As we’ve crossed over into our 20th year as home missionaries, the reality that there’s no going back has hit us pretty hard. And, when I say hard, I mean, it’s hit us as an undeniable fact. Doug won’t be retiring from a tech job. He will be retiring from the mission field.

That’s a strange reality. We didn’t know we were making a career choice when we took this on. We didn’t know we were making a lifetime commitment. We thought we were taking advantage of an opportunity to do something new for the Lord – just until He opened the door to Doug’s next job.

That’s just how it had always gone for him. Doug went from making photo copies at Kinko’s to a management position with Verizon. In between he spent a few years teaching software applications and then was offered a job by one of his students, which began his career in pre-press. God opened every door. His career was full of the favor of God, and we thanked God always for providing. Looking back, I think He was teaching us then that He was our Provider.

So, when he was part of the greatest layoff by a US corp, I wasn’t worried. I knew God had his next job waiting, because He’d proven that Doug just had to trust Him. God would open the next door, and Doug would walk through it into a better position than his previous one. This was an established pattern.

It just never occurred to me that this mission field was the better position. It wasn’t even a real job. God had to blind us to the whole picture. We wouldn’t have believed our eyes.

He told us to come to the edge of the cliff, our former life, and we thought standing there was enough. We didn’t know God was only pausing. The full command was, “Come to the edge; now, jump!”

Even then, we only saw this as a little adventure, something to do while we waited to go back to our real life. We thought his next best job was just around the corner.

Well, 20 years later, I guess we were right. This was God’s next best job for Doug. I don’t know what God has ahead of us this year, but I can tell you we see the work before us and know this is our opportunity to work as hard as we can. Some of our 38-year-old selves needs to rise up and energize us like it did in 2004. We need to gear-up and tighten our belts and brace ourselves for whatever we may be facing in 2025. If you would hold Doug in prayer, I’d really appreciate it. I’m just the cheerleader, but he has to actually face the giants.

We serve a very good God, who has walked with us everyday, and I am trusting Him concerning this new year. I’m looking forward to what may be ahead of us, but I know we’ll both be blessed to just get to do the same work we’ve been doing , but to do it better—hopefully, without hospital stays or ER visits or disabled backs or cars dying on the side of the highway.

Please, pray for this to be a powerful, that is, effective, year of ministry, for God’s protection and provision and uncompromising ministry.

God bless you!

❤️