In Training: November 2010

Even before we applied to AFM, my wife and I began to sense God’s spirit calling us to serve Him, and we decided to lay our home on the altar. Our little country homestead had been a wonderful place to live and raise our girls, but as we prayed for God to show us His will, we wanted to make ourselves completely available to answer His call. So, in September 2008, we listed our home with a realtor.

In February 2009, while serving on a mission project in Guyana, we learned of the need for a principal at the mission school in the local village. We prayed that if God wanted us to answer this call, He would cause someone to make an offer on our home before we returned. We returned home with great anticipation and asked our realtor if anyone had placed an offer, but no one had.

Disappointed but now sensing God’s call to foreign missions, we applied to AFM. A few months later, our realtor informed us of two offers on our home. After putting the matter before the Lord, we chose the stronger offer and made a counter offer, praying that if God wanted us to work with AFM, the buyers would counter at or above the amount we needed to be debt-free. The next day, they made a counter offer for the exact amount we needed.

We had our answer, but God had more to teach us. In the weeks that followed our buyers could not obtain financing. Disappointed again, we were faced with the choice of turning back or going forward. In November 2009, we chose to go forward and serve the Lord as AFM missionaries to Papua New Guinea.

Praise the Lord! I am glad to announce that God has sold our home. He led us to our own personal Red Sea and parted the waters. “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Ps. 27:14).
—John Lello