Our Story

Joey’s Side of the Story

Moving to Austin Texas

In May of 2019, I moved to Austin, Texas. Though I had moved away from home twice already, this felt like my biggest move yet. I was going to a city where I knew only one couple and they lived 30 minutes north. I didn’t even have a place to live when I moved there.

I drove down with one full carload and worked out to sleep in my company’s office until I found an apartment to live in. The Lord quickly provided and through a connection with my parents, I was able to get connected with a guy who was looking for a subleaser for his roommate who was going to India for the Summer. I jumped at the opportunity and accepted the offer. 3 weeks into my time in Austin, I finally could unpack my car and sleep in a bed.

Around the same time, I was invited by a mutual connection to go to their church. I had tried out three other churches at this point but had never really looked for a church, so I wasn’t sure how to look or when to know if I should stay somewhere. I went to church that third Sunday and it happened to be a week when there was both a couple and an older single lady who were all being sent out by the church to go to the middle east for missions. They both gave a brief farewell to the church and the church invited the congregation to come and say hello/goodbye to them after the service.

I knew nothing of this church at this point, but I was excited to find out that they were sending people overseas for missions. I had been interested in going overseas since I went to a mission training program in NC in 2016, and felt like I was still called in that direction, but that God still had tasks for me in the US before I was to go. In any case, I was excited about this couple and wanted to encourage them in their ministry. I talked to them after the service and we, along with one other girl ended up being the last ones in the building.

We went out to lunch afterward, and this is where the couple and their friend told me about the church. A church that has sent over 300 families onto the field for missions. A church that has a heart for missions even in the city of Austin, not just overseas. It was an incredibly uplifting conversation and I felt confident that this is where God was leading me to call my church family.

Making connections in the city

Over the next 6 months, I started to get connected with more and more people through the church (The Austin Stone) that had a heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. People who challenged me and convicted me that if Jesus was the most important thing in my life, He should be part of my daily conversations with others.

Being interested in missions, a phrase that I was once told kept going through my head. “If you’re not doing it here, you won’t do it there.” The context is that if you’re not sharing your faith with your co-workers, neighbors, friends, etc. here in the US, what makes you think you’re going to get on a magic plane ride to a country that you don’t speak the language and all of a sudden start sharing?

I got connected with a group called No Place Left (NPL). The focus of the group is centered around Romans 15:23. Paul and Barnabas continued their missionary journeys until there was “no place left” that hadn’t heard the gospel. Passages like Acts 13:6 and 19:10 enforce the idea that they shared until whole regions had heard the gospel.

The group met weekly and we went over tools in how we can better share our faith with our neighbor. It’s the most important thing in our life, but it can be hard to know how to share that with people that we encounter. Once a week, we also got together to knock on doors in one of our neighborhoods. The goal, in general, was simply to get to know our neighbors and care for them in any way we could. We would usually ask if we can pray for them. But how can you care for your neighbors more than sharing news that has eternal weight with them?

It was during one of these times of knocking on doors I ended up meeting a family that would soon become some of my best friends in Austin. It was a family of Vietnamese brothers and a cousin. We hit it off immediately talking about both our hobbies and about the purpose of life. We exchanged numbers, and little did I know what a big impact this providential meeting would have on my life.

Reconnecting with an Old Friend

It was mid-November and after a couple of weeks getting to know each other, we planned to get together and go rock climbing. We planned it and made it happen. Afterward, my new friends convinced me to go get sushi with them. I had never been a big sushi fan, but if you knew these guys, you’d know how persuasive they can be when they want you to do something. Somewhat reluctantly, I went with them.

It was a revolving sushi bar. You order the sushi and the food slides out to you on a conveyor belt. I was mesmerized. I didn’t understand why this wasn’t the standard for all restaurants. What a unique and cool design. Apparently, I thought it worthy enough for an Instagram story. I took a video and sent it out into the world of Instagram.

Later that evening, I got a reply from a friend I hadn’t talked to in a long time named Lia.

She replied to my video and told me that she has been to a similar place that past summer and that she thought it was really cool. Naturally, I carried on the conversation as we talked about our food experiences. Eventually, she mentioned something along the lines of “I’ve heard Austin has some great food, I should come and visit sometime.”

I told her that she definitely should and that I’d be her personal guide if she did come down. She mentioned that she may have some time during break that she may be trying to take a trip, and that she’d keep me posted. But after hearing that I was planning to come back over Christmas time, she said that missions had been on her own heart since her trip that Summer (which I didn’t know about), and that she wondered if I would be interested in getting together when I was in town to exchange stories.

I told her I’d be super down to do that and that we could arrange a time when we got closer to when I was in town the next month.

The Start of The Interest

December came around, and I texted to arrange a time and place to meet up for coffee. We figured that the week between Christmas and New Year’s would be the best option for us and got together at Leslie’s in downtown Wichita. As I walked in the door of the coffee shop, I had no idea that I would come out and not have another day I didn’t think about Lia.

As I drank my green tea, we exchanged stories of what God had done in our life the last few years.

I was mesmerized that this girl sitting across from me, who was getting paid to go to college, was on a path to get her doctorate, who could easily go on to have the “American Dream.” However, I wasn’t so mesmerized in all of her accomplishments…though there were many. I was amazed that she had so many options, yet she was telling me about how God had been working in her heart and she felt like He was calling her to go to the nations. He had put missions on her heart, and after going to East Asia for 6 weeks the summer before, she was feeling more and more confident that that’s where she was supposed to go.

“Wow.” I thought. “She really wants to follow God’s will for her life.” There were so many people I knew that “loved God,” but that didn’t really seem to impact their life in any way. They followed Jesus when it was convenient for them and when it looked good, but they weren’t actively seeking Him and working on pursuing Him.

After we said goodbye, I didn’t quite know what to think. I honestly did not go into the coffee shop expecting for there to be interest in more than friends, but I was definitely interested as we left. I wanted to get to know her more.

I invited her to come play ultimate frisbee in our annual New Year’s day pickup game and after coming, she and a group of us ate Taliiano’s (RIP) and then went back to the house to hang out and play games. By the end of the time hanging out, I was definitely interested, but at the same time, I wasn’t sure how things would work living 500 miles apart, so I left it up to God and said, “Hey God, if you want this to happen, I know you can do it. If you don’t, I know it won’t. Please lead to me to what you want.”

As I was driving back to Texas a few days later, I got an unexpected text from Lia wishing me a safe drive home and saying that she enjoyed hanging out. As soon as I got that text, I had a feeling God was about to lead me into a relationship with Lia.

Writing Essays

If you ask any of my friends, I am the friend that will send you a reply to your text message in the form of a book. I will write and write and write, until I feel I’ve said everything I need to. Well, it just so happened, that I wasn’t the only one like this. After I replied to Lia’s message, she replied with an even longer message which I then proceeded to respond with a longer message.

After a few weeks of this, our texts got so long, that I was spending hours in the evening typing my replies. I did some counting later and found that our texts steadily got longer and longer up until the point that our replies were literally over 1,200 words long. For reference, this story isn’t even at 2,000 words yet. We were typing that up several times a week.

Eventually, I texted and asked her if we could just to a call sometime to catch up as I was not a great typer. She agreed, and we setup a Facetime call. I wasn’t really sure what we would talk about…but after a 6-hour call, it seemed that I didn’t need to try and think of anything as it came extremely naturally. We talked a lot about what God was doing in our lives, and it was so refreshing to talk to someone who was growing in their faith and learning about what God was doing in the people around her.

We started texting again after our call…and steadily increased our word count until we were up over 1,000 again. We setup another call, and again talked for over 6 hours. We talked about a lot, but one of the things was about how we both loved hiking/camping, and that we wanted to get a group together sometime to go to a national park.

Overseas for three mon…COVID!

I was seriously considering next steps with Lia at this point, realizing that I wanted to take the next step in the relationship. At the same time, both Lia and I were planning to be in other countries during the Summer. She was planning to be in central Asia, and I was planning to move to Guatemala. It seemed like it wouldn’t be the most ideal time to start dating someone.

But as February came…then March, both of our trips started looking less and less likely. So, Lia and I had a bright idea…let’s get a trip with friends together to go to a national park. Her Spring Break was extended by a week because of COVID, so she had a bunch more time. I arranged to come back in mid-March so that we could do a trip. We weren’t sure where yet, but our hopes were high.

Just before I came back to Kansas, I found out that the Guatemala airport was likely going to be closing down indefinitely, therefore, my move to Guatemala was looking most unlikely. Lia’s trip wasn’t 100% canceled, but it was also looking less likely.

The trip ended up being my sister Noelle, Lia, and myself. We decided to downsize the trip a lot due to the uncertainty of COVID and not wanting to be stranded away from home, so we went to Arkansas.

We all hit it off quite well on the trip, and it became clear to me that I wanted to pursue a relationship with Lia. It seemed likely now that we would both be stateside for a while, so I thought that maybe after all it was a good time to pursue.

Let’s Date!

We got back from our trip on our birthday (we share a birthday). I worked the second half of the day, and Lia ended up sticking around at the house hanging out with my nephews. If I wasn’t already feeling like Lia was interested, this felt like a pretty sure sign that she must be interested in being more than friends. Who comes over and plays with your nephews on their birthday just because?

We celebrated our birthday with our families and watched a movie after. I intended to ask her dad about dating her before I asked her, but after the movie, Lia and I were left downstairs and I felt in that moment that it would have been more awkward to not ask her than it would be to ask her. It was time to see if she was interested in pursuing something more than just friendship.

It wouldn’t be quite true to say “the rest is history” since we’re still very much living in it. But the last year of dating has been one of the coolest things God has ever done in my life. A theme in our relationship has been Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Having a significant other who loves God more than she loves me is more than I could ever hope for, and I’m so grateful to walk into the next season of our relationship while still completely dependent on God to get us through it.

Lia’s Side of the Story

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

2019. For most of us, it will be remembered as being the last year before a global pandemic would reconstruct our lives and radically change our plans. For me, 2019 was a year that God had already begun to reconstruct every plan I had and radically shape my heart. He asked me to trust Him with my life and to follow wherever He would lead.

This began in late May. You would find me waking up alongside 60 other girls, crammed in the upstairs room of a church, on the fourth day of wearing the same clothes (and no shower), and preparing for another day of confronting weakness and sin — all as part of training to go overseas that summer. But amidst the scramble to get ready for another day, I was stunned. My mind was reeling as I attempted to rationalize what I could process while conscious. I had just woken up from a dream in which God spoke to me. Or rather, I spoke to Him.

In this dream, a simple picture of a future I desired played out before me. The contentment and happiness and comfort felt real. It was a good dream. But then it shifted. I was now an observer and reality dawned that what I was watching was, in fact, nothing but a good dream. To the vignette before me I said, “If this is not for me, God, I am okay with that.” And I awoke.

There seem to be gaps in this experience that I cannot possibly fill in with words or writing. But, though not through direct words, in this moment I knew that God was asking me what I valued most. Did I value the plans and desires I had for my life? Or was I willing to let go of those and seek His kingdom first? If you know me, I have always liked autonomy. My fiercely independent nature continually seeks control and I am a planner through and through. But I put my “yes” on the table when I accepted Christ years ago. If He was not in something, I did not want it. So that morning, I chose to renew my commitment and give God control of my future. The seed — the inkling of a calling to missions — was planted and my plans for my life were slowly loosened from my grasp. “If this is not for me, God, I am okay with that.”

The Lord, as always, was faithful to grow and shape me through 6 weeks of living 7500 miles away on a mission to reach the unreached. That kind of experience teaches one a lot about relinquishing control. Yet one of the key takeaways from our training was the reassurance that the nations did not need better versions of us, with five-year plans and all the talent and skill in the world, but rather broken, worn down, college students with a burden for sharing Christ and loving others. That burden only intensified over the course of the summer and I was able to witness firsthand how relinquishing control and submitting to God’s sovereignty is my life’s greatest source of joy. To seek Him first meant living out the Great Commission in faithful obedience, no matter the cost.

And counting the cost was where I was in Fall 2019. In addition to reintegrating back into life stateside, I was launched into one of my toughest semesters for school. The months brought challenge and confusion as I struggled with contentment and wrestled with an unclear future. I realized I expected to come down from a sort of missionary ‘high’ and maybe discover that call to missions was just a misinterpretation, but instead it seemed I grew an increased longing to return overseas. I prayed for direction and for God to tell me what to do. Missions or professional career? What was my path? I didn’t even know how to be a missionary and also didn’t want my biomedical engineering degree to be wasted. Deep down, I knew such paths were not mutually exclusive. But decisions still needed to be made eventually, the next one being for what I was doing next summer. Internship or another mission project? I believe; help my unbelief was my feeble ask even as I longed to have clarity and control over these plans.

God, in His goodness and graciousness, answered with an opportunity that far surpassed all that I could have asked or imagined. In 2020 I was set to do an overseas mission project and medical internship that aligned perfectly with the area of medicine I was interested in, focused on a people group I had a special heart for, provided for a scholarship that would fund my entire trip, and would have me partner with a teammate that I was thrilled to have. Little did I know, however, that God was soon about to lead me to find the man who would be my lifetime partner.

And that is where Joey comes in. After randomly reconnecting through Instagram DMs in November, I ended up asking Joey if he would be willing to meet over Christmas break to catch up about his life and where the Lord was leading him. I had some other motives as well. 1) I had questions regarding his missions training program in North Carolina since I still had hardly any idea of how to be a missionary myself. 2) Ever since we met, I thought Joey to be a very fascinating and interesting person and maybe also had a small crush on him at some point four years prior. 3) I was really just excited to meet up with someone else who shared a heart for the nations and desire to put their heart into action.

Coffee at Leslie’s ended way too soon as the enthusiasm we had for the gospel and God at work propelled us through two hours of seamless and refreshing conversation. Though in some ways I didn’t anticipate such an impressive connection, I also somehow knew we would get along super well. A few months later I would say a similar thing to my closest confidants when I told them I had a feeling that even if Joey and I never formally dated we would “just work.” Looking back, I know that was because both Joey and I strived to take Matthew 6:33 to heart. I was on a mission to pursue Christ wholeheartedly and I trusted God’s promise to give me everything else I needed. I was not thinking it was going to be a romantic relationship.

As I mentioned before, I am a planner. Marriage was not in the plan until at least age 25 and honestly at that point, God was already leading me away from some dating prospects. But to find another person who shared the growing passion I had for going to the nations was incredibly invigorating. Then, as Joey and I would write each other letters (through what we call essay-texts) over the following months, it became evident how we shared so much else. We would detail our favorite memories, give updates on our respective ministries, encourage one another, and share prayer requests, travel aspirations, and thoughts and opinions on everything. Intentionally getting to know Joey made startlingly apparent his most attractive feature: he was a man in full pursuit of Christ.

Therefore, my prayer in early March of 2020 was a more vulnerable prayer than even the ones I had prayed about my future. I asked God to make it possible for me to date Joey. An uncharacteristically bold prayer for me, but if there was one thing that 2019 proved, it was that the sovereign God of the universe can move mightily in ways we could never expect. Seeking His kingdom and righteousness above all else also gave me confidence that no matter the outcome (as long distance and summer trips where we’d be continents apart were daunting factors), God was still good.

In ways only the Lord can make happen, the pandemic actually opened the opportunity for Joey and I to begin dating (details of that story elsewhere). This was more than just an answer to my prayer, though. It was also another way in which God showed me His ultimate sovereignty and faithfulness. The dream I mentioned at the beginning? It was a dream about having a future with someone: dating, marriage, a family, etc. Something I secretly and deeply wanted and yet something I said I would graciously let go if that meant seeking Christ first. More than leaving behind a prestigious science career, I think singleness scared me most about answering the call to missions. How silly. But praise God for his patience and ability to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. I also thank the Lord for giving me vision and clarity. He used Joey to reveal to me my own passion for missions and then He gave us each other to pursue the call together. For our good and His glory. Let that be the story of our life to come!