what's going on?

FROM JENNIE:

So most of you have heard that we are hoping to go to Ecuador in January.  We are SO excited!

Here's how this all came to be:
Dustin has wanted to be a missionary since he was a teenager.  He went to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary with the intention of being part their missions program. We met at Southeastern (it was the first semester for both of us, we dated for almost a year, were engaged for 9 months, and got married in 2003).

While at Southeastern, Dustin went on a mission trip to Ecuador with Tim Bunn. During these trips, our ideas about mission work changed alot.  We decided that our work should consist of shorter trips than we originally planned. To get the ball rolling, we decided that we would need a "home base."  A place to come back to in-between trips.  We moved to Kernersville, and Dustin began working at the bike shop. Since the business is owned by his family, we knew that Dustin would be able to come back between trips and still have a job. I began working as a bank teller, and we started looking for a house.

Six months after moving to Kernersville, we bought our first house, and I began a Mary Kay business.  It was at this point that the distractions began. We were homeowners, and our focus started switching to that of money, recognition, and material possessions.  We were living like high-rollers, even though we weren't, and we therefore accumulated a large amount of debt.  We were both stressed, frustrated, and dissatisfied.  It was the worst year we've ever had as a married couple.

Around August of last year, we started attending 1.21 Church in Winston-Salem.  Our church has done everything a church SHOULD do. They have encouraged us in our faith, called us out on areas that should have been called out, mentored us, and prayed with us.  Our 1.21 family urged us to consider the truly important things in life.  It was because Jesus used their encouragement, particularly that of Gene and Loren Schlesinger, that we "got back on track" to do what God called us to do so long ago.

While we could be sad that it has taken us so long to get to this point, we are choosing to be thankful for the lessons that God has taught us during this time.  (We are also very thankful that in June of this year we became debt-free.)  I'll go further into that in another post.

A few months ago we needed to decide whether or not to refinance our house.  Basically we discovered that it would be worth it to refinance if we planned to be in this house for another 10 years or more. However, if we thought we might sell it before that time, it would not be smart to refinance.  This was obviously a big decision to make.  We kept going back and forth for about a week on what would be practical, smart, and right to do, but we could not decide.

The following Sunday afternoon we were sitting around, a little bored, and a little grumpy.  We decided to pick up our stuff and go to Panera for some smoothies and to talk and finally make this decision.  Once at Panera, Dustin asked me to let him speak first so he could get his ideas out and see what I thought.  He said that he was ready to start doing what we've always talked about doing... To give up what we're holding onto here, and to get up and go serve Jesus in other parts of the world.  He talked about how terrible the past year had been, and how material possessions and recognition had not satisfied us.  He was absolutely right.  He was expecting me to disagree and start defending the practical purposes for refinancing and keeping our house, but I didn't. After he finished it was my turn. I told him that I agreed completely.  He was  shocked.

At that point, we decided that we were ready to sell our home and all of our possessions and move overseas.  Because our ideas on missions still lean toward shorter trips (following the example of Paul in Scripture), we hope to spend about six months at a time in each place we visit.

Our first trip will be to Ecuador, and we hope to stay for six months.  Dustin met some native church-planters while on a mission trip there, and we are planning to stay with them, to encourage them, and to help them plant churches.  After Ecuador, we hope to come back here for about two months to update our church, to be with our families, and to raise support for the next journey.  We hope that our next destination will be Mexico (we have a native pastor-friend there as well, so we want to go encourage and serve him).  After that, there is the possibility of trips to Columbia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, etc.

Some of you have read the story in Scripture where Aaron goes up to the mountain to hold up Moses' arms.  Moses was growing weak in his effort to obey the Lord's command, so Aaron went to assist.  This is our vision for our upcoming trips.  We hope to "be Aaron," and go to "hold up the arms" of God's servants in other countries.  At the same time, we want to help them tell their neighbors, families, and friends about Jesus.

We are so excited!  For the first time in our lives, we feel that we are on the exact path that we are supposed to be on.  That is an amazing feeling.

Since the decision was made that day at Panera, we have had two enormous yard sales and have sold almost all we own.  Our house is also up for sale (we did not refinance!). 

Please pray with us that God would continue paving the way for us to go.  We are so glad that HIS plans are good and trustworthy.

Stay tuned for more...