Denver Seminary

Austin, however, was offered a position with youth in Texas. Austin's new job facilitated their move, but a spark of hope lit Beth's next steps as she too secured a job at a large church working with youth. "I thought, Now that I'm in the door at a church like this, surely I'll have opportunities to move into missions! " Things were looking up for her desire to be a missionary, even if it meant serving on short-term mission trip teams. However, the opportunity fizzled in front of her when, for financial reasons, Beth's position at the church was eliminated. There she was, nine months pregnant with their first child, unemployed again, and her hopes of advancing into missions dashed. She wept. Her heart ached for the people of the world who had yet to hear the good news, but she was at a standstill—forced to wait and hope. WAITING PRODUCES FRUIT The birth of her son kept Beth home for a year, but then she began work at a Montessori school that both of her children eventually attended. She worked there for six long years, waiting. During this time, she tasted the sweetness of her calling by going on short-term mission trips to Guatemala, Ecuador, and Uganda. Between trips, she kept her passion for international work alive by caring for the international kids at their church, but these experiences were grains of rice against her hunger to serve as a full-time missionary. By her fifth year of teaching, she was completely burned out. "I knew I would self destruct if I stayed there any longer," said Beth. "I didn't know where I was going, but I knew it had to be something in missions. It was time." The Lord used this season of waiting to refine her. "I don't think I was actually ready for my calling until the Lord used those experiences—of losing the job and working at the school—to humble me." A NEW DAY DAWNS Beth took a step of faith and resigned from the school. At first, no jobs came. But then her missions pastor introduced her to Lewis Swann, the founder of Sight.org. "Lewis hired me on the spot and said, 'I'm not hiring you because of your experience in missions; I'm hiring you because of your heart.' That was so exciting, and it just meant the world." Finally, after almost 20 years of waiting, Beth is able to live out the calling the Lord gave her to full-time, cross-cultural work among the impoverished peoples of Togo through the work of Sight.org. She doesn't live cross-culturally, but she serves the mission by helping the founder and by traveling once a year to Togo to take photographs and document the stories of their work. Sight.org has a beautifully specific mission: By His grace, we have been redeemed to bring light to the BLIND, the UNREACHED, and the MALNOURISHED in Togo, Africa. They do this by providing three key things: 1) critical eye surgeries for the almost epidemic levels of eye diseases, 2) farming techniques to improve crop production and, by extension, better nutrition 18 FALL 2017 TAKE IT FROM HERE tree8e/iStock iStock

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