A Dream Of the solution

As Scott* lie down to sleep one evening, he asked God questions about the future. He asked about his family, where they should go and how the Lord might use them. They wanted to go into cross-cultural ministry but weren’t sure how they’d get there. That’s when he saw it.

He imagined a scene as clearly as if he were watching a movie. He saw of a group of people who came together to raise money and use it to pay off the student loan debt of those trying to move to the unreached.

In awe, he went to see his supervisor and he shared the vision of this team that takes the burden of debt for missionaries. Excitedly, his friend responded, “I was just talking with someone from an organization that does exactly that earlier today.”

He was referring to The GO Fund. Scott and his wife Amy are members of a church whose vision is to see the Kingdom spread and Gospel shared among the unreached of southeast Asia. It matches perfectly with The GO Fund’s goal to pave the way for those who are sent.

Scott and Amy are now in their final weeks of preparation before they move to southeast Asia. Years before they decided to go, they knew they were not going to make that final leap until they could rid themselves of their student debt.

It has been their church’s vision to send 500 missionaries to southeast Asia in the next 20 years and it became both Scott and Amy’s burden to be a part of that vision in a long-term way. They even visited with their son on a vision trip for a few weeks and they fell in love with the people there.

Their son bonded quickly with the locals who sat outside of the hotel where they were staying, and he would excitedly run to them every time he saw them. The couple saw how their family could be welcomed and given opportunities to create relationship. They knew they were called to move their family to southeast Asia, but they hated asking their debt for permission to do what God was leading them to do.

Their ultimate desire was to be obedient to the Lord in whatever their circumstances, but the distance between moving and paying off their debt seemed insurmountable.

Once they connected with The GO Fund, applied and were interviewed, they knew they could be affirmed in their decision to leave for the mission field without the bondage of debt.

Scott and Amy’s long-term goal is to see a self-sustaining, local church planted. Because of how God used The GO Fund, a dream and a vision will come to striking reality as he brings many more into his kingdom.

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*All names changed for security.

Recommitted: Life of Purpose

As a young girl, Kaitlyn wanted to become either a marine biologist or an astronaut. Drawn to various sciences and to how things work, she wanted to be either far above the atmosphere or dive far below the oceans’ surface.*

As she grew older, she was prompted by family to earn a degree in early childhood studies. Perhaps she could teach the things she was passionate about to the younger generation.

Throughout her upbringing, Kaitlyn knew she was supposed to regularly attend church services and pray before meals and bed. However, faith never seemed like a priority worth pursuing. It was in her second year of university when she began to realize there may be more to who Jesus is than what she had grown to accept.

“It was a time in college when I realized that my friends weren’t really nice friends,” Kaitlyn said. “I was kind of depressed. I didn’t know the purpose of my life and was trying to find it out.”

She was invited by a college roommate to attend a church in the area near her school and she eagerly joined. When she heard the pastor’s words, it was as if what was once confused and hazy about scripture and the Christian faith was finally made clear. “I was hearing the Word and learning more about who God is and who Jesus really is. I never knew what it was to have a relationship with him,” she said.

Kaitlyn recommitted her life to Christ, and she knew the Lord was instilling in her a desire to share this newfound relationship and love with others. Full of refreshed perspective and curiosity for God’s work around the world, she became invested in groups of friends at her church who taught her about unreached people groups. The more she learned, the more her heart broke.

She joined a short-term missions trip to Southeast Asia. Her church has adopted a country in this region as their focused, un-reached nation to pray for, so they might one day see a church-planting movement happen.

Kaitlyn arrived with her team and she witnessed the reality of the darkness among the unreached. Idol worship, the kind she had only heard of in stories and film, is rampant. She observed real and raw devotion to statues and parents teaching their children how to bow down to golden, man-made forms of what they thought could save them.

“I couldn’t forget them,” she said. “I was meeting people who had never heard of Jesus before. I had never experienced that … They had never heard his name.”

Kaitlyn came home and knew she would return but it would be to live there in full-time ministry.

Everything had come together. Her purpose rested in her position as a follower of Christ. Her passion became to show others who had never heard his name a relationship they could also experience. Only one obstacle stood in the way between her and her new goal.

Student debt she accrued was being paid slowly thanks to her position as a preschool teacher. However, it would keep her from determining when she could join the team who planned to move with her to Southeast Asia.

“I couldn’t forget them, I was meeting people who had never heard of Jesus before. I had never experienced that. They had never heard his name.”

A supervisor at her church encouraged her to apply with The GO Fund.

Nervous and skeptical, Kaitlyn still applied. She interviewed and then was joyously accepted into The GO Fund’s Student Debt Repayment Program. “This weight lifted off my shoulders knowing that I have nothing keeping me from going tomorrow,” she said.

Kaitlyn expects to leave for Southeast Asia later this year. She looks forward to making disciples of this people group she has come to love — people who will hear the name of Jesus for the first time. She is excited to be a part of a church-planting movement that might not take her far above the earth’s atmosphere or below the ocean waves, but it is certainly taking her closer to a purpose the Lord is using to bring many more into his kingdom.

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*Name changed for security.