“God, I will do anything You want me to do.” This would be the perfect prayer, if only it wasn’t followed by “. . . except for becoming a missionary!” Yes, this was an actual prayer that I prayed many times. Growing up as a missionary child, I was overwhelmed by the requirements of such a lifestyle: moving far away from your home as a teenager, losing your friends, your home and your church and becoming the only Adventist in the entire school (or city, as a matter of fact). This is not exactly a piece of cake. Not the one I was planning to eat, anyway!

Later in my life, I discovered that I was not alone. While I had a pretty good idea about what I never wanted to be, my future husband knew exactly what he wanted to be—a doctor. He was putting all his effort and passion into achieving that goal, preparing intensively for medical school, when God suddenly called him to switch his focus from healing bodies to healing souls.

Both of us struggled with God’s call. Many times, like Jonah, we tried to go in a different direction. But after eight years of missionary work in Romania and Ukraine, we actually got to the point that we enjoyed what we were doing. Now we are preparing to go to Georgia, Eastern Europe, for the next eight to ten years, and guess what? We are excited about it!

Until recently we thought of our life and ministry as changing people’s hearts. But we were surprised to find out that this work has changed our hearts, too, and we cannot go back to our old life. This process was slow and sometimes painful, but it was amazing. And we will share our journey with you in these pages as we move forward following God. Please join us in prayer as we ask for His guidance in reaching the Georgian people.

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