God's Hand in it

We boarded the plane at the airport in Arequipa and looked at each other as we buckled our seat belts. “Let’s just stay another week,” she said. I looked over at my wife and smiled, “You know, I’ve always been so ready to get home after trips like this, but I really wish we could stay too.”

If you know me, you know I’m not really the “feeling” type. But I felt something as we left Peru in January. I felt a strong sense of purpose that I believe God put there to confirm us. Jaclyn did too. We left there with a clear answer to our question, “Is this what God really wants?” Now it’s August and we’re slated to punch our one-way ticket to Peru in two short months. Looking back, we think we see what God has been up to for quite some time to get us to this point:

1.       We know that God was behind the scenes getting us to go on all of those short-term mission trips in college that got us all fired up to make a difference.

2.       Jeremy and Katie Daggett’s invitation to come meet with their prospective mission team in April 2012 was most definitely an answer to our prayer as newlyweds asking to be a part of God’s mission in the world.

3.       In 2013 we found out that our newly formed team has what the Team Dimensions Profile (a team-building workshop) calls an almost perfectly balanced mix of “creators”, “advancers”, “refiners”, and “executors.” It seems to me that the composition of this team was no accident. Besides being well-balanced, the Frouds, Morgans, and Daggetts have become our close friends through this process and we are excited to embark on this adventure with them.

4.       A big gift God gave our team is allowing us to skip the much of the hard stuff and jump right into a ready-made mission. The McKinzie and Smith families (we call them “Team Arequipa 1.0”) have been working diligently in Arequipa for six years and we (Team Arequipa 2.0) get to springboard off of the foundation they have laid there.

5.       As soon as we moved to Houston two years ago, God swept us up in the start of a home Bible study at Nathan and Lindy Ingram’s ranch. Strangely, it ended up being almost exactly what we picture our house churches in Peru being like in the future. We even had a token Latin American man named Jorge. Leading that bible study every week taught us some very valuable things. It’s like God was saying, “Here, I’ll let you practice this once before you go.”

6.       The confirmation Jaclyn and I felt when we visited Peru in January was due in large part to a young Australian couple’s hospitality. Andrew and Bethany Gray call themselves “missionary apprentices” and have been helping Team 1.0 for almost a year now. They housed us and spent every free minute they had showing us what life is like living in Arequipa. We would all do well to become “hospitality apprentices” under these two immensely Christ-like Aussies.

7.       There was a glitch in our budget plans in April of this year and we worried we wouldn’t be able to raise enough financial support to pay our student loan payments. God was way ahead of us. We had just enough time to apply for a grant program called Project MedSend, which pays medical missionaries’ student loans while they are on the field. MedSend approved our application in June and we literally danced for joy.

8.       Dr. Bill and Holly Richardson were a God-send when they came to our sending congregation in Bonne Terre, Missouri in June. They did a primer course for the leadership there on what to expect when sending missionaries to South America. This was really the icing on the cake! God has been so good to us.

9.       Most importantly, God gave us both parents who love Jesus. Their dedication to the scriptures and living example have been preparing us for 27 years to step out in faith. Ed, Carolyn, Jack, and Janet have been God’s most miraculous intervention in this whole process. Thank you God for these four pillars that we stand on.