By Elise Deal, AFM Director of Operations
My name is Elise Deal, and I’m privileged to be the new Director of Operations for Anglican Frontier Missions. I’m excited to be a part of AFM and cannot wait to see all that the Lord has in store! By way of both introduction of myself and encouragement of you, I wanted to share a little bit about myself. As I thought about how to introduce myself to the broader AFM community, I kept coming back to one particular story that I hope you will find to be an affirmation of the critical nature of your prayers and support for AFM’s cross-cultural workers.
Our family spent about a decade as cross-cultural workers (CCWs) in Africa, and our first country of service was Sudan. We met amazing people, beautifully created in the image of God, with whom we were able to share the Gospel. After a few years, the Sudanese government began expelling non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from the country. We held on for a while but were eventually targeted. The government not only surveilled us, but eventually seized our vehicle and many of our other possessions.
I won’t go into the details of why, but it became necessary for my husband Brett to secure a safe for a friend’s ministry, as she was out of the country. As you can imagine, this was a suspicious item to be in search of, so it was a risky task to take on. But as it was a necessary risk, Brett made the drive to a neighboring area of our large city to do so, successfully retrieving the safe and bringing it to a secure location.
When the secret police took in Brett for questioning, they showed him his phone conversation transcripts in which he discussed the acquisition of the safe. They asked Brett the safe’s new location, and when Brett refused to tell them, 10 men from the secret police ransacked our home and seized a lot of our belongings (that is a story for another day). With the help of the U.S. Embassy, we were able to retrieve our passports from the police and evacuated from Sudan to Kenya.
While we can always be assured of God’s protection over us, we found ourselves particularly struck by the way in which He was moving in this situation after we’d arrived safely in Kenya and saw that we had received multiple emails asking us what happened on a certain date and a certain time. It was the exact date and time that Brett had started out to secure the safe! Multiple people further stated they were prompted to pray and were not able to stop until a certain time, which was the time Brett arrived with the safe. One supporter stated that she felt she was to pray a cloud of covering over him. We believe this cloud kept Brett safe, as the secret police were close, but were not able to find Brett or the safe as he traveled with it. I was reminded in this moment never to ignore the Holy Spirit’s promptings to pray.
Since the Sudanese government blacklisted our family, we were unable to return to Sudan. Thus, we flew to the U.S. to process what occurred and prayerfully discern our next location of service.
We couldn’t bring much with us as we evacuated from Sudan, so we had next to nothing when we returned to the U.S.; we felt exhausted—physically and spiritually. We also felt held and caught in the loving arms of Jesus because of our sending church. As soon as we arrived, they provided us with a mission house in which to live. There were two cribs already set up in a bedroom for our 10-month old twins. They’d also provided winter coats, scarves, and gloves (we were acclimated to over 110-degree weather)! They gave us pajamas and a few outfits per child, along with books and games. Perhaps best of all, the church staff and small group members moved us in and prayed over our family upon our arrival.
My church’s support of my family, as we served as CCWs in Sudan, was indispensable. Our lives were forever impacted and changed by this supporting church. Ten years later, I can still name these specifics and the people who helped us. The same is true of your support of AFM’s CCWs. Your prayers, emails, and practical help when CCWs’ return home, whether for a temporary home assignment or for good, are appreciated more than we/they can ever express!
Thank you for directly impacting eternity with us. Thank you for locking arms and making Jesus known in every people group. I look forward to serving you and AFM’s CCWs.
Elise Deal
Director of Operations
AFM
