it’s getting real

We are in the midst of our last training, a 4-week long training, that brings us that much closer to reality.  A reality that means we are packing up some stuff, quitting our jobs, saying good-bye to ministries we have invested into, leaving family and friends we love, and starting anew in a foreign land, with different languages, customs, ministries, and people.  Some might not understand what would ever make us think to do something so extreme. We probably even have family who don’t fully understand why we would choose to leave home, our comforts, relationships, and security for the unknown. But the answer for us is simple: to share the Love of Christ that He has shown us.  For those who may not understand: We hope and pray that our leap of faith is a testimony of His love and provision on our lives. That they may also come to have the same understanding of grace and forgiveness through Christ that we are compelled to share with the “least of these.”

Because honestly….

We enjoy traveling, but not enough to leave the foundations of a loving family, church, and community.

We are fascinated with different cultures, but not enough to transplant our family into a broken poverty-stricken community.

We enjoy letting the kids explore and learn new languages but not enough to leave an awesome Christian school where the kids thrive.

But we know that we are blessed to be a blessing to others, not that we may be more comfortable.  Personally, our tendency is to create the most comfortable, convenient life, striving to limit the amount of hardships, struggles, and pain.  It’s easier to get caught up in working towards happiness than resting in His everlasting peace and joy.  We are reminded daily that the Holy Spirit is our comforter, but we have a hard time seeing Him work through our lives when we settle for worldly comforts.  We long to see God work in our lives in ways that we can’t muster upon our own efforts, our own works.  This whole step of faith has been the biggest example of this for us (you can read more about this in Used By God).  We have already seen God move in powerful ways just by being obedient to His call.

We have a ton of Thank you’s for everyone at Pathway Fellowship who were involved in the Missions week and commissioning service.  We thouroughly enjoyed spending time at the small groups sharing How God called us to this, and how you have been such  an encouragement to us.

The Commissioning was truly a moment in time which we will cherish as the foundation of our cross-cultural ministry.  We are still processing the magnitude of that day, and are thrilled to be sent out by our family at Pathway, so that those who have not heard may “call upon the name of the Lord.”

Then after all the festivities we Jumped into our jam packed car and drove 20 hours straight to Colorado Springs area for our last training at Missions Training International (MTI).  Yep, we piled 3 kids in the car and drove through the night over 1,300 miles, 5 states, and 7 stops.   It was quite the road trip, with a few snow storms that slowed us down, but we pushed through and made it just in time to collapse in our new beds for the month.

We are loving the time here preparing ourselves to transition into the Malagasy language and culture.  MTI has a great staff of people who are dedicated to coach and help us with the right tools to thrive on the field.  We hope to share some more about our time here soon.  God Bless you all!