So today marks a big day in the life of Missionary Momma!

I turn the big 40!

Really, how in the heck did that happen?  I remember specifically when my parents turned 40 and it sure didn’t feel like that long ago and also, I remember feeling like 40 was OLD.

Now though 40 is not old, although my kids share my same view point as a kid…..”Wow, mom and dad are OLD!”

Anyway, a few days ago I was preparing my kids school lunches and this song by Steven Curtis Chapman came on called “Great Adventure”.  I think I actually laughed out loud (or LOL for you younger peeps) as I hadn’t heard that song in FOREVER!

Here’s an updated version of this song……although big nod to the orginal 90’s version of the song when SCC had some serious hair!

Music has always had a way of marking moments in my life and this song I remember so clearly dancing to in a hotel reception room when I was 16 years old.  I had just attended an Aquire the Fire with some close friends.  (That was almost 25 years ago!!  What?!)  My life was forever changed at the moment and I knew the Lord had placed a call of missions on my life.  I didn’t quite know what that meant, but now looking back at that day and this song…..well I felt like it was a prophetic song over my life.

As a little girl I was always connected at the hip to my mom.  It’s a wonder my mom ever got anything done!  I wouldn’t even spend the night at my grandparents house for the longest time because I just couldn’t be without her.  Once a year, she and my dad would go on an overnight stay to get their Christmas shopping done.  (Once a year folks……ONCE!!) I would cry and cry….”Nooooo, don’t gooooo.” My grandma would say, “Sarah Yvonne, you’ll be just fine, stop that cryin now!”

In 1996, I went on my first missions trip to Atlanta (where I met Kevin!) and the first day I called my mom (collect by the way from a pay phone!), “I want to come home, I can’t do this.”  Basically my mom and dad said, “Suck it up buttercup….you’re staying!”

I stayed and that trip was the start of this “Great Adventure” of my life.  I had no idea that a young cute guy sitting across the table from me at the Wendy’s would be my husband and we would have three children and go on the greatest adventures.  I’m so glad the Lord knows the whole story of our lives.  I often think He’s up in heaven smiling down and saying, “Oh you have NO idea what I am about to do!”

I think had I known the big picture of all He was going to do in my life, I would have said, “Nope, too scary! Too many unknowns.”  But part of living a “Bravester Life” means stepping out into the great adventure with your arms wide open….or in my case, with my eyes plastered shut and jumping off the cliff!   We’re just not meant to see point B from point A.

We’ll travel on, over mountains so high
We’ll go through valleys below
Still through it all we’ll find that
This is the greatest journey
That the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far
Beyond our wildest dreams

My grandmother used to giggle to me, “Who is this girl who couldn’t leave her momma but now is going to Africa?!”  I I laughed and said, “I know Grandma, it’s crazy!”

So here’s to another 40 years of great adventures! (Hopefully all of them with this cute guy!)

Sarah Witt, mom of 3 who just happens to be raising her family on the mission field serving God with her husband in Botswana. She is a Revelation Wellness instructor in Botswana and seeing God change the lives of women. Learn more about her and Kevin at Wild Acacia.