A vital part of a missionary is his/her training. For me this means at least four years of college at Southeastern Seminary. I have officially completed the first year with 37 (after this summer class 40) hours towards my B.A. in Christian Studies and Humanities. Which I hope will give me a bit of a boost for the next three years of my education. I guess if I take 25-30 hours a year I'll have it done on time (I hope).
Another vital part of a missionary is their partners in ministry. There are many different kinds of partners that a missionary needs: prayer partners, financial partners, on-site ministry partners, just to name a few. But another kind of partner, one that I have found is a spouse. A Godly man who is souled out for overseas missions. Someone that I shall join with to spend the rest of our lives ministering for, worshiping, and glorifying the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This man, who proposed to me three weeks ago, is Jonathan Stout. The man I have prayed that God would bring into my life at the right time, in the right manner to join us together as one instrument for His service. He has show in countless ways through the last year that it is His will that Jonathan and I marry and do this.
One of the most recent way that He has very obviously shown this is through the events of the past three weeks. Jonathan has been waiting since January for a promotion at work which would support us financially. We had wanted to put off our engagement until he got the promotion, but he finally decided that if he did not have the job by the end of the school year we would step out in faith that God would provide for us and go ahead with the engagement. Three days before school was finished he proposed. The last day of school he was interviewed for the job. We then began to look at buying an engagement ring, budgeting and deciding what we could do and what we definitely could not do. We decided on something we could possibly squeeze out at this time, even if we had to cut back on some things. We bought the ring Saturday. Today, Monday, Jonathan got the call that he had gotten the job.
The way that God has made it extremely obvious about what we should do and that what we are doing is right and good is absolutely amazing! All praise for our relationship with each other, the love that we have for each other, and the commitment we have made to each other belongs to God alone! Never could we have ever been able to do this of our own will and power. Only by the God that we serve would our relationship be possible. Only by His great power and to His glory could our purity be upheld in this manner. I pray that God will continue to rain His blessings upon our relationship throughout the rest of our life.
1 Peter 1:8-9
