What’s Next?
Well, it’s official. A few weeks ago at FBC’s Vision Night we had the opportunity to share that God has put on our heart to go to Portugal as missionaries. I would guess that 80% of the room already knew, as we have never wanted to keep this a secret and have wanted to be very open about what God has been doing in our lives. Nonetheless, it was still good to have an opportunity to officially tell our church. We are loving being able to discuss this amazing opportunity and calling we’ve been given with those we love most.
Now that our path is laid out, I wanted to clarify a bit more on our timeline. I would say God has been working on our hearts for a little over a year about Portugal specifically and missions for about five years. We’ve also felt convicted to try to give our sons as normal of a life as possible throughout this transition. With that said, we do not plan to make any major changes until Andrew, our youngest, graduates high school. This is a tentative timeline for our next couple of years.
Summer 2022 - The Lord provides a youth pastor at FBC, and I am able to spend the next year transitioning with him.
Summer 2023 - We take another survey trip to Portugal.
August 2023 - We start traveling part-time to raise support. We will still be invested in and serving at FBC but our responsibilities will be minimal.
May 2024 - Andrew Graduates!
June 2024 - Teen Camp - This will be our final action as Youth Pastor at First Baptist and such a fitting way to end such an amazing life and 24 years of service here at FBC.
July 2024 - We begin traveling full-time to finalize support.
Fall 2025 - GO TO PORTUGAL!!
Our tentative plan, once in Portugal, is to start off in Lisbon as we begin to learn the language and embrace the culture. As I have mentioned before, God has connected us with a tremendous missionary family, David and Sarah Booth, who we hope to partner with as we transition to our new ministry. Our focus in Portugal will include three areas:
Church Planting
Evangelism and Discipleship
Leadership Development
Although this is our plan, we know God's plan may be different. We are praying every day that He continues to guide us and that we will be willing to follow Him.
