From misbehaving to missionary Part 7
My wife and I moved down to Vision Baptist Church and the Our Generation Training Center in June, 2015. I was committed to doing a one year internship and then starting deputation after that. I was required to read several books and also attend a weekly missions, round-table class. I loved going to class on Fridays and hearing from and talking with missionaries in all different walks of life. The great thing about the training center is normally there are people in all different levels of missions. You have those training to go, those who are on deputation, those about to finish up deputation, those who finished language studies and are about to start a church, those who have started their first church and looking to start more and then those who have started multiple churches! It is great to sit and ask questions and learn from these great men of God. Pastor Austin Gardner, who was a missionary for 20 years in Peru, also teaches and answers many of the questions asked because God used him greatly in Peru and is continuing to use him as he trains men to go to the field! Once we moved down, I wanted to get involved in ministries but there were not a lot of openings at the time. I realized the area we are in is multi-cultural and I learned how to teach English as a second language in college. I asked if we could start an ESL ministry in the church and we were allowed to do so. I started to promote it and was excited to be able to teach people from all over the world English and then share the Gospel with them and try to plug them into our church! My wife became involved as well, and I taught her the basics of how to teach her class. Little did I know how God was moving and working and was going to use this ministry in our lives to direct us to the country of Turkey! Also, shortly after starting this ministry the door opened for my wife and I to take the children’s Sunday school class! I was thrilled because I love teaching children and was looking forward to getting involved! God used this ministry to help teach me many things but the biggest thing I learned was how to teach and train others to work in kids ministry. It was not easy at first because I wanted to have my hands in everything and wanted things to run smoothly, but I soon learned that if I was to teach and train others I had to let them get involved, make mistakes and grow! This was valuable training for me as I will be doing the same type of training when we get to Turkey! It was really exciting to see how God worked in the young men’s lives we were training and see them go from very green to God continuing to use them now as they serve and teach in the children’s ministry! It is amazing what a great God we serve and how He uses things in our lives to draw us closer to Him but also direct our paths!