OK - so my husband and I are living as full-time Christian workers in New York City. We will be working with immigrants, teaching English and teaching Bible Studies and sharing the love of Jesus in any other ways that will serve an immigrant population. I wanted to take a moment to chronicle our journey.
Prior to 2012, my husband and I had been feeling a tugging, a gentle calling from God to work for Him full-time. This tugging has been there on and off for many years. In fact, from 1993-1996, my hubby went to seminary to prepare for this calling. After seminary, we felt that the Lord wanted us to wait and not go into ministry full-time.
So we waited, and waited, and waited.
Around 2010, we started sensing that the wait was coming to an end, but what does that mean? What did the next step look like? How do you jump into full-time ministry? What are we supposed to do? work at an orphanage? work for a Christian relief agency? go overseas? work stateside?
So, we prayed, and prayed, and prayed.
And this is what happened:
January 2012: I called my friend Maya and asked her to pray with me that the year 2012 would be the "Year of the Breakthrough"! What I meant by this, is that serious steps would be made to enter into full-time Christian ministry. My husband was working a full-time gig as a graphic artist and he was the part-time Outreach/Evangelism Director at our church. I asked her to pray with me that my husband would get laid off and that he would get a severance package that was comfortable enough for us to live for awhile without a paycheck.
Crazy! Right? Well, let me explain: We were living a nice upper-middle class life. We don't know how that happened, we sort of woke up and there it was. 2 kids, 2 story house, 2 car garage, 4 bathrooms etc. Those things can be hard to walk away from. But what is even harder to walk away from is a secure job. Especially when the news is constantly reminding you that the economy is bad. So, I felt that the only way we would have the courage to walk away is if God FORCED us to walk away by taking away the paycheck so that we could seriously look at other options. So, I asked Maya to join me in my crazy prayer.
January-July 2012: Maya and I prayed that my hubby would be laid off. We prayed for a severance package. We prayed that if God wanted our family in full-time ministry that he would make it crystal clear by taking away secular employment.
July 27, 2012: MY HUSBAND GOT LAID OF!!!! The exact same day, Frederick County schools calls me and offers me my choice of three Spanish teaching positions. (I had not called them, I had not contacted them, they had my name on file from me teaching for them 3 years previously.) This job was only 20 hours a week, but it included full medical benefits. God was providing for all of our needs and we both sensed that the Lord was up to something. And instead of panicking, my husband was at peace. "I think God is up to something," he said. It's not every day that a man gets laid off and his wife gets offered a job that she never even applied for in a job market that is abyssmal.
August 2012: I say yes to the teaching position. My husband gets a very generous severance package. I find out that I have 2 weeks to get certified in Spanish if I want the medical benefits. The only certification test available is geared at native speakers. More crazy prayers. The Lord helps me pass - miraculously! I am now a certified teacher in the state of Maryland!
September 2012-December 2012: I am teaching. My husband is still running the Outreach program at the church - working 8 hours a week. We begin seriously looking into all sorts of mission agencies and Christian organizations. We find out that most mission agencies will NOT send you overseas if you have teenagers. OK, so I guess we are supposed to stay in the States? But we have a heart for cross-cultural ministry and for taking the gospel to people who have little chance of hearing about God's love. Can we do that in the states?
Then Hurricane Sandy hits New York City and my husband organizes a trip to do relief work. 18 of us head to the Big Apple. We stay at a Baptist Mission House. In that short trip, my husband and I both walked away impressed with the work these people were doing in New York CIty. Not just hurricane relief, but church planting and outreach among peoples of all nations. The Baptist Association in New York has churches that speak Spanish, Creole, Vietnamese, Filipino, Hindi, Ethiopian etc.
December 2012: My husband is on the New York Baptist Association's website and finds out about an organization that is working with immigrants to New York who are from countries that don't readily let Christian missionaries in.
January 2013: Our family goes to New York for a long weekend to check out the work that this group is doing. My husband and I both love it! We pray and feel like this is the group for us.
February 2013: We get assessed to determine if we can be missionaries with this group. This assessment included psychological testing, personality profiles etc. It was intense. And we were approved to be missionaries!
March 2013-May 2013: We start raising support to move to New York for one year of training. In only two months, the LORD provided enough funds for us to live in one of the most expensive places in the whole world for an entire year! Absolutely amazing.
And so here I am, sitting in our teeny-tiny, incredibly expensive (but newly renovated) apartment in the Upper West Side. 3 blocks from Harlem. 5 blocks from Columbia University. 3 blocks from Central Park. On one end of my street is a Dominican neighborhood. The other end seems to consist of Jewish old timers and yuppies and college students from places like China and Saudi Arabia. I buy fruit from a lady from Bangladesh. I speak Spanish almost every time I leave my house.
I am living among the nations, praying that my light will shine. And I love it.
And I am so thankful that God answers crazy prayers.
