When young Carl Lubbe and his family left Africa to come to the United States, questions surely filled his head. After being loved by a church, Carl would later be brought back to that same church to serve them and find the answers to his childhood questions.
Adventures in Missions is happy to contribute our stories to the new Way Bible, by Tyndale Publishers, as it aims to help readers answer their own questions about God. For more information about it, click here.
Here is Carl's story (told by his wife, Kathryn):
My husband was born in South Africa. People are always curious how he ended up here.
The conversation often goes something like this:
"You have an accent. Where are you from?"
"South Africa."
Then they look at me, excited they have found foreigners.
"Oh are you from South Africa too?"
"Nope. I was born and raised in Georgia."
Disappointed, they turn back to Carl to ask him about elephants.
Little do they know that Carl has more of a southern childhood than I do.
When Carl was five years old, his family fled South Africa, around the beginning of apartheid and political unrest in the country. Not a great place for a young family.
They fled to what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and again found a corrupt government and had to flee in the middle of the night, Sound of Music style, with little more than the clothes on their backs.
They landed in Knoxville. That's in Tennessee y'all.
Carl's dad had a job working as a foundry man (pouring liquid metal into molds), but the company went under and the family struggled to make ends meet. One year the family of six (dad, mom, grandma, and three growing boys) lived on $8,000.
But God is good.
The family attended a little church in their community, and their church family showed them the love of Christ by doing things like leaving bags of groceries on his family's front porch.
One Christmas, their whole family was surprised with a Christmas dinner and presents under the tree. This was the body of Christ caring, providing for, and loving one another.
So fast-forward. Carl's dad starts his own business, the family stabilizes, and the boys grow up and go off to college in Atlanta.
Here's where my story starts.
Carl and his brothers felt called to go into music and began leading worship and playing for different churches. I met Carl when he played at my church.
We fell in love, got engaged in South Africa where I met the extended family, and got married.
Carl got a job as a worship pastor for a church in Gainesville, and I began working for Adventures in Missions as a Youth Group Representative.
Adventures is unlike any place I have ever worked.
Where else do you start meetings with prayer, have worship on Monday mornings, and pray with customers over the phone? I loved it instantly.
Every summer we have mission trips, for every age group, going all over the globe. Some of our short-term trips have worship leaders that go on trips as well.
Carl signed up to lead worship on a weeklong trip to Appalachia leading some of the youth groups that I had been working with during the year. We knew that it was close to Knoxville, but we didn't know that Carl would be serving his old home church.
When they arrived on the first day and Carl realized that he recognized the building, the faces, and the church, we were so blown away by God's detailed plan. Years before, God had provided for Carl and his family through the church, and years later, God was providing for the church through Carl.
Carl had to move to Atlanta, follow God's calling to lead worship, and meet me. We had to move to Gainesville, and I had to work for Adventures, all so that Carl could go on a mission trip to serve his old church.
That's our God story.
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