Divine Voyagers

Patty

In June – July, we completed the first few steps to becoming missionaries.
We sent in our application papers, got a full physical check up (and I had my knee reflexes checked for the first time!) and our language started to change from ‘we would like to be missionaries’ to ‘we’re planning to hit the mission field in the next few years’. It started to become real, and one of the biggest steps for us was going to Orientation. 

I feel like we walked in with a lot of questions and we walked out with them more than answered. Questions we hadn’t even though to ask were answered. There was this feeling of relief, especially after spending the week with like-minded people, that at least we had some next steps planned, and there was a sense of normalcy, that this is something achievable that people do, moving overseas and figuring out how they can be used to spread the gospel. 

The highlight for me was probably the talk on finances. It was what I was the most concerned about going in – there aren’t many jobs where you have to raise your own wages, and the organisation had mentioned that they won’t even let you buy a plane ticket until you have at least 90% of your budget for the term raised. (That budget is set up with the team you decide to go with and covers things like living expenses, insurance and flights to and from home.) The facilitator just started off with an image of a father piggy backing his little girl, with the two of them standing on a cliff’s edge, looking out at a beautiful view. She said that we aren’t really raising funds, and we aren’t really asking people for their money – God is equipping us to go out on the mission field, and when we ask Christians to support us, we are asking for His money. We can only trust him in the process, just like the little girl doesn’t worry about being on the cliff, just relaxes into trusting her Dad. 

(What was the highlight for you, Tom?) 

T: Being able to sit down with the South Balkans area leader and have our questions answered. 

(The area leader is originally from Perth but currently living in Bulgaria and he, along with his two daughters and wife were able to join us for the week.) 

I think, getting an understanding of what the South Balkans area would look like and his perspective on budget and doability – just talking over how able we are to do this. Meeting someone in person, who we’ve only met over Zoom a few times, and him being able to answer questions about timing and placing, and how we should think through where we’re going was all really helpful. 

Prayer points: 
– That God would be blessing all of the people at Orientation as they figure out where to go and how to get there. 
– That God would continue to be guiding conversations about where we are supposed to go, and that the training and conversations from that week would have lasting impacts.