Once the teams were finished and as we were packing to make the trip back to the states for a time of refueling and partner development. (an oxymoron that only missionaries would identify with fully!) We were so surprised when piece of land which we had applied for years before for the school was suddenly released. We received the letter in the mail a few days before we left! Jerry always says, “He will not give us the diamond without the box. We needed more than a box, but we were ready for God to show himself strong on our behalf! The naysayers had started a rumor that we set the place on fire for insurance money. The problem was, there was no insurance money. The purchase of the land was pending a land lease issue at land board. The owner of the place however, was heavily insured.  Insurance had been taken out on the place shortly before the fire. He came out very well on the whole thing and in fact, left town for a few months the morning after the fire took place. Go figure.

We sat at Lakewood church and got all the encouragement we could from Pastor John Osteen when we were in Houston. He made time to have us in his office and speak into our lives just like a father would. He took us on walks around the church and proudly showed us all the building that was always going on! Jerry got his spirit of excellence from Pastor Osteen. All he does reflects excellence to bring honor to God and to his kingdom work. He would show us the special things in his office that he had gotten from all over the world. He always made it a point to have all the flags of the world represented in the church. He had one very special small display in his office that was always in a prominent place.

One day he called us up on stage and handed Jerry a check for 150,000 USD and said, Jerry, go back and build your wife a house. So we took that money and his blessing, and returned to Botswana. We used that money to build 5 houses Since that time and through the generous gifts of Wayne and Martha Myers and others, we now have 10 houses for the one the devil stole from us through the fire. God has truly given us “beauty for ashes”!

We stayed a couple of more weeks in order to wrap up the outreach team that was out in the Kalahari. Jerry had to go down to the capital to get everyone new passports. As each day went by the room started to get more and more full! At one point, I was sitting on a little stool, with the children romping in and out. I was sorting through some of the boy clothes that Crocodile Camp Safaris families had sent over. One of the boys came in and said, “mom, there is a truck out there with some boxes of stuff”. I told him to send them in. He said “mom, it’s full of stuff!”

A group of missionary families with Word to Africa ministries, (Ed and Laurie Elliot) had rallied together to get their “missionary stash” together for us. Every missionary has a stash of goods collected for special occasions, favorite sweets, special clothing, favorite underwear, toys for kid’s birthdays. One of their ladies’, Haley Schurz had worked hard to get a load of very special items, matching each one of us in the family together to bless us. As we went through these suitcases, I began to be overwhelmed! I thought to myself, “I don’t have anywhere to put this stuff, we don’t even have a house!”

The Lord spoke so clearly to me that day. Malachi 3:10 that says, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.“ I heard him say, “Jana, you have been faithful to bring the tithe into the storehouse.” (I have been a faithful tither since I was a kid, my grandma taught me that. And as a young, single woman, called to the mission field, but waiting for God’s timing, I gave half my income to a dear friend who was a missionary in Mexico as a seed for when my time came to go to the field. I didn’t realize I was her biggest supporter for a while till later. I couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting to support missionaries!)

He continued, “Now see if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour out on you a blessing where there shall not be room enough to contain it.” He said, “Jana, there will never be enough room to contain what I am going to do in your lives.”

To this day, we have yet to be able to find enough space to put all the Lord has sent our way. We clean it out, give it away, and it just keeps coming and we just keep giving! Each year, when Teen Mania comes, we re-organize and pump out things to the region where we are working. Yet, more keeps coming! God’s word works! It just keeps on working.

We were grateful to have a bed to sleep in. Gordon and Leigh Ann Fort were Baptist Missionaries who helped us so much when we first came to Maun to live. They were on furlough and the Schroder’s, the family that was staying there while they were away were out with our teams and graciously let us stay there will they returned. That next morning we got up, got dressed in the same clothes we had from the day before and went to breakfast at “Hilary’s” a favorite, and only (at the time), little coffee shop in the village. We sat and ate, trying to decide what to do next. We kept waiting for Hilary to get us the bill and when we asked for it, she said “breakfast is on me! Anyone who has been through what you have should not have to pay for their breakfast!” This was the first of many blessings we were to receive from this small Village of dear people. We walked into the grocery store, wondering where to begin. Diapers, check. Toothbrushes, check. It was not easy starting from scratch with 3 kids and we didn’t have money to spare.

As the days went by we began to have a steady stream of people at the door of the Baptist mission house, bringing things to us, some new some old, big and small, but all precious. People who had so many needs of their own, came bearing gifts. Our dear African family, came one by one, bringing gifts of love that humbled us more than we can express.

That Sunday we decided to go ahead and have church. The church was very young at that time and we were meeting at the conference room at the old Riley’s Hotel. Jerry said, let’s not say anything about the fire, let’s just worship God and have church. I was leading worship at the time and that is just what we did. The people all new about the fire and we had a nice show of visitors who came just to show their support. At the end people were amazed that we could go on like that after loosing everything. But we hadn’t lost everything! We still had our family, our church and our faith. People said that they expected us to throw in the towel. So much stuff…lost…no insurance…what would we do?! They were watching.