Missions Update
I have not posted much about our call to missions on here since I never know who is reading this and we need Tim's job to pay the mortgage. But many things have happened in the past weeks and we want to provide an update and share our journey to this point...
As many of you know Tim and I hear the Lord is calling us to serve overseas as missionaries. We clearly heard this call starting back in September 2007 when He led us to sign up for a mission trip with our church to Thailand.
This was not an ordinary mission trip, it was basically our church serving missionaries of eastern Asia rather than going and sharing the Gospel with people. However, it was our first time to serve and the Lord introduced us to many ordinary and wonderful people who at the time we thought were "super Christians". Upon returning, Tim and I both were thinking that there was no way we could give up everything and move to the other side of the world...God must have been smiling about that!
We came back and felt led to start the adoption process of Nathan. This was an amazing process and grew us spiritually. So far in my life, it has been my spiritual high. God taught me so many things about His provision, myself, His Word and just how far He could stretch me. We continue to be blessed in amazing ways by our obedience to His calling us to adopt.
Adoption opened us up to trust God completely since most things were totally out of our control. He taught us that we are really in control of very little. He taught us how to love others, even when we didn't want to. Most of all, He taught us to obey His Word. In Matthew 28:19-20, the Lord gives me my purpose in life, I am to "Go and make disciples...". Really this is every Christ followers purpose because Jesus does not give us eternal life to hoard for ourselves, He gives us life so that we can share it with others.
In August 2008, Tim and I both realized that we heard God calling us to overseas missions. We didn't know where we were supposed to go and we did not feel adequately trained but everywhere we turned, we heard the same message. We heard it in sermons, quiet time, scripture, dreams and in everyday conversations with friends. God reminded us that the missionaries we met were not "super Christians", they were ordinary people that He was using in extraordinary ways for His purpose. They could do nothing without the work of the Holy Spirit.
Soon we began talking with our pastors and tried to determine how we should go about pursuing missions opportunities. Needless to say, it has been a journey with many starts and stops and a whole lot of prayer. We initially thought we might go to China but soon realized that was not the right place. Then we thought Paris because of our own church's work with a people group there but that opportunity soon went away. To be honest by the summer of 2009, we were starting to question if we were hearing God correctly because doors were being closed. And we did not see any opportunities through the Fall of 2009.
One day in January 2010, Tim received a call from our consultant at the mission board. This was amazing, in May of 2009, we had received a call saying that the mission board had to cut positions because of the lack of funding, and we thought that door had closed for years to come. However, our consultant had a list of several positions that he thought Tim would be qualified for in AFRICA! Now, this was the last place on earth I thought I would ever go, unless it was on plush safari. I even recall saying to my mom that there is no way we would ever go someplace like Africa when we first told her about our call...I think God was laughing about that statement!
Anyway, Tim and I were doing a bible study and the morning he received the call from our consultant, we had read in Matthew 14:28-33. Jesus is walking on the water towards the disciples and Peter says, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." Jesus says to "Come." Then Peter sees the wind and the water and becomes afraid and loses his faith, then starts to sink. We felt this was the Lord saying to us, you have asked me to send you overseas and now I am giving you an opportunity to trust me, are you going to be faithful? It did not take us long to say yes to the mission board. Africa was not the location we would have chosen but we trust that God's plan is way better than anything we could ever imagine for ourselves!
So we started the process of paperwork and getting physicals. Thankfully we had already completed a lot of the paperwork last year, however, there was a lot more to come. The mission board is very thorough in screening their applicants, they are trying to be good stewards of the offerings they receive and they truly want their missionaries to be successful. It has been a journey of testing and faith over the last year.
Tim and I have been so anxious to go but the Lord has continued to make us wait. I can look back and see some of the reasons but I am sure many more will be revealed in the years to come. I continue to trust that everything will happen in the Lord's perfect timing. One of the big details we had to take care of was to sell our house, which has been on the market for over a year. Just last week we got a clear contract and have completed our inspection, so our departure feels much more real! We close on our house on December 1st.
We are still waiting for a letter from Nathan's geneticist which we hope to have this week to secure his medical clearance. The rest of the family has been cleared.
So what happens next? Of course God only knows but our "plan" is to move into temporary housing until mid January so Tim can continue to work. We will go to an orientation/training with the mission board in late January for 8 weeks and then depart for Nairobi Kenya in the Spring.
Tim would be an Assistant Logistics Coordinator for the missionaries in Kenya. This would include managing houses, cars, transportation, government documents, etc.
Please pray for our children as we start the physical process of going. We have been talking with them about it for the past 2 years but it has always been in the context of "someday". They are sad to leave their school, friends, family and our cat, Nala (we need a loving home for her by the way...she is a great mouser!).
Please pray that Nathan will get his medical clearance this week.
Pray for the closing to go smoothly and timely.
Also, please pray for Tim and I as we decide what to do with all of our household possessions. We have decided to get rid of most of our stuff instead of storing it all but it will be a tedious process that needs to be completed quickly.
We welcome any questions you have and we will definitely welcome visitors!!
Much love,
Adrienne
As many of you know Tim and I hear the Lord is calling us to serve overseas as missionaries. We clearly heard this call starting back in September 2007 when He led us to sign up for a mission trip with our church to Thailand.
This was not an ordinary mission trip, it was basically our church serving missionaries of eastern Asia rather than going and sharing the Gospel with people. However, it was our first time to serve and the Lord introduced us to many ordinary and wonderful people who at the time we thought were "super Christians". Upon returning, Tim and I both were thinking that there was no way we could give up everything and move to the other side of the world...God must have been smiling about that!
We came back and felt led to start the adoption process of Nathan. This was an amazing process and grew us spiritually. So far in my life, it has been my spiritual high. God taught me so many things about His provision, myself, His Word and just how far He could stretch me. We continue to be blessed in amazing ways by our obedience to His calling us to adopt.
Adoption opened us up to trust God completely since most things were totally out of our control. He taught us that we are really in control of very little. He taught us how to love others, even when we didn't want to. Most of all, He taught us to obey His Word. In Matthew 28:19-20, the Lord gives me my purpose in life, I am to "Go and make disciples...". Really this is every Christ followers purpose because Jesus does not give us eternal life to hoard for ourselves, He gives us life so that we can share it with others.
In August 2008, Tim and I both realized that we heard God calling us to overseas missions. We didn't know where we were supposed to go and we did not feel adequately trained but everywhere we turned, we heard the same message. We heard it in sermons, quiet time, scripture, dreams and in everyday conversations with friends. God reminded us that the missionaries we met were not "super Christians", they were ordinary people that He was using in extraordinary ways for His purpose. They could do nothing without the work of the Holy Spirit.
Soon we began talking with our pastors and tried to determine how we should go about pursuing missions opportunities. Needless to say, it has been a journey with many starts and stops and a whole lot of prayer. We initially thought we might go to China but soon realized that was not the right place. Then we thought Paris because of our own church's work with a people group there but that opportunity soon went away. To be honest by the summer of 2009, we were starting to question if we were hearing God correctly because doors were being closed. And we did not see any opportunities through the Fall of 2009.
One day in January 2010, Tim received a call from our consultant at the mission board. This was amazing, in May of 2009, we had received a call saying that the mission board had to cut positions because of the lack of funding, and we thought that door had closed for years to come. However, our consultant had a list of several positions that he thought Tim would be qualified for in AFRICA! Now, this was the last place on earth I thought I would ever go, unless it was on plush safari. I even recall saying to my mom that there is no way we would ever go someplace like Africa when we first told her about our call...I think God was laughing about that statement!
Anyway, Tim and I were doing a bible study and the morning he received the call from our consultant, we had read in Matthew 14:28-33. Jesus is walking on the water towards the disciples and Peter says, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." Jesus says to "Come." Then Peter sees the wind and the water and becomes afraid and loses his faith, then starts to sink. We felt this was the Lord saying to us, you have asked me to send you overseas and now I am giving you an opportunity to trust me, are you going to be faithful? It did not take us long to say yes to the mission board. Africa was not the location we would have chosen but we trust that God's plan is way better than anything we could ever imagine for ourselves!
So we started the process of paperwork and getting physicals. Thankfully we had already completed a lot of the paperwork last year, however, there was a lot more to come. The mission board is very thorough in screening their applicants, they are trying to be good stewards of the offerings they receive and they truly want their missionaries to be successful. It has been a journey of testing and faith over the last year.
Tim and I have been so anxious to go but the Lord has continued to make us wait. I can look back and see some of the reasons but I am sure many more will be revealed in the years to come. I continue to trust that everything will happen in the Lord's perfect timing. One of the big details we had to take care of was to sell our house, which has been on the market for over a year. Just last week we got a clear contract and have completed our inspection, so our departure feels much more real! We close on our house on December 1st.
We are still waiting for a letter from Nathan's geneticist which we hope to have this week to secure his medical clearance. The rest of the family has been cleared.
So what happens next? Of course God only knows but our "plan" is to move into temporary housing until mid January so Tim can continue to work. We will go to an orientation/training with the mission board in late January for 8 weeks and then depart for Nairobi Kenya in the Spring.
Tim would be an Assistant Logistics Coordinator for the missionaries in Kenya. This would include managing houses, cars, transportation, government documents, etc.
Please pray for our children as we start the physical process of going. We have been talking with them about it for the past 2 years but it has always been in the context of "someday". They are sad to leave their school, friends, family and our cat, Nala (we need a loving home for her by the way...she is a great mouser!).
Please pray that Nathan will get his medical clearance this week.
Pray for the closing to go smoothly and timely.
Also, please pray for Tim and I as we decide what to do with all of our household possessions. We have decided to get rid of most of our stuff instead of storing it all but it will be a tedious process that needs to be completed quickly.
We welcome any questions you have and we will definitely welcome visitors!!
Much love,
Adrienne
AWESOME! This is my favorite blog posting I've read in some time. That is so great! We are excited for you guys and will be praying for your family as you transition.
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