We would love to have coffee with you and tell you all about this awesome life that God has called us to! But just in case you don't have time for that, here's the jist:
Every time we would visit Marin's family in Katy, Texas, we would both feel as if God was calling us to the area, we still can't really tell you why.. we just knew that one day, we would end up there! In the Summer of 2015 we were living and working at a children's home in Weatherford, Texas and decided that it was time for us to move and a teaching job in Katy was offered to Percy, so we took it! During this time, we got really plugged in to a local church and began leading the youth small group on Wednesday nights, and Percy led youth worship and table time on Sunday mornings. Fairly quickly, Percy realized that, although he enjoyed teaching, it was not his calling and he needed to get back into full time ministry. It was about this time that a job opened up at our current church and Percy felt God was leading him to apply. Percy was offered an interview and this was the catalyst that set us on our new journey. Funny enough, it was also this same week that we first heard about the start of Real Hope Community Church. While preparing for this interview, both of us began to really dig into the Word and seek out what God's purpose and plan for our next season of life would be. To be honest, this job seemed like a stretch for Percy, but God only told him to interview, he did not say that he would get the job. We were never really sure if that was truly the path we would be heading down, but Percy stepped out in obedience and interviewed. About this same time though, we both kept hearing many different things about Real Hope Community Church and felt a real pull in that direction but we did not see how that would be possible because hiring staff was not going to be in the near future, and Percy needed a new job now. The timing just did not seem like it was going to work out. While waiting to hear whether Percy would be offered the job or not, Percy received his letter of intent for the next school year for his teaching job (perfect timing, right!?). We did not have any new job lined up yet, but Percy really felt as if God was telling him to go ahead and let them know he would not be coming back, and oddly enough, Marin felt completely at peace with the decision, even though it would mean we had no more income after August. Right after letting go of next year's teaching job, Percy received the call that he would not be offered the job he had interviewed for. We believe this was God removing all of our options in order to say "Do you still trust me?" After learning that Percy would not get the job, we decided that this was God closing the door for a job opportunity at our current church and that it was time to seek out another option. While living in Katy we had the opportunity to live in a master planned community among many wealthy families, all the while still seeing the hurt and struggles of those in the community who are marginalized and vulnerable. We began to feel a deep desire to do something about leading these groups of people to Jesus, but we weren't sure what that would look like- and then we learned that this is the vision for Real Hope Community Church. We then contacted the pastors at Real Hope to let them know that we would love to discuss coming along side and working with them, even though they could not pay us, if they would have us. This is when Percy had the idea of raising our salary, just as overseas missionaries do. After meeting to hear about vision and ideas we knew that this is a door God was leading us to explore because their vision and ministry beliefs lined up almost perfectly with ours. After several weeks of prayer and talking, we were still unsure if this was something that God was asking us to do because it just seemed crazy. Not many people live as missionaries in America and it did not seem like the logical thing to do. But one day, it clicked. God has already called us to make disciples, God has already called us to trust Him and not lean on our own understanding, Jesus has already called us to follow His lead no matter what the cost. We were essentially standing in the middle of a huge mission field asking "God, what do you want us to do?" and we feel like his response was "You see what needs to be done, I've already told you in My Word what I want you to do." It was then that we decided to say "Here I am Lord, Send me." No matter what this season looks like, no matter how tough it is going to be, no matter how much faith is going to be required, no matter how many sacrifices are going to be made. Our answer is "Yes!" because leading others to Jesus is so worth all of it!
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Marin HudsonMarin likes to stay up late and write. But sometimes Percy will write as well. :) Archives
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