10 years in the making. Part 6.

Finding a job.

No doubt you can't help but have a natural love/leaning to want to return to your first place that you served internationally.  Mine was Australia.  Kevin's Kenya.  I actually looked at returning to Australia when I went as a journeyman but God directed me to Turkey.  So now my natural love/leaning was Turkey.

Hmmmmm.....we figured out we were willing to get on the plane but the question still was where was this plane going to land?

When we attended the Expo back in July, we met with a deployment consultant for Central Asia.  He shared with us the great need and various jobs in that region.  One job stood out to us and that was working with Turks in Germany.  (For those of you who have known us for the past 10 years you know that Kevin and I fell in love while serving on a team together that went to Berlin and ministered to the Turks.)  Throughout the Fall months we dialogued with  workers in Germany and began to hone in on a particular job.  Things were looking good.  But for various reasons we asked to look at other jobs in the region.  One was in Iraq.  This really peaked Kevin's interest.  He always wondered if God would take him back to an area that he served in during his military time.  A few of his mentors had served in WWII and God had taken them back to Japan to share the gospel.

It was over the New Year's break that Kevin and I decided that Central Asia just might not be the place for us.  In early January we asked to be transferred to the North Africa Middle East Region.  This in part was due to a conversation I had with a lady back in December.

Our church had been looking for a place to send a team.  In doing research I was directed to speak to a woman working with refugees in England.  While talking with her she expressed the need for a family to come work with a particular people group from the Horn of Africa. She was actually turning in a job request the next day.

I told Kevin about this need.  The need was for an unreached muslim people group.  Currently it is not feasible to live in their home country.  But guess what?  Kevin has been to their country.  He lived and served there while in the Marines.

Now it February.  We received an e-mail saying that the job request was approved but if we wanted to matched to it then everything would need to go through within the next week.  The day before deployment consultants met to job match their applicants we received another e-mail.  Due to another educational test needed for Sofia, we would not meet the deadline.

10 years in the making. Part 5

Lesson to learn.

God in His goodness intervened in our lives and revealed what was to be next for our family.  Kevin was offered the job at CBU but the package was not best for our family.  Kevin turned down the job.  NOT AN EASY THING TO DO.  We even questioned why it turned out that way.   But we didn't need to wonder to much longer.

About a week later we received a letter from the IMB stating that we were invited to begin the application process for career international workers.  We chose to accept the invitation and began the application process.  And we did so cautiously.  The CBU experience taught us something wonderful....to be faithful to what God has you to do THIS DAY. THIS DAY I tell you.  We are not promised tomorrow.  Everyday we woke and we strove to faithfully live out His word, His love and His desires where He had us (and still does).

The process is quite in-depth and detailed.  Papers on church ordinances, doctrine, our personal testimonies, and personal growth.  Medical and dental appointments for all five of us along with educational testing on the kids.  A process that allowed for us to continue seeking the Lord and His direction.  And I'll tell you what, there were days that I thought we would throw in the towel and say "No thank you."

Then in early December the elders of our church asked to meet with Kevin.  Due to a shrinking body thus shrinking budget, the elders couldn't see how our church would be able to support a children's minister.  Ugh!  But God didn't allow for us to wonder about this for too long because THE VERY NEXT DAY we received an e-mail stating that we had made it to one of the final stages of the application process with the IMB...the in-person interview.

A few days before Christmas Kevin and I drove to downtown Chicago and met with IMB personnel for a couple of hours.  It was a time of intense, personal questioning.  Thankfully we left the interview with words of encouragement that things would be fine for us as long as the job matched up.