Graduated One week. Married the Next. One-Way Flight to Honduras just after!

21 Dec Graduated One week. Married the Next. One-Way Flight to Honduras just after!

Last week we had the privilege of hosting the majority of the Sparrow Missions Board in Honduras. I hadn’t meet many of them, so it was a great opportunity for me (Dean) to meet and development relationships. Being our first interaction, they had several questions for me and of course I was happy to answer them over a Power Chicken dinner! There was a moment as I explained how God had led me to where I am today that really made me pause and even laugh a little. I said something like the following, “I graduated one week. Elena and I were married the next. Then came the honeymoon followed by our one-way flight to San Pedro Sula. We were leading a team two days later.” One of the board members laughed and said that is a lot of major changes at once. And honestly that might have been one of the first times I realized that for myself. My life along with Elena’s have undergone huge changes over the past seven months and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Elena and I didn’t have a lot time to settle in to our new apartment in early June. We had a team to lead… And then another… And then two more months filled with teams of loving people eager to be here and serve. I would be lying if I said we were not tired by the time September rolled around. But to say those three months were, at the time, the best of our lives, would be an understatement. We grew exceedingly in our faith, as leaders, and as a couple. We were so blessed to have the opportunity to lead side by side and personally witness one another grow. And thankfully we did not do it alone as the Lord was with us every step of the way. Yes, we have been through immense changes. And yes it has been a challenge moving thousands of miles away to a country where I still struggle to communicate. Yet I have never felt more assured that this is what I’m supposed to be doing in my entire life. Change is much easier when God is the one directing it.

Fast-forward three months later and it finally looked like major changes were over for a little while. Routines began to develop. I had turned my focus to learning Spanish, while settling in to my financial role. Elena continued her directorship of Sponsor a Sparrow, while advancing in her psychology degree. It seemed like we finally could take a deep breath. But God had other plans. Before we knew it, Sparrow staff was working in full force to open a school. These past few weeks have been full of house hunting, paperwork, teacher interviews, and construction. The Sparrow team has worked tirelessly to make Sparrow Academy a reality; a reality that will be another major change in our lives. Elena has turned her focus to leading a Christian school, and is excited to see how God can make an impact on our children’s lives through the Sparrow Academy. And it looks like I will be following in my mom’s footsteps as I will add school financial director to my role. Once again, the Lord has set us on a new path.

My family will attest that I once despised change. I swore I would never move away from Kentucky, and when someone even brought up the idea of not having Christmas at Maw-Maw’s house I lost it. I truly feared the unknown, revealing a mistrust in God’s plan. The only explanation for the peace that has followed and will continue to follow the change in my life would be my trust in God’s will. I rest my future and my family’s future on the promise in Jerimiah 29:11.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

I just pray that you and yours do not fear change as I once did, but instead rest in the fact that God is in control. Thank you for all those who are supporting us both spiritually and financially. I hope you know that you are just as much a part of what God is during through Sparrow as we are.

God Bless,

Dean