LEWISTOWN – God has called two Mifflin County school teachers to travel to Bamako, the capital of Mali, a nation in western Africa, to spread his word.

Ross and Elaine Moore have both worked for the Mifflin County School District for about 35 years, and both have taken an early retirement in order to pursue mission work.

Ross was a sixth grade teacher and Elaine was a special education teacher, then switched to the emotional support department of the high school for the last four years of her career.

They are scheduled to depart this August for the four-year endeavor.

“This has been a process that started back in the late 1990s,” Elaine recalled.

Ross said he was involved in a group called Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which allowed the whole family to experience their faith in a new, personal way.

“It sparked Ross’s passion for evangelism, which also filtered into our family,” Elaine said.

Following his newly discovered passion, Ross partnered with work teams serving short-term missions in West Virginia, Mexico and Philadelphia.

“Short-term trips turned into going, in three different summers, to Cambodia, Kurdistan and Israel. After the time in Israel, we really felt called to missions, and we even felt called to the next level past short-term missions,” he said.

The next level, said the

Moores, is long-term missions with the Christian and Mission-ary Alliance.

There have been CMA missionaries since the late 1800s, which eventually formed into a denomination.

CMA has a great commission fund, supported by donations from every alliance church. International workers like the Moores are supported by the fund.

“God just planted in us a heart to share the gospel in lands where Christ is not known. If we believe Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, that if he calls us to go, we believe that we need to be obedient to that,” Ross said. “So, we go and we do what we can for the cause for Christ and sharing in Mali in West Africa.”

The decision to embark on this journey was a process, the Moores explained.

First, an application had to be completed. Then multiple interviews were conducted. After that, they had to decide on placement between two African countries.

“We had never been to Africa, so we thought we should go to see what it’s like and to get a sense about where God might use us,” Elaine said.

“We went to Guinea just before they closed the borders (because of the Ebola outbreak) and to Mali to see where God would best fit us,” Ross said. “Of the two places, God wants us to go to Mali.”

After fervently praying, Ross said God clearly told them Mali even though Guinea would have been more familiar due to less of a language barrier. Malians speak a tribal language in addition to French, and Guineans speak only French.

“This is a God thing. Only God made this brain and can allow us, at our age, to learn two languages in two years,” Ross said.

Elaine laughed and added, “There’s really not a lot of logic. Logical people would not retire and decide to go to Africa, but, you know, it’s not about logic.”

The first part of the Moores’ adventure will begin in early summer when they travel to Long Beach Island to be commissioned with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Then they will be off to Colorado for a five-week pre-missionary training.

On Aug. 24, the Moores will depart for France to spend one year in intensive language learning to prepare for their time in Mali.

“We have to know (French) for official documents and have to know how to read it, speak it and know what it means. In Mali, if a person knows French they are accepted better and seen as more educated,” Elaine said.

After their time in France, the Moores will travel to Bamako, Mali, in August 2016 to meet with an established CMA team. For the first year and a half in Bamako, they will teach English as a second language to college students and young professionals. The first year will also allow time for language study to learn the local Malian language.

“The ultimate goal (of the journey) is making disciples of Christ. The process is establishing relationships and living your life as a Christ follower so they see Jesus in the flesh,” Ross said.

The Moores will be teaching at the Go Global Mali Center, which is the biggest and most popular English-teaching facility in Bamako.

In addition to teaching English, Elaine said there will be opportunities to participate in prison ministry and sports ministry.

The CMA is also working to construct a facility that would be called the Hope Center. It would be Bamako’s center of ministry that would be used for teaching and developing life skills.

“We would go and the idea is for international workers to work themselves out of a job. We go to introduce and begin the process so it can be a self-propagating place,” Ross explained. “We want their churches to be contextualized to their culture.”

Being placed in West Africa won’t be an easy task.

“This is a very strongly Muslim country,” Ross said. “There is al-Qaida in the northern part of Mali.”

Despite the threat, the Moores are not fearful.

Ross said they taught on the west bank of Palestine, where they had guns pointed at them.

“When we were in Iraq, there was bombing going on an hour away,” Elaine said. “We stayed in east Jerusalem and we would ride the bus. Israeli soldiers would walk onto the bus with their AK-47s and check passports. … It was all very military, and that was in our faces constantly.”

Pre-missionary training will provide the Moores with an evacuation plan to follow, if necessary.

“If the Lord decides it’s our time and we’re gone, we’re out of here – hey. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,” Ross smiled.

Elaine agreed.

“We could die anywhere. The bottom line is we could be in a car accident here, a terrorist could come into the school … If we would die by a violent act, God allowed that to happen. We know where we’re going,” she said.

The Moores are looking beyond potential obstacles and are instead focusing on learning the Malian culture.

Ross said Mali has been called the international epicenter of neighborliness, where neighbors show up at each other’s homes and are expected to be treated hospitably.

“Hospitality is very important to their culture,” he said.

The Moores are going to Mali as learners of the culture and as teachers who want to develop relationships with their students and neighbors.

“The goal is not imposing the way we do things and our own opinions and thoughts,” Elaine said. “After you get to know (the Malians), down the road they may ask you, ‘Really, why are you here?’ With that friendship platform, you have an opportunity.”

Embarking on a four-year mission trip is exciting for the Moores, but challenging too.

“There’s a cost. There’s a cost for being away, not just for us but also for our family and friends,” Elaine said.

The Moores said their children have always been aware of their desire to do mission work. They are supportive of the endeavor, but they will miss their parents.

“They asked if we could wait (to leave) until they finished high school, then finished college, then got married, etc., and all those things have happened now, so we’re going,” Elaine said.

When their four-year overseas term closes, the Moores will return to the states and do one year of home assignment, which consists of sharing their experience with CMA churches around the nation.

“When people see actual people who are going out and coming back with stories about what God is doing, they’re more likely to give to the (great commission) fund,” Ross said.

The Moores said they appreciate the prayers of believers and that prayer is the power behind their journey.

“Prayer and the great commission fund are our supply line,” Elaine said.

“God has given us a passion to share the gospel, to build relationships and to have a platform on which to share the gospel,” Ross said. “We are blessed to be able to go and be one of the sent to go into a dark place and share the gospel and be light in the darkness. We don’t feel worthy of that, but Christ says we’re worthy.”

Currently, the Moores are downsizing their home. They have piles that will stay in Lewistown, piles to get rid of, boxes to ship to Mali and three suitcases each to stay with them for their year in France.