By now most of you guys have seen that we are planning on taking a year in Kenya to help our friends, Linda and Stig Ove Abildsten Gisnås on their missions base in Kilifi, Kenya. (www.swahilicoastmission.com) I wanted to share a bit more of our process behind that.
Ever since I was fourteen and heard Heidi Baker speak at a conference at my hometown church in Oregon, I wanted to be just like her. There was something about her surrendered heart to Jesus, the way that love shone out of her, and how that actually affected thousands of lives. Orphaned kids got food and a home, and thousands realised how much the God of the universe loved them. I decided that if I was going to follow Jesus, I wanted to go all in, and figured that I would end up being a single white missionary in Africa somewhere. I now realize that a person can live a radical life following Jesus if they are a lawyer, nurse, stay at home mom, teacher, or a working for a missions organisation in any country in the world. But there was something different about Africa, something that I always was drawn to.
Instead of going to college right after high school like most of my friends, I went to Bible school at Bethel School of Supernatural ministry in Redding, California. I know, it sounds like going to Hogwarts, and some of my poor family was pretty skeptical. But it was not Hogwarts, it was sound theological and practical teaching and happened to be the best thing for me, as I grew deeper in a personal friendship to Jesus. I would never trade anything for those years there.
After two years of studying there I decided to take an internship through Bethel at a Bible school in Norway. (Long cool story for another time.) It needs to be said that I was debating taking the internship in the Congo, or in Redding, but I felt a massive amount of peace from God about going to Norway, even though I had never considered taking a year in Norway before I visited there in 2010.
One year in Norway lead to me getting a bigger heart for helping youth in Norway on their personal journey in Jesus, and I began working at a different Bible school in Bergen, previously called Veien Bibelskole. There I was so lucky to meet the handsome man that is now my husband of 8 years. Praise the lord for Eimund!
When we started dating, we had talked about possibly going to Africa for a time, but both felt very focused on working in ministry in Norway and Europe at that time, and my Africa dreams faded for some years. Time went and, and in 2017 we started going on a few missions trips to Kenya and South Sudan, (thanks to our good friend Ronald Gabrielsen) and we felt God wake our hearts up for these people.
During this time we had moved from Bergen to Mo i Rana so that we could be a part of a team that was helping our friends Andreas and Tonje Fjellvang as they were stepping into the role of pastoring at Familiekirka Mo.
Then in 2020, right before corona broke out we took a trip with a group of friends to visit our missionary friends, (also the missionaries that our church had adopted) in Kilifi Kenya. It was really beautiful to experience life on their missions base, and get to know Linda & Stigs family better. This was super fun, but we didn’t think about doing anything long term there.
One day in November 2020, Eimund came home and asked me what I thought of taking a year in Kenya and helping our friends at their missions base. I was happily shocked, and that was a dreamy long dinner conversation. We talked and dreamt for a few weeks before telling our dream to Andreas and Tonje. They were so supportive of us going, and a few weeks later called us to tell us that they were considering doing the same thing. We couldn’t have been happier.
This last year we have planned for actually moving there, and feel so much joy and peace about going! So much so that it made us want to become parents. So even though taking a newborn to Kenya is not something that most people would think makes sense, we feel like it is just the thing for us.
As a photographer, I love capturing beauty, and I love stopping up and being able to take in beauty, and to enjoy it.
As a person I feel that the most beautiful thing I can observe in all of life is when another person realizes their value, and that Jesus, the one who I believe is the only way to God, loves them endlessly, and can give them a whole new start. I believe that most of us try to be good people, try very hard, but that none of us can actually be perfect, or make it through life without hurting ourselves or others. In my understanding that leaves all of us in need for a savior. And I belive that his name is Jesus.
I have a deep desire to see that people get a chance to hear the gospel, the good news that Jesus is the only way to real life. This last season of life we have been doing that in many ways where we live in Northern Norway, and in the next season we will be doing that in Kilifi, Kenya. And we’re so stoked about it!
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Thanks for reading this lovely long post!
-Cassie (Cassandra)
Also, thanks to some friends that have cabins in the most epic places!!