I was the little girl that dreamed of being nothing more than a stay at home Mom. Seems crazy in our day in age, but my dream came true times 4 as I have two sons and two daughters. It has been a blessing raising them and although I’ve worn many hats throughout the years I never thought “missionary mom” would be one of them.

My journey to this point surprises me still. I think it will always be a good story to tell and a reminder to others that you never know God’s plans for your life or your children’s but if you trust in him the plans will be better than you ever dreamed of for yourself.

Now, I was surprised to be a homeschool mom and that connects to this story so I mention it. I’ve managed to graduate three of my four children and never thought that would happen (me homeschooling them that long, not that they graduated!). This child, my second son, that would make me a missionary mom though, he is the one that society worries about. You know the “stay at home, does not like to talk to others, would rather hang out with his family than anyone else” child. Not to say we did not push him out of the house into all kinds of activities and events. He is not lacking, but in the end he preferred to just be home…. sheltered, but not. Home was his quiet place where he could be anyone he wanted to be.

So when, in 2013, I read about Teen Missions and the amazing summer trips they offered I talked about them to him. You see he dreamed of becoming a zoo keeper since he was young and Steve Irwin was someone that he loved. That makes going to Australia a bucket list “some day” item. And here, on Teen Missions he could cross that off at the young age of 14!

Now, he had experienced week long summer camps which grew his courage to be in the world and know he could survive without his family. Did I really think he would say yes to an 8 week mission trip? Was I crazy to even suggest it? I’m not sure how he said yes, but in the fall of 2013 he signed up to go for 2014 and had to start raising over $5000 to make the trip happen. This would mean he would have to talk to people…. lots of people and leave me… er, our family for 8 weeks.

God provided abundantly as those in our lives got behind him 100% and he quickly raised all his needed support. Drop off day in Merritt Island came much to fast and his journey began. To say the summer was amazing wouldn’t be totally true. He missed us and normal life greatly. Boot camp (two weeks of preparing the teens for the field in Florida) was hard.

Now, we can only communicate with our teens through snail mail and two phone calls. One before they leave the country and one when they get back. But these phone calls would be the ones that would start to prepare my heart for my son going into the mission field.

The first phone call I asked if he would do Teen Missions again (remember, he hasn’t left for Australia yet, just finished boot camp). He responded with a quick and strong “No!”. But he was enjoying himself and looking forward to Australia.

The phone call once back into country he shared two things with me. First “God is not calling me to be a zoo keeper, I don’t know what it is yet, but it’s not that.” Second “He is clearly calling me to go to Vanuatu with Teen Missions in 2015.”

And that started our families journey with Teen Missions and Caleb’s path toward following God’s calling into the mission field. There certainly is more to share especially since we are 5 years after this story began, but I’ll save that for another post.