kinghorn's called to serve: Our Mission Call

When we first started telling our friends and family that we were going to serve a mission people kept asking "aren't you going to miss your kids?" and of course, the answer was yes. But Bruce and I both were sure that we were being "called" to serve the Lord at this time in our lives. So we made the very difficult decision to leave everyone we love behind for 2 years and go where the Lord wanted us to go. As the days got closer to our departure date we both felt the tugs at our heartstrings each time we spent time with our children, our grandchildren, our siblings, and my mother. When we were asked "how can you leave your family?" my answer was "how can we not". Bruce and I both know that our lives have been blessed. We have had a wonderful rich life together. It hasn't always been easy but the Lord has blessed us with everything we have needed to deal with the challenges we have faced. We see the Lords hand in our lives and know it is from him that all our blessings come. We both know without a doubt that the Lord needs us in Ukraine right now and he will bless the lives of our family as we serve him here in Ukraine. We love our children and grandchildren very much just as we love our friends dearly. We are grateful for all of you who support us with your prayers and letters as we are away.

WE'RE GOING TO UKRAINE

Kieve Ukraine

June 29, 2007

Well the big day arrived. Bruce and I received our mission call yesterday. We made a decision to serve a mission last August after much fasting and prayer.
We sent our papers in June 1st. The call came yesterday, June 28, 2007. We had invited the missionaries over for dinner anticipating the arrival of our letter. The letter arrived at 2pm but we had to wait for Karrissa to get off of work before we could open it. We all wrote on the envelope where we thought we would go. All I remember is I wrote Africa and Bruce put Russia. Nathan, ,Karrissa, Brad and the kids, and the missionaries were there when we opened it. As soon as Karrissa got there we said a prayer, then Bruce opened it. He looked so nervous and when he read Ukraine, it was very quiet. He went on to read that we would be serving 23 months(which was later changed to 18 months) with Welfare Services, Humanitarian Mission. I have to say, I never thought we would be called to Russia. (I was still referring to Ukraine as Russia). (We really knew very little about Ukraine)Brad went right to the computer and looked up the area which made it nice we were able to see right away what our mission looked like.