Our story is proof that God can call anyone. We were a pretty “normal” family. God blessed us with 2 awesome boys, successful careers, and a great church family where we enjoyed serving. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, it was good; but even “good” things if not prioritized correctly can distract, even pull you away from the type of life Jesus wants for you. This was our story.

Through college, we had both gone on a number of short term mission trips to Africa. Largely unknown to us at the time, God kindled a small flame in our hearts to be part of his work around the world. Sitting around a campfire and having the privilege to share the gospel with people who have never heard the name of Jesus offers moments of clarity on what is truly most important in this life. However, as soon as the plane wheels touch down back in the States, you are bombarded with every distraction the enemy can throw at you – to make you forget that same clarity you had just days before. The most deceptive schemes of the devil are distorting the “good” things in our life.

Fast forward about 6 years from those college days; our second son had just been born, we were both heavily invested in our careers, we were financially secure and had a comfortable friend group who we loved. I (Eric) remember being asked by a close friend “what do you envision your life looking like?” Without hesitation I answered, “Make more than I spend, retire early, fish and hunt until I can’t anymore.” Even while I type this, I have to fight the urge to hang my head. Lauren had a similar encounter when speaking with the mom of an overseas missionary from our church. Lauren said, “It is so cool that your daughter is doing this now, before she gets married and has kids…” (As if you can’t be a missionary if you have kids.) You can almost picture God chuckling and shaking his head.

Not long after Lauren and I made those statements did God start drawing us to go full time as overseas missionaries (even though we didn’t know it). I can only describe it as this uneasiness, this gnawing at my soul and it led to a deep conviction that our priorities had veered off course. After seeking God’s forgiveness in this matter, I remember asking, “God what would you have us do?” This became my daily prayer. Again, you can almost picture God shaking his head and saying, “I have already given you the answer to that question – and it’s in a book – and that book is called the Bible.”

As I was reading one morning, I could not get over what the lives of the early Christians looked like. They certainly were not concerned with the next motorcycle they were going to buy, or their next promotion or how early they were going to retire. They had but one thing on their mind – telling as many people about the saving work of Jesus as they could. Ahhhh Ha! Yes! That’s it! Clarity! That is what we are supposed to do! That moment of clarity was met with another question, “but what is that supposed to look like for me and my family?” – so then this question became my prayer as I studied God’s word. It was clear that God was up to something in our lives – but we couldn’t quite put our fingers on it, so we continued to seek, pray, and engage wise counsel in our lives.

Then one morning I read it: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” [Romans 10:14-15] It was as if God was sitting right next to me and saying it directly to me. I can’t fully put it into words, but his call was undeniable. I asked “God do you want us to go?” And he said “Go”. I shared with Lauren that I was sure that God had called us to go – but that I didn’t know when or where. About a month later I found a note from Lauren. It began, “I have counted the cost.” God had made it clear to both of us that he was calling us to go and that he would direct us.

When beginning the process to go, we had no idea where we would end up. We had been on a handful of mission trips, but none of those specific places were heavy on our hearts. We both felt some pull towards Europe, but knew nothing about missions there. Initially, we were very discouraged. We felt like we should have some clarity or at least be moving in that direction. We tried reaching out to other missionaries on the field. But a lot of those initial doors seemed shut; almost as if God was telling us, just wait. We talked about it and decided we would surrender to God’s timing and just wait until we moved farther along in the process. Not even a week after that conversation, the guy taking pictures for the sale of our house told us he had a sister who was a missionary in Europe and she would love to talk to us. We connected with her and her husband soon after and then met with their leadership in the Czech Republic. As we continued praying, we felt like God had specifically created each of us with skills and personalities that would fit in perfectly with ministry in the Czech Republic. But what confirmed our call even more was learning about the lostness that exists among those people. In a country with historic cathedrals throughout, only .25% of Czechs are Christians. We long to go and build relationships with Czechs so that we might have the opportunity to share the gospel and see more Czechs come to a saving faith in Christ.

That is our story – he can and does use the “normal” folks and I am so thankful he did.