Big News! (No, we're not pregnant...)

If you’ve known Tracey or me for any amount of time, you won’t be surprised to hear we are moving to South America!  Many are asking details and we thought we’d take some time to present the little information we have to those inquiring or interested.

Fortunately for me, all my “big” decisions in life have been made before I realized it.  I can’t tell you how I came to know Christ, want to teach, love to travel, yearn for Latin America, or wind up in Charlotte, NC.  And meet and marry Tracey?  If that’s not divine intervention in a near-sighted girl’s life, I don’t know what is.  All this to say, I am beyond grateful for the ways God has shown me my heart’s desires in an order I wouldn’t have planned myself.  It also makes these “big” decisions much easier :)  Now, ask me what type of peanut butter to buy and I’ll go back and forth for days; as far as moving to another continent in a few months, I feel comfortable and confident about it all working out the way it should. 

Tracey and I are like-minded in this whole “God’s will” mentality.  We believe God gives us opportunities to know Him and His heart through prayer, the Word, and the other infinite ways He speaks to people.  Undoubtedly He gives us all direction in life, but we’re also not gonna sit around and pray about what color socks to wear each morning.  Because He also gives us passion and drive towards certain things over others.  And if we love Him first, we can trust that our passions align with His “will” for us; and if they don’t, we won’t have a problem giving them up. 

So we both happen to love Jesus.  And Latin America.  And traveling to new countries.  And speaking Spanish.  And being totally put out of our comfort zones.  And learning.  And serving the marginalized.  And working for social justice.  And teaching… most days. 

The direction’s looking pretty clear, huh?

Well it did to us as soon as we saw it.  Thanks to a friend from my childhood church, we found IAM.  Once we talked with the founding missionary of the group, we felt that peace that only comes with the realization that God actually figured something out WAY before you did.

I’m not gonna lie, we were hesitant about investigating any path that included support raising.  Maybe it’s pride, maybe it’s supporting the whole tent-making philosophy; but you realize when that peace comes the insignificance of figuring out the why.

So we’re not trying to figure out the why.  And we don’t really know exactly what we will do when we get to Chile.  We have some ideas and a team that is willing to wait patiently and pray alongside us as we figure it out!  So we are excited in the waiting.  Just like Oswald says: 

"To be certain of God is to be uncertain in all our ways, you never know what a day may bring. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation."