Our Big Announcement: Mission Family

“While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:2-3). 

August 29th will be 7 years since Anna

and I have been married. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were actually supposed to get married on the 28th but Hurricane Irene had another plan, but that’s a whole other blog that I’ll let Anna write. 

Anyway, we got married, went on our honeymoon for almost a week, came back to Boston and began our drive down to Northeast Georgia to begin our formation year as Life Teen missionaries. After the completion of the formation year, we moved to Haiti with our newborn son and several other missionaries, to start Life Teen’s mission base in Haiti and to implement Life Teen youth ministry in parishes. 

The original plan was to stay for 2 years but here we are almost 6 years later. Like Barnabas and Saul, after much prayer and fasting, we hear the Lord calling us to a new mission. 

Yes, we are leaving Haiti and it is bittersweet. Haiti is all Anna and I have known as home together. We’ve had most of our firsts here: our first family vacation, our kids first steps, their first day of school, etc. In Haiti I built my first dining room table for our house. Basically, we’re not just leaving Haiti but we’re moving away from home. 

Moving is not easy especially when it involves leaving behind a mission that you have given your life to and your family has sacrificed so much for. But as missionaries, you have to be able to discern when the Lord calls you to something and when he calls you away from something, or rather when he calls you to something else.

The Lord is calling us to “Mission Family” and this is where we get brutally honest. Every missionary knows that when someone asks how you’re doing or how the mission is, you just list all the amazing stuff that God is doing and rarely share the hard things. It is amazing and God has moved so much in the mission but there are many difficulties, too. 

For the past five and half years we have worked 6 days a week pouring ourselves out for sometimes 15 hour work days, as has every other missionary that has served here. Honestly, we are tired; joyful, but tired. Our marriage and children have suffered. We have experienced many highs, but have also had many dark days. This is why the Lord is saying: “Mission Family.” It is time to make our family our primary mission in a new way, to pour into our family and take care of our needs; to ensure that our call to missions first flows from our call to be Son and Daughter of God, Husband and Wife, Father and Mother and Missionary Disciple. God is calling us to work on our family and it is from there only that we can answer our missionary call. 

I don’t want to give the impression that it is impossible to be on mission as a family in a foreign country because that is far from the truth. However, being a family on mission does present its own unique challenges and it calls for the family to immediately put rules and boundaries in place. Upon arriving in Haiti we should have picked a time our day ends no matter what, kept family time sacred and communicated that to all. I should’ve made sure that happened. We eventually realized this and have attempted to live it out. 

“Mission Family” is possible in Haiti but we still need a time of recuperation. We will still be on mission and serving Haiti in many ways but we will be in a place where we can step back and evaluate things in a different light. 

We have more details of “Mission Family” and what that looks like and we will share that in another blog. For now, please pray for us and this bittersweet transition. We love the Lord and we love Haiti. The past 5 and a half years have been a blessing and we have learned so much and we have grown so much. But we must now go to the work which He has called us (Acts 13:2).

All glory to God!

Paul