Missions - how'd we get here?

We’ll be posting mainly on our “ministry” page from now on, because of the new chapter we are beginning. It’s a long awaited one. We’re headed overseas to do cross-cultural missions. Let’s start with a bit of background - how on earth did we get to where we are?
I’ve felt this desire since I was a tiny 6 years of age, when our family doctor adopted a baby from China. After a conversation with him about China and the orphanage, I was heartbroken that there were places in the world that didn’t know about Jesus and where Children didn’t have parents. While I continually longed to be a missionary somewhere across the world, I kept quiet about it for my childhood and adolescent years. I’m a bury roots, homebody type. This all goes very much against my natural bent, so there were definitely times I tried to just shove it down and ignore it. I wanted to be a horse rancher, at the base of a mountain in Wyoming or Montana. That sounded much simpler and safer to me.

In high school we moved from my childhood home in Powell, Wy, to Cheyenne, where we began attending a Christian and Missionary Alliance church (the Storey family also attended this church and my friendship with my future husband began during my sophomore year of high school.) CMA heavily emphasizes the Great Commission, so this is really where my first memories began of feeling I needed to pursue obedience in this prompting I’d been feeling. After a couple short term trips out of the states, one short term trip in College and several conversations with cross-cultural missionaries at FCA leadership camps, coupled with classes about missions, it was getting harder to ignore the prompting. Josh and I started dating when I was in an 8 month Bible Certificate program in Canada, during my sophomore year of college in 02-03, and he was hearing all about the things I was learning in my missions class.

We were married in May of 2005, spent a year in Maryland where he was doing a year of med research for NIH, and that is when the med-school conversations began. We’d never considered being military, but upon learning of the Air Force scholarship for med school, our trajectory changed. Taking the scholarship meant avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars of med school debt, which meant getting to “the field” sooner. On the flip side, for me, it meant giving up my dream of moving back to the West and buying a horse ranch and a log cabin. Looking back, we are floored by the way the Lord continuously guided our decisions to where we are today. While Josh grew up in the military lifestyle of moving from here to there, I didn’t, and didn’t feel cut out for it. The Lord is so gracious and generous in the way he provides, and I often contemplate the places we’ve lived and the beautiful people we know from those places and I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness that he’s gone before us, each and every step of the way.
From 06-08 we were in Missouri for Josh’s med school, where I also attended school to finish a degree in Chinese language and culture. I became pregnant with our first son that fall and it was clear that school for me was to be put on hold.

From July 08-May 2010, we lived in the Denver area, where Josh completed his 2 clinical years of med school, and we welcomed a second son.

From May 2010-July 2013, we thrived during our time at Eglin AFB in Florida, where we were surrounded by a tight knit group of fellow believers who were all a part of the same residency program as Josh. This is where we began to share our heart for missions with those around us. We welcomed our third son here, a surprise to be sure.

From July 2013 - July 2015 we were stationed at Lajes Field base, on the tiny Terceira Island, Portugal. We flourished during our time there, drinking in every bit of the culture we could. We welcomed our fourth son just months after transitioning there, and adopted in a Portuguese mama of sorts, that came twice a week to help me keep my house afloat while Josh worked long hours at the clinic on base. We still remark from time to time that it’s hard to believe we actually got to live there. It was here that the Lord really deepened our fascination with, and love for foreign cultures, along with our desire to live outside our home culture long term. Our first conversation with a missions agency took place here. While it’s not the company we are going with now, they did give us particulars to pray and think about for the years leading up to our Air Force separation date. It was also here where Josh and I both experienced a significant shift in our theology, in our understanding and embracing of God’s sovereignty in all things. This further intensified our desire to obey this calling both of us felt on our lives, to do cross cultural missions work.

From August 2015-March 2016 we were stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, where we were slotted to spend two years. Our community here was immediate and tightly knit, as the base went on lockdown the day after we got there and remained so the entirety of our time. There was nothing to do but be together. In March of 2016, we took our planned trip back to the states, where less than a week in we recieved the news that the boys and I would not be allowed back into Turkey. We were among the hundreds forced to settle into life in the states while our active duty members either scrambled to find a reassignment stateside or finished out their duty assignment in Turkey without their families. The sudden loss of our close community in Turkey was gut wrenching, and the following months were some of the hardest of our lives.

August 2016-Aug 2017 we were stationed at Minot AFB, in North Dakota. Josh was able to get out of Turkey much sooner than we anticipated to finish his active duty requirement in Minot. Our year in Minot flew by, but the relationships we had there are ones we still hold dear. We were faced with a decision during this time. Josh’s Air Force time was coming to a close, and we needed to pick a place to move, to find a home/sending church and a place where we could “train” for missions - whatever that meant. Josh’s parents had moved to Omaha, NE during the previous summer, when we were in transition from Turkey. We knew we wanted to be near family. We knew the gospel community in Omaha was seeing a boom of sorts, so we made the decision to move to Omaha.

August 2017-Current - We’ve lived in Omaha nearly three years now and how those years have flown. Aside from our time in FL, this is the longest we’ve ever lived anywhere since we were married 15 years ago. Our first order of business was to find a sending church that had a heart for missions and was in a position to send us. The Lord led us to Emmaus Bible Church in South O, a community of believers that we’ve grown to love deeply. Our time in Omaha has been rich. New friendships, much needed time near family, boys getting to know their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in ways they couldn’t just through face time when we were overseas, and a new surprise baby boy have filled these past three years. Through our time in missions courses, seminary classes, the Word and teaching in our church, we’ve gained deeper understanding of the great commission, which has served to increase our desire to be sent. We feel compelled, and we must go.

My next post, “Missions - we must go.” will cover our actual application process to where we are currently.