Drew:
When I was in middle school I began to desire working in ministry. I was always very involved in church and I was always eager to be even more involved. In high school I began teaching myself to play guitar because I wanted to lead worship. After many hours of practice, I finally got up enough courage to play for someone other than my mom…and then I got the opportunity to start leading worship for the youth group which lead to many more chances to play in other places. The summer after I graduated high school I served as the intern for the youth group at my church and it was that summer that I knew for sure God wanted me to serve Him for the rest of my life. I wasn’t sure exactly that would look like or what I might be doing, but I committed to do whatever God wanted me to do and go wherever God wanted me to go.
Throughout college I was fortunate enough to work with youth groups, college ministries, and lead worship. When Erin and I started dating we realized that we share a passion for serving others and we began praying about how God would have us serve together. God lead us to the AIM website, we began researching The World Race, and after much thought we decided to apply. So here we are a few months later, looking forward to our departure in January 2010!
We aren’t exactly sure what God has in store for our future but we do know that The World Race is going to be an incredible time for God to minister to us and to see Him work through us in the lives of people around the world.
Erin:
I remember being at Falls Creek (if you’re from Oklahoma you know what this is!) when I was 15 and hearing a girl just a few years older than me speak one night. She probably only spoke for 3 minutes, but it was awesome! She was talking about the mission trip she had just come home from and all the amazing things God had done on that trip. Even though I grew up in a mission-minded church, for some reason I had always viewed missions and ministry in general as something people did when they were older…or married…or something I wasn’t. So to hear this young girl talk about her experience was life-changing for me. I knew then that God was calling me to step out of my comfort zone…for the rest of my life. The next summer I spent a couple weeks in Malaysia (yay we will all be visiting there soon!) and my heart was broken for God’s hurting children. Over the next several years I was able to serve in my church in alot of different ways and it really opened my eyes to what “ministry” is all about. It’s not all the glitz and glam of being on stage or leading huge groups of people to Christ – it’s the little behind the scenes work, setting up chairs so kids can have somewhere to sit while they hear from God, running the sometimes not so high tech power point to help the people leading worship, being at a church where they DON’T have power point :), praying for kids who are “too cool” to acknowledge you…that kind of stuff.
It was really refreshing to meet Drew and to discover that we share a desire to help those in need! We have had some small opportunities to serve together since we’ve been married, but the opportunities and challenges we will face in The World Race are going to take our relationship to a whole new level-I’m excited! Who knows what we’ll be doing a couple years from now, we just want to follow God one step at a time!
