Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

Kathi: I've found myself wondering lately "How is everything going to fit together?". This whole process so far has been a true testimony of God's provision and guidance to us. Looking back over the last 5 years of my life, I am astounded at how God fit all these strange pieces together to form this path for me to walk on. Of course at the time, I had no idea what I was doing, and, honestly, I feel like that now. There are so many random "pieces" floating around me right now. Recently, Kevin and I have had to ponder issues concerning starting a family. My thoughts turn to the reality of support raising, of moving several times, of being away from family, and of when our own family may begin. I find myself asking once again: Lord, how are you going to do all this?

That is the beauty and mystery of God's touch. We don't know how He's going to do it; we just know that He will. And that it probably won't look much like how we imagined it to be. It will of course be much better.

Kevin: It's official now. We sent our applications off to Greater Europe Mission yesterday! It only took us five months to get it done. Seriously. It was a long application. We had to answer about twelve questions as a part of a biographical sketch. These aren't exactly yes or no type questions either. Then we also had a fifteen question doctrinal statement that we had to complete. Did I mention Kathi and I each had to do our own? I think our combined finished applications numbered around thirty pages. It's not that we're complaining though. Thank the Lord that they are really concerned about the right people getting into the field. The problem is that Kathi and I tend to be wordy. Hence five months and thirty pages.

The next step in the application process now is completing some psychological evaluations. It's at this point that Greater Europe Mission discovers that Kathi and I are crazy. Well, better that they find out now.

Kevin: Well, it got a lot more real for me on Friday. I threw in the towell with Trinity. I quit my job. As of August 10th, I will no longer have any association with Trinity International University. It's actually kind of scary. This is the first irreversible decision that we've had to make on our path as missionaries. Up until this point, it's been casual exploration. Now it's serious. We're really going forward with this.

Please be praying for us. There is still so much more that needs to happen before we actually set foot in Germany. I have to finish school (which is keeping me quite busy right now). We have to do candidate orientation in June. And, then there's supporting raising after that. Pray we would continue to be attentive to God's direction throughout this process.

Kevin: On the application for Greater Europe Mission we're required to indicate the church that is sending us out to the field. We value so much this idea of a church family equipping and sending people out as missionaries (Acts 11:19-30). The problem has been that Kathi and I find ourselves in a state of flux when it comes to our church home. Kathi grew up in a small country church in Dellroy, Ohio, but she hasn't been a regular attender there for more than eight years. I came to know the Lord in college, so I've bounced from a number of churches as my situation in life changed. Up until we got married, I had spent the last four years serving at an Evangelical Free Church in Libertyville, Illinois.

When we got married, we decided that we wanted to find a church home together. To our amazement, we quickly found a home at Vineyard Community Church in Libertyville. But, since we have only been at this church for nine months, we struggled to decide which church should send us into the field.

Initially, we were planning on asking the Vineyard to be our sending church, but recently we have been developing a vision for how we could minister to churches as missionaries. In the Intercultural Missions class I'm taking this semester at Trinity, I've learned that a missionary's ministry is actually two-fold: first to the people to whom you're sent, but also to those who sent you. We became excited at the possibility of being able to further the Kingdom by sharing our missions vision with local congregations!

With this in mind, the church Kathi grew up in provides us with a wonderful opportunity to do just that. This church has only recently begun supporting missionary efforts, and they have never sent out missionaries from their congregation. By God's grace, we could have an impact in this church by providing people with a vision of the work the God is doing in this world. But, the possibilities don't end there. We are seeing how we could develop a network of rural supporting churches that we could minister to through our service in the mission field. We're really excited about this other half of missionary ministry.

Kevin: The possibility of us becoming missionaries goes back several months. We were recently married this summer, and we were wrestling with where our next steps should be. Both of us have been working in jobs we don't necessarily feel called to long term. After exploring some options on the internet, we came across Greater Europe Mission, and we were impressed with what we saw. We contacted the mission, and they told us that they have a church-planting ministry starting in Cologne. Well, this made me very excited because I had lived in Cologne for a time. So, we jumped into this opportunity at full speed.

After some of the excitement died down, both of us started to question what our real motivations for wanting to be missionaries. For Kathi, it was a question of calling. She has known for a long time that she was called to ministry, and she has even received direction toward European missions. But, she wonder whether she was actually following God's call or just following me.

For me, I really struggled with why I wanted to be a missionary. For awhile I thought that I was pursuing this simply because I wanted to live in Cologne. After exploring this, I saw that that was not the case. In my heart, I really would have gone anywhere. Then it occurred to me that my motivation was at least partially escapist. I just wanted to get away from the tepid Christianity that I've been experiencing here in the States. I'm kind of a like the green 18-year old wanting to go to war in order to capture glory. It was a hard question, but I asked myself, "do you want to go because you love the lost?" Ouch.

Well, those doubts made us second guess any inclination we had to be missionaries. So, we sought the Lord through fasting and prayer. What we heard from Him was that He is greater than any of our motivations, and He can purify our hearts if He chooses to send us. Since that time, He has been giving us direction toward the mission field. He has also begun to purify our hearts as well. Kathi is seeing that her calling to minister can be fulfilled in Cologne. God has been renewing in me a heart for those who don't know Him and an excitement for working in the harvest field.

And so, here we are. We're about to embark on this journey, and we're scared to death. We know that we have no idea what we're getting into. But, we trust God that He will be with us at every step. Who are we to be missionaries? With that attitude in mind, we've made 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 our mission verse:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that you faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.