I feel like it is time to share a bit of our story again.
God told the Israelites often to remember what He had done. In Deuternomy 6, after giving the famous command to love God with all that we are, God not only tells us to teach His commands to our children but He also says this:
The next time your child asks you, “What do these requirements and regulations and rules that God, our God, has commanded mean?” tell your child, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God powerfully intervened and got us out of that country. We stood there and watched as God delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household. He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors. That’s why God commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before God, our God, as he gives us this good life keeping us alive for a long time to come.
“It will be a set-right and put-together life for us if we make sure that we do this entire commandment in the Presence of God, our God, just as he commanded us to do.”
God tells us to be ready always to teach our children through our stories – through HIS-story in our lives. And we see psalmists in places like Psalm 105-106 and 136 recounting God’s great works for the Nation of Israel. Moreover, the Israelites were great historians and much of the bible is focused on providing a detailed account of history to serve as important markers demonstrating God’s character – His character of faithfulness, love, righteousness, justice, compassion and the like.
With that in mind, I wanted to retell a bit of our family journey. We now have a full-time ministry, FJ Ministries, and we rely on the grace of others for our livelihood. We minister by being full-time missionaries who focus on mobilizing and educating others about missions, family ministries, and discipleship. God is working mightily in our lives to mold us more into the image of Jesus so that we will walk by faith 24 hours a day. But, it wasn’t always this way. Ironically, even as I look back on my blog to add to this post, I found where I posted about remembering God’s faithfulness very early on.
Tara and I have been Christians since childhood, meeting God powerfully as children, coming to an understanding that God was our Daddy. But as we grew older and more “mature,” we began to let our first love grow cool. We were busy with living the American dream, raising our kids, paying our mortgage, working, climbing the corporate ladder and making more money so that we could have more stuff. Tara probably could have lived that life and remained “moral” in her actions, but I struggled mightily as I tasted more and more of the world’s offerings. Both of us were struggling on the inside, feeling the Holy Spirit’s tug on our hearts to follow a call to missions but feeling helpless to follow that call because of our “important” and busy lives.
From 2003 to 2006 I was an “emerging leader” at my Fortune 100 corporation, serving as a corporate attorney. Having graduated first in my law school class in 1996 I had enjoyed a career of increasing prominence and income. I traveled extensively in the U.S., enjoying the finest of foods and lodging. Our third child was born during this time, and we had a beautiful family, 
a large house on a cul-de-sac, and we lived about 30 minutes from both of our parents. Life looked really good from the outside.
Tara worked just two days a week for the public schools as an occupational therapist. She made great money working very few hours and on the days she worked one of our parents watched the children. It was a dream situation for everyone. Not too much time to wear out the grandparents, just enough time for Tara to recharge, and I could work to my heart’s content (which really was just my place to escape how much I was hurting inside and to avoid the problems in our marriage relationship). 
It was during that last year, 2006, that many things were happening. Even though I had really become cold in my relationship with Tara and with God, by God’s grace I actually read a book someone had given me called Desiring God by John Piper. At the same time Tara had been praying through The Power of a Praying Wife, by Stormie O’Martian with a close friend for months. Meanwhile, I was struggling horribly at work, hating what I did, who I was becoming, and chasing after anything for comfort. It was in the midst of all of this that I found myself at a month long trial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I began this blog. Much of the premise for the blog coming out of a disastrous situation at our church involving a pastoral search team on which I served.
The first thing I wrote was a poem that fell into my head while on an airplane, its theme being simple: I hate myself; God help me. Then I bounced around a bit pondering unity, doctrine, more poetry; in essence I was begging God to take my divided heart and to give me an undivided one. I was processing my heart and begging God to search it and find all that needed to be exposed.
And He did.
On June 29, 2006, I left my work as a corporate attorney. On July 8, 2006 we boarded a plane for Kona, Hawaii, to take a four-week course on the ministry of being a support-based missionary. Within 6 weeks we had determined to continue that journey and forsake what we had been doing for the past ten years. Since that time we have lived in Arkansas, Hawaii, Arkansas, England, the Philippines, England, Arkansas, and now England again. We just want to go, as we sang growing up but never did, “wherever He leads.” 
To be continued….