I thought it important to add our announcement that was sent to immediate family so everyone could get a glimpse of what was shared...
Angel and I wanted to get you a family update as to where we know the Lord has been moving our lives over the last six months and even more in-depth over the last 2 years. Sorry for the impersonal email but it is the easiest way to reach all of you at one time without leaving anyone out. As some of you may know, Angel and I have been focusing a lot of our non-work time in being more missional not only through our church but also in our community. This all started a few years back when I really felt the Lord changing me and giving us both opportunities in short terms trips to the Dominican. During that time our pastoral team brought me on as the missions pastor to support that need and fuel what they saw was an emerging passion. Throughout these last few years we have been leading a team of volunteers in both local and global opportunities and it has been so awesome!
With a lot of prayer and really cool moments with our Creator, Angel and I have felt the strong calling to full-time ministry work. The full-time ministry work would be working with people in Latin or South America at this point. This is such a big “stepping out in faith” moment for us you can only imagine the fun conversations we have had! We both know that God is in control of all this and we feel He has laid it on our hearts to be part of the Great Commission in Matthew 28. At this point we are narrowing the final steps to be commissioned as global missionaries through TEAM International. We have been going through psychological, medical and international screenings for the last 6 months to evaluate our readiness. We had our final meeting with our Missions coach and Southeast Team leader yesterday to finalize the process before they go to the TEAM board of advisors to ultimately accept or deny our candidacy for coming on board. It appears everything is good for us to move forward but we get the final “thumbs up” on June 6th.
This process is lengthy for sure and for me a bit daunting as I have to really ramp up learning Spanish and all the many facets of moving to another country. The best part about it is the grace and mercy he has already shown our kids, Angel and myself! The kids are really excited, as a matter of fact we were surprised with just how excited they are, which has been huge for Angel and I.
Sure there are a lot of questions and we would be happy to sit down and tell you all about them and be honest as some of the questions we don’t have answers to at this point. The most important thing I have learned is God is giving us this opportunity! Our entire family feels that and we love sharing that story with people. I will leave you with this, Acts 13:47, For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I will have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and please be praying continue to keep our family in your prayers!