From Every Nation

The McClures: Following God's Calling Together Pt. 1

• Tom Elliff Center for Missions • Season 2 • Episode 7

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What happens when a Spanish class, a watchful RA, and a missions conference set your life on a course you never planned? We sit down with Heath and Jessica to unpack a story that moves from dorm-room discipleship to a two-year Journeyman assignment in Krakow, Poland—complete with the tensions, prayers, and providences that got them there.

If you’ve wondered whether two focused years overseas could reshape your faith, your career, and your courage, this conversation offers a clear path forward. Whether you’re a student, a young professional, or a church leader, you’ll find concrete insight on discerning calling, aligning a marriage around mission, and serving in a way that strengthens both the global church and your home church. Listen, share with someone wrestling through next steps, and consider what obedience might look like for you.

Text us questions or topics to discuss.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening to the From Every Nation podcast, the official podcast of the Common Alexander Permissions at Oklahoma Baptist University. I'm Kyle and I'll be your host as we learn to live as those sent out to spread the gospel. Welcome everybody to today's episode of the From Every Nation podcast. We're so excited to have you back, and I'm very excited for you all to meet some of my dear friends, um, Heath and Jessica. So Heath and Jessica just gone off the field as journeymen from Poland. They were there the last two years serving. And um we've known each other. When did we when were you a freshman?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I was a freshman in 2015.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So Heath and I met in 2015 at OBU and have lots of lots of really good stories that uh we will spare you all and uh our reputations probably. Yeah. But um great times. And so we're excited to interview them and let you all meet them and talk about their time in Poland. So um just really quickly, why don't you all just share with the audience kind of where you grew up and um kind of what you're doing right now? What's next?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I grew up in East Dallas, mesquite is the name of the city, and then I like how said went to OBU, uh, started in 2015, and I was there, graduated in 2019, and then uh went up to seminary in Kansas City, uh, found my way over to Poland, served there for a couple years, and then now I'm serving as the minister to students at First Baptist Church Chickach.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome. Jessica?

SPEAKER_04

And I grew up in Piedmont, Oklahoma, and then did a lot of the same things that Heath did, went to OBU, graduated in 2020, went to seminary, and then went to Poland. And right now I'm job hunting.

SPEAKER_01

Job hunting, what a fun time.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it's pretty terrible.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but you know, it comes with moving across the world. Yes, it does, you know. Uh remote jobs are nice, but that's not how I and B works. Yes. So um, well, okay, well, let's jump in. And why don't you all one of you can kind of pick and go first and start with um where you grew up, what it was like growing up, where you did, what your family was like, and kind of get us into how you came to know Jesus.

SPEAKER_04

I can go. Um, yeah, so I was born and raised in Piedmont, Oklahoma. Um, grew up in a family where I went to church from the time that I was born. Um my parents really did exemplify the gospel. I saw that in my grandparents as well, and really all of my extended family. And so I came to faith at an early age after seeing um that Jesus was more than just a Bible story, that he was somebody that I could have a personal relationship with. And so um, I was baptized at the age of seven. Um, and then my family moved to Quell Springs Baptist Church, which is where I received most of my discipleship, I would say. Um there was a girls' minister there, and my youth pastor really poured into me and taught me what it meant to really have a personal relationship with Jesus and really how to read the Bible. So it was really there that I learned to love the Lord, to love scripture, um, and to see that who I was was not rooted in what people said about me, but that it was rooted in scripture. And so um, those were really formative years in my life. I think that's where um I received like the bulk of what I I know about who the Lord is, the bulk of um what it means to love the Lord with my mind and to read the Bible. And so um, yeah. So then moving on, uh, went to OBU. Um and it was really there that I felt a call to ministry, I would say, and a call to go to seminary. And so, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um we'll jump to Heath, but I want to circle back and get kind of from both of you um like key mentors in life. So Heath, what was like life like growing up for you?

SPEAKER_00

Man, life was good. Uh I grew up in uh uh East Alice, like I said. Um my parents were faithful uh church members, they were uh just part of a a really solid church um there, Sunnyville First Baptist Church. And I attended there for many years, but I would say the time when me and Jessica were growing up, uh the gospel wasn't always as explicitly conveyed as I think it is nowadays in healthy churches. So I grew up with an extreme sense of just legalism, uh, an idea that following Jesus required me to uh obey a list of rules in order to earn his favor uh and his love for me. And that's kind of the approach that I had towards Christianity and faith until I was 16 when I had a new youth pastor come in and he started to uh actually talk about the gospel. He started to just lay it out for us and really uh explain it in detail. And I realized that the gospel is for me, that I was lost and I needed uh to repent of my sins and turn to Christ for forgiveness. So uh I remember I was uh outside just power washing my parents' house and just um the grace of God overwhelmed me and I turned for my sins um at that moment. And yeah, it was uh that was when I was 16, and so I began to just think about next steps in life and what I wanted to do. And my family, um big Texas AM family, but uh the Lord um through that same youth pastor just really put it on me that uh I should check out OBU, I should uh visit there. And so um really felt that that was where the Lord was leading, and also that he was calling me into ministry around that same time. And so uh yeah, through that whole process, um ended up at OBU and found some great mentors and people discipling me along the way.

SPEAKER_01

So after you all came to faith in Christ and kind of your walking through those high school years, uh, we'll get into OBU. I mean, do you all remember kind of any key pivotal moments in your walk with the Lord while you all were in high school that just really helped propel your walk with the Lord and deepen your relationship with God?

SPEAKER_00

I would say probably the most pivotal moment um I can look back to, or the first big pivotal moment was my freshman year at OBU. I was really just kind of floundering in my faith, really had no substance or grounding to it whatsoever. And as a result, I was deep in sin. I was struggling with uh with pride, with arrogance, and just all these different types of things that come from living in sin. But one day I was walking by the main desk of AG, a hallowed place in the best dorm on campus, absolutely, yeah. And I was walking by there, and there was this RA named Luke, and he stopped me and he was like, He I can tell something's wrong with you. What's going on? And I was just like, Whoa, that was crazy. That he stopped me and it was like he could see through me, and I was like, Oh man, like I it was this weird feeling of I wanted him to call me out, but also didn't. But since he said it, I just started pouring everything out, and so we talked, and he was like, All right, I want to meet with you once a once a week this semester. I want to walk you through some things, and so I didn't even know what it was at the time, but he started discipling me. He started showing me how to read my Bible, which no one had done before. He started showing me the three circles, never seen that before, how to share my faith, and just really every practical basic thing about being a Christian that I'd never learned, Luke taught me that semester.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I'm sure I knew that he discipled you at some point in those years, but I forgot all about it. Yeah, that's such a full circle, small world thing right now to me. Yeah, that's really awesome. What a good guy. Um, and what a just a true testament of to a degree, like dorm life, yeah, and life at OBU. It was like just that close, close-knit relationship, discipleship relationships, encouraging one another to be like strong men of God. I love that. Forgot all about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, praise the Lord for Luke.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, good guy. Yeah, I'm gonna see him soon. I'm very excited about it. Um, Jessica, what about you? High school, college, key key mentors or key moments that like really helped propel your walk with the Lord.

SPEAKER_04

I'm not sure that there's a key moment that comes to mind necessarily, but the girls' minister at my church, she had us over to her house every single Monday night. And that was really the first time that I think I saw like a woman teach the Bible. And so really up to that point, I had really only seen like men teach the Bible. And so I think that was a really impactful thing for me, just to be like, I'm a female. I can also teach the Bible, you know, I can disciple other women and what it looks like to walk with the Lord. And so I think it was just a small group of us. And I think just her really intentionally investing in us, four or five girls that came every single Monday night, that was probably one of the most foundational things for me moving forward. And then she was really helpful just as I navigated, trying to figure out what it looked like for me as a woman to want to be in ministry and kind of walk those lines of figuring that out. But I would say just the weekly practice of meeting together, of just being in the word, nothing fancy, nothing complicated, but just reading scripture together was probably the most um foundational thing for me as I grew up in church and just walking with the Lord.

SPEAKER_01

So both of you ended up at OBU. How did you guys end up at OBU?

SPEAKER_00

Well, for me, the sole reason was because my youth pastor, his name is Jeremy Fisher, he is an absolute crazy guy, loves the Lord, but man, one of a kind. And he just showed up uh in Mesquite, Texas one day and was just talking about OBU and especially AG and the insane stories because he was the RD of AG. He held the reins for a while. He did. He was uh Kyle's predecessor, too before, and he was crazy and telling me all these stories. I'm like, well, that sounds pretty fun. So I just want to go check it out. And so I just took a tour of OBU just to see, just to um hear about it. I also had other friends who had been at OBU uh who had come from my church, and so it's like, you know, they all had a good time. So when I went on that tour, I just had this overwhelming sense of peace from the Lord that just came upon me. And I knew I was supposed to be there. Uh, but to be honest, and sorry that this is an OBU podcast, uh, I didn't want to be there at the time. I I was really just frustrated that I knew that that was where God was calling me to go, but I also didn't want to go there because I wanted to go where my family went to AM. But as time went on, uh I just realized that that was where God was leading and that that was probably going to be the best option for me.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm. And we're glad you made it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I have no regrets. It turned out great.

SPEAKER_04

Worked out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, worked out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And I did not have a crazy spiritual moment of like, this is where I need to be. Um, but I grew up at Quell Springs, being an Oklahoma Baptist, you know, was a super summer and Shawnee was not that far. So I honestly don't know why I ended up at OBU. I think it had more to do with when I toured other places like OSU, I just felt like I was going to be lost just the whole time. I'm really bad with directions, and a huge college campus was overwhelming. And so I think just seeing people that I knew at OBU and just having some familiarity with the campus was like, I think I can survive here. And it was a really good place.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's fair. So then how did you two meet? Walk us through your story. How'd you meet? When did you start dating? Married, the whole story.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it started in Spanish class at OB, because you got to take Spanish or another language. And so I took Spanish and accidentally signed up for the wrong class, you know, coincidentally, but Lord's providence. And in this class, Jessica was in there as a freshman. She's a year younger than me. This is my sophomore year. And I was gonna back out, but the professor, Senior Cho, he said that no, you should just keep going. So I did, persevered. And the moment when I actually knew about Jessica's existence, this feels like a lot of rambling, but it'll get to the point, is when we had our very first quiz in the class, and literally everyone bombed it in the class. Me and some of my friends who were sitting around were like, oh wow, at least we all did terrible together. You know, it's that feeling like if you're gonna do bad, do it with someone else. And so we all did bad, but Senior Cho goes up to the front of the class and holds up one quiz and says, You all did terribly on this. And we're like, we know. But he holds up a quiz and he says, Except for one person, Miss Jessica King. And everyone in the room just looks over at her and we're like, All right, which is horrible as a freshman, like your second week of class. Overachiever. Overachiever, literally perfect score while everyone else failed it. Yeah. And but then from that moment on, my goal in that class was to be in a group project with her. And so, sure enough, at the end of that semester, we were in a group project, and I got to talk to her for the first time, and I was like, Oh, she's just she's not only the know it all who is just perfect at Spanish. She's like actually a nice person, and uh, thought she was pretty cool, she was pretty. And I was like, okay. So then the next semester we became friends, and um we ended up going on a date to uh her sororities formal. And then uh that summer she served in Canada with the North American Mission Board, and I did an internship at a church in Georgia, and through that we were friends over long distance and just really um got to know each other more and more, not even on a romantic level, just uh got to know each other personally, and then the next semester we started going on dates and really uh just began dating after that.

SPEAKER_01

Any amendments to this story? Um no, I guess you can pick it up once you started dating. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Um, well, Heath was my first boyfriend, so I was very unsure about the whole dating situation. Um, so yeah, we dated for three years, all of our time at OBU and and classic OBU culture. After a month, everybody wanted us to get married, and we didn't, we waited until after I graduated, so it was good. And then yeah, he's a year older than me, so he moved to Kansas City. So we did the long distancing for a year, and then we got engaged in like the Sunday before COVID broke out, and then we got married in October of 2020.

SPEAKER_01

So oh you had COVID wedding.

SPEAKER_04

Yep, COVID graduation, engagement, whole thing.

SPEAKER_01

The dream, right?

SPEAKER_04

The dream.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, something like that. When did missions get on the radar for both of you? I feel like you should start on this one.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was on my radar well before Heath's radar. Um, in my youth group, we went on tons of trips overseas. And so, and locally as well. So I think when I was in sixth grade, like I did my first like local mission trip. And then, you know, seventh grade, we went like a little farther, went to San Francisco. And so that was just always something that was around. It didn't seem like something weird to be doing, it seemed like something that everybody did. And then when I was a sophomore in high school, I had the opportunity to leave the country for the first time. And that was the first time that I saw that the church is not just in America, the gospel is not just in English, that um the Lord is to be to be worshipped in in every language. And so kind of in that same time frame, I had to read Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper. And that was a super helpful and um just influential book in my life. I think just thinking about that missions exist because worship doesn't, and just seeing that the Lord is worthy to be praised by all nations. And so um moving forward, I knew that missions was gonna be some part of my story. I didn't feel like it needed to be forever, but at least some aspect of my life, I knew I was gonna be on the mission field. And so um, my senior year of high school, we were in Asia and my youth minister walked up to me. He was like, I'm no profit, but I just think you're gonna be overseas at some point. And so there were a couple few moments like that that were kind of weird. Like I went to Poland one time in 2019 and just kind of had this weird feeling of like, I'm gonna be back here one day.

SPEAKER_01

And so I think I had no idea.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And so there was never really one 2019.

SPEAKER_01

So that was with OBU.

SPEAKER_04

Uh, I went with my church because there's a family from my church that's been in Poland. And so we went to go visit them. But yeah, it was during my time at OBU. Um, and so there was never really one specific moment where I was like, this is what I'm called to do for the rest of my life. But it was just small moments of like the Lord faithfully nudging me on that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And I really just kept coming back to the question of if I never go overseas and I get to the age of 70, like, am I gonna have regret? And and I knew that I would. And so um, yeah, just kind of took one step at a time to figure out what I was supposed to be doing with that. But I would say probably since the age of 12, it's been on my radar in some form or fashion.

SPEAKER_01

Where all did you go? You went on a couple trips through OBU, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Where all did you go?

SPEAKER_04

I went to Panama and then I did the passages trip to Israel. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, gotcha. That was a trip I never made it on.

SPEAKER_04

Bummer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It's not too late. Maybe one day. It's not too late. It would have been fun. Maybe one day.

SPEAKER_00

It's a good time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh but heath, I think your story's a little different.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, my story is definitely a little different. I mean, as Kyle alluded to, well, I can't remember if you said this off air on air, but uh, I never had interest in missions, so it really shocked Kyle when uh when I first came out and said that we were gonna go overseas. So that was kind of um it's just a crazy story of how the Lord worked and and made it all happen. But basically, so I grew up in uh Sanaville First Baptist Church, a good church, healthy in a lot of ways, but um it's they didn't really focus on missions, unlike Jessica's church growing up. So I I saw people go on trips every now and then, but it was basically the same group of people who were always going, and they were the ones just doing the same trip, the same people over and over. So I didn't I just thought it was for those people and not really for me, not really for anyone else. However, whenever I got to OBU, I started to encounter these MKs everywhere, and they were always talking about you know living overseas, and I was like, that's kind of strange. Like, I don't know about that, but uh yeah, I I thought it was I thought it was kind of strange, but I got to know more. I was like, all right, they're they're pretty cool people. But and Luke was actually one of them, so that that really helped. But really, the thing that got me even thinking about missions at all was Jessica, and the very first semester when we talked and became friends, she told me that she was gonna go live in Canada for the summer. I was like, well, that's wild. Like I didn't even know that people did things like that. So that got me thinking about it, and then along the way, uh, you can just see that the Lord was starting to nudge me in that direction. Um, Francis, my old boss, he has a real heart for Canada as well and wanted to um take a trip there, plant a church there. And uh then really the thing that uh started to push me in that direction of that missions is important was I took a trip to South Asia in 2019 uh with OBU on a go trip. And I it was with uh some of my best friends, just a really great group. I went on this trip and it was amazing. Um, just saw lostness for the first time uh on an unprecedented level. Obviously, there is lostness in Oklahoma, there was lostness in Texas, but you see it on a scale and a type that I had never even imagined before. People literally spinning bells to gain karma, to get approval from their gods. People who have literally never heard of Jesus. Just it was it really broke my heart. But the thing that I took away from that trip was man, I'm really glad that other people are doing that. Like that's really cool that people go and live in these places and and share the gospel. But that's that's not for me. So fast forward, uh pause.

SPEAKER_01

Do you look back on that trip? Uh, because I look back on that trip and I'm going back here for the first time in a couple months. And I when I look back on that trip and I talk to people about that South Asia trip, I it took me a while to get here, but I always say there's not another trip that I've been on where I realize the extent of the work that it's gonna take to fulfill the Great Commission. Yeah. I mean, we were trekking through the mountains for how many days, going how many miles up and down these hills, and you know, we were able to prayer prayer walk along the way, and our porters were sharing the gospel with the the guest houses that we were staying at, and all these things, but like we got the gospel to one village, you know, and so and then we had to go back and hightail at home, so you know, the government wasn't gonna get mad at us for being where we were. But it's like I think about how many villages are out there, how many times people have to trek and go out to get the gospel to these remote places. Like, and when I think about that, and I finally wrapped my head around that one day, is like this is just one part of the world. There are billions of people who need Jesus, many of them who don't even know the name of Jesus. Like, how much more work is it gonna take to fulfill the Great Commission?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And the thing about that trip, like you were saying, that gives you a scale is you're not in the Arbuckle Mountains just hiking around at Falls Creek, you're in the literal Himalayan mountains that are the tallest mountains in the world, the most remote areas of the world. And it takes you weeks to make it to one of these villages to share the gospel, but then you got to hightail it out of here so the government doesn't get mad at you. And it's like you have to do that over and over again just for the gospel to go to these tiny villages so they even have a chance to respond. Like it, I I think it's humbling, it is very humbling. Like this is so difficult.

SPEAKER_01

Like how and you realize like just the need of the Lord to move. Yeah, we are insufficient to do any of that, but like the Lord and the Lord is. Um, I've heard some stories coming out of uh that area, and the Lord is moving, and it's really exciting.

SPEAKER_00

Well, yeah, praise God. I mean, uh that's really cool to hear considering I went six years ago, you went five years ago, and to hear like things are taking place during that time, even though I didn't see anything happen. So yeah, that shows how the Lord works. Just laying seeds. Yeah. But uh to pick it back up, um, so that was my senior year at OBU. Uh, and then my freshman year, not freshman year, first year of seminary at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I uh went to the conference that they put on every year. It's called the For the Church Conference, and they brought in JD Greer as a speaker. And JD Greer served for two years with the IMB in Southeast Asia. And was he a journeyman? He was a journeyman. Okay, yeah. I guess I didn't realize that. So from his journeyman experience, uh, he uses that to just constantly talk to people about the need to go for two years, to uh to give up two years of their uh time and and sacrifice and just go overseas and to give that to the Lord. And uh the Lord just used that in a powerful way uh in my life. I realized like why would I not do that? And the Holy Spirit just used that question of what would stop me from going? Why would I not go? And I just couldn't shake it. I just kept thinking about it. I was like, man, what would stop me from going? Like my I really couldn't think of anything. And so I called Jessica and I told her, I was like, you know, we were thinking about getting married, we were having those conversations. I was like, you know, I think that we should go overseas. I I think that we should uh at least do journeyman. And she said, Well, I've been waiting for you to say that. Like, it's about time. Yeah. And uh come to find out later that she had been praying for this for years, that she loved me and wanted to marry me, but also wanted to go overseas. And I didn't want to go overseas, but the Lord made it happen to where he changed my heart, and then we got married and did move overseas.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. Jessica, what were what was that time like? Those prayers? What were they like? Because that's that's a huge decision factor when dating somebody, marrying somebody, when you know you have a heart for missions. So, and we talk about that a lot on our episodes here, but tell us about your experience with it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I was really just talking to the Lord, like you're gonna have to figure this out because I sure can't. Um, but yeah, there was a book I was reading. I wish I could remember what it was called, but in the book, they like list some stats for like the number of people that express interest in moving overseas, but then choose not to because they get married and their spouse doesn't want to go. And I just kept thinking to myself that I don't want to be that person. Like I felt so strongly that I wanted to be overseas in some capacity, and that's where the Lord was calling me to be, that it wasn't worth choosing getting married, which seemed fun in the moment to sacrifice what I really felt like the Lord was calling me to do. And so, really up to that point, I had been pretty careful to tell Heath, like, this is what I want to do, and not putting it on him of like, you need to figure this out or we're not gonna get married, but um, just telling the Lord this is what I want to do. You, it seems to be okay that I am moving forward with Heath, but it also seems that you've given me this desire to go overseas. And so I think just kind of holding those two things before the Lord and saying, like, what is it that you're wanting me to do? Like, if it is marrying Heath, like you're gonna have to figure this out, you're gonna have to change his heart. Um, and if not, you're gonna have to help me be okay in the aftermath of choosing to go overseas over marriage. And so, um, but I think up to that point, I had been really careful not to tell him, like, I want to get married or to say any of those things because I really wasn't sure how all of that was going to play out. Um, but I think just being realistic, just having conversations with other people. Um, a lot of people up to that point had kind of affirmed in me that the Lord was calling me to be overseas. And I saw that that's what I was passionate about. And um, those were the things that I was doing. And so I knew that that was important and that was faithful to what the Lord was calling me to do. And so um, yeah, I think it was just waiting on the Lord's timing, not getting in a hurry to have things figured out, but kind of just being okay to rest in the in-between. Um, but I really just kept picturing my life, thinking about if I get married, don't go overseas and get to the age of 70, like I really was gonna be sad and discontent that I chose this thing that was right in front of me rather than trusting that the Lord was good and that he was gonna provide in this other thing that he was calling me to do.

SPEAKER_01

That's really good. Was this on your radar at all? He like the tension.

SPEAKER_00

Here? Literally, not at all. I thought things were fine. Well, honestly, the only thing that was on my radar was wanting to get married, and she didn't want to get married. I was like, why?

SPEAKER_04

I never said I didn't want to get married.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I know, but you weren't like, let's get married right now.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Whereas I was, I was like, I want to get married. And so I was just like, why is this taking longer? But then, you know, come to find out it was in the Lord's timing, and he was orchestrating all of it that he got me to that point, that conference. And then everything just kind of clicked into place.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So yeah, you guys, you guys talked about missions and you went to this conference and you guys decided to do um journeyman for two years. Talk to us really quickly, as we've already used the term quite a bit here. Just what is that program?

SPEAKER_00

Journeyman program is simply uh a program through the IMB for people under the age of 30 and who have at least an associate's degree, I think at this point, to go overseas for two to three years, usually about two years. And it can be single, it can be married, um, just if you're in that age range. And so it's a really good opportunity to, you're definitely not going on a mission trip, but you're also not moving there knowing that that's the rest of your life or at least uh a decade or longer of your life. That you're you're moving there for an intentional, concentrated two-year chunk of your life, um, to really just go all out and work hard, serve hard, and uh to advance the gospel um alongside the career missionaries in this place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Uh super good program, really good to look at and look into, especially for like postgrad, uh, after you finish your undergrad, finish your seminary. Um, it's a great program to just kind of funnel into for a couple years, serve the Lord, grow in your walk of the Lord, um, and make the gospel known around the world. Going into Journey Men, were you all on the same page that this would be just a two years and done? Or were you open to Lord if you want were willing to extend?

SPEAKER_00

Um we went in, I would say, with the mindset that this is two years. We were pretty clear on that from the beginning, that we just wanted to do two years. We were open. I'm not gonna say that we were going in like we will not do career or go past that. We're open if the Lord uh changed our hearts and directed us in that direction, but we had a pretty clear idea that we were just going for two years.

SPEAKER_04

I think we really trusted that if the Lord was calling us to go beyond two years, that in our two years overseas, he would make that really evident. And so I think it it was easy for us to say, like, yes, we're doing two years, we're open to more than that, but realistically, I think we saw that the way or we saw the way that the Lord had kind of given us a passion to be in America and to like equip the US church to go overseas.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's good. And we love that. We encourage our students and we talk to our students, and we want to see more and more students doing the same thing. Like we we want by all means as many people as the Lord would call to go overseas and do career full-time missions, but as many as the Lord would give a passion and an open hand to to go and just tie it the first two years of their career and do Journeyman or Project 3000 or just any missions organization that has similar programs, man, we want students to do that and have the opportunity because it's it's gonna change how you live your life. It's gonna change how you view your career, whether that be continuing to work at a church or being a businessman, being a doctor, being a writer, being an educator. Like you won't be able to do those jobs the same because of what you did overseas and how the Lord worked in your life and changed you and just gives you a heart for the Great Commission, right? So we're I'm really excited that um you guys have that story. Um, because it's a story that needs told, and students need to just take advantage of it. Um, you know, take the two years when you graduate. There's not gonna be an easier springboard into it, you know. Life only just gets more complicated, yeah. But um so you guys apply for the IMB, you apply for journeymen. Um talk us through that process and how you landed with Poland.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that process is rough.

SPEAKER_04

It's a long process, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It probably took us longer than most people. Actually, I would say it did, and not really for anything on our side. There were some complications uh on the I and B side of things that made things go a little bit slower, but uh it's okay. Uh as it has been in our entire story, it was the Lord's timing and he was working it out. So we really started to apply.

SPEAKER_04

Uh you have to be married for a year if if you're married and you go. So I think was it right around our one-year anniversary? I think it it took us 18 months to get through the application process.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we basically applied right after our one-year anniversary, and it took us about 18 months.

SPEAKER_01

Um, part of that is that there is a lot that one year was built into the 18, or is it 18 after 18 years after? Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So from the time we got married when we were both on the same page, like we need to go. It was two and a half years of when we were finally able to uh to go. But part of that is that we were both in seminary, we were serving at a church, and so there were some things that needed to end before we could go. But yeah, the process as a whole was really difficult, and I think grew and stretched us in a lot of ways, just through how in-depth their examinations are of your life, your finances, your health, um, your marriage, everything that they can look into, they look into in full detail just to make sure that you are a person that they can trust and and invest in and believe that you're gonna do a good job.

SPEAKER_04

Which really, I think is good. I think growing up as a Southern Baptist, it kind of made me feel good to see how much we really do check out our people before we send them to the field, like 100% paid for. So if you ever had any doubts, we we really check out who we send overseas.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. These are, you know, little Judy Beth from First Baptist Tennessee, given their Lottie Moon dollars to make sure that we're sending the right people. So they they do a good job, but it does make it long. There's a whole discipleship uh curriculum you have to go through. There's there's just a lot of steps to it. So um fortunately, our church was very supportive and and made it to where we were able um to go and to take care of the things we needed to. And so then when it came time, we went to interview conference around September.

SPEAKER_04

But you do that at the very end. You go through the whole application process, which is hard when you're telling people that you're in the process of going overseas because the very first question that people ask is, Where are you going? And you're like, I don't know where we're going, and they they just don't understand, which it is kind of messy and doesn't make sense. But yeah, that was the very last thing we did was go to interview conference.

SPEAKER_00

Some people, you know, already know a team or they go on a vision trip, and so they have their place marked out before they get to this point, but we were kind of what they call free agents, where we didn't have a great idea of where we wanted to go. I think we had narrowed it down to Europe. We wanted to be with uh university students, and just for a variety of reasons, we wanted to be closer to good medical care, things like that. And so we're like, okay, Europe, but that is a lot of places you can go within that. And so we were looking at jobs, and a few of them stood out to us and would have been good places, but we were just praying through it. And around that time, one of our teammates, our eventual teammates on the field, she reached out to Jessica because they had grown up going to church together, and uh, she reached out just to see how the process was going and if we decided where to go. And we said no, and she said, Well, you should think about coming to Krakow, Poland. Uh, we have a spot opening up, and I think you guys would be a great fit. And that was Jessica had been there before, but I'd never really thought about Krakow. I didn't even know where Poland was on the map, and so this was completely brand new foreign territory for me. So you're making that OB education look bad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, come on, man.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, geography wasn't required.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it wasn't in your degree plan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I was a science major. But we we started looking into it, really praying, and just yeah, it felt uh very obvious after that that that was where we should go. Everything about it was like, yes.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we had interviewed for three, because they let you interview for three at a time. So we had interviewed for three jobs. They were all in Europe, all with university students.

SPEAKER_01

Where were the other ones?

SPEAKER_04

Two in Eastern Europe, and then one in England, and they are all kind of the same job, like working with university students, but obviously the primary goal is to share the gospel. And I think we had really decided on a job in Eastern Europe, and then this call came out of nowhere. And so um, just as we were thinking through them and praying through them, they're kind of all the same at the end of the day. Like they all have pros, they all have cons. Um, but we kind of just had to pick one. And so I think we felt good about choosing a team where I had been before we had a connection and I had seen what their university ministry looked like. And so I think that was helpful for us just to have somebody that we already knew some of the some of the unknowns weren't quite as obvious there as they were in some of the other places.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So you landed on Krakow Poland, Krakow Poland, and you went to FPO, did all your trainings, got on a plane, and left. When when did you all leave to land in Poland?

SPEAKER_04

We landed on March 28th, right? 2023.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, yeah, that checks out. So let me ask you this question before we kind of wrap up probably this segment and really jump into your time in Poland. What were your family's responses to uh you all doing Journeyman? It's a little different for everyone, but it's a real struggle that some people walk through. Some people, it's not a struggle at all. And everybody's just completely on board.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's hard. Like, I think we were both really fortunate to come from families that are in the SBC and like we're familiar with the IMB and are believers. And so they at least on a surface level say that they want us to do what the Lord is calling us to do. And um, we're excited, I think, to some extent. My family was really quick to be like, okay, but just for two years, right? And so um, I imagine if we had told them we were going forever, that could have been a little different of a conversation. But um I don't know. I think in some ways it was helpful because at that point we were already in Kansas City. So we were five hours away. We were already a little bit removed, and so I think that helped a little bit with that conversation. Um, but they were sad. I think excited to see us being faithful to do what the Lord was calling us to do, but but sad, excited because they I don't know. They they were excited to see what was gonna happen and excited to see us do that, but sad.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I don't know about your family.

SPEAKER_00

My family was excited, just had a lot of questions, but yeah, uh very supportive. They they didn't really see this coming, neither did you, neither did anyone, but that's what we were just talking about. Yeah, but they they recognized that this was where the Lord was leading us, and so they supported us as best as they could.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, my family wasn't surprised. I think because I had grown up going on so many trips, it was more of a culture that I had grown up with. Whereas, yeah, it was kind of totally out of left field for you to be going overseas.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Um, so how nervous were you all nervous? Were you scared? Were you just excited when you're like packing your bags and you're like, all right, I've got you know a one-way ticket to go to Krakow Poland, but you also you know you're coming home in two years. So what was what was the feeling?

SPEAKER_00

I personally I remember feeling before FPO started that I just felt so inadequate. I was like, I don't know how to be a missionary, like I don't know how to do anything that this job requires. Like, I don't know how they let me through the whole application process. And then you go through FPL and you basically get hyped up on like seven weeks of youth camp, but missions focused. And so then I was like, all right, I can do this, I got adrenaline going, but also just like I still had that feeling of I don't know how to do this task that we have been given.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I think in hindsight, I would tell you that I was really excited. Like, but the reality was that in the moment it was it was terrifying. I mean, packing up all of our stuff in suitcases, knowing that we're about to go to a foreign country and stay there. Like none of our friends are there, none of our family is there. I think it was it was just kind of overwhelming. I think there's very few moments in life where you're able to say and just like see that tangibly this time tomorrow, my life is going to look 100% different in every single way. And so just on the on the precipice of that, it was a lot. But I think also, like Keith said, it took us, I think, two and a half years to get to that point. So it was really exciting to see all of that kind of come together and um finally just get on the plane and do it. And I think by the time we got to that point, we were just ready to rip off the band-aid and and get over there and see what the Lord was gonna do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So we're gonna wrap up this segment and then uh we're gonna jump in and I want to hear what it was like getting off the plane, deering the headlights, figuring things out, and want to hear about your time in Krakow. So, everyone, thanks for listening to this episode. We're gonna jump back in with part two of our episode here with Heath and Jessica. So stay tuned and we'll be back soon. Thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode. The Tom Ellis Intermissions exist to equip the next generation of missionaries out of Baptist University. Regardless of your major, you can come to OBU, get a world-class Christian education, and get equipped to take the gospel to the nation. Our prayer is to send students from the local church through OBU to the world with the gospel. For more information about us or the elephant of scholarship, follow the link in our description and come visit us at OBU.