The Preliminaries
My husband and I are applying for missions! I have been waiting to begin blogging about it until we have been accepted and can start support raising. While I will still announce it officially with letters sent to friends and family after our training week in January, I can’t wait any longer to write about this process. I want to remember with detail how the Lord orchestrated all of this.
Forrest and I have wanted to do full-time ministry; we planned on leaving for the mission field within the next four years. But after I returned from my internship in Tanzania last summer, the Lord led Forrest and me to pursue it more immediately. Forrest applied back at the beginning of October. After his preliminary interview, we filled out the long application with the intended date of leaving in the summer of 2024. We shared our desire to leave sooner than our four-year plan with our parents and references. We prayed and prayed, filled out paperwork, and then had four interviews in one week. In mid-November, we were accepted as new missionary candidates and invited to the organization's training in January. We announced our exciting news to our families at Thanksgiving. Since then, we have been praying and praying, completing online training, and reading books. Life has become so busy with constant prayer over the future regarding support raising, our house, moving, missions, etc. And the devil hasn’t been happy with our new trajectory either.
I am so thankful that the Lord is really pressing on us the need to pray. God has already enabled me and Forrest to pray together every night since March 2016. We have now committed to praying every morning together as well until we leave for the field. This is not a “look-at-us” moment but really illustrates just how much we need the Lord’s hand in this. I continuously beg God to protect our marriage against the devil’s schemes to get us to fight. Satan has already kept us sick and worn out.
It started with a head cold for me that began on October 18th. After the smoke irritation in Barcelona, it turned into Bronchitis that lasted over a month. I went to the doctor a second time, and we (finally) got hit with COVID. I had one week of feeling well before the following weekend we got sick with the flu. That has turned into pneumonia for my poor husband, who has been out of work all week and sleeping on the couch because he can barely breathe. We have battled our frustrations and pity parties as we just want to be well and are tired of canceling our Sunday bible study and weekly plans. I am glad that I see this as flaming arrows from spiritual warfare and continue to take up my shield of faith. But it’s definitely not easy to have a positive attitude or a thankful spirit.
One thing I will say is the Lord is doing a boot camp of preparation in our hearts. During some missionary training, Forrest and I felt the Lord trying to say something to us about our timeline. Forrest suggested that we separate, pray, and come back together after. I journaled and confessed my sin of fear to the Lord. After praying, I felt the Lord telling us to leave by August's end. When Forrest and I came back together, he said also felt we should leave by this coming August. We will continue to pray and earnestly seek the Lord. We will head to our new missionary candidate training in mid-January. For now, I will sign off with the request to pray for us as we pursue this amazing call God has put on our hearts.