When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” — Luke 18:22
This is the verse that has resounded to my husband and me several times. I vividly remember nights lying in bed and discussing if this was something God was calling us to do. He just never made clear what or when so we waited…
After 18 years of marriage and many amazing ministry opportunities, God finally revealed His plan and why we had all those discussions. We were indeed called to sell all that we had and give up our life here in the U.S. to serve with MAF in Indonesia.
The last year has been a whirlwind of mission classes, interviews, paperwork, training, and, most recently, packing. We arrived back in Indiana in August after spending a good part of the summer at MAF headquarters, and had 30 days to pack, purge, and move out of the house that we called home for over 11 years.
One of the toughest things was finally cleaning out our 9-year-old daughter’s room after she passed away in 2017. Making decisions on what to store, what was worth shipping all the way across the world, and what would be sold at auction was tough.
As the trailers of the items that made up our life pulled out of our old driveway, that verse immediately came to mind again: “sell all you have and follow me.” I became filled with gratitude that the Lord not only chose us but also that He had been gentle in planting the seed—that scripture—years before to give us time to prepare and grow spiritually.
Our years have been filled with youth ministry, small groups, recovery ministry, parenting, fostering and adopting. We can see now that each of those ministries taught us something to get us ready for such a time as this.
Alongside the many MAF missionaries that have gone before us, we are humbled and privileged to live out this scripture.
