After graduating (Sol with a nursing degree and me as a pastor), it was clear that we had to be missionaries in places unreached by the gospel. We quit our jobs and sold everything, even without a call yet.

Even so, it was not our intention to stray from God’s plan for our lives or to go into missions stubbornly. It became particularly hard when we received that call.

“Hello, Cristian. We want you to come to our Conference and work with us as a pastor here in Argentina. You have a few days to decide, or we will look for someone else.”

Was that what God wanted for us? I loved pastoral work, but what about our sensing a call to be missionaries?

Still our answer was ready. “Thank you for the opportunity, but we believe God has called us to serve as missionaries to unreached countries.” We didn’t even know about AFM yet.

After we hung up, my wife and I struggled. We needed to know we had made the right decision and were not rejecting God’s call.

We contacted a godly friend with much experience. His advice went straight to our hearts: “The decision you just made will cause you to lose many things, but it will also bring you other gains. If God placed the call to be a missionary in your heart, you will gain more than you lose.”

That was seven years ago.

I’m not a pastor in my country, and my wife no longer works in the hospital. We left family and other things behind, but none of that compares to all we have gained by serving the unreached: myself a pastor to the beautiful Pnong people, my wife developing her talents at the school, and together witnessing the first Adventist church-planting movement in Pnong history.

Choosing to be a missionary can feel like a huge sacrifice. It is. Only those who experience it know it’s totally worth it. “You gain much more than you lose.”
We would not trade it for anything. Thank you, Jesus.

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