From pieces to a picture

First off, thank you for visiting our blog. We thought this would be a way to keep everyone in touch and updated on the journey God has us on right now. We're amazed at the mountains He has moved and the doors He has opened. We'll try our best to keep this updated and entertaining :). I entitled this post "from pieces to a picture" because in the beginning of this journey we were only given pieces at a time that did not make sense, but as God is leading us down this path we are starting to see the bigger picture and everyday it is becoming more and more beautiful. We are so blessed with amazing family and friends who have prayed us through and loved us so faithfully. We thought it would be fun to just tell you how we even got to where we are right now. Be prepared, the following is sorta lengthy, but there is just no way around it :)!

Our journey:

Ang: My desire for missions started when I was in high school. God put the hurt of the people of the world on my heart and the dream of a high school junior to one day be a missionary nurse. At this point my idea of missions was partly "glamorous". He grew this heart for missions a lot through college and the youth group I was a part of. I also took a class on missions called perspectives which opened my eyes and broke my heart down to what He meant for missions to be about and His incomprehensible love for His children. Over the years God has shown my heart the huge needs and broken lives in so many areas all around the world and here in America, and I knew that God was calling me, I just didn’t know when or what.

Seth: My desire for missions began in my time at college. I was mostly challenged by my friends and my peers to be seeking ways to serve. I was most impacted by the same perspectives class that Ang took. This class helped me understand God’s desire for missions throughout the entire Bible and His calling for everyone to be a part including me.

Us: When we got married we knew that someday we wanted to pursue missions and ministry of some sort, we just did not have any clear direction at this point of what that would look like. After being married a year and half or so we had this growing desire to move somewhere for short term and to “leave and cleave”. We wanted to take the time to set a foundation for our marriage before we started a family. Then one day when we were talking about it, it seemed that God made it clear we should pursue missions at this time instead. At this point there were a few different areas we had a heart for but God was not opening doors for any of those as we looked into them.

We came across FamilyLife’s website and began to read about it’s mission, values, and vision. Our hearts clicked with the heart of the mission and it’s sole foundation on Jesus Christ. We decided to email them and share our hearts, not really sure if we’d hear back. Two days later we get a call from FamilyLife wanting to talk more about our hearts, we were blown away. From this point on, God flung every door wide open. Parts of the journey to where we are now have been difficult and breaking and other parts have been amazing and made us stand in awe of God’s ways. God has proven Himself present and faithful in our journey. To be honest, it was easier at times to try to ignore His voice and say “that’s a nice idea…someday”. Thankfully God gave Seth an unwavering and supernatural peace through this whole journey. Ang, being the emotional one she is, rode the roller coaster of doubt for a while. She wanted major confirmation from God and guess what? He confirmed it! God made the call very clear over time we knew that we would be actively disobeying if we did not surrender and commit to joining Family Life staff. Something that we were encouraged with in this journey is that there are great blessings and joy in obedience. In the waves of doubt and uncertain ground we are about to tread, God has confirmed His peace through a couple verses:

Isaiah 55:12 “For you shall go out in joy and be lead forth in peace” and

Jeremiah 17:8 “He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit."

We have committed a year at this point and will be working in the global department. We have already found great blessings in this journey and have been faced with the darts from the enemy. The battlefield is fierce but we serve the God who has already claimed the victory. We are excited to be vessels used for His glory. This is God’s work and we look forward to following His footsteps hand in hand and step by step.