God's Will in Alaska

What's next in my life? What's God's will? Those questions are constantly pondered by many Christians, especially ones like us that are very serious about wanting to be missionaries. So, like others, we prayed about this. God led us to YWAM in New Zealand, now what? While we were in Thailand on outreach, we continued to ponder our future. We're beginning to internalize that God designs people with passions and interests and gifts SO THAT they use them, and find fulfilling life in the process. But we can't even imagine what sort of missions career would be "perfect" for our combined interests.

I was elated during our Thailand outreach to come across a webpage for a YWAM ministry in Alaska. As I read more and more I couldn't believe how perfectly it fit both BearHunter and I. It mentioned using fishing and sports as ways of reaching the community (both BearHunter's loves). And they have a First Nations school, which excited me very much. If you've known me awhile you might wonder why!

Both of us have planned on and dreamt of overseas missions work, like forever pretty much. For me it was going to be Africa and BearHunter had his eyes on serving in Papua New Guinea. When we married, we trusted God to decide between the two. As we discover more about ourselves, our gifts and interests, it's been hard to let go of our previous hard and fast plans. We feel like we'll be letting people down if we don't go overseas, because for so many years that's what we said we would do. But I have to be real with myself and with God. During the six month program in New Zealand, I realized that I do have a deep passion for the Native Americans. Perhaps from my few years living on a reservation after college. But I didn't want to be called to work full-time and forever there. It's a HARD place to thrive and minister. But I can't deny the compassion rooted in me. One of my Thailand teammates helped me to realize I just need to face it and do what I'm passionate about while I can. That's why I started searching for Native Ministries within YWAM. And upon finding the Alaska school with a vision to reach rural Arctic communities, I was hooked.

We continued to keep this discovery quiet and pray, waiting for confirmation that YWAM Alaska was God's next step and gift to us. We decided to make a careful visit and meet the staff we'd be working with and see how things are run. To make a long story shorter, it was an awesome visit and we decided we want to join their staff.

PHOTO:
While in Alaska, we visited some of BearHunter's college friends. This is her sending us off at the airport with some family and friends, including her newest baby.