(Actually, Candidate Week was in New York
not in a nutshell.)
We
left Washington D.C. on Sunday after church and got into Pearl River, NY late on Sunday evening. We knew that the week didn't officially begin until Monday at dinnertime but we went ahead anyway. It was nice to have almost a full day to just relax, let the kids play and run and Luke even let me sleep in (what a guy, huh?).
Monday evening we began with some get-to-know-you stuff. It was fun and immediately we connected with some of the other families there. Some families knew exactly why they were there and what they'd be doing. Others were like us and had no clue why the Lord had brought them to this place or what the outcome would be.
Tuesday was also chock full of meetings and appointments. We had a 3 hour session with a licensed counselor who reviewed with us the 1,000+ answers we'd sent in via psychological survey and personality tests. It confirmed just how drastically different Luke and I view tasks, our days and the world around us.
It's almost comical how different we are. Okay, it is
totally comical. Luke's a right brained type A and I'm a whatever else type brained, totally opposite. He's organized, I'm chaos. He's structure, I'm wavering. He's scheduled, I'm by the seat of my pants.
You get the idea.
We talked about how those differences strengthen our marriage and how they have potential to be a stumbling block. Over all it was a good THREE HOUR session. I felt like my brain had been pulled out through my ear, but truly it was good. After that, we had small group time then dinner, bath and bed for the kids.
Tuesday was the much anticipated assignment revelation day. Assignments are the potential positions/jobs/ministries we could have. We'd heard from the others who had already met with the Candidate Director that the list was lengthy.
We sat in the directors office for the first 10 or so minutes making small talk. Which was nice and I enjoyed getting to know him a little better, but part of me wanted to scream, "JUST TELL ME WHERE WE ARE GOING."
And I realized that I have a bad habit. A habit of making other people speak to me on a level that should only be reserved for God. Clearly this man wouldn't be able to tell us, unequivocally, where the Lord desires for us to be. Only God can reveal that to us.
He began asking us questions based on what we'd written down in our formal application. "So, it looks like you're interested in discipleship and orphans, huh? Any other specifics?"
We told him that we certainly didn't want to be in a hostile region, that I preferred electricity and running water and that our hearts desire had originally been in Nairobi but that we were open to where ever the Lord was leading us.
He began looking at an extensive list, 4 + pages long, of potential assignments. He rattled off a few that had to do with Childcare, preschool care, children's worker and such. Suddenly, my mind flashed to
this scene from Kindergarten Cop where Arnold Schwarzenegger has children dangling from every limb and he's standing in the middle of the room screaming.
Now don't get me wrong, my man is
awesome with kids, preschoolers even. But the thought of him spending a whole day with preschoolers and then coming home to more preschoolers didn't sit well with me. He'd be done. Toast. Spent.
I know my man pretty well and I offered my opinion to him. I think the Holy Spirit spoke to both of us at the same time and we both realized that discipleship and youth may be where our heart's desire is. I mean, it was just about 3 years ago that we sat in our basement with our best friends and they
drug us kicking and screaming persuaded us to try moving into Youth Ministry. We had so many apprehensions and after that
first weekend, we FELL IN LOVE. We love teenagers. We love them for all their complexities and vulnerabilities and we love mentoring and discipling them. How could we haven not seen that as an area of ministry before?
The Director printed off about 8 or 9 pages of potential assignments and we threw out all but 4. Youth ministry. Ahhh. It felt good to finally know what the Lord was calling us to, now we just needed to figure out
where. That night we didn't talk much about the potential assignments because, truthfully, I think we both were brain fried from information overload.
AIM certainly has their act together in regard to scheduling, childcare and everyone being on time and in place. So much so that each minute of candidate week was accounted for. Breakfast began at 7:45am
sharp and our day ended when we settled the kids into bed around 8:30pm. We were crazy busy learning and gathering more information than our brains could process in one day.
Even me, Mrs. Let's-talk-about-our-heart's-desires-till-our-ears-bleed, couldn't muster up the energy or brain power to talk about the potential assignments we'd been given. Yet I knew that something about most of them didn't sit right. I let them marinate for the evening and most of the next day. When I realized that Luke was so lost in his own thoughts that he was barely talking I knew we had to talk, or rather, HE had to talk. So
we he did.
What flowed from Luke's head and out of his mouth was uncertainty and the same feelings I had. No doubt we both felt as if the majority of the assignments offered to us were not a good fit. We decided we'd go back to the director and lay it out there, telling him what we envisioned our family doing and see what he said.
His answer? Church planting and discipleship.
Church planing?
Us? No,
really.
Really?
We walked away with another 4-5 options. Some we (I) knew immediately wouldn't work (as the director said, there's nothing spiritual about knowing you can't live in a specific climate/area/region). Being in an area (Island) surrounded by ocean doesn't sound like fun to me.
At all.
One word.
Sharks.
Yes, I'm serious. I don't love the ocean and all of its contents. (I know they won't come on land. Stop making fun of me right now, Michael Bowers.)
On Friday we received the news that we'd been
officially appointed as members of
African Inland Mission.
Anyway, we sit now still unsure of a location. We have several options still on the table. Some we've marked off then re-added. Some we've marked off for good. All of the options vary somewhat drastically in the ministries that we'd be doing, yet each of them has pricked our hearts for one reason or another.
If you feel led, we ask that you pray with us that God would make it clear to us where He desires for our family to be and/or what ministry He desires for Luke to work with. Thanks friends. Hopefully I'll be able to share with you soon exactly where the Lord will have us to be.
-----
By the way,
here's another sweet couple who was with us at Candidate Week (click the previous link or
click here). They are looking to serve Missionary Kids (MK's) at
Rift Valley Academy where they are
both alumni.
So cool! Hanna is a
THIRD GENERATION missionary and so cute I just want to pinch her.
I pray that the Lord makes
our journey the beginning of a multi-generational legacy of reaching the lost for the glory of Christ. Sam and Hanna's story is remarkable. You should go read about them right now.
