The Lord doesn’t owe us anything, but we owe our whole lives to him.

From when I was really little, I had read every book in the church library, and I knew I was going to go into missions for the Lord.

So I said, “Lord, listen, I came here; I’m really happy it’s a good education, but I came here to get prepared for your service. And I’m going to ask you that I can meet some true believers who are concerned about the world and getting out your message. And if I don’t meet them by the next seminar, I’ll leave. Because I really don’t care, what I want to do is be prepared for what you want.”

They had a weekly prayer meeting for the world.

We had our wedding in June, and by September, we were in an Arab country studying Arabic together, starting our lives in ministry.

There were no key phrases.

There were very few people who had actually seen anyone who came to faith in Jesus from a Muslim background. But we believed that God’s word is true and that we were supposed to everywhere and preach the Gospel.

It was a lot of hard going. It was quite discouraging.

By the time we were in our 30s, we felt like it wasn’t working; we are not seeing anyone come to the Lord…We thought, “What’s wrong? Have we not prayed enough? Have we not fasted enough?”

I thought we are going to quit. We went to my husband’s home church, and his pastor did not say, “Ok, you’ve done so much. You’ve already been out there for so long.” No, no, no, he said, “when someone puts their hand to the plow, they’re not supposed to turn back.”

The devil is very good at giving you scenarios of “what if.”

The second year of our marriage, my husband and I didn’t see much of each other. My husband visited another less-reached country and didn’t come back until after our first baby was born. He was being held in prison for eight and a half months.

They had stolen my suitcase. They had taken everything I had prepared for our first year.

I am not cynical. But maybe I get confused, or I wonder. Or maybe I question the Lord about some things.

It’s being childlike. It’s taking Jesus’ hand and saying, “Ok, Lord, you chose a different way.”

Why are big prayers not being answered? Maybe it’s because your big prayers were your own ideas.

Our mid-thirties was our lowest point.

The Lord doesn’t owe us anything, but we owe our whole lives to the Lord.

I want God to use me for his glory. Not my glory. Not my plans. Not my great goals.

There’s a lot more talk about prayer than there is prayer.

They took the skateboard out into the streets. And we got a phone call. One of his friends said, “They had an accident.” He was dead.

I can’t tell you it was easy; it was terrible. I understood what grief is.

The Lord knows how to heal his children.

We give our expectations to the Lord. We can’t put them on humans.

For 33 years, we were with this group every week.

They were given instructions to cut off all relations with us.

Religious leaders are not always what we wish them would be.

Why do we have this large number of people who fall away? When they come to Jesus, they need a family.

All our children love the Middle East. All our children love Muslims. All our children speak Arabic.

Our real country is actually our heavenly country. And we get that the longer we stay abroad.

Many times, the things you might see in teenagers, when kids question their faith or question their upbringing or their parents’ calling, sometimes with MKs it shows up in their mid-thirties. And that’s what happened with our oldest son.

We must not put our hope in man. We are going to be constantly discouraged. There are disappointments because people are all just human. Churches are human. Mission groups are human. Leaders are human. There are going to be disappointments in life. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus.

It’s back to the basics. Fast. Pray. Repent. Read your Bible and get out there and live. Get out there and live with people.

If people don’t get the language, they don’t stay.

In the Middle East, it’s very acceptable to be a wife and raise children.

What we need to know is what the Lord is going to say when we come to him. It’s not what the world thinks. It’s not what we think. It’s what the Lord thinks.