It’s official – on May 2, 2014 (exactly 6 weeks after sending
in our application) we were accepted to serve as long-term missionaries with
Iris Ministries in Pemba, Mozambique (Africa)!
We were thrilled to receive this news, although, it wasn’t without an
attack from the enemy. We’ll get back to
that in a minute, but let’s just say the punk “aka Satan” wasn’t successful!
To go back in time, as many of you know we attended Harvest
School of Missions in Pemba during the summer of 2012 with 4 of our children. Prior to leaving, we had prophetic words
spoken over us, one of which said that we would not be returning to the
States. At the end of the missions
school, even after being offered the opportunity to stay and teach English, we
knew that the Lord was calling us back to the States for a season – mainly to
see our oldest son, Ethan, graduate high school (which he will be doing on May
29th). Way to go, Ethan!
Upon returning to Idaho 2 years ago, we’ve never fully
adjusted to being back in the western culture.
There has been a constant tug on our hearts to serve overseas (just like
the prophetic word mentioned), but we knew that we didn’t want to just go to go
– we wanted the Lord to open the doors for us OR close them if He didn’t want
us there. We also wanted to be sent from
our church (Vineyard Meridian) and have our Pastors’ blessings, of which we
have received with great honor! Our
journey these past couple of years has been all about surrendering our lives to
God and fulfilling His purposes in our lives.
Years ago we became unsatisfied with living a routine life of having
good jobs, making $, entertaining ourselves, etc. We began to reflect on our lives and what
difference we were truly making in the Kingdom of God. Yes, we served and “did good things”, but we
felt like there was something more to life than what we were currently
doing. Were we living as the first disciples did? Willing to give up our jobs, leave everything
(family, stuff) behind to follow Jesus?
This was the common question we asked ourselves often. It seemed impossible that we could live such
a lifestyle, because the pursuit of $ is so prevalent in America and was our
life for a long time, but our hearts were hungry for a change. Lord,
show us what this kind of life looks like! This doesn’t mean we’re encouraging everyone to quit their jobs. We’re simply adjusting our focus in life and
following after what the Lord has placed on our hearts to do. We haven’t a clue as to what we’re doing,
honestly, but we trust Him to lead us on this amazing journey of faith with
Him!
Some have asked us, “Why
Africa?” Our answer, “Because that’s where God is sending us in
this season of our lives. We didn’t
choose it. He did! We just want to be obedient and follow His
lead!” Serving as missionaries overseas
was not on our radar at all until we began going deeper with the Lord in prayer
for His heart for our family. I don’t
remember my dreams often, but I do recall one I had when I was 16 years old. All I remember was a bunch of houses, like
bunkhouses, spread all across this land.
Almost 20 years later, we are beginning to live out this dream He gave
me. God also put overseas missions on
Josh’s heart when he was younger, although he chose to walk a different path
for many years. Our heart is to
eventually build homes for abandoned, troubled teens (those that tend to get
overlooked). No matter what walk of life
they come from, we want to incorporate them into our family and love on and
disciple them. We don’t know exactly
what this will look like, and we are trusting the Lord to reveal more to us,
but this ultimately is the vision He has laid before us and we are excited to
run after it!
During our first trip to Pemba, the Lord told us we needed
to get ready to be mobile – one step was selling our home. We prayed into His timing and on Gracie’s 4th
birthday last April we listed it for sale.
We had 5 showings on the first day, and 4 offers were submitted in less
than 24 hours – now that’s acceleration!
We ended up signing on one of the offers and sold our home in
August. We have been renting since
then. We’ve served time on our church’s
leadership team, which has been a growing and eye-opening time for us. In November of 2013 the Lord made it clear to
us that we needed to lay church ministry down (i.e. Youth, Ministry School
& Children’s Ministry). My time of
serving on the leadership team is coming to an end at the end of this
month. It wasn’t until March 2014 that
we made a step forward to apply as long-term missionaries with Iris. What compelled us to move forward was a
documentary that we showed at our church in January called “Compelled By
Love.” While watching the video, Josh
kept hearing the words “follow-through.” One of the questions God asked Josh was, “Are you really following through with what
has been in your heart for so long?” After spending time with the Lord,
Josh wrote a letter to me expressing his heart from that night. I, too, was convicted and wanted to radically
go after the dream God has placed on our hearts, but I never thought God would
send us back to Africa.
Two days later after watching this documentary, the Lord
gave me a picture of a globe and told me to spin it and point. The Lord continually answers our prayers
with, “Where do you want to go?” God is so creative because this is exactly
one of the ways in which He confirmed direction for us. Before I get ahead of myself though, during
one of the prophetic classes that was part of the School of Supernatural
Ministry I was leading, our pastor asked us to close our eyes. I didn’t know she was going to walk us
through a picture of a sunset, so before she started I got a picture of
fireworks. When we did the exercise I thought
the Lord was going to take me back to the fireworks, but I couldn’t even try to
force it. I immediately got a picture of
a white soccer ball in a brownish/green field.
I could see my image from behind, but there was no one else surrounding
me. The field looked exactly like one we
saw in Mozambique on the base. As I stood looking towards the field, I asked
God what I was supposed to do. I wanted
to see children playing, but that didn’t come to me. I just saw a completely empty, open
field. He then spoke to me and said, “I want YOU to play!” When I shared this with Josh later that
afternoon (February 19th) he said, “No way!” Just the night
prior the Lord had given Josh the SAME EXACT picture in his dreams, except the
whole family was playing with kids on the soccer field. He hadn’t shared this dream with me yet, so I
had no idea. The following Sunday we
decided to get real creative and throw one at God. ;) It was at this time that I shared with Josh
the picture God gave me of the globe and to spin it and point – that’s where
we’d go serve. Josh suggested the idea
of using the Google Earth app on our phones.
What a brilliant idea! I remember
saying out loud, “Okay Lord, if it lands
on Africa you’ve got my attention!”
Of course, I was just playing around.
After many attempts of spinning in different directions, starting on
different points of the earth, closing our eyes, etc., etc., my results ended
up being 15 times on Africa, once in the water near Africa and once in
Asia…..ummmm, what Lord?!?! Josh had the
same results – landing on Africa every single time he spun, except once he
landed in the Indian Ocean near Africa.
Okay Lord, you’ve definitely got my attention now! Exactly one month later after getting the
picture of the spinning globe, the kids had a similar experience with a floor puzzle
called “Children of the World”. All of
the kids were putting it together when Jade suggested they spin it (like we did
on our phones) and see where they end up pointing to. At first I told her no, that we didn’t need
to do that for confirmation from the Lord, but then I changed my mind and
decided to have some fun with it. As
each child closed their eyes, I spun the puzzle then asked them to point. I made sure the puzzle landed in different
directions each time so they couldn’t “cheat”.
I kid you not, EVERY kid ended up pointing right at Africa. I have pictures to prove it!! They got a big kick out of that!
So, to wrap up our first official newsletter for the next
chapter in our lives, we want to end by sharing what we currently know about
our next steps. We have committed to
serving for at least 2 years in Pemba, Mozambique. After that, we’ll go wherever God sends us
next – whether it’s to another country, to remain in Pemba or to head back to
the States, we don’t know at this point.
Our primary role will be to mentor and disciple the teens that live on
base, in addition to teaching English and some administrative duties. Jade is excited to help in the Baby House,
Christian can’t wait for more “big” brothers, Gracie wants to get involved in worship/art
and Josiah says he wants to “give lots of
kisses away!” The kids are very
excited to move and keep asking when it’s going to happen. Good question. September has been highlighted to us, but there
are some things in question and that could delay our departure until possibly
January so we shall wait to see what the Lord has in mind.
We know this journey won’t be without trials or challenges,
but no journey is. We experienced one on
the very day we got accepted to serve with Iris. The enemy tried stealing Josh’s job through
false accusations, but we just laughed at the enemy and kept pushing on. Our security is not found in jobs so the
enemy’s attempts to fulfill part of John 10:10 didn’t work on us! We choose LIFE to the fullest!! You may also be wondering about our situation
with Jade and whether or not she will be going with us. Before applying, we asked all of the kids how
they felt about the possibility of moving to Africa, and they were all
excited. This carried bigger
implications for Jade because it would require her to leave her other family
behind. After having a personal
conversation with Jade about this, she revealed to us that she wants to go with
us 100%. When she was 8 God
gave her a vision of going to Africa/Asia and feeding the poor. We’ve realized this isn’t just a dream of
mine and Josh’s, but a dream for our entire family too. The Lord continues to ask us, “Do you trust me?” We trust Him with all our hearts. We don’t know how things will play out with
Jade, but we trust that He will work it all out for good.
The Lord is our provider, our shelter, our refuge, our
strength, and with Him by our side all things are possible! We don’t want to just say these words. We want to put them to action! Thank you all for your continued love,
prayers and support. We appreciate you
all and will keep you posted on our progress.
Peace, love & joy with you always!
