Monday, October 18, 2010

10 Years

This Thursday, October 21st, will be our 10 year wedding anniversary.  I was talking with a friend this morning who asked me if, 10 years ago, I ever thought I'd be living on the mission field in Honduras.  Laughing outloud I said "oh no, that wasn't even a blip on the radar."  Brian was working full time at Carr Chevrolet and I worked full time at Starr Wood Cardiac Group.  Between the 2 of us we were making (just barely) a 6 figure income.  We had date nights once or twice a month to Ruth's Chris or some other expensive restaurant.  We had a nice house that we were beginning to remodel exactly the way we wanted it.  Michael Anthony turned 3 shortly after we got married and Brian James was on the way.  Our plan was to keep doing what we were doing, buy nice things, and live our cozy life in Beaverton.

Our plan was definitely not God's plan.  The first 4 years of our marriage were pretty rocky.  Brian was not saved and there were many nights I would lie in bed wondering what I had done.  When I would pray I would tell God "when I asked You if I should call Brian you told me this would be okay.  Well it's not, so You need to make it okay."  I prayed for God to work in Brian's heart and for Brian to be saved.  And on December 19, 2004, the Holy Spirit did just that.  Brian came home from church, frantically explaining the message Pastor Steve had preached and how he could see everything so clearly now, that he had to decide to follow Christ with everything he had. 

My prayers had been answered and I was overjoyed.  Now the life I pictured in my head could come true!  Our happy little family going to church together every Sunday, our kids in Sunday school, going to church picnics and get togethers.  I had this picture perfect image of the Christian family I wanted in my head and now that Brian was saved it was going to happen!

For the first year and a half that seemed to be what was happening.  We were in discipleship with Mike and Karen Shelley, Brian couldn't get enough of scripture - the renewing of his mind was non stop.  We went to church every Sunday, the annual picnic and church campout.  Brian got involved in men's bible study and volunteering with Bridgetown.  I attended a women's tea one year and heard Beth Ferrell speak about her amazing life in Indonesia.  I remember coming home and saying "can you even imagine having that kind of life?"  Not that I had any intention of becoming a missionary, it just sounded so cool.

Then in the summer of 2006 Brian went on his first short term mission trip to Honduras.  When he returned he said he felt as if he was being called to over seas missions...excuse me?  That wasn't part of the plan.  Uh, no, not for me thanks.  I liked my cozy life in Beaverton.  Moving to another country to serve God?  Why would we need to do that?  We were serving God right there, right where we were.

Long story short, here we are, celebrating our 10 year anniversary in Honduras.  My mom told me that if I could ever make a marriage last for 10 years, we could make it forever.  So we wanted to do something special to celebrate.  We first thought about going to Mexico, then to Vegas.  Costa Rica?  France?  Okay, that one was a joke...come on, we're missionaries now, no longer do we have a 6 figure income.  We finally settled on a destination, here in Honduras.  Wednesday we will hop on a Hedman Alas bus at 5:45 in the morning and head for the island of Roatan.  Brian will be doing some diving, we've got a moonlit horseback ride planned for Friday.  Friends from the last Bridgetown group blessed us with some extra money so we can do some of those nice dinners like we used to, and then Sunday we'll head back to Tegucigalpa.

Ten years.  Wow.  I wonder what God has planned for the next 10.

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