Sarah and I had a great trip to Valley Forge for training with American Baptist International Ministries.  This process for us has taken many different twists and turns.  It also has taken a lot of time.  However, God has made his calling on our lives very clear.

God has used Jonah 2:9 “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, 'Salvation comes from the LORD.'”  I have realized that while I was following my calling, God was moving and working in my life to become even more obedient to his will for me.  It took me a few years to submit to God’s will for me to become a pastor. Out of that experience God taught me that it is good to be obediently quickly and it took me two years to start the process to become a missionary.  God used my short term experiences in Iquitos, Peru to awaken his calling in my heart.  Throughout the process of becoming missionaries I thought our destination would be Peru. But God had other ideas.  It was late in the IM interview process that we heard about the Dominican Republic. We knew in our hearts that it was God’s will for us.  We will be serving pastors and pastor’s families in the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Sarah felt a calling to global missions as a teenager and last year while she was in Peru.  Sarah said recently that, “I felt God telling me that we would one day spend an extended time with the whole family ministering on the mission field.”  Sarah and I did not think it would be this quickly. However, we are excited to be serving God and starting on this journey as endorsed missionaries.

Last week, we were at training in Valley Forge.  It was an invaluable experience where we felt like we were being welcomed into a close family.  We had a great opportunity to meet some newly endorsed missionaries and spend some more time with Larry and Becky Stanton who are appointed missionaries to Liberia.  God is moving in our churches and world though missions.  We are excited to be part of it.

Please pray for us.  I am the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Painesville and have begun a six month to one year transition from senior pastor to missionary.  Sarah is homeschooling our children to provide a more personalized education experience and to free us up to travel and share about what God is doing in our lives and how he is calling us into the mission field.  We appreciate the churches and individuals that have already made commitments of support of both financial and prayer and we hope to continue to build relationships with you.

In closing, remember our kids.  This morning our youngest, Elianna, woke up and insisted that today was the day we are to leave to go to the Dominican Republic.  She was disappointed to learn that today was not the day to go.  Each of our kids have embraced the cause of missions and this calling, we are praying God continues to work in their lives throughout this transition.