We're Leaving. We're Moving. On to New Adventures.

We're leaving Sacred Heart. We're moving to Dickinson, TX area. We're excited to start new adventures as a full time missionary family with Adore Ministries.

This was not in our plans. Missionary life was definitely not on the radar. We've always supported Adore by supporting a missionary and their purpose. I remember when we moved back to Texas I asked Erika out of the blue what were her thoughts on just the idea of joining Adore. I got a "No way", which was in reference to missionary life/fundraising a salary and not Adore itself. A year later, Adore specifically popped into Erika's prayer but nothing came of it. It was noted and we moved on.

This past January I hired Ennie Hickman to come speak to our catechists at our catechist appreciation dinner. Afterwards we caught up since we hadn't seen each other in a good while. Out of sheer curiosity I asked him what it was like for a family to go from a church salary position to missionary life. Overall he expressed how much more whole and fulfilling his marriage and family life had become. We had a long talk about mission life and the mission of Adore. I then went home, told Erika about the conversation and she replied, "I'm open to it. Let's set up a meeting." Wuh?!

We met with Adore a few times and then got serious. We were given a month to discern. At that point I was ready to go. A month? A whole month?! Let's do this now! But one of their strengths is their slow moving in decision making. They are very prayerful and intentional about what they do, where they go, and who they bring in. But, this was a huge time of growth for me. I was forced to actually stop and discern. A good friend of Erika's gave us some great things to think about: What if we were really called to mission work but not Adore? Had we looked at other missionary groups? What if we weren't called to missionary life? Had we looked into anything/anywhere else? Good questions. We also had advice given to us to imagine for 3-4 days that we had decided to say yes/had already been received into Adore and then 3-4 vice versa, what if we didn't join. How would we feel?

In the end, it was our prayer experiences that were the final kickers to our decision (Erika will share her experience in a guest post). For myself, I was praying in our chapel and reading Ralph Martin's The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints. I got to a point where it mentioned that St. Francis de Sales encouraged lay people to work up to an hour of prayer a day. I decided I was going to stay in there for an hour. Our church is Sacred Heart Catholic Church so naturally we had a Sacred Heart statue.This statue depicts Jesus with his exposed heart (no, his chest isn't busted open, his heart is just on the outside) and him pointing to it. I sat there and begged Jesus to tell me where he wanted me, where he wanted my family to be, what did he want us to do. I did not hear any voice but I had an overwhelming experience of Jesus telling me, "I want you right here, I want you where my heart is." Where's his heart? With the lost, down trodden and the poor. That is exactly where Adore's heart is. For the next couple weeks leading up to our decision date as far as I was concerned I was all in but I wanted to remain open so up until the second we were asked for our answer I was in discernment.

Since then I've been thinking about how I've arrived at this point and have been able to see how God has been grooming me for this. A large part of what Adore is about and does is community and living out Acts. I have been supported and have depended on others/community since college. When I was interning in Austin I lived with two families the two years I was there. When Erika started her masters degree we moved in with my parents so we wouldn't have to take out loans. When we moved to Colorado the parish I was at supplied our housing. We have been with my parents since moving back. And finally, and probably the most important has been the love and support of the Faith Formation Department staff at Sacred Heart. The three years we have been back in Texas have been very rewarding and very challenging. After our youngest daughter, Adeline, was born Erika was diagnosed with severe postpartum depression. There have been times where I have needed to head home to be with her. The staff has expressed with me over and over and has always followed through that if I ever needed to leave work, even in the middle of one of my own events, that I should and they would cover for me. The staff has been such a blessing and expression of real community and support.

It's bittersweet leaving Sacred Heart but we are very excited for our new adventure. Please, please, please keep us and the Sacred Heart youth ministry in prayer. If you'd like to learn more about Adore and where we'll be going and what we'll be doing and if you'd like to partner with us I'd love to get with you to talk about it.

Check out Adore Ministries !

"Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life." - Acts 5:20