Why We Left the Mainstream Workforce: Our Side of the Story

(From Matt)

I spent two months interning at Missionary TECH Team before marrying Molly in 2007. I hoped that one day we would return to TECH; in fact, I brought Molly there on a scorching Texas camping trip in late July 2008 because I wanted her to meet the Team and see the office that we might one day serve in, but neither of us knew that God would have us return the following summer until that coming winter when God began changing our hearts radically.

At the beginning of 2009, God made it clear to us that, although we were living very Christian-ized lives, we were lukewarm. We were like the church of Laodicea in Revelation that became very comfortable and self-serving. The Lord shook us up by bringing us to an on-line sermon by Francis Chan of Cornerstone Church called “Lukewarm and Lovin’ It.” God wanted to wake us up and tell us that we needed to be 100% His representative. He was not just an addition to our talents, gifts and personalities... we were supposed to be functioning as an addition to His purposes.

Molly and I began shifting our views of money: no longer was it because of our own accord that we saw our earnings, but because God provided greatly for us. We also began realizing that it is only because of God’s mercy that we have any talents at all. We are nothing on our own.
We did not know that Molly would serve at Missionary TECH Team until a month and a half before we moved. We thought God would provide for us through her teaching in Longview, TX.

We both found confirmation from the Lord and others that He wanted Molly at TECH, so we began trying to raise support, which is usually a year-long process or more for most missionaries. We lived off of our savings for 6 months as we built up financial support. When we reached 50% of our goal in January 2010, we stopped trying to raise support, and we’ve seen God provide for bills that our support would not cover through people sending us special gifts or through the private music lessons Molly has been able to pick up. He is always proving himself generous and faithful.

We are thrilled that God has changed our hearts in regards to wanting to be completely His servants. We do not know how long He wants us to remain faith-supported missionaries. We DO know, however, that we will continue to follow the command to “go into all the world and preach the gospel,” and if the Lord asks us to return to the mainstream workforce, we will do so, knowing it is to serve and bring honor to Him.