Our Story of God’s Leading
In the summer of 2023 we led a 7-car-caravan of families from Evergreen Bible Church on a mission trip to serve at Rock Nest Ranch. This was my first time back at Rock Nest since the summer of 2015. During our time at Rock Nest that summer, I quite unexpectantly felt like the Lord was asking me / us to consider the possibility of serving at Rock Nest in a more significant capacity. Specifically, I was wondering if the Lord was calling us to join UIM, move to Houston, BC, and join the Rock Nest Staff full-time. I shared this with Leanne in August of 2023 and this was very difficult news for her to hear. That set in motion a whole lot of soul-searching, prayer, and seeking wise counsel for both of us.
As we continued to pray that year, we became less and less inclined to believe that this new direction was from the Lord, for a variety of reasons, though we weren’t certain. We had been encouraged by several of the UIM Missionaries to come to Rock Nest for a longer time period over the summer of 2024 to further consider this possibility. Feel so unsure, we opted instead to just come for one week. But we were committed to seeking the Lord over the course of that week, really asking whether the Lord was asking us to follow Him into this ministry. During that week in 2024 I again was surprised when I felt a reaffirmation that pursuing missionary service at Rock Nest was something the Lord was asking of us.
That reaffirmation came for two reasons. First, there was simply an ineffable sense that God was confirming to me that we are supposed to be a part of this. I don’t really know how to explain it, but there was a very specific moment where I had a strong sense, as I was listening to the kids sing worship songs in the chapel session, that “of course” we were supposed to be here. The second reason was that I continued to see how the gifts, skills, and experience that Leanne and I both have would be complementary to the gifts, skills, and experiences of the other Rock Nest Ranch staff members, Daniel and Geneva Koster and Vance Christopherson.
In August of 2024, after arriving home, Leanne and I began a 40-day prayer fast, with each of us setting aside some things for those 40 days, while also committing to pray together each night. Our time of prayer was about many things, but our specific goal was to ask the Lord to show us if we were not supposed to pursue this opportunity at Rock Nest. The 40 days of praying and fasting was good for each of us individually, and good for our marriage, but in all that time, we never felt like we received clear direction from the Lord. Because we were praying with the request to stop us from moving forward if we weren’t supposed to move forward, and because we didn’t have any clear directive to not move forward, we then began the UIM Application process.
After completing the various parts of the application process and our references providing some further information about us, we were notified by UIM Missionary Ernie Geeting, that we were invited to come for an official interview with UIM, as well as attend a one-week training class called OTUS (Orientation to UIM Seminar). This training is scheduled for the week of March 16-22, 2025 in Glendale, AZ. This information came at a helpful time, when I had a week of vacation, and we were scheduled for some time away. This provided significant time for us to talk and pray together about whether we should attend this training and interview.
My initial instinct was that yes, we should attend, but as we talked, it became evident that Leanne had significant hesitations with continuing the process. Recognizing that God wouldn’t call me but fail to call Leanne, I felt sure we then should probably not attend this training and interview, and that this was the end of this process of considering joining UIM. But although she had these significant reservations, the idea of not attending this next step also didn’t sit right with Leanne. She felt no certainty of peace with either attending or not attending. As we prayed together on the night of Tues, Dec 10, a thought came to me, which was that we “would be foolish to not attend,” and that we should go and see a little further. I shared that with Leanne, acknowledging that I couldn’t say if that was a thought from the Lord or just a thought from myself. But we went to bed that night with the expectation that yes, we would be attending the training and interview in AZ. That next morning as we began talking again, Leanne shared that she was suddenly struck with severe anxiety at the prospect of attending this training, and all it would mean to move forward in this process. As we talked, it again became clear that this turmoil in her heart about the possibility of uprooting our family permanently to move to BC right now was too great, and that we should not continue to pursue this path. So it seemed to me to be unkind to persist in pushing us forward, and again, I felt like we had reached the end of the road in this missions consideration. I was prepared to let UIM know that we would not be attending the interview and orientation classes at this time.
This was a rather disorienting feeling for me, as I felt a lot of confusion about why the Lord had seemingly been stirring this inside me when I didn’t go looking for it, only to get a year and a half down the road and to simply run into a dead end. I struggled to make sense of why the Lord had asked us to take these steps of seriously considering such a major family upheaval, which came with many tears, sleepless nights, and which had become the dominant conversation in our family over these many months. I was hopeful that the Lord would eventually give us eyes to see why He’d asked us to give so much time and attention to something that would vanish so quickly.
Then, sometime in the very early hours of that next morning, as I was sleeping, I had a dream. I don’t remember very well the specifics of the dream, but I woke up with a sense that we should consider staying in Vancouver but serving at Rock Nest on a part-time basis. I shared this new thought with Leanne when I woke up and we were both intrigued by the idea. Again, similar to the thought I had about it being “foolish to not go to the OTUS training,” I can’t say with any certainty whether this thought was simply my own subconscious, or if this was a way the Lord was providing clarity for us. Admittedly, this idea had been floated out to us previously by Daniel Koster, but I had dismissed it in my mind, because it wasn’t what I thought was best. But suddenly, it seemed like perhaps the “just right” idea. As Leanne and I talked about it, I could tell that she was quite warm to this idea. We spent 24 hours thinking and praying about it, and after that time, we reached out to the UIM Leadership to propose this idea as a consideration.
We also shared this possibility with our children, as well as our extended family. Everyone in our family and extended family felt so much better about this possible new direction, and universally there have been expressions of relief at this idea, rather than the idea of us moving to BC full-time right now.
In the coming month, we were given the blessing to pursue this unique path of serving part-time at Evergreen and part-time at Rock Nest Ranch, both by the Evergreen Bible Church Leadership and the UIM Leadership. The Evergreen Leadership was incredibly encouraging toward this idea, as they all had been walking with us through this consideration over the last year and a half. They felt like this was a great answer to prayer. The church body at Evergreen is also very excited for us and supportive of us in this new direction.
We did attend the training and interview in Glendale, AZ in the month of March 2025, and we are grateful that we were approved to join UIM as Associate Missionaries. That designation simply means that we are officially missionaries with UIM, though it is not our full-time role, but rather a part-time role. We have been given freedom from the Leadership at Evergreen to begin this new role right away, so we will serve at Rock Nest Ranch under this new designation from mid-June through mid-August 2025. We are excited to join the staff at Rock Nest and we are so thankful for the Lord’s kindness and direction as He has led us toward this unique opportunity.
Want to know more?
Why Rock Nest
There are a lot of ministries and camps that a person could serve with, so why this small missionary camp that’s located in what, to many, seems like the middle of nowhere?
What is Rock Nest Ranch?
Rock Nest Ranch is a ministry of UIM, International. It is a camp ministry that has a particular focus on sharing the good of Jesus Christ with First Nations kids, teens, and families in central British Columbia, Canada.
Our History at Rock Nest Ranch
It all started with a youth mission trip in 1997. Ryan had just completed his sophomore year of high school, and prepared to head off on a fun week of serving, having no idea it would change his life forever.
