They were enjoying life in Minnesota. Tim was balancing his time on staff at a newly planted church, Community Vineyard Church in the Twin Cities and also managing a credit union. Jocelyn had started working with 2 organizations: the first one, Trades of Hope, created to empower women around the world to rise out of poverty and the second one, Breaking Free, focusing on working with women in the Twin Cities area coming out of sexual exploitation. They had bought a house and their 3 kids were very happy with their neighborhood. They were close to family and dear friends, life was pretty perfect.

 

They started putting money away to go on a family mission’s trip. They prayed about it and decided to visit the orphanage that Jocelyn had the opportunity to be a part of since she was 14 years old. They were already sponsoring a child there and knew it would be the perfect place to show their kids (at that time Estrella was 5 years old, Vega was 3 years old and Ezra was just 1 year old) the importance of sharing God’s love to the world around us.

 

They arrived at Esperanza Viva (Living Hope) Youth Home in April 2014 with the intention of visiting. Tim thought he would be on painting projects and that they would be playing with kids all day. They did that but had quite the agenda awaiting them when they arrived. Besides playing with the kids and service projects, they were to teach at La Viña (the post high school program created on campus for Bible and ministry training), Tim was to preach at Naciones church (the church birthed from the ministry), and lead worship multiple times.

 

The first morning Tim woke up early to pray about what they were going to share for 3 hours that morning at La Viña school of ministry. Tim made the highly spiritual decision to go make a pot of coffee. As he opened the door to the beautiful view of Popo (Mexico’s active volcano twelve miles away) he heard God speak…quite audibly, “Welcome Home!” Tears filled his eyes knowing that these two words would radically change their lives. He made the coffee and returned, eyes filled with tears. Jocelyn asked what was going on and he said, “I’ll tell you later”.

 

Later that day (Tim still had not said anything to anyone) the family was playing on the playground with the kids from the orphanage. Jocelyn was playing with Ezra and Tim was pushing Vega on the swings and saw that their 5 year old, Estrella had developed quite the following surrounding her by the slide. Tim walked over to find the dorm supervisor translating for her to the little girls. As he walked up he heard Estrella say, “Yeah we are going to sell everything and move here!” He ran up and pulled her aside and questioned her, “Wait, what are you saying? Did your mother tell you this? Where is this coming from?”

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“No dad” was her response, “mom didn’t say anything, that’s just what we are going to do!” Tim asked her to not say anything to anyone else concerning this, reminding her that it was a huge decision and they would need to talk and pray as a family before making any kind of decision like this. A little bit later Tim had the chance to ask Jocelyn if she heard what Estrella had been telling the kids on the playground. She smiled and said, “Yes.” “Well, did you tell her we were selling everything and moving here?” Tim asked. Jocelyn’s response was, “No”… again with a smile.

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Tim saw the lead in and asked, “Well what do you think about that idea, selling everything and moving here?”

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"I would do it in a heartbeat" was her response.

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“Good, because God told me this morning that this was going to be our new home…” The smiles continued. God confirmed the same message throughout the rest of their 10 day “visit”. They returned home and started the process of selling everything and gearing up to be missionaries to Mexico.