Step Up

At seventy years old, Rose Cowden boarded a plane for her eleventh mission trip to South Africa and asked God the question that had followed her for fourteen years: How could she ever be at peace with letting this go?It began with a single word from a pastor who told her, "I think it's time for you to step up." Rose said yes, not knowing it would carry her across a seventeen-hour flight, past every fear she owned, and into the dusty villages of Madutle, South Africa, again and again.In Step Up, Rose shares the true story of a decade-plus journey with Orchard: Africa, the blind grandmother she couldn't forget, the children who taught her more than she ever taught them, the funerals under blue mourning tents, and the God who kept showing up in the middle of her doubt.This is not a polished missionary story. It is a raw, honest account of wrestling with God, falling in love with a people an ocean away, and discovering that obedience rarely looks the way we expect it to.Whether you have ever felt God nudging you toward something bigger than yourself, a mission trip, a calling, a step you are afraid to take, Rose's story will remind you that you do not need to have it all figured out. You just need to say yes.Are you ready to step up?