When I was in 3rd grade, a young, couple came to my Sunday school class to talk about their life as missionaries in Pakistan. I was enthralled with all that they talked about. At one point, the wife said something to the effect of her dream for her life always included a nice job, a nice house and a red sports car, but God had other plans for her. This stuck out to me so much, in a way that made my heart start racing. My thought, as an 8 year old, was that I had this feeling that God was calling me to do the same thing! Not in Pakistan, necessarily, but to someday be a missionary in another country. That was the first time anything like this had crossed my mind.
Fast forward 15 years and Alan and I are taking our first international trip together to El Salvador to do street ministry with children. On this trip, it was confirmed in my heart and born in Alan’s, this desire to do mission work. For the next few years, we led trips for Oneighty, and each time, our desire for international missions grew. We had a few offers from people, to come join their ministries, but none of them seemed right for us. It’s really just been in the last 6 months to a year that we have gotten serious about pursuing this calling in our life.
About the beginning of 2011, we felt an increasing burden to consider moving to Mexico. I felt God asking us to put our obedience to the test, and to go visit Josh and Dania Harder in Mexico City and see what was up. In April we spent 5 days in Mexico City with Josh and Dania, living life with them, seeing their ministry, and meeting their church. We got to visit The Well, a refuge for underage girls rescued from sex trafficking; we learned about the secret ways they are helping current prostitutes; we saw a church living out Matthew 25, and the desire to be a part of that community began to grow.
Upon return, Alan and I began praying about moving our family of 4 to Mexico, spent time looking over logistics, and continued to talk things through with the Harders. Though we kept wrestling with "why us?!", we feel a strong conviction that our life is not our own, and that love does.
So we moved here in September 2012. Our life will probably never be "normal" again in that we are living on a year-to-year basis as far as where we will go and what we will do. The current plan is to serve here for two years, but who knows! Life is a journey of changing seasons and we want to be present for all of it!
So we moved here in September 2012. Our life will probably never be "normal" again in that we are living on a year-to-year basis as far as where we will go and what we will do. The current plan is to serve here for two years, but who knows! Life is a journey of changing seasons and we want to be present for all of it!
- M
