Photo by Nicole Tarpoff
About five years ago my husband and I felt called into ministry—specifically missions. We put our house up for sale and headed to Indonesia in Southeast Asia on a vision trip. We met with the agency we would be serving with and became familiar with the city and schools. We felt affirmed in our call, but when we got home we received a call from the agency saying it wasn’t going to work out. It was a denominational issue. We were members of a Christian Church and it was a Baptist agency. This was devastating news. We had felt so sure that God was calling us to missions. We looked again to the story of Abraham and Isaac, asking ourselves if we were ready to give it all up, and we felt we were.
This was followed by five years of seeking what God would have us to do. We decided to just be obedient to the step in front of us. We felt our call was to become radical disciples and to make radical disciples who would then make radical disciples. My husband went on staff at our church and we began inviting people into our home, pointing them to Jesus.
About two years ago, we moved from the church where my husband was on staff to another church in our community. Our new church is very involved in mission work and has two church plants in Colombia. My husband and I decided to go on a mission trip to Colombia with a group from our new church. I felt the trip could be the answer to our call to the mission field. I told my husband on the plane ride over, “You know after this trip we are going to move to Colombia and become missionaries.” He agreed. We both loved Colombia and the people of the country, but on the plane ride home when I asked my husband about it he said, “God really affirmed that Harrison County (the county where we live) is our mission field and we are already are missionaries.” I felt the same way.
Shortly after this our pastor called us and said that a ministry that serves pregnant women in crisis planned to open a location in our town. The director of the ministry had called our pastor and told him the kind of person they were looking for in a director. He told me that he thought I had the qualities that fit and asked if I was interested in the job. At the time, my husband worked as an unpaid volunteer in a mission agency and I was the breadwinner for the family. I had a good job in sales for an advertising agency. My husband and I talked about it. This would mean a $40,000 pay cut per year and we would lose benefits. At first, we felt there was no way possible. We couldn’t pay our bills on this salary. We called our pastor and he challenged us to pray: “Lord, I am taking this job. Make it clear to us if this is NOT the way. Even though we don’t see how this would work financially, we are moving forward, trusting that You will show us if this is not what we are to do.” From this time on we had peace.
I started the job in January of 2017 and from the very beginning God has provided so many opportunities to love and serve. While this job doesn’t provide the income of my corporate job, it is so fulfilling and rewarding. I have met many wonderful people.
God is faithful, even when I am not. Especially when I am not. My husband now has a paid job with the mission agency. God has not only provided financially but also has provided a strong community of support in our church. He has opened small doors for us, and as we go through He opens another. He continues to lead us. We don’t know what the future holds but we are just looking for the next step. God will be faithful. He has always been faithful.
A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.
