NTM

Our Full Story Why we are here in the first place!

God’s call on my heart for overseas missions began back in the 2007 summer months while Nate and I were very busy with our paintball business. As always, we continuously looked to the Lord for strength and guidance in our home, life and business, but still there was a nagging feeling in me that we needed a change. Of course, we were unaware of how drastic that would be. I blamed it all on stress and my lack of accomplishing the daily tasks at home. As the days passed, this strong sense of urgency continued. I searched the Bible, to press on in God’s Word for clear direction and guidance. 2 Corinthians 12:10 gave me a bit of peace as Paul in his writing, also found strength in Christ, “…For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Knowing full well that Nate and I needed to be on the same page as a couple, we began praying even more together for clear direction.
September arrived and still my desires and feelings to go were stronger than before and as I shared with Nate. With his passive attitude (again) blamed it on the amount of work and accompanying stress. With work slowing in the following months, the passion for God’s leading soared as my stress diminished. Nate began “bargaining” with God…setting “rules” and (what he thought were) unanswerable requests. His mind reassured him he was “safe”! This was the criteria Nate set, to know if this was of God and not because of his wife’s stress:
1. We need to be out of debt, which is preferred by NTM, to even have this as a possibility.
2. Our house, land, and business needed to sell.
Nate continued to doubt, but still left this all in the Lord’s hands. Looking for the “writing on the wall” (Daniel 5); he prayed that God would change his heart if this was to be our future calling.
January 2nd, Nate gave up 100% in addition with a few more requests:
~ God would have to sell our home, land and business without a realtor.
~ Nate desired that another Christian family would purchase it all to be used as an outreach like we had.
God made sure Nate was serious about the mission call on BOTH our lives, as two days later a gentleman in our church asked if Nate knew of any land for sale that he could start a business on. Nate quickly replied, “As a matter of fact, I don’t!” Knowing at that moment what God was doing, and having it begin to eat him up, Nate, finally, shared about our home, land and business. Uninterested, this man said, “Thank you, but no, we are not interested.” Feeling he received a clear confirmation from God, Nate felt relieved, in a way, until that evening. This gentleman called back expressing he and his wife’s desire to purchase it all and soon the agreement was signed. Falling through weeks later, frustration quickly set in for both of us. We were sure this was what God had drawn out for us, so why was He slamming the doors? Did He just want us to be willing?
Feeling let down, we moved on with preparing for the summer with the paintball shop. We had to keep going, yet, my feelings continued to “haunt” me at every turn. Why were they still so strong? Why didn’t Nate feel the same way? One night before bed, I bargained with Nate during devotions…“I’m going to see if God wants us to be missionaries overseas or not!” Knowing deep down, I have a small amount of insanity, Nate watched me as I closed my eyes, flipped through my Bible, and put my finger down on the first passage I came to: Isaiah 18:2b“…Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smoothed skinned, to a people feared far and wide; an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.” As I was reading, Nate was laughing and telling me to stop making that stuff up. I looked at him, gave him my Bible and had him read it for himself. At that point, I even thought I was being very immature. If I hadn’t had someone else there, I wouldn’t have believed it myself. I kid you not, I told Nate, I didn’t believe it, and if He could do it once He’d do it again. So, yes…I closed my eyes, flipped through my Bible and opened it up once again. I put my finger down, opened my eyes and read the first passage I came to: Matthew 9:35-37“.…Jesus went though all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’ ” By this time I could hardly read and Nate could hardly listen anymore….I went on to Matthew 10:5b-10.… “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do no take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or staff; for the worker is worth his keep.’ ”
I didn’t stop there that night, but I must now, otherwise I’ll start crying again. We could hardly believe what I was reading. We were both in awe of God’s power, as we have never experienced such clear direction. Nate looked at me that night and said, “No matter who buys this place, I hope you are ready for the ride!” Since that has happened, the same people came back and were still interested. Yes, they purchased the business, house, and land…. and everything closed on April 28, 2008.