Wow, there is so so much to do to prepare to leave the country for 6 months on 1 months notice! But God is definitely meeting us where we are at and helping us to get it all done.
I want to take the time to share a story about how God miraculously provided for one of the many details that needed to come together in order for this DTS to happen.
When we originally started looking into YWAM we had no idea how it was going to work with the kids, but we just sort of assumed that I would be looking after them or that Jody and I would switch on and off looking after them while the other was in class. However, after talking to the director of the DTS he informed us that they really believe in both husband and wife taking the classes together and that its very important that we are both on the same page spiritually before we head out into the mission field as a family. The only way to make a DTS work when you have young kids is to bring a nanny with you to look after the kids during class time, which is 8am-1pm Monday to Friday. He said the best option is to try to find a young person in your church who would want to raise their own support and come with you as your nanny.
When we first heard this we felt pretty discouraged, because A- our church has no young adults! We are a small church of mostly young families, and B- how were we going to find anyone to raise their own support and join us on this crazy adventure on such short notice?!? As Jody and I began to think and pray the same person came to both of our minds- a young lady named Katie who has lived with our friend for the last 3 years helping her out with child care and house work. My main hesitation was that my friend would probably not want to give up her own nanny for 6 months to come with us!
With a bit of anxiety, I sat down with my friend and told her all about the journey that God had us on and how we felt he was calling us to the mission field and to do a DTS. I didn't mention anything about Katie or the need for a nanny. I thought I would start with first things first and maybe not even bring up the idea of bringing Katie with us for another few days. But when I finished telling my friend about what we were doing her response was, "I have one thing to say...can you bring Katie with you?" Well, after that I got the craziest goose bumps because God clearly had the details all worked out for us!
It turns out that my friend had been praying about the next step for Katie and that YWAM was one of the things she had been thinking of. Katie has always had a missionary heart and has been wanting to do a missions trip for a while. Nothing had really come together for her for the fall so she figured she would just keep doing house-keeping and nannying for my friend. But when we told her about the idea of coming with us to YWAM as our nanny she was so excited. So, on a month's notice we now have an awesome nanny to come with us to our DTS. Although she will be watching Jonathan and sometimes baby Jonah (Asa actually gets to do his own mini DTS/preschool program when we're in class, which is really cool!) when we are in class each morning, she will still get to live in a dorm with other students and take in all of the amazing guest speakers and open sessions that happen at the campus on afternoons and weekends. She will also get to join our team on outreach since we don't officially need a nanny for that part.
We were so excited to learn that God not only had a plan for our family in sending us on this DTS, but he also had a plan for Katie! Pray for Katie too since she is also fundraising and trusting God for finances as she heads off on this big adventure!
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