Called Away

Pastor Mark’s departure is top of mind right now. That leads me to reflect on a call “away” that occurred in Kent’s life and mine.

Kent experienced a call “to” involvement in a country in Central Asia. It began as co-ministry with national churches and foreign mission partners, including our church at the time, which had “adopted” Azerbaijan, as was the style in the ‘90s. Kent wasn’t a missionary. But, he was drawn by God to use his skills for the good of the country. Those skills included entrepreneurship but also wisdom and discernment for bridging cross-cultural conundrums, including finances. By the mid 2000s, his/our presence in-country included a manufacturing business.

I was a reluctant partner in all this, passionate in my own pursuits. But, I did sorta move to Azerbaijan in 2002. Kent had been living in his office alternating months the prior year. In February 2002, he rented an apartment and bid me come and stay with him “for 5 months” to help him establish the business.

That extended into five years. Two years in, I got with the program and learned to value and like our new home. Back in Redmond, we had long-term house-sitters and came home for holidays and family visits throughout the year.

We weren’t the only Christian expats trying to run an ethical small business in a corrupt country, but it was a unique challenge. We didn’t have an organization over us, covering us, backing us up. Although some of our employees believed that the American church somehow fed money to us, it wasn’t so. It was our own capital.

In summer 2006, we decided to stop with the house-sitters and actually rent out our Redmond house, starting the first of the year. We changed our address officially to a Pony Express office. Our thought was that the best way to forge through the many personal and business challenges was to settle in more.

Having made these arrangements, we returned abroad in August, 2006, and immediately had a sense that we needed to shut down the business. We took two weeks to reflect and pray about this shocking development. At the end of the two weeks, we were both certain - it was time to go home. God was calling us away.

We had a multi-faceted investment in the country. We had significant relationships with our own workers and a variety of expat and national ministry partners. We had a whole machine shop to sell off, with lathe, milling machine, drill press and grinder, plus hundreds and hundreds of small items and inventory that went with metal fabrication. We did what we could to give our workers, from machine operators to engineers to accounting staff, good recommendations or connections for a new place if we were at all able.

It was sad and hard. Hopes unfulfilled. Precious friendships within and outside the church, great people we’d labored and laughed with were left behind. We put a big effort into goodbyes, knowing we would never again see most of the people. We arrived home in December with a big void before us. And a five-day power outage, just to cap things off properly!

Following the call of God can turn your life upside down, whether you’re called “to” or called “away”. "In any and every circumstance . . . I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." -Philippians 4:12-13 portions

Photo by Jayphen Simpson on Unsplash