About the Season Ahead

Where We've Been

We returned from Lithuania nearly five years ago now — in the spring of 2021. We left mostly because of our sense that our kids needed something different as they moved into their high school years, but we thought it was possible we would return someday. At the time, we assumed we'd be moving into some kind of full-time ministry in the U.S.

It turned out that God had other plans. After doors seemed to close for ministry opportunities, I (John) decided I needed to find a way to pay the bills. I ended up launching a new career in online marketing. We entered a very different season from the one before.

Honestly, it was a confusing and difficult period. We were surprised and not altogether excited about the direction life had taken. But looking back on it now, we are thankful. We can see clearly that God was up to important work he wanted to do in each of us that required a different context.

During these years, we've both stayed engaged in ministry in different ways. For me, the involvement has been modest. Full-time work has left little time. But as I've been able, I've taught in various contexts at our church and tried to be available as a pastoral presence for others.

Rachel has been involved on more fronts. She completed a two-year training program in spiritual direction and has served as a spiritual director for several women locally and via Zoom in other parts of the world.

Together, we've continued to offer prayer ministry to people God has brought along, about which I'll say more shortly.

In the background throughout this time, vocational questions have been simmering. (Okay, sometimes boiling.) For me, full-time writing has been difficult. It isn't what I feel I am meant to be doing. I've found myself asking repeatedly: Am I ever going to enter again into full-time ministry? If so, when?

For both of us, we felt a loss of a clear sense of direction. It's felt like a liminal space. Because we both sense a call to a life dedicated to ministry, we've been wondering, What does God have for us in the future?

Coming into Focus

Over the past five years, we've explored and talked over many different answers to that question. Discernment is hard. But gradually, we have gained confidence in the direction we should take.

One thing that has grown clearer for us is our sense of vocation as individuals. Rachel would say God has shaped her to be a person who helps individuals find healing and freedom, deepening their relationships with God. It's clear to me that I'm a teacher who wants to share truths about God that bring transformation, particularly with those far from him.

But we've also wanted to discern: What is our vocation together? What would God have us do as a couple?

Asking that question points to a relatively clear answer. We believe God's invitation to us is to focus our attention on helping people remove the obstacles that stand in the way of their intimacy with God and fruitfulness as part of His Church.

Let me fill this out a bit. We can think of the normal life of Christian growth as involving two distinct types of work: watering and weeding. Watering involves all the things that help the plant of new life in Christ grow to maturity. This would include (among other things) prayer, the study of scripture, fellowship with other disciples, worship, and serving. With these elements in place, growth is natural and inevitable. Unless something gets in the way.

And it always does. We're all familiar with the ancient trio — the world, the flesh, and the devil — that, just like weeds to a healthy plant, inhibit our growth, fruitfulness, and communion with God. We easily recognize some of the problems alluded to here.

Yet we have found, in our own lives and in the lives of others, there are some obstacles to the life God desires for us that are seldom addressed and poorly understood. Specifically, Christians are often unaware of how the enemy has been at work in their lives to kill, steal, and destroy. They are also often unaware of what to do about it.

This area was highlighted for us back in 2017. We witnessed firsthand how understanding and addressing the enemy's work can bring profound changes that yield new freedom to live and grow as God designed. We were immediately impressed by the significance of these things and the relative scarcity of teaching about them. It has been our desire since that time to grow in our understanding and to share with others what we've learned, helping them experience greater freedom in their lives with God for themselves. We've had occasion to teach individuals, and sometimes groups, the principles involved. We've also helped many individuals identify and untangle where the enemy has been at work in their lives through extended times of conversation and prayer.

This kind of ministry is often called deliverance ministry. Sometimes it's helpful to use a label that's familiar to some. Other times, this label can be distracting because the way people approach deliverance ministry can differ widely.

Our approach situates deliverance within the broader context of discipleship. It emphasizes emotional healing, submission to the lordship of Christ, and taking authority over the enemy, all while encountering the Father's love.

So why do we believe working in the area of deliverance ministry is God's invitation to us for the season ahead? The short answer is that we see a great need for teaching and ministry in this area; God has equipped us to help meet that need; He seems to keep bringing the need to our attention; and we see fruit as we respond and offer what we have to give.

We also discern a fit with our individual giftings and sense of calling. For Rachel, this is especially true for ministry to individuals. And I'm drawn to teaching those in the Church about deliverance ministry so they can learn to apply the principles involved in their own lives and in their care for others.

That's the area of ministry. We have also been discerning something about the area in terms of geography. We've lived in Lithuania three times, for a total of five and a half years. It won't come as a surprise that we feel drawn to return. For many years now, it's a country to which our hearts have felt a deep attachment.

But there is more to it than that. The church of which we were members when we lived there has expressed a strong interest in our return. One of the things they would most like us to do is to help establish an active deliverance ministry within the three branches of the church, which meet in Klaipeda (where we lived), Vilnius (the capital), and Kaunas (the country's second-largest city). They see this as an important part of the task of developing mature disciples who can help build the Church. The task is an urgent one in Lithuania, a country with very low rates of active Christian belief and engagement.

Logistics

So that's a sketch of the area of ministry we're feeling drawn to, both thematically and geographically. But what about the logistics? How do we envision the transition from where we are now to where we sense God inviting us to be?

Let's start with the relatively clear part. Chayah graduates from high school this spring, and Noah a year from then. We plan to remain in the States until Noah is through his first semester in college. We want to finish well and not leave the country until we are confident the birds that have leaped from the nest are flying. That would be just a bit less than two years from now — around January 2028.

Here is what we’re planning to do between now and then. We need to prioritize language learning, and significant time will be required for that. We will also need to develop the materials we’ll use for teaching and training in deliverance ministry once we’re there. We have already had opportunities to begin work on the ground. We’ll be traveling there in about two weeks to spend time in conversation, listening, and discernment with church leadership. And we hope for more extended visits before a long-term move.

Besides these forward-looking activities, there are also many opportunities here in the U.S. we could step into if we had the capacity, from individual ministry to teaching and training.

Invitation

Speaking of capacity, that brings us to the matter of support. If we are to have room to pursue what God has put on our hearts — both while still in the U.S. and when we move to Lithuania — we will need financial support. As of now, the church in Lithuania does not have the resources to pay us a salary. So that means God will have to provide for our needs through his people if we are to move forward.

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been in this position. We depended upon God in this way when we were in Lithuania before. When we went in 2018, we sensed an exciting and intimidating invitation from God: That we not ask individuals directly for support, but simply make our need known and leave the matter between them and God. This may sound like a subtle distinction, but we believe it is significant. We aren’t writing this letter to ask you for financial support. We simply want to make you aware of our need. If you feel God’s invitation to give, great. If you don’t, that’s fine, too. We won’t follow up with you about it. We know that God calls some to go and some to support (and many to do both, according to the season). Every part of the work is important, as some plant, others water, and God causes his work in the world to grow. As John steps back from work to make more time for ministry, we are asking God to supplement his income as soon as possible. We’re also asking God if we could be fully funded by January of 2027.

Finances are just one part of the picture. We will also need prayer support. The impact of prayer is real, and it's an essential element of fruitfulness in ministry. If you are interested in being involved on this level, two distinct ways are possible: 1) We would like to have some people who are willing to pray regularly for our work, remembering us before the Lord alongside their other requests. 2) We'd also like to have a team of individuals who are willing to pray in a more targeted and time-sensitive way. This could involve, for instance, praying for a specific ministry appointment or for an acute need. All are called to pray, but some are called to a ministry of prayer. If that is you, you understand the difference already. This is what we mean by a "team" — those who identify as prayer warriors, who are eager to devote significant effort to pray for all involved in our ministry. Both levels of prayer support are needed, and the distinction helps us know how best, and to whom, to communicate our needs.

We want to close with a brief sketch of our timeline goals:

• April 14-23, 2026 — Short-term trip to Lithuania
• Fall 2026 — Short-term trip to Lithuania
• January 2027 — Begin intensive language learning
• Spring 2027 — Short-term trip to Lithuania
• January 2028 — Move to Lithuania

If you'd like to learn more about anything in this letter, from details about our plans to praying or giving, please reach out.