Never say Never to God.

Go! Now, Wait.

Thank you for reading our first blog post. I’ve been working on this website here and there for the last year. And it seems like there is never going to be the perfect time to launch this before we are in country, but we have had so many people asking for updates, so we decided now was the time. 

In January of 2017 God laid this call on our lives. In a time of solitude (a weekend away from 4 kids 4 and under) and deep meditation, Greg and I talked to each other about what the Lord had laid on our hearts. Central America. I love when God works individually in a couple to bring them to a big decision and that’s exactly what happened to us. In that moment we knew becoming missionaries was our future. 

Our history with Central America starts much earlier than that though. God has been working on us since we were teenagers. Both, Greg and I have been on several short term mission trips there as teens and early into our twenties.  Even leading a couple of them. But as our family grew and then we became foster parents it became difficult to get back and do more mission work there. 

After this conversation in January of 2017, God whispered January 2020 to me. 

You see at the time we were fostering our 5th and 6th precious foster children and we know God had called us to adopt, we knew we needed to stay and allow God to work all of that out first. 

So we held this dream that God laid on our hearts with open hands, waiting for more specifics and surrendering it all to Him. 

In November of the same year our lives looked a little different. Those foster children had left our home in April and we had 2 little girls living with us. One of them looking like she was going to need a forever family.

Greg was invited to go to Central America with his dad who was going to be preaching at a pastors conference. They would be going with ASSIST, the organization we worked with in our past trips as teens. At first Greg said no. Money was tight, we had a lot of little children to care for and it just didn’t seem feasible. But God kept working on Greg’s heart and a few weeks later he came to me and said “I think I need to go on this trip, and if I do a ministry opportunity is going to open up.”

I was all for it of course, and in a matter of days and mentioning the trip to a few people, his entire flight was paid for by generous family and friends. We felt that was a pretty clear sign from the Lord, that he was meant to be on that trip.

On the very last day of the trip, Greg was feeling a little discouraged because no specific ministry opportunity had presented itself. Did he hear God wrong? Was this not in our future?

After leaving the last town the head of the missions org ASSIST Canada said to Greg, “ya know, we could really use someone here on the ground to work with the C.A program. I know you love serving here, have you ever thought about that?” 

That was all Greg needed to hear, to confirm the dream God laid on our hearts and after returning from this trip we discussed what this was going to look like. 

Right around the time he returned from his trip it was becoming more evident to us that our 5 month old foster daughter Rosie was going to need a forever family. We were committed to her and just trusted God was going to work out all the details. 

There was a long 2 year period of waiting ahead…. holding this dream of becoming missionaries, while we waited to see what our foster daughters future would hold. 

OK, it's time to Go!

We are so excited to say we were able to adopt that sweet little girl 2 years later in December of 2019. That was a roller coaster of emotions and surrender and God used that time to grow us immensely. But that is a blog post for another time.

After her adoption, we were full steam ahead preparing to go. It was January 2020 just like God had told me 3 years prior. And although we obviously weren’t there, we were now actively moving towards it instead of just waiting.

We started working on our house to get it ready for sale and had a plan to leave the summer of 2020.  Greg had been given an opportunity to go to Central America for 10 days with the Gideons in mid March and we thought it was a perfect time to sell our house. I could take the kids and stay with my parents while he was gone so we could get it sold quickly and without the stress of having to keep it “showing ready” with 4 young kids.

Well it’s no surprise to anyone that a worldwide pandemic hit and as Greg was about to board that plane, the first major closure was announced, followed by the shutdowns of basically everything. His trip was cancelled and he had to return 4 days early.

We seriously considered having me and and kids just fly down there to join him and just staying. We know that’s where our future is, but we just had too many loose ends in Canada and the the unknowns of travel (or lack thereof) during a pandemic just made it too difficult. We had just gotten all of our final adoption paperwork for Rosie and were about to apply for her passport when the government shut down all passport services.

So here we sit and wait and wonder what this global pandemic means for our future. God has given us overwhelming peace throughout this whole last 3 and a half years that Central America is where he wants us. Amidst each obstacle we never feel like he is closing the door, bur rather teaching and preparing us for what lies ahead.

We know going into full time ministry of mission work in C.A is not going to be easy. In some ways we can prepare ourselves for the trials that lie ahead, in others we just have to trust that God called us and He will care for us and lead us. We know the enemy is prowling waiting to devour us as we move into this position. 

We can feel God strengthening us and preparing us even though some days we cry out “God why are we still here?”

It’s a strange feeling, knowing your home is somewhere else. We mentally checked out of Canada a long time ago. We find it hard to be here, when we know our purpose lies there. 

We are just trying to be obedient to where God has us right now. We are trying to soak up times with our mentors, friends and family, we are trying to grow spiritually and serve right where God has us today. 

One day God will fling open the door and we will board that flight with one way tickets. But until that day we humbly ask for His direction, your prayers and support and try our best to keep positive attitudes while we wait.

I never thought..

Greg told me when we were teenagers we would be missionaries one day. I laughed at him. “Never.” I remember thinking.

If you asked me even 5 years ago I would have told you I would never have been a missionary. I liked North American comforts too much, but in the last 5 years God has done a huge work in my heart.  The things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of God’s glory and grace….

We were able to take our older daughters there in January of 2019 on a vision trip and all of us cried at the thought of having to come back to Canada. God made it so clear then and there that being missionaries in C.A to work with vulnerable and orphaned children is exactly what He has been preparing our family for. 

So we will sit and wait and continue to prepare. Eager and ready to go when he blows the whistle. 

Don’t ever say never to God. Surrendered and sold out to Jesus is all we want for our earthly lives. Being His hands and feet in Central America is now our deepest desire. 

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