Changes Ahead!

There are big changes in store for us this year and we are excited to share the details of the huge decision we made. After a year of praying and seeking counsel we finally made the decision to pack up our home and move to Martinsville, VA to help plant a new church. This wasn’t exactly on our radar screen when we started 2014 … We have come to love our community, friends, church family, small group and life here in NC; we are quite comfortable here; and in many ways we thought we’d live here forever. While we were in the midst of praying about the opportunity in Martinsville, our pastor put out a challenge asking the congregation if our “Yes” was on the table. He challenged us to trust God and follow his leading in our lives, and be willing to follow, even if it might make us uncomfortable. “Is your ‘yes’ on the table, before you know exactly what you are saying ‘yes’ to?” So, all 6 of us in our family decided to accept this challenge (one night we even wrote “yes” on white index cards and laid them on the dining room table), and the result was a firm conviction that God was leading us to go to Martinsville.

There are so many unknowns that we face as we prepare to sell our house, and move to a place we’ve only ever just visited. We need your prayers for this mission! By the way, you can visit www.missionmartinsville.com and sign up to receive updates and partner with us in prayer. As you can imagine, we are endeavoring to fully rely on God even though we are nervous about the unknowns of moving to a new community. We are walking in faith and would love for you to pray for us as we go on this journey!

We are certain that we are yielding to God’s will for our family even though we know that moving and planting a new church will be full of challenges. We are expecting God’s grace and mercy to cover us through the challenges. We are certain that as you partner with us to pray – that your prayers will make a difference. The reason that we are selling our house, uprooting our family, and moving (to a place I never even knew existed before 2014) is because we believe God is calling us to be missionaries in Martinsville. We are going because God has called us to go and we are relying on him as we enter the unknown.

Rich will continue to serve in his various teaching positions, including Assistant Professor of Apologetics and Theology at Liberty University Baptist Theological Seminary while also serving as one of the Pastors / Elders of the church in Martinsville. 

I will be sharing more with you about this mission as we begin preparations to move to Martinsville. We have a lot to do in the next few months to get ready!