It’s Official!

On May 12, we received our official approval for deployment as Nazarene missionaries to Zagreb, Croatia! While Aimee and I have known for years that we’d probably end up in the mission filed somewhere, it was always, “some day.” That “some day” became a lot closer last year, when I felt it was time to transition away from pastoring our local church. This freed us up to start the process for becoming full-time missionaries. The next big step was our youngest child moving out on his own. Now, with an “empty nest,” and all of the missionary assessments completed, it was now time to just “wait,” but we didn’t have to wait long.

With Aimee being almost fluent in Spanish, we figured we’d be heading to Central or South America, but we also know that God has a GREAT sense of humor. While we DID actually get a call from Mexico, it just didn’t seem like a good fit for either one of us. Imagine our surprise when we get an email from the Eurasia! This was DEFINITELY not on either one of our radars, but here comes God’s sense of humor. Listening to the needs on the region during our 5am Zoom call was like listening to a tailor-made job description for us both. Not only was there a HUGE compassionate ministries need (Aimee), but the Field Coordinators were overwhelmed with the theological education needs (Stan). God is SO AMAZING!

It has been a whirlwind ever since. Our house is going on the market next week, and we’ve resigned from our teaching positions, so now it’s downsizing into suitcases, and raising the funds for a two-year stay in Zagreb! YIKES!