Being a missionary is hard work and a often a series of spiritual battles. But we can’t support our missionaries well if we don’t know what they’re going through. Read on for a glimpse into the life of a missionary couple and some of the struggles they work to overcome.
By Ryan McCullough, Europe Missions
On a hot evening in spring, our air conditioner had kicked on outside our bedroom window and woke me up in the middle of the night. I wasn’t able to fall back asleep after that, not because of the noise, but because God was calling me, and I told him I was willing to be a missionary. That ceiling above me that seemed to repel my prayers over the past months was breaking like the sweat on my forehead. My defenses were falling like my tears – one by one in silent submission.
My wife, Angela, had known from childhood that she would be a missionary someday. Other missionaries and mentors encouraged us to pursue it, but I had shrugged them off. Now, I was convinced it was time to go. We no sooner pressed into Jesus for direction about what country he wanted us to go to than he gave us a hard turn to navigate. He revealed, through a miraculous fulfillment of a vision, that we were being prepared to pour our lives into a local church plant.
Two of them, actually … but in the United States, not overseas. Saying no to this opportunity would have been disobedience. As we faithfully served in those churches and had some huge victories and brutal disappointments, I still remembered that promise I had made God. I would go if he said “go.” No questions asked.