Some of you already know a little bit about our Big News, and some of you are probably thinking that I am pregnant (which I am not). But before I enlighten the blogging world of our upcoming plans I want to show you two things:
I have been looking for this little card for three days, and I finally found it. I wrote this about 14 years ago. It was a decision card from Camp La Vita. At the end of our week at camp, they handed these out to all the campers. We were in our cabin, and our counselors (my counselor's name was Libby!) instructed us to spend some quiet time in prayer before we wrote anything on our card. I can still remember sitting on my bed, listening to the sound of crickets in the woods, and praying about what God wanted me to write on my card. If you look at the statement on the card, it says: "This week I have decided to..." and if you notice my response, I didn't really answer the question. I simply remember God laying this sentence on my heart.
I think God wants me to be a missionary. I don't remember feeling a sense of this calling the entire week I was at camp, I just remember feeling a need to write this down. I think even as I wrote that profound sentence, I didn't even realize at ten years old, the magnitude of what I was writing. I didn't know what was going to happen next. Libby, my counselor came to me about 10 minutes after I gave her my card and asked if we could talk. I got really nervous, I thought I had done something wrong or that I shouldn't have said that because I was too young. But she hugged me and she said that she was proud of me. She asked if she could pray with me too. She told me that one of my new friends that I had met that week had written the same thing down on her card too! And then, she did something that I will never forget. She took us both to talk with a lady named Erin.
Erin, or Missionary Erin as we called her, was one of the speakers for that week. Over the years, I have forgotten what she looked like, and even where she served as a missionary. But those precious words that she shared with me and my friend Christine that night have been etched on my heart forever. She explained that the life of a missionary is not easy, or glamorous but that it is rewarding. She prayed with us and gave us encouragement to stay faithful. We got to ask her any questions that we could think of! We talked until it was late and dark. Before we went to our cabin she told us to go back and write in our bibles about this. She said to write down the date, and the special message that God had laid on our hearts. At the age of ten, this was the best that I could do....
This is a picture of the inside cover to my childhood bible.
I came home from camp and joked with my family and friends that I was going to go to Africa to be a missionary. Several years passed, and I always had it in the back of my mind that I would do something with missions. I didn't want to deny this calling, but I also got to the point where I did not want to admit it either. There were some rough years in high school where I was, to put it simply, a hypocrite. I was going to church, but I wasn't living the life of a Christian, much less the life of someone who was going to grow up and be a missionary. I began to get more involved with the youth group, and thanks to some great Christian friends, and amazing leaders involved with our youth group, I began to "give in" to that calling that I was running from. The summer after my junior year in high school I was a Sojourner with NAMB at Myrtle Beach. I spent 10 weeks living with a team at the beach doing a variety of projects. I loved it! It was an amazing summer, and I felt at peace with everything that I had been trying to deny about God wanting me to be a missionary.
Only three months after I got back, during my senior year, I started dating the man who is now my wonderful husband, Bradley. When the time came to start looking at colleges, and I had no idea what I needed to major in if I was going to be a missionary. I would be lying if I said that my decision of where I wanted to go to college was not effected by where Brad was. My two options were North Greenville and Anderson. Brad played baseball at Anderson, so which one do you think I chose? Of course, I am sure that I didn't make that decision based on all the right reasons, but I know that God had a plan for me at Anderson, and he was able to use me and teach me in so many different ways. While at Anderson, Brad and I both served on the BCM leadership team, and we both majored in Christian Ministries. We were able to go on several mission trips together and serve beside each other. It was amazing falling in love with a man that God brought into my life at such a perfect time that had the same passion as I did. I can remember the first time that Brad told me he felt a calling to missions. I knew that I wanted to marry him! We dated for over four and a half years before we got married though. We often talked about plans after college, but we never made any definite decisions.
Before we got married, we talked about the possibility of going on to seminary after college. We knew that it would be a reality if we wanted to go on to pursue missions. However, we were burnt out from school, and the thought of having to go for four more years made us sick. I graduated on May 6, 2006 and we got married May 27, 2006. Three weeks and four hours exactly. We got settled in and we got comfortable. Not the kind of comfortable, where you say, let's go on a shopping spree, we have a lot of money! Because we were definitely not comfortable in that aspect. It was hard starting out. We were comfortable because we had a precious house, our families were around the corner, we had two decent jobs, and we were happy.
However, almost exactly one year later things started changing. Brad didn't get a promotion that we thought he was guaranteed to get, and I wasn't even certain of having a job the next school year. We realized that God was shutting doors only to open bigger and better doors for our future. That brings us to now. Obviously those bigger and better doors involved bringing us to Southeastern seminary. However, the story does not end there. It is probably evident now that our Big News includes mine and Brad's calling to missions, but it is so much deeper than that. At first Brad and I thought we were being faithful enough by just coming to seminary. When we moved up here Brad decided that his concentration would be in Christian Education. To make this incredibly long story just a little bit shorter, we soon realized that a concentration in C. Ed was not for us. I have convinced Brad to explain the rest of our "big news" from here on...
Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well! Let me start by saying that neither of us would be committing to this if we didn't feel absolutely certain that this is what God has called us to do. With that being said, I decided to change my M.Div. concentration to International Church Planting. This is a degree program that Southeastern offers to allow students to study here on campus for two years and travel abroad to finish their degree for a remaining two to three years while serving through the International Mission Board. Every year Southeastern "deploys" students in this program to specific regions of the world. Our deployment, as it stands now, is in 2010 to either North Africa/Middle East or Western Europe. And, if you remember what Libby was telling you earlier, she (and I) both have felt a call to serve in Africa. As of now, we plan to serve in either Alexandria or Cairo Egypt, but this has a possibility of changing. We will be serving in this location for three years, possibly longer. I will personally post on the details of our deployment at a later date (yes, there is more!).
It is our desire, that by informing you of this commitment, that you will keep Libby and me in your prayers. Many days are a struggle for us here. Satan knows the plans God has for us, and he is doing all sorts of things to alter those plans. We are both very excited and thrilled about this decision, and we hope that you are for us!
Now, our big news is out! Like we mentioned, some of you might have already known this, but we wanted to share with everyone officially so you can begin to lift us up in your prayers, as well as those that we will be going to serve, and work with.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
