How we got here

Some of you may be wondering how Brian and I got to the point of being so excited to be part of God's story in Africa. I'll begin with my perspective, but we'll have to back up a bit.... just shy of 20 years ago. (Wow that makes me sound old!) When I was a freshman in high school, a missions conference came to Garland Christian Academy. I don't remember who spoke or what they spoke about, but I remember vividly that God placed the desire in my heart to someday teach in Africa. After I graduated from GCA, I went on to John Brown University to pursue a degree in Secondary Education and picked up classes in intercultural studies and teaching English as a second language. So that I could teach on the mission field at a school that focused on missionary kids. Right out of college. Single. But open to the possibility of falling in love with a godly man who was already serving in Africa. We would get married, have 5 boys and live happily ever after. I had wonderful plans.  But then a dreamy, blue-eyed basketball player from Arkansas walked in and blew all my plans away. ;) I told him that I wanted to teach in Africa, but he was quite sure that his calling was to teach American public school kids in small-town Arkansas. And to marry me. Hmmmmm..... After much prayer, conversation, and counseling, we knew our future was together, and decided to both stay open to whatever God had for us. (Although later Brian admitted to just saying he was open to missions so that I would marry him. HA!) We stayed in our sweet small town, bought a house, had three precious kiddos and built a beautiful life. And honestly, my dream began to fade. I assumed that I had heard Him wrong. He kept providing such rich opportunities for us to grow and serve right here... all the while transforming us into a family who would one day be willing to go.

 As I look back on our twelve years of marriage, I stand amazed at how God tenderly shaped us. He gave us twins to teach us how to lay our selfishness down and seek adventure in chaos. He took one of our babies to heaven to teach us how to seek His face and cling to each other in grief. He gave us another precious girl so we could add more depth and joy to our family and teach our little ones how to love each other. He walked us through hard health issues and brought me to the absolute end of myself so that He could humble me and love me through His people. He gave us amazing friends to teach us how to live in healthy community. He took away Brian's dream job. Not just once, but twice. And instead placed him in a school he never imagined he would teach in, with three other basketball coaches who passionately love the Lord and want to see His gospel spread to the nations.   He slowly grew us and matured us and opened our eyes to his beautiful story of redemption for people who haven't heard the gospel. Until one day Brian came to me and told me that  we needed to start praying about moving our family to Africa and serving his people there.....As we prayed about how to do that, Brian felt very strongly that we should use our unique gifts of teaching, coaching, and loving on students.  And I just had to smile. God took my faded dreams, whispered them to my husband's heart, and is calling our family to go for His glory and in His timing.