The Calling, Chapter I

By Nate...
I think this is a good opportunity to write a little history.  Right now we just got back from the Mercy Ships US headquarters, and are getting ready to begin raising support to get "on board" with them, but where did that come from?  What brought that on?  Just last June Cecilia and I were successful in our careers; saving, working, spending time with our friends, and enjoying all that the summer has to offer in our little town in upstate New York.  Now we're virtually homeless, jobless, and our close friends are all hundreds of miles away.  This is all self-inflicted punishment.  We signed on for all this.
So what happened? 
Well, simply put, God called.  I trust you will stick with me on this journey, because there are a few parts that I want to write.  It won't all come at once, but in chapters.  I hope you enjoy this little story, because I have loved the living of it, and also the writing.

"Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion."

Hebrews 3:15

In Texas

It's Nate...
I'm here in Texas.  Everything's bigger in Texas, so they say.  I've found that all is just about normal.  The oversized people, bugs, and animals must be in a different part of the state, because here the biggest creature I've found was an orange cat that came out to cheer for us when we were playing frisbee in a field.  We fittingly named it Garfield. He was huge.

We came to check out an organization called Mercy Ships. It's home base is here in Garden Valley in the tall trees and near the deep lakes of this Eastern part of the lone star state.  We're here to pray and seek God. We're here to find our specific calling, and we're here to find out if this organization has a place for us.  If you are a praying person, please join us.  It turns out we found many answers to our questions, and other questions still remain.  All I know is that we have taken the next step of faith to seek our life in ministry.  What I know now is that we are not alone.  So many people have taken the week out of their schedule to come and find out about this ministry too.  There's about 40 of us. I'm in the presence of many who are in the same boat, paddling through an ocean, riding the waves, and wondering if the little leaks that appear are anything to worry about, or all part of the fun.  Faith has a scary way of making a reasonable man do unreasonable things in obedience to a wonderful Lord.