When we (Karen and Ron) came back from our two week trip to Beautiful Gate in April we immediately started to talk about going back someday. Why not use our vacation time next year to go and serve again? But this time just the two of us to try and spend some focused time using our gifts. Our thoughts quickly went to staying for a longer amount of time. What if instead of two weeks we went for a month? The ticket price would still be the same, food wouldn't cost that much more, we could probably even get that time off work. That sounded great! More time serving the kids and working with the staff and a bigger percentage of our time actually on the ground and not in the air. Wait!!! What if?...
Wouldn't it be great if we could go for three months?! Or even six months?! Oh, that's right... we have jobs. And we have a house. You can't just pack up and go to the other side of the world when you have a mortgage that needs to be paid, which means earning money to pay the mortgage. But there was something stirring in us that kept us asking those questions. The fact of the matter was the stirring had been there for quite some time already. It was several years earlier that God seemed to be calling us to the ministry. I (Ron) started taking seminary classes at the Christian Leaders Institute. We figured that I would end up serving in a church somewhere (hopefully local) as an assistant pastor or some secondary pastor type of position. It was not really on my radar to be a missionary, but to be honest I didn't know where this would all end up. What I did know was that God was preparing us for something beyond what our normal lives consisted of.
So back to those questions. How long should we consider going for? And what would it take to go for more than a month? We began to have conversations with people. We skyped with Bryan and Anita the directors of Beautiful Gate and told them where we were at in our thinking and some of gifts and abilities. They were very open to the idea of us coming back. They always like it when people have a desire to come and serve. We also had a conversation with a couple from our church that actually went for five months. That was very helpful for us to hear that it could be done...they were (and still are) great encouragers of ours.
But the questions kept coming to our minds and hearts... how long should we go for? We continued to ask ourselves questions about what that would mean in our situation and sought out answers and direction from God. So with more prayer and further conversation with Beautiful Gate it became very clear that God was calling us to serve there. In fact we made a commitment to serve for a minimum of two years. Two years?! That means we quit our jobs and we need to sell our house right? Not to mention leaving our family and friends. But, we wouldn't be the first couple to make this decision and do something like this.
There is one big problem though...we are upside down in our house. No, we don't walk on the ceiling! We owe more than what the house is worth in the current market. That could be a problem. Actually it sounds almost impossible. But when we started to go down the path of serving as missionaries we knew that selling our house was going to be basically impossible from a conventional standpoint. The whole idea kind of felt like Peter walking on water. It cannot be done! You can't expect to step out of a boat and put your feet ON the water and stay on top! It's crazy to think you can...it defies logic and reason...it's impossible!! Except of course if Jesus tells you to do it. And you know what... Peter did it! Because Jesus called him out of the boat.
We believe that since God has called us to do this, whatever needs to happen to fulfill the calling IS going to happen. Whether it's the house or the fundraising or the time frame we believe we will be there, all of it is possible because Jesus said to take this step. Actually there plenty of stories in the Bible about God doing the impossible in people's lives. Like Moses and the Isrealites standing at the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army closing in; or Abram and Sarai who were told they would have children in their old age; people like David facing Goliath or Daniels three friends, Gideon and on and on the list goes.
But just like Peter looking at the waves and getting fearful, or Abram and Sarai coming to a point of wondering and impatience, we recently found ourselves fearing the circumstance we were in and becoming less patient to let God do it all. We tried taking matters in our own hands, against what we were convicted God would do, and in a matter of a couple days our peace in the decision was gone. The lack of peace was so great that it was starting to physically overwhelm me. It was time for prayer...desperate prayer, fervent prayer...a concert of prayer! We immediately called our prayer team. What came about after a beautiful Sunday night at church and an hour in prayer after was a complete restoration of the peace we had lost and the confidence to move forward with our original conviction that God has everything taken care of. We are again on the path where God gets all the glory because it will be His plan that is fulfilled.
And as soon as we recommitted to what he called us to He began to bring back hope in amazing ways. So even though our house isn't sold yet and we have a long way to go on fundraising, we are looking forward with a hopeful, confident expectation of what God is about to do. And... because this is all God purpose and plan, and because it all rests in His hands...It really ISN'T IMPOSSIBLE at all!!
