The Very Beginning - Almost

Life is far from boring right now but there are not many blog worthy events to write down. So I thought I would write some more about our lives as missionaries and how we got there in the first place.

If I were to give my story a title it might be, “Lord, here am I, send me. But what are you going to do about my husband?” I spent four and a half years in college, trying to earn my MRS degree. I dreamed of being a pastor’s wife and attending Liberty Baptist College seemed like the ideal place to make that happen. However, I ended up with a BS in Elementary Education and failed miserably at any attempts on the MRS degree. During those years, God gave me a tender heart toward missions and I surrendered to do whatever the Lord wanted me to do. I didn’t feel led to go to a foreign field as a single woman. There are many single missionary women and there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t think I’m cut out for it. Right after I graduated from college, I had applied with the Southern Baptist Convention Journeyman program to be a short-term missionary for two years. They rejected me! I never found out why but just accepted it as God’s plan. Later, I all but signed a contract to teach in a Christian school in Korea. But I had no peace about that. I knew that if God wanted me on the mission field, I’d have to marry a missionary. But that didn’t happen. Instead, I met John, a Police officer; 100% cop. It was his life. We were married in April of 1987 and I just knew he’d be a cop the rest of his life. Asking John not to be a cop was like asking a fish not to swim or a bird not to fly. It was in his blood. He lived to write people tickets. The faster they were going the more he loved it. And he hated rainy days because he couldn’t run radar. I never mentioned to John that I felt the Lord had called me to missions. And I never asked God to make him a missionary. My prayer for him during the early years of our marriage was that he would be closer to God and the spiritual leader in our home. Well, the Lord certainly answered that prayer and in April of 1991 John told me that he felt the Lord calling him into full time ministry. I was surprised and not surprised.