Onward Toward France

So there we were as newlyweds when God began to speak about France to us. By the sixth month of our marriage, it became clear that God was moving us that direction so we began making plans to move. We had nothing to our names, and no real commitments, so it was a great time to move...we thought. Within a week of deciding to go for it, my boss resigned and I was hit with an instant promotion to a management position and Jenny found out she was pregnant the next day. We prayerfully considered these things and concluded that even though it was clear the Lord was speaking about France, His timing was different than what we had thought. So we stayed.

We had our first child, Jonas, and I continued to excel in my career, but France never left my heart. Seventeen months after Jonas, we gave birth to our second son, Jack, and the chaos of life continued to increase. I was also beginning a second job at this time that was an incredible opportunity to advance in my career, but France was still on my heart. It was at this time that I began to sense that a change was coming. It was subtle at first, but began to grow and grow. Though everything was going well for our family, it was evident that we were not fully living out who God has called us to be. We were being prepared for what He was calling us to.

During this time, we invited a couple over, that had been very fruitful missionaries, to bring them into our journey and ask their advice. Little did I know, Jenny's intention was to convince them that we should not go...for a whole host of reasons. Something unexpected happened though. They validated every reason and began to simply talk about Jesus and His love for us. This simple declaration of who He is melted something in us and Jenny was shopping for plane tickets the next day. We decided to take an exploratory trip to see what specifics God wanted to reveal to us as we got on the ground in France.

We took that trip in December 2015, shortly after the November 13 attacks in Paris. That trip could be a story all its own, but we came away from it with a couple things: a greater burden for the people of France to know the love of Jesus, and a clear sense that the Lord was extending us an invitation to join Him. We prayed independently about it for a couple weeks after returning home and both of us felt like the Lord said He was extending an invitation to be a part of an unprecedented move of God. There was no pressure and no sense of expectation...just an invitation.

We decided to say yes to that invitation and that meant laying my career on the altar and shifting the focus of our family to begin the process of moving overseas. At this point, we began training with our organization and I began the process of stepping out of my professional life. Though it was a challenge, our hearts looked forward to the joy of God's fulfilled promise to us and to the joy of seeing new European brothers and sisters born in the faith. To step into what God is calling us to do is more satisfying than any career move, title, or salary level could ever be. Our reward is to be with Him!