Our Journey into Missions- Part 4

(Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 here.)


So just as Aaron and I were pulling into the hotel’s parking lot for our weekend marriage retreat, Aaron nonchalantly looked over at me and said, “Hey, Nathan told me that he and Rachel are thinking about being tribal missionaries, and they want us to come along.”

I just stared at him for a few seconds. “What??” I finally said.

“Yeah, Nathan and Rachel are really seriously considering going into the mission field, and he mentioned that we should think about it, too…”

“Are you kidding me??” I asked, my voice getting louder, I’m sure.

“Uh…no...that's what he said...,” Aaron answered.

“Um, doesn’t he know that you can’t just ask another family to come be missionaries with you?? I can’t believe he asked you that! Are you serious? You’re not really considering it, are you?”

At this point, I’m sure Aaron regretted telling me, and he started trying to calm me down. He said that he was sure that Nathan and Rachel weren’t that serious about it, and maybe they just wanted to discuss it with us, and maybe they wouldn’t even go themselves…

Looking back, I am very ashamed of my reaction. But I was just shocked. Stunned. And very scared. Because as soon as Aaron told me that Nathan had said that, I just got a feeling that God probably wanted us to go. But I was not ready to consider it yet. It was too extreme, and way too far outside of my comfort zone. Somebody else could do it. God couldn't possibly want me to be a missionary...to actually follow His command of going and preaching to all nations...

Aaron and I both agreed just to let the discussion of it go until after the marriage retreat weekend, since we had both been looking forward to it for so long, and we didn’t want it to ruin our weekend. I tried to put it out of my mind (but of course I couldn’t).

The next day, we were going to be listening to a speaker all day at the marriage retreat. As the speaker began his message, I got a knot in my stomach that just kept getting bigger and bigger all day. His message was essentially based on the premise that God didn’t bring us together in marriage just to make each other happy and have fun together. No, God brought us together in marriage for a specific Kingdom purpose--so that together, we could have a mission and goal for God’s Kingdom. The more he talked, the more I just knew that God wanted more from Aaron and me than we were giving. He wanted complete surrender to His will, and by not considering missions, I was not giving that to Him.

About a week later, Nathan and Rachel came over to our house to discuss further what Nathan had mentioned to Aaron the week before. Nathan and Rachel had just visited New Tribes Bible Institute and had learned a lot more about tribal missions than any of us had known before. We talked for a couple hours probably. They told us all of the reasons they wanted to go, they walked us through the training process, and then Nathan again said that we should consider going too. I remember Rachel elbowing Nathan and saying something like, “Don’t pressure them.” But the “pressure” we were feeling was definitely from the Holy Spirit…


(I have two more posts to finish our story...they'll be posted Monday and Tuesday morning. Thanks for reading along!!)