportunities this home learning choice has given our family.

We presume most of you are tuning in here as you have heard we are heading overseas. You got it, Lord willing we are flying out the first week of October! Where are we off to you may ask? We are heading to Grace Academy just outside of Ndola, Zambia. Grace Academy is a Boarding School funded by Seeds of Hope Children's Ministry and home to over 170 orphaned children. Grace Academy is also known as a "Place of Grace" that provides children with a loving home, medical care, education and mentorship, good nutrition and so much more. Karl-Peter will be in charge of farming operations at the Grace Farm. Many of you may be wondering how this opportunity came about? Wow, how God works beautifully in directing our paths! If you were to ask us to take on this job position a year and a half ago, like our friend Kara did, we would have laughed and said, "No way we could do that." Now, here we are about to leave. Jokes on us eh?

Isn’t it wonderful how God knows better. At the time we were in the middle of building and maintaining a commercial squab operation and as most farmers know it was physically and financially impossible to walk away from that endeavour. But, as Karl-Peter will tell you, day in and day out he prayed out front of his barn, that if the Lord had other plans for our family that He blow the barn down, and metaphorically speaking, that is what He did. Due to many factors our operation clearly had to be shut down and so, unsure what God wanted, we continued onward to a new endeavour. We sold our property, bought a diamond in the rough acreage and Karl-Peter built what we call Our Little House in the Burnt Woods (another story for another time). It was a long year of building, as Karl-Peter did much of the house build himself, but despite our uncertainty in what lay ahead for our family, God was actively working in our hearts...no doubt. It was December 2022 and my mother in law had shared an advent activity by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). Every day of December, MAF, shared their ministries work in different areas of the world via a story, location mapping, local language recordings, photos and videos. The kids and I were captivated. One day after listening and learning alongside the kids, its like a light bulb went off. I thought, "What about the farming position at Grace? I wonder if it's filled?" I called my dear friend Kara (daughter of the founders of Seeds of Hope Children's Ministry), immediately asking what the status of the position was. Kara, in her excited and convincing ways said the position was open and began spewing all the details in hopes God would open the door and call our family in. He did just that. I called Karl after speaking with Kara and he, although shocked, seemed somewhat open to the idea. Sayyyyyy whhhhaaat? I was so surprised by Karl-Peters openness to the idea, wow, obviously God was working in mysterious ways! haha We began praying and praying and asking dear friends and mentors to pray and the Lord seemed to keep all the doors open along the way. Our biggest challenge thus far, has been obtaining our Visas. Rightfully so, the Zambian government wants to first ensure their locals are being employed before foreigners. So, we had to prove Karl-Peter was experienced enough to bring insight and knowledge to the work force in Zambia. After some back and forth, we submitted our paperwork and waited and waited and waited. We trusted the Lord through this waiting period, reminding ourselves of the promise in Proverbs 3: 5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths” As time drew on, I felt the urge one day to pray a specific prayer. Throughout that day I prayed, “God if we are going to receive our visas please by the end of this week can they be in and if you’re going to deny our visa application then this same week please deny us.” I prayed this in faith throughout that whole day, fully believing that Lord would answer this request. And low and behold not a few days later, literally the very next day I opened my email to Gods answer, it was a "Congrats Kailey and Karl your Visas are in!" Praise You Lord!!! What an affirmation that this trip is His will for us. So prep began and we find ourselves here, with tasks yet to be finished and friends and family to be hugged before we leave.

There are things we want to give thanks for while preparing for this trip thus far:

-Thank you to friends who have prayed for us, specifically about this trip.

-Thank you to those who have offered and helped with clean up and the moving of things not needed on our property.

-Thank you to past workers at Grace who have answered our many questions and concerns and showed us around our future stomping grounds via face time etc..

In regards to prayer moving forward, we ask that you may pray for:

- Gods guidance as we pack clothes and supplies for all six of us.

- Gods protection over the safety and health of each of us as we travel by plane and by car and as we head into an area with malaria and extreme poverty.

-Gods financial provision of our basic needs and unseen costs

-Great renters to rent out our home

In closing we want you all to know this blog was created in attempt to share our story of Gods unfailing love and provision in our families journey thus far and onward to Africa. Never would we have thought we would be called in this direction, but somehow in His perfect way He orchestrated this plan for our family and we now look forward to pursuing His calling for us at Grace and His timing in the details yet to be dealt with. If you'd like to receive monthly updates please subscribe to our blog so we can keep you up to date.

To learn more about Seeds of Hope Children's Ministry please visit https://seedsofhopecm.com/