The Road to Missions #1

I realized some of you may be interested in knowing how we got to where we are today... as in, training for missions and planning on heading to the mission field. Obviously God has led us here, but we believe he has used certain people and events in our lives to guide us here. So I'm going to do a few blog posts (since it won't all fit in one) about how God guided us to where we are today... The Road to Missions :)

First, I think it's important to emphasize that we had people in our lives praying for us. Both of us have believing parents who prayed for us as we grew up. Specifically, my (Alisha's) Grama prayed for me, and then for both together, that God would use us in missions. She may have nagged sometimes too. Specifically, I remember a time when we were at their church when we were in high school and an NTM missionary couple was there, and Grama talked about how cool it would be if one of her grandkids went into missions and how cool this missionary couple was and how cool tribal missions work is... get my point? She may have nagged a little. She has a great heart for missions though, and it didn't go unnoticed by me.

So ultimately, God has been working in our hearts since we were born to interest our hearts in his greater mission- taking the gospel to the world- but he really first grabbed our attention in the summer of 2006. We had both just graduated from high school and had decided to go on a mission trip that would take up most of our summer. We went with the same organization: Teen Missions International. Ben went to Siberia (he was originally supposed to go to Cameroon, but that's another story in itself) and I went to Malawi, Africa. We were together during the two weeks of orientation, but then we parted ways...

In Sibera, Ben was one of the assistant leaders. He helped lead the team in construction projects, such as building an obstacle course for the missions program they were beginning there and working on a church. He learned a lot about being a leader, working in another country (it was hard to submit to some of the cultural differences), and staying warm in a cold climate...

Meanwhile, I was in Malawi. It was the best summer of my life. I saw a different part of the world that I had only heard about before. Now it was right before my eyes. I saw the joy the people had in simple things. I learned to live simply as well. My team was a foot washing team, so we took shoes and socks to the orphans and washed their feet, which were often blistered and sometimes infected (do you know how much I hate even CLEAN feet?). While there, we also did other work projects, helped share the gospel alongside the missionaries who lived there, sang songs in Chewa with the orphans (amazing!), learned to appreciate squatty potties, and I learned that there was a lot of need in the world, both spiritually and physically...

I loved every moment of my summer. Ben loved most moments. But when we came home, God had worked in both of our lives. I felt certain that I was supposed to go into missions after that summer. I even made a commitment at debrief. I was afraid to tell Ben because I didn't know what it would mean for us. I had decided I wasn't going to say anything until I let him share about his summer though. So, one afternoon we sat on the deck of his parents' pool, sharing about our summers, and Ben told me that he thought that he was supposed to go into missions. I don't remember if I cried or squealed, but I know I felt like doing both inside. It was so incredible that God had led us in the same direction that summer, living in opposite parts of the world. Of course, at that point we didn't know what "missions" looked like. We thought perhaps we would go join staff at Teen Missions. We really weren't sure, but it was the beginning of our vulnerability. We both had agreed that God was calling us to something greater.

One of my great professors, Dr. Peugh, at Grace College said something one time that has always stuck with me. "God doesn't show us everything at once. He knows we wouldn't be ready for it. Instead, he takes us in steps and slowly shows us his plan for our lives." I think this is so true. We didn't know everything at this point. God was just beginning to reveal his plan for us. He was taking us on our first step.