We arrived in Costa Rica in August of last year. We were here for a month when we got a phone call from our future teammates in Mexico. The security and safety in Guadalajara had been deteriorating over the past months and they were really praying about making a transfer to Spain. They were getting to the point of not being able to travel much out of the city, due to increased violence with the drug cartels. While their hearts were still very much in Mexico and they didn't want to leave, they really felt they needed to seek wisdom from the Lord and from our mission board regarding what was best for their family.
What a way to start our missions journey! So for about two months we had no clue what was going to happen. Will we still be able to go to Mexico? If not, where will we go? We had no desire to go to Spain. All we knew, was the Lord had called us Costa Rica to learn Spanish and that was what we were going to do. (Praying of course the Lord would still have us go to a Spanish speaking country.)
We can give glory to God for giving us an amazing peace during this time. We looked back over the many years and see how God worked things out in His perfect timing and His perfect plan, so we had peace that He would show us his perfect plan for our ministry.
We found out in early November that our teammates felt they were being called to Spain and would be leaving Mexico in Dec. That meant, we would not be able to go to Guadalajara, because there are no other missionaries with our organization there. And for the same reason the board approved the Bonillas to transfer to Spain - they aren't comfortable sending families with small children to a stressful/violent environment for the first term of service.
Our mission serves in only 2 Spanish speaking countries - Mexico and Spain. So during November, we were a bit discouraged. Where in the world (literally) did the Lord want us to serve? We didn't feel a call to Spain and the other work going on in Mexico didn't fit our ministry skill set - mostly seminary work.
The end of November we had a Mexico team retreat here in Costa Rica (funny since only one family at the retreat was staying in Mexico). Our wonderful director, Frank, came and laid out our options. He started at the top:
1. Spain - nope, then listed the work in Mexico:
2. Tampico in the Seminary - a very dangerous city and not work we could do - nope
3. Yucatan area of Mexico - a new seminary was being built in the middle of nowhere with not many schooling options for the children - nope
4. Domincan Republic - working with Koreans doing church planting - again we felt like this wasn't a good fit.
At this point, I was about in tears - there didn't seem to be a fit for us anywhere.
THEN Frank remembered: There was a couple who had just been approved to partner with World Witness. They were serving with Youth for Christ, but wanted to be cooperative missionaries with our denomination's mission board. They were planning on going to Chile to open up a center for at-risk children and youth. All of a sudden, excitement started at the tip of my toes and slowly was rising to my heart.
1. South America - we like it,
2. children's ministry - exactly our ministry skill set
3. Going with another couple so we would have a team - another desire of ours
YES - this seems to be a very good option to pursue. We went to bed that night very encouraged, even though we knew there would be many steps before we knew for sure this would be a good fit and if the Lord was calling us to Chile.
The next few things that happen is just proof that the Lord is in the details:
1. We asked Frank if we should come home for the next World Witness board meeting to talk with the board personally about this option. (Since it isn't 100% with our mission, they would have to approve the new placement). Frank thought it was a good idea and said the next meeting was Feb. 19th. I about fell out of my chair. That was the EXACT date we needed to leave the country to renew our visas. So we flew to SC in Feb, and the board graciously agreed for us to go to Chile.
2. As we started doing some research about Youth for Christ, we realized one of the "top dogs"in Youth for Christ (just named international director) was a guy we served alongside in Venezuela. He and his wife had an English speaking youth group that both Jeff and I helped out with. We both had taught one of their children in the school. Jeff used to run up the mountain with Geordon. What are the chances that someone we worked with 11 years ago, would be a key player in getting us placed in Chile with Youth for Christ. We were able to Skype with Geordon about the ministry and he thought we would be a good fit for the ministry there.
3. When we went to SC in Feb, we had a chance to meet with the Youngs - the other couple who is going to Chile. They live only about 1.5 hours from Jeff's parents house. We enjoyed getting to know them and felt like it would be a good team to work with. Our kids also really got along well.
4. We needed to leave Costa Rica one more time to renew our visas. It was a perfect time for the YFC Chile to host us and we could take a vision trip to make sure we felt the Lord calling us to work there.
We knew after the trip that the Lord was calling us to Chile. Wow - what a journey it has been over the past several months, but a journey we are very thankful for. The Lord, as He always does, has a perfect plan - way better than we could ever imagine.
Stay tuned for more pictures from our trip and more information about the work we will be doing in Chile.
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