The "WHY?" behind our upcoming move abroad



Hi friends,

As I was doing the laundry yesterday, it occurred to me that not everyone I wish could come to our benefit concert will do so or be able to. I wanted so much to be able to explain to you what those in attendance tonight will hear more about, which is our decision to follow God’s “call” to Southeast Asia.

When we use the word “call” to talk about things like this, we sometimes assume people know what that means. And not everyone can truly relate to that experience, so we would like to explain it a bit.


Simon and I have individually been impacted by cross cultural living, and how the story of Jesus actually is very relevant across cultures. It is not an American story, not even a Western one. It is a truth that crosses cultures, geographical lines, and age old religious systems. It is as true now as it ever was, so when we say God “called” us, we literally mean that. We experienced a moment when Jesus, who is real, laid out a life before us that was too good to pass up. But to explain that, you need a wee bit of context.

Part of why we are excited to follow God’s call on our lives is because He has significantly changed us by His love. Both Simon and I have lives marked by lots of bumps in the road, and in those moments we discovered Jesus was like a friend who met us on that road and helped us back up. He has never left us in our mistakes and our low points, but has shown to be very present in times of trouble. As Simon and I both got older, we realized just how much Jesus had helped us through. We were completely unable to save ourselves. We tried, and always failed. Jesus, whose love is laid out in the Bible, saved us from a life of continual self-destruction.

Ashley in Myanmar, 2004

As a result, we want to honor him with what He has given us. Our lives have been radically changed by His love, so we now see our lives as something we have to offer Him. We believe Jesus loves everyone as much as He has loved us, and we want people to know about it. We want to be a vessel for that love to be poured out on everyone around us. The Bible says “His love is better than life”, which for us means that His love is better than all the ways we sought to live life, to enjoy it, to experience it, and to share it with others.

In closing, we are so looking forward to living overseas again. Simon grew up in an intercultural home: his mother is American born but raised in Germany, his father is British, and Simon grew up in South Africa. Living in a multicultural context is nothing new to Him! I also deeply enjoy living abroad and meeting so many new and different people to myself, learning from them, and sharing life and the love of Jesus with them. We are looking forward to building a home in Asia for the next few years.

We hope you will join us on this journey!

Simon's recent trip to Myanmar

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