The Call to Thailand – part 2

Once home from FaithCamp, all we could do was to pray.  We could put on our thinking caps and consult with experts and do research and make spreadsheets of everything that anyone with a brain could do to figure out if we had lost our minds or if there was something real about this, or we could…pray.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalms 46:10

Remember, before we left for FaithCamp we were so busy starting a family business, looking for a larger vehicle, considering moving to another state, looking at the purchase of a farm, planning trips, homeschooling, planting a large garden….  For us it was one thing to accept Jesus’ leading, it has been another thing to process the shift. 

I’ve had dreams of doing things, especially with my children, going places, teaching them things connected to being in the US, giving them certain experiences, being with extended family—I wanted to give them more experiences than I had at their age.  They are homeschooled so with more reason I wanted to expose them to more than the norm.  But it was all attached to this world.  And in prayer, I began to see where Jesus wanted my heart; where Jesus wanted me to put my confidence and treasure.  Had He not given me my children?

“And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, ‘Samuel, Samuel.’  Then Samuel answered, ‘Speak; for your servant is listening.’” 1 Samuel 3:10

We were in the beginning of a real shift in our mindset:  our thinking, our values, our purpose and especially our faith in God.  We prayed for an entire month.  And the reality of it was that the time of prayer wasn’t quite so much of whether this was God’s will or not, as much as it was “were we willing to go?” 

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom should I send, and who is willing to go for us?’ Then said I, ‘Here I am; send me.’  Isaiah 6:8

We had been spiritually ravenous—hungry for God.  We have been on a “journey of faith” for several years, a life of learning about Jesus’ love for us, a life of following His leading through thick and thin and that alone grew our appetite.  We had been praying for God’s leading long before we went to FaithCamp.  When COVID hit, that was a huge wake up call for us.  It was an alarm that Jesus’ coming was soon.  We began to explore, “What are we specifically doing to prepare for His coming?  What are we not doing?  What are we leaving out?  What is it that we are blind to?  What is lacking?”  That’s when He sent us to FaithCamp.

Our faith was really challenged.  I thought of myself as a sincere Christian and now I began to see where my sincerity was thin.  We had to wrap our brains around what it was to be a missionary and I was disturbed that I was even asking this question.  Something was wrong.  Every Christian should know what it is to be a missionary.  And tears came to my eyes as I began to see how Jesus had led me through some very rough terrain over the past decade because He was refining me for this moment.  He had been teaching me what it was to love.  He had been teaching me what His love for me was like.

Now we were chewing on the whole thing: God’s leading in our past, His current leading and how it was all coming together.  We saw how letting go of our belongings, letting go of our dreams, letting go of everything dear of this world dovetailed with stepping closer to Jesus’ coming.  It wasn’t about having less as much as it was about a mindset.  And this mindset fit in so well with our hearts that the call was becoming much clearer.  Not only did we feel called, we began to see how Jesus had been preparing us for this step and we didn’t even know it.

At the end of the month, we knew it was time to take a step and see how Jesus led.  I opened a new email window and typed to the Jesus for Asia president, “We’re ready to move forward.”  We stepped into the next chapter of God confirming our call.

“And thine ears will hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.”  Isaiah 30:21