Sold companies to serve in Asia

“A GO Equipped course in Germany helped us to understand that there is a place for practical, down-to-earth people like us in the worldwide mission work, shares, Rosalyn and John, They have now lived seven years in Asia.

Rosalyn and John* strongly felt that God called them to serve in Asia. After contacting several mission organizations, they did however get more and more confused.

“We are practical people with degrees in business and education management and not in theology. In our contact with the organizations, we felt like there was no room for people like us,” says the couple to Intent.

They were successful businesspeople in their home country. During a vacation trip to Asia, they did however sense that God called them to move from Europe.

“We owned a couple of companies and were heading a business-to-business ministry. We were also a part of a church start-up that we enjoyed very much. It was still exciting to experience God’s calling, and we always want to be ready to embark on new journeys. Pursuing his will was however confusing for us. It was like our personalities and skills did not fit in with the mission entities we contacted.”

Bless and share

In 2012 they decided to drive through half of Europe to attend a GO Equipped course in southern Germany.

“At the course things started to fall in place for us. The event confirmed our calling. Now we understood that there was a place for practical, down-to-earth people like us. We could thus start the planning of how we could use our skills to bless people and share the Gospel in Asia.”

Major obstacle

The couple sold the companies they were heading and started applying for leadership jobs in educational institutions in the Asian nation that they felt God was calling them to. There was one big obstacle, though. Christians in the nation live under restrictions, and the contracts the couple were offered, had clauses saying that they were not allowed to share about Christ with anyone.

“We were not willing to adapt to such terms,” the couple shares.

They continued to apply for jobs. In the end there was finally an employer who provided a contract without any anti-religious passages.

“Now we have lived and worked here for seven years. It has been an amazing journey and we are grateful for what God has allowed us to do here,” shares the couple.

* Due to security measures, we cannot share more details from this couple’s work. Their names have also been changed.