It’s Finally Happening!

Missions!

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I’ve felt called to missions since my first short term mission to Guatemala when I was 15 years old. It’s been something that the Lord has repeatedly reminded me throughout life since then. In difficult seasons when I think maybe I heard him wrongly, (And there have been a few of those seasons) he reminds me not to lose hope and that he’s setting it all up for the promise to be fulfilled.

Before we got married, Gabe knew I was called to missions and my dad made that clear before giving his blessing to marry me. Gabe understood my calling, but didn’t quite understand how he would be used in the mission field.

After we got married I felt tugs towards different places where we might go for missions. Each time I tried to make something happen, the lord would shut the doors I tried to open. I was repeatedly feeling hope deferred. But God would still tell me not to lose hope and that he was setting things up in his own timing.

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Some of you may remember our wild dream from about a year ago. We felt like the Lord wanted us in Scotland. I was scared to even talk about it at first, not sure if hope would be deferred again.

Proverbs 16:9

“The Heart of man plans his way,

but the LORD establishes his steps”.

In 2019 we bought a home in Dallas (confirming an old prophetic word we received from a friend, down to the exact location in Dallas). Then a new tug for Scotland started stirring in my heart, which I tried to ignore completely. Because I didn’t want to get disappointed again. But weeks later, in my sheepish, teensy hope, I walked up to Gabe randomly at the kitchen table one day and said,

“What if we moved to Scotland? hahaha!”

Now, normally it takes me and Gabe a few weeks to get on board with big decisions like this, so I fully expected him to laugh about it and move on…

“Yeah, okay.”

THIS IS MIRACLE #1

“wHaT?? Really?”

After much more discussion and learning what exactly the Lord was telling us, he continued to give us confirmations. I have a list of compiled prophetic words and prayers we’ve received from friends and complete strangers off the streets about us in Scotland and in missions.

So, we started looking at many different options including YWAM Scotland, which currently has two bases. One in Paisley and one in Seamill. We didn’t really know what city we felt called to yet, but I thought, What the hay. I’ll just reach out and see what happens. The coordinator that reached out to us was so excited and encouraging! So we got the forms we needed to apply.

And then we chose to sell our house after all the chaos of Covid. We moved in with my parents and sold almost all of our possessions. So I thought, Ok. Hope deferred again. No Scotland, no home, hardly any belongings. It felt like we could add a chapter to Lamentations!

One day, feeling totally overwhelmed and feeling stuck in our situation, the Lord reminded me, what felt like out of nowhere:

“I want you in Scotland. Do not give up on this.”

In this season of our life that just felt out of the question.

I asked “Lord, can you please show me more? We tried and it didn’t work out the first time.”

“I need to you to look into YWAM again. You don’t have a home you’re bound to. You have hardly any possessions. You are set up perfectly to go. I have been working this out for you all this time. You are now on a launching pad. So go.”

All this time, the Lord was setting us up for a promise to be fulfilled.

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This year I’d started writing fiction stories for fun and found a writers group that met at a local library. I went for the first time knowing no one. As I was leaving I met a new friend, who I wasn’t even sure if she was a Christian or not. We chatted over text about writing for a few weeks.

Then it came up in conversation that her family had just finished their DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Norway at a YWAM base in Ottestad, Norway (about an hour from Oslo) with their children the same age as ours! 🤯

MIRACLE #2

This is mind blowing for a reason. The first step to getting to Scotland is to go through DTS for three months somewhere that can host children during the day. The base where we want to be in Scotland doesn’t have that kind of infrastructure.

So after getting our families together and learning all we could about YWAM Grimerud in Norway, we applied!

And as of Nov 21, 2022, we got our acceptance email!

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There is so much more we could tell you about how the Lord keeps showing us that this is the right move, but this email is already way too long! We’ll tell you more soon.

In the meantime here are some things we would ask of you:

• PRAYER – Please pray for us during this journey. We have a lot of things to cross off our checklist. Arrange flights to Norway, Scotland, and whatever country we go to for our outreach during DTS, packing lists, and of course, funds!

• Fundraising – Please pray and consider giving towards this journey the Lord has put us on. we know it’s a crazy time in the world right now, but we also know that the Lord blesses a cheerful giver. We’ve never had to raise this much money before, but the Lord has orchestrated everything so beautifully so far and he’s made it clear that he will provide for us. We have full faith that he will do it. It would be an honor to have your support.