What Inspired The Writing Journey?
The reason and vision for the writing journey includes you!
The writing journey for us began when we said yes to the call of God on our life to go into the un-reached places and share His love and plan of salvation for them! He wrote His word and plans on our heart as a family, numbered our steps, and so we obeyed and went. Now it's time for us to share the journey of what He has written and is continually writing over the people's hearts in front of us every day! Father God inspired us by sending His son. You said we inspired you in our going.
Now we are inspired with vision to share all we have learned so that you will have courage and faith to go everywhere He leads.
Let's Start At The Beginning
Carla and I met in 1997 at Grand Canyon University over a game of pool. The details of that pool match are for another post🤪. The bottom line is I was behind the eight ball in life so to speak and God in his incredible love said look up and see your future! With in months Carla and I had began a courtship that led to marriage and next year we will celebrate 25 years of life in Christ together!
Maybe Carla will write on her side of that story sometime. I'm just touching on all this part of our lives because it includes the vision for us going on this writing journey. During our two year courtship half of that time was engagement as well. I knew she would be my wife before I knew her last name! I mean God revealed it to me, as I really don't know much. One of the things we loved to do most was walk around the campus and ask each other questions that needed a true, honest, and vulnerable answer.
One thing we were sure of was that we would be a couple on mission, and probably in the mission field. I don't want to steal her story, but Carla has known she would be serving others in the health field since she was four or five years old. I had been called to missions with two heavenly, earth shattering, God encounters in my late teens.
Fast forward 15 years, two miscarriages, multiple businesses, a church plant, and a lot of future blog posts and we were still living in Phoenix, Arizona with our three little boys, and still not in the mission field! Have you ever begun to feel like God has forgotten you? That's where we were at. Our heart's were restless for the deeper things of God and what we saw in the bible, especially in the book of Acts. We had begun the process of discipling our boys on hearing the voice of God for themselves.
Tobiah and Jaidan were already experiencing and remembering God given dreams. The music missionary ministry was taking off, and I had released my second album 'When Love Compels'.
Carla had been working as a director at two large non-profit palliative care organizations. Due to the engagement with people at the concerts and music ministry coupled with Carla serving the sick and dying weekly our hearts began burning for the missions call to come to fruition. Carla's parents passed away close together of similar things and she was bedside in both instances. This prompted her more to want to head back to the nursing side of her calling and a longing to help those who couldn't find help while dying.
This all came to a head around 2014 when we discovered a missionary named Tracy Evans. She was serving the people of Central Mozambique and her vision was the same as Carla had pictures all those years before walking around Grand Canyon University together. We felt peace together that it was time to reach out to I Reach Africa Ministry.
Around this time, we began challenging our boys with questions like, "What would you feel if God asked you to move to another country?" The boys began to pray about that and discuss with us over dinner on certain nights. Tracy responded to our email and invited Carla out for a visit to explore what God might be saying to them and us. A year later on February 28, 2015 we landed as a family in Mozambique!
In the current typing of this post my wife, I, and the three boys are still serving in a small remote village somewhere in the North of Moz. Well, at least for a few more months. Our oldest son Tobiah will be moving back to the states in the middle of the year😭!
Our Village
Going on ten years here in this incredibly beautiful and challenging land has been the inspiration for us to write and share about what we have learned from God in the journey.
Thank you for following along, sharing your questions and thoughts, and encouraging us to continue on!
Want to learn more about Compelled Ones Mission? Check it out here