Welcoming a New Voice
There are seasons when God expands a vision not by adding more activity, but by adding more life.
Over the past year, we’ve watched Him do just that—quietly, personally, and right inside our own family. Today, I want to introduce you to a new voice you’ll begin hearing here regularly: my daughter, Austi.
Austi is a young mother who recently moved her family across the country at God’s leading, leaving behind what was familiar and secure to step into a calling that looks very different than the one she expected. A former teacher, she now finds herself fully immersed in the sacred, unseen work of raising her boys—my grandsons—day by day, moment by moment.
Her classroom has changed, but her calling to teach has not.
Austi will be writing from the middle of real life: motherhood, obedience, surrender, and learning to trust God in the ordinary rhythms of home. Her stories won’t be polished or distant; they will be lived-in and honest. This is not ministry from a stage—it’s faith practiced on the floor, at the table, in the quiet yeses that often go unseen.
Together, we are beginning to share a new expression of the vision God has given us: raising the next generation of missionaries—not someday, not somewhere else, but right where we are. Teaching by both demonstration and words what it looks like to live a surrendered life in everyday faithfulness.
We will live a lot of life together, but Austi will have her own voice here. She will contribute monthly to the blog and is also working faithfully behind the scenes. I believe what God is shaping in her will resonate deeply with many of you who are learning to walk obediently in seasons that don’t look like what you planned.
My prayer is that her words will encourage you to trust that God wastes nothing—not your training, not your detours, not even the quiet callings that feel hidden.
As her mother, it is a gift to watch God shape her obedience and her yes. With a full heart, I bless her voice here and invite you to receive her first story—born not from certainty, but from trust.
From Austi:
I never imagined this season would look the way it does. I once stood in front of a classroom, carefully planning lessons and shaping young minds. Now, my days are filled with small hands, interrupted sleep, ordinary routines, and a kind of teaching that happens more by presence than preparation. God led our family across the country into a life that feels both hidden and holy, and I am learning—slowly—how to say yes to Him right here. I’ll be sharing stories from the middle of this calling: motherhood, obedience, and the daily practice of surrender. My hope is not to offer answers, but to invite you into the grace I’m finding as I learn to trust that God is at work, even in the quiet places.
I’m grateful to walk this season out in community, and I invite you to join me as I learn what it means to live a surrendered life—right where God has placed me.