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NCD Missions Mobilization Podcast
Conversations to help generate healthy relationships between local churches and Alliance International Workers
NCD Missions Mobilization Podcast
Chris and Laura Interview
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You never know when God's going to send you across county lines! Join the conversation with new international workers, Chris and Laura, as they share their story of getting caught up in God's heart for all people.
Check out Envision at https://weareenvision.com/
Learn more about Alliance Missions in the North Central District here:
We are leaving our Jerusalem and we're doing to the ends of the earth. And so we need to partner with our Jerusalem and our Judea just as much as they need to partner with the ends of the earth. God created that for that partnership, knowing that one person can't do it all. And so we have to stay connected in order to make those three things happen.
SPEAKER_04Hey North Central District, this is Peter Mayhew. I'm a part of our missions mobilization team. And on this podcast, I get to chat with impactful leaders ready to share insights into how to creatively generate healthy engagement between local churches and international workers. I'm excited to connect with upcoming and former international workers, invested pastors, and hopefully many more. Today I'm talking with Chris and Laura Buckhouse out of Little Falls, Minnesota. Chris and Laura have recently been approved to join an Envision team in Southeast Asia. They'll be helping with leadership development and hosting short-term teams for impactful local ministry. Their journey towards this hasn't been a straight line, but it has been filled with God's persistent, gentle direction. I'm excited for you to join our conversation. Thanks so much for joining us today. This is Peter, and I've got some guests with us. So I'm joined by Chris and Laura Buckhouse. Did I say that right?
SPEAKER_01You did?
SPEAKER_04I did. Amazing. All right. So Chris is uh the associate pastor at Little Falls Alliance Church, where he gets to work with the youth, among many other things. Uh, and then Laura is in sales and administration for a manufacturing company in Glenwood, Minnesota. And Chris paid me to say that she's also one of the best youth group leaders uh on the planet. But I'm sure that's true whether Chris said it or not. We're going to be talking a little bit about your upcoming journey and some transitions in your work and in your vocation. Super excited about that. Uh, but to start with, I have to share my icebreaker with you guys, which is this if you were a character in a cartoon, what character would you be?
SPEAKER_03Garfield.
SPEAKER_02Oh, what?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Garfield Garfield. Yes, Garfield. You may not have known this about me, but I used to wake up at 5 15 every morning in middle school to watch Garfield. That's amazing. And uh yeah, he loves lasagna. He gets to lays around. Uh John provides for him. It's amazing. So I'd be Garfield. Love that.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, yeah, beating Garfield. I would say any maybe anybody in Charlie Brown. Anyone, there's no there's no parents, there's just not a lot of responsibility. They're usually doing something fun, and all problems are solved by the end.
SPEAKER_04I love that. Phoenix Gang is is hard to beat. All right. So why don't you guys go ahead and just tell us a little bit about yourself and your upcoming plans with Envision?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, sure. So uh as you said, Peter, I'm serving currently as the associate pastor in Little Falls, Minnesota at our Lions Church here. And so I get the privilege of hanging out with youth. I love soccer. Uh, my son, he is 10 years old, also loves soccer in the process of coaching him in his third season. As a youngster now, I've been coaching for over 20 years total. That's one of the great passions I have in life. Just finished last fall, my 13th season as a varsity coach uh here in the Minnesota State High School League. And so uh that has been a big part of our journey and in our life. Actually, as we're looking at transitioning here later this year, this will be the first fall in 14 years that my wife and I might get to see each other in ways and maybe hang out and do some things together in ways that we've been unable to do because uh I've gotten the joy, really the privilege of investing in high schoolers in a different way than I do and serving them in the local church. Um, but yeah, uh I do love lasagna as well. I don't like cats though, so I don't know why Garfield pops. I do what the first thing that popped into my mind, Peter, I kind of, you know, it's kind of weird. I don't like cats.
SPEAKER_00Are you backtracking?
SPEAKER_03But I like lasagna. No, I don't think I am. I think Garfield's got it pretty good, but it's been a long time since I've watched any Garfield.
SPEAKER_00Where'd lasagna come from? But now I get it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you make really good lasagna.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. So I'll read Beast Garfield.
SPEAKER_04Love that. Love that. Well exciting. Um, do you want to tell us a little bit about um what your plans are in the fall when you get to transition over towards Envision?
SPEAKER_00Well, we are boarding a plane in early, early January. And so um this fall hopefully will just be obviously the transition of um moving across the planet and getting everything down to three suitcases apiece. Um, and we're not we're not fresh out of college people. So we we have you know a life and we've really um you know, we've been in Little Falls for what'll be eight years almost.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we've been married for 15. Did I get that right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, congrats. Thank you. Um and so yeah, just there's there's a lot in there. We have a we always say we have a beautiful life here. Um and so, you know, doing those, having those good goodbyes to people, to places, to things. Um, it's gonna be it's gonna be a big deal. So yeah, just seeing what um this new life can kind of look like and and transitioning. So yeah, Chris will be done. Both of us, um, our plan is to be done with our you know, full-time employments the end of September um to transition in a healthy way, um, to be able to see family, get those holidays in, um, and and board the plane.
SPEAKER_04So this next stage is going to be working uh with the organization Envision. Excited about that for you guys. How did you first sense that God might be calling you towards international work?
SPEAKER_03I love Envision. I love everything about Envision. Oh my goodness. I love their mission, okay, where they identify and they develop leaders. Uh, and really the way that they do that is by developing good followers of Jesus who have deeply formed relationships in and around them. And they are all about creating space and creating environments for uh people really to engage well, not only with each other, but but with Jesus and with the church. And uh they changed my life. The organization and vision has changed changed my life. So when I came on board here uh eight years ago at Alliance Church, uh we had the opportunity to go to life conference right away in uh 2019, and then we got to transition and and switch gears through this crazy season called COVID, uh, where we were planning an international trip and we did not end up doing that as a youth program in 2020, and it got bumped back a year. And as I was engaging with our youth, we had served with some other organizations, non-alliance organizations in the past, which um, you know, they do very, very good work overall, but uh we're passionate about, and our church is passionate about the Great Commission and about the Great Commission Fund. And so I thought, well, it seems natural to me that we would partner with that structure, Envision, to be able to do our short-term experiences. And so I started to look and have some conversations with them, and I loved everything about what they presented and take some time in a season of prayer with our church leadership here. And we actually co-led my wife and I uh a trip, and it was uh my first experience directly with Invision in 2021 to their Providence, Rhode Island site. And that was transformational. It introduced me and introduced us to urban ministry. Essentially, they're a city of a million people in a very, very small area, and where we will be headed in the future is going to be a city of a lot more millions of people, uh, you know, about five million people, and again, in a in a pretty compact area. And so it showed uh the beauty of urban ministry and the melting pot of culture. And I would say one of the biggest things Envision taught me back in 2021 was really to be curious and to just ask questions and to relate well with people. And we took that experience, uh, which was good. Actually, it's kind of funny. We realized on that trip we don't work well together at all. Uh, and we've had to we've had to process progress. Yeah, we've had to work together on working together over the past several years, but the Lord's been so faithful in preparing us. Uh, we got to serve again with Envision in 2023 uh through Incolink down in Ecuador. And so we went from one million to four million. We'll be heading next year to uh to Southeast Asia, where we'll be in a city of five million people. And so the Lord has been incrementally preparing us. Uh, but it was in Ecuador that I was I was taught through the experience um that people are people. And uh the Lord gave me a pretty cool experience, and maybe we'll get into it, maybe we won't, um, about just bringing me to the realization of uh of really just a broken heart for the nations and a broken heart for for people in general. Uh and I had had some hard, hard places in my heart that those short-term trips helped to expose. And when the light of Jesus Christ was shined on those areas, it was transformational, not only in my life personally, but in our marriage and in the ministry that we're doing here in Little Falls. And uh Envision has been a huge, huge part of that. So I'm I'm passionate about the organization, certainly. If you can't tell.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's awesome. Hey, do you mind if I ask how how many people live in Little Falls area? So how just where are you coming from and heading to right?
SPEAKER_00I think it's a I think it's a whopping 9,000.
SPEAKER_04Is it that many?
SPEAKER_00I think it's that many now. Yes. And at about four o'clock in the afternoon, it feels way more than that getting through town.
SPEAKER_03It does. There's a few stoplights.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, people talk about that traffic in late afternoon.
SPEAKER_03Oh boy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I know.
SPEAKER_03If you don't beat the buses out of school, oh that train. I know it might take me eight minutes to get home.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_00So very, very different.
SPEAKER_04Oh, very cool though. Uh, it's super exciting. And I love to hear that passion for envision and uh the heart for people that's come from it. Why Southeast Asia? What about that has drawn you there? How did you decide on this location, this people?
SPEAKER_00You know, um we're still we're still answering that ourselves, honestly. So over the last couple of years, um, as Chris kind of mentioned with Envision and um being led to overseas uh work, it's I have what I was more there uh before Chris, or I should back up. Um I went on several uh short-term trips in high school um and even did some trips in way back in junior high. So I've always said, you know, I was called um in international work back in eighth grade. And that took me to Crown College, where we actually both majored in intercultural studies when we first went to Crown. Neither of us ended with that major, but we both started it a year apart, so we didn't know each other then. Um and then I felt like I probably fell in love and married a guy that would be the least likely to move internationally. Like it was like, okay, obviously, international work is not gonna be uh in our uh forecast because this guy wouldn't leave the county if he didn't have to.
SPEAKER_03Amen.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So um, not that I, you know, ever had this yearning or in the back of my head of like, we're gonna go someday. It's just like, you know, this is where we are now, and we're gonna take one day at a time and see where that that leads us. And so it's really um God obviously did a number in Chris's life to be able to have that as even an option, let alone an option that he pursued. And I feel like God hit him over the head a few times with a baseball bat these last couple of of years to be able to get him there, used a lot of experiences, conferences, and people, the amount of people that um he had pursue him. And then many of those times I wasn't with. And so God was, you know, calling us in uh he was calling us in very different ways to the same thing. And so it was really fun for me to pick up the phone and hear him be like, oh my goodness, you you wouldn't believe who who got me today or who called me or who ran into me, or literally like caught me in the bathroom as I was trying to hide from everyone else, um, about international work, about doing this, about envision. And so it was almost it was it was impossible to ignore at that point. And so the two of us were like, you know what? We have to, we have to pursue until a door closes. And so we contacted, um, did we contact Envision directly?
SPEAKER_03We did, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Okay, so that was our first video call. And in my mind, it was just like, you know what, we're gonna have this video call with Envision. Uh, we're gonna tell them, hey, we feel like, you know, led to go, but we I don't know, like you, you tell us. It was a bit of a sheepish, humbling like situation, thinking, well, that'll be it. We'll just move on with our lives. Uh, we'll keep going. And and we said that we we've done it and we can cross that off our list. And that definitely was not the case. Um, we got done with that video call and we're like, oh dang, like we that door did not close. Um now, yeah, like we we're gonna go through this door, we're gonna go through the next one, we're gonna go through the next one, um, and see and see where that goes. And so it was it was fun to be able to say, hey, we feel led to do this, but you know, neither of us were five years old saying, Hey, we're supposed to go to the Southeast Asia population, we're supposed to go here. Um, God has called us here. It's no, like we are gonna be obedient. Um, we feel like we need to go. And where can we be used by God, by the organizations? Here's our talents. Um, you tell us where you have a need. And Envision did. They gave us a couple of different spots where they're like, these are our biggest needs. If you wanna, you know, pray about it, research it. If you've, you know, got some do's and don'ts, you've you have and and let us know. And that's exactly what we did. And it was pretty um obvious after some research that um Southeast Asia was was the place, um, which was crazy because we had to look it up on a map that is not sure. Not the place that we we thought, um, but it was fun getting to that point.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I think uh a lot of that journey, Peter, started back for me at Life Conference in 2019. I can remember, I couldn't tell you who led it or what seminar I went to, but I went to a seminar where it transformed my idea of calling. And for the longest time, so I've been a Christ follower now since age 17. Uh I would say that I was called to international work at age 17 as well. You know, Laura in eighth grade, me in in at age 17. But as a new Christian, and I was a brand new Christian, you know, it was just before my senior year of high school, I realized I didn't know anything about God, like not a lot at all. And so I ended up, uh, the Lord led me to Crown, and through a crazy series of experiences, I was able to afford to go there. And it was wonderful. And I realized quite quickly in the first six or so months that I was there, my ignorance about who God was. And I thought, you know what? I'm here for four years. What can I take as a major to give me the most opportunity to learn as much as I possibly can about this God that I've committed my life to? And that ended up being biblical and theological studies. And it was, I could not recommend enough. Um, Crown College or my time at Crown, it was transformational. And we left out of there and out of that season and you know, got married immediately out of Crown, ended up, you know, attending a couple different churches, some non-alliance churches because they weren't present in the areas that we were living as we were uh kind of getting established in our newly married life. But for the longest time, I viewed this idea of calling as you needed a divine flashing arrow from God to go to a specific place or specific people. And at Life 2019, in a seminar that I attended, uh, it was kind of like a rewiring of how I thought about calling, because the speaker laid out calling as we see in the New Testament is very much not that. That's not to say that those things do not happen or that there isn't value in that, because we see that and there's testimony of that regularly, and we do see that in the scriptures. But what we see most often in the New Testament are faithful people who are created in the image of God and just average Joes like you and me, and we have unique gifts, talents, and abilities. And as we go throughout our life seeking to take the right next step in following Jesus, we see needs. And we may recognize that we have those gifts, talents, skills, or abilities to meet those needs, and then we say yes, and we go and we meet those needs. And that was revolutionary for me. It seems so simple to think about, but it changed how I how I viewed calling. And it really changed how I viewed international work, how we ran our short-term trips here at the church as well. Uh, and that's so freeing to be able to uh to, I guess, not feel the pressure of needing to have uh everything line up in in such a way where it's it's unquestionable. And God has made it so incredibly clear because when we're in these seasons in our life where we might be feeling doubt or uncertainty, well, we just fall on our faces before the Lord and we say, Hey, God, um, where are you leading today? Would you be in charge of my day today? And would you help me to take the right next step? And would your spirit check us and maybe close those doors if we aren't meant to walk through them? And he's been so faithful in that way, time and time again. And so we just seek uh and want to posture our lives in a way where we're willing to say yes, um, no matter what he's asking or even where he's asking us to go. And again, uh the Alliance, uh life conference, general counsel, uh, refresh, if you're in the youth ministry sphere, there are so many opportunities the alliance has to be able to pour into people and help us really understand and unlock uh how we were created on purpose, with a purpose, and for a purpose by a good God who loves us. And so I'm grateful. Uh, I started with the Alliance in an alliance church uh as I came to Christ in an alliance church. My folks came to came to know Jesus in an alliance church. I got dragged there, eventually became a Christ follower, and I've been thrilled to be able to be a part of the alliance in some way, shape, or form now for just about 21 years. And where we're heading next is with the Alliance. And boy golly, I wouldn't I wouldn't be anywhere else than with the CNMA.
SPEAKER_04It's beautiful. I think one of the one of the themes that I, you know, I get to have a couple of these conversations with different, you know, different workers periodically. And one of the themes as people reflect on their launch into into this work and vocation is it's it's always the community of God around them that God keeps speaking through. Uh, and it's the sort of this community move that's that brings the one person to that point where they're they're launching into a vocation. They're launching into a a new a new move. Um you know, to hear you talk about the alliance the way that you are, or the way that you're talking about how uh all those stories over the phone of Chris being like somebody else found me in the bathroom, like like it's it's the way that God uses his whole church and his whole community together to go on mission. Um, that's really cool.
SPEAKER_00That is beautiful, yeah. And it's the way it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Can I speak to one of those people? Yeah, please don't mind. Yeah, so back in twenty 2021, after leading that trip to Providence, I came back and we were looking to transition into Life Conference in 2022 and then an international trip again in 2023. And I got connected, you know, again with Envision and the Incolink um branch of Envision. And there was a translator that we were going to be working with, who I got to communicate with on the phone a couple of times. But even before I met him, there was a point in time, Peter, where I was sitting in my office praying about this upcoming trip, praying about the group that was going to be going to Life Conference, because likely a lot of those students that were going to Life Conference were going to say yes the following year to step into that international experience to serve. And I was sitting here praying, and something ugly reared its head in my heart. And there was something the Lord brought to my attention that was not pleasant. And I, you know, and I was restless and getting up and agitated because I knew that God was bringing to mind something in me that that wasn't of Him. And that was the case. I mentioned it earlier in my heart towards a specific people group that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with. I had great fear towards and a lot of anxiety about, and really um maybe a distaste would be a probably appropriate word to describe that. And here I am sitting in my office, and I'm going, how can I lead? Ministry happens in the wake of our everyday life. Am I right? How can I lead? Well, with this ugliness that I'm noticing inside of myself, Lord, um something needs to be done with this because I can't, I can't not address this now that it's come to my attention. And there was a moment in that office experience as I was sitting in my chair and I was praying through this, where I heard the voice of God and he said, Chris, I'm going to show you that people are people. And I was like, Well, that's cool, but I don't know what that means. Like, of course, people are people. I'm not sure. So fast forward a number of months, and I get connected with this translator and coach again because the Alliance does a phenomenal job, and Envision does a phenomenal job in preparing our hearts to go serve. And so I'm I'm having a conversation with him, and I shared this office experience that I had because I had been wrestling with this and praying that the Lord would do something with this as I'm constantly laying down and confessing and entering into a posture of repentance. Um, but but it just hadn't been hadn't been moving in the way that I would have wanted it to or expected it to. And as I was speaking with him, he said, Hey, Chris, let me just pause you for a moment here and can I ask you to do something dangerous right now? And I said, Well, I mean, sure. I mean, I don't I don't know what you're gonna ask me, but sure. And he said, Hey, can I he shared a little bit of his own story and he said, I want to ask you to pray prayer right now. Would you be willing to do that? And I said, Well, it depends what prayer it is, you know? And he said, Hey, Chris, would you be willing to ask God to break your heart for what breaks his? And I was like, Oh, that's an awfully dangerous prayer. Oh my! Like, I was terrified to pray that prayer, and I didn't in that moment. I didn't, and I wrestled with that invitation to pray that prayer for months because I was afraid God was going to answer it. And we're in the process of preparing, you know, again for this international trip, and I'm in this this place where this is going through my mind now every single day. Would you pre you would you have the boldness and courage to pray that prayer? Would you trust me, Chris? Would you trust me? This is me hearing in my you know my prayer time with the Lord. And I did. One day I broke down and I prayed it, and I kept praying it, and Peter God answered it. He answered it in in a way that it was one. We were on that trip in Ecuador in 2023. And I was at there was a moment in time where, and in the lead up, my heart was being broken time after time after time. And I came to a place where that hardened place, that distaste, that fear, that anxiety, it was covered with the blood of Jesus and it was transformed into love and a heart for the nations. And we're in, but I still didn't understand this voice that I had heard from the Lord that said, I'm going to show you that people are people. And there was this moment when we're on this trip and we're with, we're in a plaza of people. Keto's four million people, and we're in this massive plaza, and we're surrounded by multitudes of people. And if you picture it with me, you turn around in every direction, all you see is city as far as the eye can see, and all you see are people. And in that moment, something broke in my heart. And I heard the voice of God again. And he said, Do you see? Do you see my heart? People are people, and people are mine. And I just I remember sharing with this translator and coach uh in in the hours after that experience, where I said, I came to a realization there that I that I think I've known intellectually, but I've experienced now in a raw and real way in my life that I never have before. And it's that people are people. The sin, the, the, the struggle, the needs, the context might look different, but the need for Jesus is the same everywhere. And I was so incredibly burdened. And I remember returning home. I didn't want to come home from that trip. I remember returning home and sharing with my wife this experience and that heart that with what the Lord was doing. And we just said, hey, we need to, we need to press in into what God might be doing in this. And it's taken now three years since that experience. But we just keep, we've kept through this entire process, just taking the right next step. And even in the midst of that, not getting so lost and looking ahead to the future, because we weren't sure what the future was going to bring, but not getting so lost in there that we were unwilling to be fully present in the here and now. And that's been a big part of our journey as well. And in this season of transition, too, people over tasks. Am I right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_04Well, think about that next right thing. And think about the step ahead of you guys now, transitioning away from current vocations and into the next, um, the next one, uh, leadership and short-term teams. What is what's it feel like to be in this place and what's on your your mind and hearts right now?
SPEAKER_00Um, tr the transition, the transition is tough. Um, I'm a very logical thinker. Um, I like to do lists and to be able to cross things off. And so I can struggle with just logistically thinking of how our family is going to, you know, move from one place to the next. Um, and that can get very stressful really fast. There's many different pieces of this puzzle that we don't know or, you know, we don't know yet. Uh, the alliance has done a very good job at kind of keeping keeping a list of this is what you do now, this is what you do now, probably because they know if they gave me the whole list, I would just drown in it. So transitioning. Um I would, I just uh told Christmas the other day of I need to get better at okay, you know, God, please take this kind of logistical piece off of me and prepare I need to be preparing myself more spiritually and more for that transition of you know, ministry-wise working um over there, what that's going, what's that going to look like? Um, I would say the the most exciting, the the most excitement I find um here is, you know, that wonderful intro of of being a a junior high leader now. Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01You're welcome.
SPEAKER_00Yes, is that little taste of working with young people and the upcoming generation and seeing um God, seeing their hearts and um how motivated they are to make a difference and to see lives changed. And we just both of us, we get pumped up working um in that sphere and with that generation. And so being able to continue that is really, really exciting. And being able to do that together, um, we need to work on some things, but we will be doing this together um in a in a full-time capacity is is super exciting. And we have been humbled. Um, and this is part of our you know calling journey as well of, you know, we want to tell people to go. You know, that's that's the great commission. That is the CNMA church, whom we love. Um, it's on the forefront of our minds. We need to go. Well, how do we tell people to go if we aren't going? It was it's this um reality of, you know, Chris's um realization of what a calling is. Um, I've had that a little bit too of almost the the word responsibility. To me, um I heard it once said that, you know, responsibility is just what are your abilities and how are you going to respond to them? So same thing. There's this need, there is this ability. Why can't we go? Why shouldn't we go? Um, and when those are turned, um, it really, it really makes you think of, yeah, why? Why, why, why, why, why? Um, but really why not? And so, yeah, the transition, um, scary, full of doubts. Um, it's it's definitely a roller coaster ride. That was one thing maybe I wasn't fully prepared for, um, where my naive mind maybe thought, oh, you know, all those other people that are are called overseas, like it must be easy because they're called. Like it's such God tells them and they go. And um that is inaccurate, that everything will be easy and fantastic. That's just not life uh for anybody, including those who are um called, as we say, into into a ministry. It's it's been really hard and those doubts are there. Um, but to come back to um the foundation, to come back to each other, um, to encourage each other. And like we said, that community around us, it's been um such a blessing to be able to have ascending church, uh, to be able to have people that we got involved really right from the beginning in our process.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And it's been even more so uh probably difficult to continue saying yes because we are thriving in every aspect of life where we are at right now. And it makes no sense, Peter, to say yes to change things. Our youth ministry is in such a healthy place, our church is in such a healthy place. You know, if we had walked into this process, uh maybe fleeing, you know, some type of difficulty here, whether it was in life or ministry, uh, Laura's job, uh, but we're we're not, which makes honestly the confirmation uh from the Lord uh that much easier to say yes to and that much harder to say yes to because things are going so well here. And we love our life, we love our church, uh our our sending church, Little Falls Alliance Church, is amazing in every respect. And the people and the support that we have had here uh are legendary. Uh the mentorship that I've been able to have, a mentorship type relationship with our senior pastor, and we get along fantastic. Uh, we have amazing godly men in our church leadership as elders. And uh early on in this process, after uh the kind of one-two punch of counsel and life conference last year, where there was just confirmation after confirmation after confirmation, we invited our church leadership and our elders to enter into, and our senior pastor and their wives to enter into a season of discernment and prayer with us as we tried to figure out, you know, are we really hearing the voice of God with this? Because it seems like it makes no sense to say yes and uh overwhelmingly, as much as I think some of them might want to pray for us to stay. Uh, they have graciously uh been willing to press in as we've pressed in. And there's been so much encouragement from them. Uh, and our son Asher, uh, he is an absolute rock as a 10-year-old. We had an opportunity to visit the location uh earlier this year, and it did not, it was hard. It was very hard. Uh, there was if there was any glit or glamour about this whole we're gonna step into international work thing, it got stripped away awfully quick with that experience. And we honestly, over the first 72 hours or so of that experience, were like, no way, Lord, absolutely not. The cost is too, this is too much. How could you ask us uh to to to to to do this? How can we how can we say yes? No, we are not strong enough to do this. And yet it went back to that idea of God continuing to break not only my heart, but but our hearts for what breaks his. And we know at the end of the day that it's not us, it's not our strength. Uh it's Jesus. It is. And so we, and it sounds simple and cliche to say that, but we experienced that in a new way and new depths uh during that experience. And coming back when we had every opportunity to say no, uh, the Lord just kept tapping on our hearts and saying, Hey, I'm I'm not telling you you need to go, but I'm extending my hand of invitation to you. And would you trust me enough to take it and see what I'm up to? And we just have to trust that whatever he's got for us next is somehow, it may not be easier. I know it's not going to be easier, uh, but it it has to be better than anything we can ask for, dream, or imagine, even in um the what is a very good life that we have right now.
SPEAKER_04So I'm curious what you would say if you were to turn now to some other people, right? Some other people listening, right? And and just say, like, what is the sort of person that you would encourage to take a step towards um maybe working with the alliance and international work? What does that person look like?
SPEAKER_00I mean, the first thing that came to my mind is the the simple um the simpleness of understanding that it's even a viable option. Again, going back to you know, working with junior high and high school students and even elementary school, we always, oh, what do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher, a doctor, uh, you know, firefighter, you know, there's these these typical things. But even within the church and in our Christian environments, um, do we do we talk about, you know, that there's pastors and there's international workers and that it's it's actually possible, you know, that you can work um for your church in other places and other avenues. And so a lot of it is just having those conversations and normalizing um ministry for for that younger generation and normalizing colleges that you know support your faith and different different ways to get um educated. You know, we live in such a digital world and online worlds, um, good and bad, but there's so many opportunities out there for people.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I think for me, um I feel like we maybe put the idea of international work on a pedestal a little bit too much because there is, I would argue that working at a big sandy camp is international work. You know, serving within the context of the local church, it's international work. Uh being in your city and walking across the street to love your neighbor well, it's international work. And all of these different things that we have opportunities to do, I mean, we are all called. Every one of us are called to be able to engage in in the Great Commission. And we are not, there's nothing special about us.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh, we're so normal. We're meanfully normal.
SPEAKER_03And and so, you know, for people to realize that it's not it's not us, it's Christ in us. Am I right? So it's we don't we don't have any special maybe training or anything else. We just have simply sought to live our lives in a way where we take the right next step. I've been a facilities manager and a custodian and a director of building and grounds. I've worked at a goodwill and delivered pizza for dominoes, you know. I've done and I can look back and trace through all of those experiences, uh, even before entering vocational ministry here at Little Falls, uh, God's hand and how he has prepared and given opportunity uh to do international work in the context of Acts 1.8, you know, our Jerusalem and our Judea and our Samaria. And yeah, even to the ends of the earth. And so I guess it comes down to uh are we willing to say yes to Jesus in in whatever it is that he's asking us to trust him with? And that could look a hundred million different ways.
SPEAKER_00But just take the next step.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And it's just posturing our lives in a way where where we're willing to say yes to that invitation, whether it's talking to somebody that we work with or are on our sports team, or or we're willing to say yes to go and and attend that college or work that job and yeah, and maybe go on that short, short-term trip. Those are huge. The ability for us to get out of our comfort zone. You know, our district superintendent is fond of saying all the time that all growth is found on the far side of discomfort. And I preach that to our youth and to our students and to our people, and that just does not go for young people. Uh, look at how many folks uh of any age have something to offer. And so for us to be able to see and and and look at, and we're we're blessed to be able to have interacted with a number of other people throughout this process right now who are also saying yes in some way, shape, or form and preparing to go. And they are aged anywhere from early 20s all the way on up to retirement years, because they're continuing to posture their lives in a way where they say yes and they believe that they still have something to offer, not on account of them, but on account of what Jesus has done in them and continues to do. And so the work isn't done, the race isn't over. And I guess anyone who's considering at this point, uh, you know, just just what are you willing to say yes to? You know, what are you willing to say yes and are you willing to live in obedience? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I think uh you remind me of reminded of what you said a little earlier where you're talking about that that concept of the next right thing, right? That it wasn't about finding a calling with a vision of a of a person that you recognize standing in a city that you recognize and being like, that's where I gotta go. But it's, you know, Jesus has made a way and he's called us to come into that way and follow him. And there's a lot of stuff to do in that way. There's a lot of people to love along the way. There's a lot of uh opportunity for patience and forgiveness along the way. There's a lot of drawing people into the journey with you along the way. And and that's kind of what I'm hearing you say is that heart is really the thing that matters. And if you're willing to say yes to the next right thing that Jesus asks you to do along the way, then just realize that this is as much an option for you as anything. Absolutely. Um, so when you're thinking about developing healthy, robust partnerships with local churches that are gonna be part of sending you, what are you looking for?
SPEAKER_00Ooh. I would somehow s in some ways put that back onto the church congregations a little bit of what are they looking for? And to maybe rethink a little bit how we've developed relationships with international workers of um, you know, a lot of times it's oh, they're you know, they're gone for four years and they come back for a year and let's, you know, get them for a weekend or get them for a a sermon uh when when they're back. And um, there's there can be so much. More with that. And so it's really thinking outside of our normal box to being able to have that partnership be two-way. Um, and so it's not um about whether it was Dave Manske or somebody said it really, really good where um to not send your international workers away. We're not sending away, we're we're just sending um for the time being. And so keeping that partnership and um we don't 100% know exactly what that is going to look like with our sending church here in Little Falls. We're working that out since we do have, you know, another seven or eight months while we're still here. But I'm excited. I'm excited um, you know, to not say, all right, we'll see you, we'll see you in four years, but you know, we'll see you in videos, we'll see you in maybe scripture readings, we'll see you in our updates, we'll see you when you send um, you know, short-termers or or other people to us and and we can collaborate that way. And it's more of um, you know, if when a church partners with an international worker, let's say that worker is in Ecuador, it's that we want that church to feel like they are doing ministry in Ecuador, not oh, our international workers are down there. No, we are. Our church is um, because now that you know we we are leaving our community, we can't do our Jerusalem, our Judea, and the ends of the earth all at one time. We are leaving our Jerusalem and we're doing to the ends of the earth, and so we need to partner with our Jerusalem and our Judea just as much as they need to partner with the ends of the earth. God created that for that partnership, knowing that one person can't do it all. And so we have to stay connected in order to make those three things happen.
SPEAKER_03Preach it, sister.
SPEAKER_04That's really good. What's what's one encouragement that you give to a local mobilizer? Don't give up.
SPEAKER_03There are so many ways that God is working in the hearts of people that we don't even see, and we don't know what the Lord is up to. And so continue to press in and continue to to just just do what you're passionate about doing and invite people into partnership. And we don't know, you know, it's kind of like I'm not a fisherman, okay. I don't I don't like watching. We're gonna do a fishing analogy. I'm gonna do a fishing analogy. I don't like I think Garfield, okay. I'm good with fishing. Okay, I'm not a fisherman, but you know what? You sometimes need to pass that line an awful lot in order to get a bite. Uh, am I right? But the important thing is, and we can break this a horrible analogy, actually. But you know what? It's fine. Let's roll with it for the time being. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Fair rolling.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, you you just sometimes it takes time, right? But in that time, look what God is doing. And it takes, it takes experiences for people. Uh, and I would say press into the short-term opportunities because look what the short-term opportunities did in me. We have folks, former IWs in our church, who said, you know, we've been praying for years for someone to go. We didn't think it was gonna be our associate pastor and his wife, but you just don't know. But out of that same 2023 trip, you know, it's cool, Peter. I've got two seniors this year who are both pressing into and saying yes to Jesus in pursuit of IW work. And so uh again, you just don't know uh what the Lord is gonna do. And knowing both of their stories and what God brought them to and through and out of, it's like you would have never thought in a million years that that was going to be who said yes. And yet here they are saying yes. And so uh I would just say keep on pressing on, you know, keep up the good fight and and continue to pray for your people. Pray for your people because it's the Holy Spirit that's going to change hearts and motivate hearts. Uh, it's not us in our own humanness.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03So good.
SPEAKER_04Well, Laura and Chris, thank you so much. This was really great. I really enjoyed getting to chat with you and such good words and challenges to follow Jesus wherever he leads, to not make it a spectacle. I hear in you both such a desire to just make it about him and and loving those around you. Um, a good word for all of us. So thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Peter.