Surrendering Everything

In the past month I have been blown away by how BIG God is. I sadly realized that I had put Him in a box and expected far less from Him. Before leaving for Falls Creek I prayed that God would open my eyes, that I would fully surrender to Him and that He would speak to me in a way that I could not deny. I am so thankful we serve a God who hears our prayers!

After arriving at camp Monday afternoon (July 14th) we settled in to our cabin. That night at tabernacle (worship & teaching) I practically begged God to speak to me. Something...anything!! For a good part of the past year we have been seeking Him. What He wants for us. He called us to sell our home and we did. We have had garage sale after garage sale to get rid of all the "stuff" in our lives. But we still wanted to know "why?". Why did He want us to simplify things? Why did He call us to sell our home? I just wanted to have an answer from Him so we could move on and "plan" for the future. I'm sure over the past year God spent many days laughing saying, "child what are you doing?? Be still.." So Monday I went to bed surrendered. Surrendered to what He wanted for me. Surrendered to His desires and not my own.

Tuesday was a blur. I was exhausted from the day and then at 10:15 pm a missionary was coming to speak. I wasn't really interested...I just wanted to sleep! However Joe came and spoke to us. I have heard a lot of missionaries speak over the past 10 years, but this time something was different. I hung on to his every word and as he spoke all I could hear in my own head was "GO". Over and over, "go, you're going, it's time, go." No it wasn't an audible voice, but it was there. Like when your thinking to yourself, but it was not me. By the end of his lesson I knew God was calling me (and my family) to missions. Later Matt and I went for a walk and I told him about what God had called us to. He reminded me that when he was first saved he felt called to missions. However once we got engaged I was already signed up for duty with the USAF, so he put it aside. We prayed that God would speak to Him and we would both be confidant in what God was calling us to.

The next morning during worship they talked about an opportunity to go overseas for 2 weeks on missions. I thought maybe this is it. I can go for 2 weeks and be obedient and that's it! I went to get more information about the trip (I was under the impression that you had to have a 4 year degree to be a missionary...so I had counted that out). When I went in I explained that I hadn't finished my degree( so I couldn't BE a missionary) so I was just going to do this. She informed me that I was wrong and we could apply with the IMB for the ISC(International Service Corps). I knew that this was what God was calling us to so I asked for more info on the ISC. She explained that we would need a platform (job title). Well, Matt wouldn't have an obvious platform(he isn't a teacher or something) so I asked about sports (thinking yeah right). Turns out Sports Coordinator is one of them!! I was so blown away. Then she asked where I felt called and Portugal was the only thing that came to mind. However I didn't want to say anything because I had no reason to say Portugal. So I kept my mouth shut. As she did the search for sports positions Portugal kept popping into my head (I was thinking "what is going on here?") and (of course) Portugal was available. I wrote all of this down and prayed with Kristi. When I got back to our cabin I shared this with a good friend and decided I would not say anything to Matt. I didn't want him to see SPORTS and PORTUGAL and think "okay lets go!!". I wanted him to hear from God. I wanted him to lead our family. So I continued to pray for God to speak to him.

Thursday was pretty uneventful. I kept waiting all day for Matt to come and say "God showed me too!" But it didn't happen. So that evening I wasn't expecting much at worship. I knew God would speak to Matt in His timing. During worship Matt came to me crying (immediately I thought something had happened to one of the kids) He said" I feel called to Portugal, God is calling us to Portugal" (can you even believe it!!?) I showed him the paper I had written on the day before and we prayed and cried together.

While at camp Matt and I continued to pray that God would speak to us through His word and His people to confirm His call on our lives. He is so faithful. Over the next few days He did just that. Over and over again he confirmed that we are called to missions (specifically Portugal).

I know this first post has been long but we wanted to share what God is doing in our lives and hope you will join us in praying for God to make a way (His way) for us to serve, as He has called, in overseas missions.