Building One Another Up: Two Friends' Journey into Missions

Nichole and Sarah, TeachBeyond missionaries serving in Albania and Thailand respectively, met freshmen year at Taylor University and became fast friends and, upon student teaching abroad, began talks about what it might be like to teach internationally. Nichole recalls: “Sarah’s obedience really is something that I’ve admired even when we started the process because I feel like I was more scared and Sarah would be like, ‘No, we’re going to trust in the Lord’ and would encourage me and always point me back to Christ.” As each woman prayed about where to go, who to serve with, fundraising, and the pain of leaving, the two leaned on and learned from one another.

Even as a missionary makes community in their first year, the feeling of being known is keenly missed; simultaneously, while a missionary misses their connections at home and those people are vital to that sense of support and love, those at home have often never experienced anything like what the new missionary is experiencing. What is beautiful and unique for Nichole and Sarah is that their individual paths have parallelled in such a way to be a fierce encouragement in their lives in ministry.

Even as the Lord made clear the way, the 2 emphasize how leaving college and getting their first jobs are already huge transitions, and being away from everything and everyone familiar is far from an easy path. In response to the question everyone asks, why not serve in the same place, Nichole underlines how the 2 continuously pointed one another to the Lord in their questioning: “That would have been great if that happened, but we were called to different places. And I think it was really special that we were on the same page of walking through it together but knowing that our stories were different… and how we can still be there for each other in that.”

A defining moment for a missionary abroad is the 3-month mark, which is an approximate estimate about when it begins to settle in the brain and heart that this is reality now. Both women touched on how this benchmark can be lonely, especially after the first time getting sick in a foreign country. Nichole and Sarah expressed how feeling miserable in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people is a shock to the system, but Nichole reasons “that’s what the Lord has asked of me… this is home now. And so how do I continue to make this home even when that’s difficult?” In their sickness, the two again found strength through one another and reaffirming their purpose in ministry through those conversations.

Now, when asked what they are looking forward to, both women light up. Nichole is looking to deepen relationships while Sarah wants to intentionally ask good questions and be the kind of teacher to show up at basketball games. They talk about their heart for their kids and their growing hearts for their host countries while beaming. There is much to be celebrated about 2 friends being able to support one another through every stage of ministry, bringing a new measure of security and joy, and truly building one another up for the work to be done (1 Thess. 5:11).