The Story... our move overseas.

“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  Mark 10:29-31

Here in the next year, we’re planning to move to the Middle East to learn language and pursue development efforts with some close friends of ours.  Over the past couple of years we’ve both been surrounded by a community of people that are preparing us to go.  We’re excited that God is allowing us to be a part of this, and is allowing us to do what we thought we would do alone, together.  This means we’re doing a few things different from most (honeymoon registry instead of gifts, 6 months apartment lease, etc.) to make the transition overseas easier.

After the wedding we’ll start raising support, then we’ll hopefully spend August and September at a bootcamp in Portland with our future teammates preparing to leave.  From there, our timeline depends on VISAs and financial support.  We may be able to leave as soon as October if all is in order.  Once overseas, our first step will be to spend two years learning language and culture while being mentored under some experienced friends.  We realize that this move is going to be very tough (for us AND our families), and isn’t all gravy, but we feel really excited and privileged to be writing this kind of story with our marriage.  We hope that you would be a part of it too.  Below is some of the more nitty gritty on why we believe God is calling us to this.

The Bible

In the Bible, God is writing a story of redemption in which He desires people from the whole world to know Him.  Starting in Genesis, He promises Abraham that he’ll be a father of many nations (translated as “people groups”), then in the New Testament Jesus continues this promise by commissioning out his disciples to make disciples of all nations (peoples).  Finally, in Revelation, the promise is fulfilled and John writes a vision of seeing people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation worshipping around the throne of God.  God’s mission of Jesus to all people groups (not necessarily all people) will be fulfilled, but will we be a part of it?

The World

Today there are 2.7 billion people amongst 6,700 people groups who are considered unreached, which means that they have little to no access to the gospel.  The global church currently sends less than 10% of it’s missionaries to these people and uses less than 1% of it’s resources to reach these people.  Moreover, these people are amongst the most impoverish people in the world.

In closing, even though we’ll be leaving so much that we hold dear behind, we’re excited for this next season of our life.  We couldn’t have made it here without you and we’ll continue to need you just as much, if not more, as we take this next step.  We hope that you would continue to be a part of our story.

love you all very much,

Aaron and Sarah

*keep checking this website after our wedding as it will turn into our family blog.