Our Call
"Is God changing your ministry?"
In the fall of 2003, I (Paul) received a phone call late at night inviting me as a speaker for the CCI/Mexico National Convention in Tampico, Mexico. CCI stands for Christian Camping International.
It was an unusual experience and seemed like a "burning bush" reminiscent of the story of Moses when he was tending his sheep in the desert and minding his own business. Though the request was for a single event, it felt like there was something more to it. As funds were raised to go to Mexico, one of our supporters wrote a note asking, "Is God changing your ministry?"
My immediate thought was, "NO!" But keep reading and see the events that continued to unfold.
In 2005, Roxanne and I helped lead a group of LTD intern students from Camp Forest Springs on a two-week trip through Mexico visiting CCI-member Christian camps and doing a work project at the El Monte Ministry Center in Ticuman, Mexico.
Past LTD staff Ed and Debbie Somerville (1985) were missionaries there working to begin a new Christian camping ministry in Mexico. It was great to have LTD graduates in the field give a living example of all that the current LTD staff had been studying that year.
In the fall of 2005, our son Kyle and I attended the CCI/Mexico National Convention in Oaxaca, Mexico. A few days were planned at El Monte to plan an upcoming family sabbatical there. It was on this trip that I realized the "burning bush" I had experienced earlier was God leading toward El Monte. I emailed home about it and we began to pray and ask God what He wanted in regard to our future ministry there.
As a family we spent a month-long sabbatical in 2006 to help the missionaries developing the new El Monte Ministry Center. The experiences of spending a month with the missionaries confirmed what God was doing. Through that trip and many more (almost daily) experiences, we have sensed the Lord's call to become foreign missionaries working full-time in this effort.
...So you might say that "our call" came with a literal phone call late that evening in the fall of 2003.
