I was recently able to share at our homeschool co-op about our plans. Here is what I said with some pictures added in.
I went on several mission trips as a teenager and one with my husband, Josh, right after we got married. We had a heart for missions, but we were very caught up in the American dream: college, then we had kids, and then we bought a house… In 2009 we spent six months in the Philippines doing construction on an orphanage expansion.
It was hard and wonderful. When we came home from those six months, we felt for a time as though we didn’t fit into our old life here anymore. As time passed we were able to slip back into all the old routines though. We had another baby… :)
...but still there was an underlying discontentment. We tried to figure out what it was that was making us feel this way. We considered the orphanage in the Philippines, and Josh did go back twice after our six months there; once for five weeks, and once for just a week. But that did not change our restlessness. Then in February 2011 we found a lot in a subdivision just ten minutes from Josh’s office.
It was our dream spot with room for the kids to roam, beautiful, unobstructed views of the mountains, no commute for Josh to work, and I was going to get to have chickens and maybe even a dog! We were so excited and yet did not have peace.
In September 2011 we went to a missions conference in Minneapolis. It was like a switch was flipped. There was suddenly no more discontentment and the reality of what we now knew we wanted to do overwhelmed us! It felt like a heavy joy. We were excited about what we saw before us and also felt the weight of everything that tied us to our life in Montana.
On the way home from the conference I began thinking about what happens the days after a conference. You come home on a high, and then you are slammed with real life and so much of what you learned goes by the wayside, as you jump back in exactly where you left. We came home on Sunday and on Monday morning I prayed that God would make it clear to us whether we were just swept up in a wave of excitement or whether this was the real deal. After all, it would be pretty easy to come home from a missions conference feeling like you should become a missionary! After my prayer time I opened my Bible to read from the portion of scripture my reading plan had marked. It was Romans chapter 10. When I got to verses 14 and 15 I was completely amazed. God’s word is living and active. This is what I read:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’
Two of the things we learned while we were in the Philippines were that we wanted to be a part of a team if we were to go overseas again and that we wanted more training. We had met with representatives from a ministry called To Every Tribe while at the missions conference. In January 2012, Josh went to an open house at their Missions School called the Center for Pioneer Church Planting. The school is two years long and aims to equip missionaries to share the gospel with unreached peoples by first earning the right to be heard through medical and dental care. Then missionaries are trained to biblically share the gospel of Jesus, making disciples, and cultivate self sustaining churches. This happens through intensive theological training, coupled with hands-on field training from missionaries in Mexico and New Guinea.
Lord willing, we will be moving our family to Los Fresnos, Texas for two years to attend this school next August.
We are now in a season of letting go of so many things that we love. Josh loves his job and has had to tell his boss that he will be leaving next summer. It is hard to give up a career and the means to support your family and it’s hard to raise financial support.
God sold our house this last spring so much faster than we thought possible! We all loved that house and it was, and still is hard to let go of it.
We live within a few minutes of both sets of Grandparents. It was hard to tell them that we were moving so far away and potentially across oceans someday. It’s hard to let go of friends that are as close as family. Our whole family was born and raised in Montana- five of us in the Gallatin Valley. It will be hard to leave our valley and our mountains.
We live within a few minutes of both sets of Grandparents. It was hard to tell them that we were moving so far away and potentially across oceans someday. It’s hard to let go of friends that are as close as family. Our whole family was born and raised in Montana- five of us in the Gallatin Valley. It will be hard to leave our valley and our mountains.
We are currently living in a two bedroom 714 square foot apartment over an office, surrounded by asphalt and gravel.
We are saving money and knew it would be hard, but it’s harder than I first imagined it would be! I am making changes all the time to make it feel like we have more space. The first to go was Josh’s old blue recliner. More recently we sold one of our bunk bed sets. The kids are now sleeping in hammocks and they love it! The best part about hammocks is that they can lay flat against the wall during the day! Next I plan to get rid of the two dressers the kids share.
My kitchen at our house.
The kitchen in the apartment.
Our living and dining room in the house.
Our new living and dining area
Every time something about this seems hard we remind ourselves that Jesus is worth it! And all of this is about him and not about us! And it’s about the people who he has chosen and have not yet had a chance to even hear his name!
Brita
