100 People Network

Story by: Brian Lundin
Photography by: Tiffany Palmer

It’s almost as if Allan had been on the path to mission work since before he was born.

His grandparents were Christian missionaries in East Africa and his aunts, uncles and cousins have worked overseas in the name of Christ his entire life. He grew up keenly aware of what it meant to sacrifice a comfortable life in the United States in order to serve the unreached on the other side of the world. In a few weeks, he will take another big step in his journey by moving to North Africa.

In high school, Allan got a chance to travel to Rwanda. It began to break his heart, realizing that virtually every person he met there was lost. It was then that the desire to follow in his grandparents’ steps began to take shape inside of him. The next year he went to Kenya for three weeks. By the end of the trip, he was hooked and felt the Lord calling him to go to the lost.

When Allan began college at the University of Texas, he had planned to apply to medical school upon graduation. But in the back of his mind, he still dreamed of returning to Africa. Becoming a doctor was not Allan’s passion, but it was familiar and safe because so many members of his family had pursued that path.

As graduation neared and Allan prepared to take the admissions test for medical school, he started to seriously seek God’s plan for his future. Did God want him to become a doctor? Was he to serve in Africa? Was his desire to work overseas what the Lord wanted for him or was it what he wanted for himself? Allan went through a period of doubt and struggle, fearing that he might make a mistake.

Through time spent in prayer, study of the Word, and counsel from his family and friends, Allan reached a place of rest in the sovereignty of God. He was able trust that the Lord’s will would be done, that he had a role to play in it, and that all he had to do was keep his eyes on Jesus and trust him.

Allan realized that he was, indeed, called to serve overseas. And from that point on, he fully embraced it.

He decided against medical school and began a season of praying and waiting for God to bring the right opportunity before him. Around this time, the Austin Stone began the 100 People Network and Allan felt prompted to sign up.

Through the process of officially becoming a Goer, he met and spent time with teams headed overseas and prayerfully sought God’s path for him. For a year and a half, Allan worked, served in internationally-focused ministries, and prayed for a specific calling that would take him overseas.

The Lord walked with Allan through that season of waiting and wondering. Finally, he led Allan to a team bound for North Africa with hopes to engage a people group that has had almost no opportunity to hear the gospel. After a short period of prayer and reflection, he was convinced that this was the right time, the right team, and the right people group.

After nearly ten years of learning, dreaming, praying and preparing, Allan and his team are preparing to leave for North Africa in a few short weeks. As he looks forward to serving, building relationships, and growing the church in a dark part of the world, his excitement builds. He finds his inspiration and guidance from Paul’s letter to the Philippians:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8)

Leaning on Paul’s words, Allan looks to his future, down a path with a destination he can’t yet see … and he knows only that Jesus is walking right there alongside him. He’s eager to carry the gospel to the unreached for the rest of his journey.

Story by: Brian Lundin
Photography by: Scott Wade 

Noah Burns has deep roots in Austin. He grew up in the Texas capital and has strong connections all around. There is the high school he graduated from, the university he loves, and the church where he came to know the Lord. It’s where his family and friends are.

Recently, though, Noah has felt a tug to uproot from Austin and his tight network here to follow Jesus to his new home, in a nation thousands of miles away where he knows almost no one – except the Lord.

After being saved as a high school freshman, falling away for a time, and then graduating from college, Noah’s faith was refreshed and the Lord drew him near. “His faithfulness and steadfast love for me is very real in my day-to-day life,” Noah stated. In this renewed closeness with Christ, Noah felt a call to pursue a lifelong interest in acting that took him to Los Angeles.

It was a tough time professionally, but he found a home in a local church that welcomed him, where people were committed and the worship was powerful. God continued to grow Noah’s faith during that time in a very evident way. “It’s the coolest thing in the world when God is actually moving in your life,” he said. Noah’s acting career, however, didn’t take off and he felt God’s call to return to Austin – and, as it turns out, to a lofty calling to another faraway place: North Africa.

Noah had no concept of what it meant to serve internationally when he moved home to Austin and started attending The Austin Stone. “I never knew about missions, never thought about missions. I didn’t know what an unreached people group was,” Noah said.

Upon hearing a recommendation, he began reading Let the Nations Be Glad John Piper and the first paragraph hit him hard. It said:

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

This thought, this concept of worship, compelled Noah to leave his hometown in order to serve his Lord. In addition to worshipping the Lord through his obedience, Noah also finds sustenance in the promises of God.

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:23)

And that’s exactly what Noah and his team are doing in North Africa. “We’re going there to gather God’s children. I have brothers and sisters there, and my job is to go over and find them,” Noah proclaimed. “I know God’s promises; He will bring them to Him.”

The freedom that Noah found in those promises has begun to put his personal idols to death. Before he answered the call to overseas missions, Noah struggled with seeking the approval of others. “I was the last person to look for an opportunity to share my faith with my friends,” he confessed. “I was just really cowardly.”

Once Noah committed to serving in North Africa, he found that God would sanctify him through his obedience, and he started to see victory over his idol of approval. “Now, by God’s grace, I am always talking about Jesus,” he said. “I look back just nine months ago and think about the person I was and how God has used this to bring me to where I am today.”

Noah’s calling has already produced fruit in an unexpected place: “Both my parents have just fallen head over heels in love with Jesus over the last few years,” he told me. “Two years ago if I had come home and said, ‘I really feel the Lord taking me overseas’ I think they would have not understood it, but now they are incredibly passionate about it.”

He laughingly relayed a small suspicion that that his parents are a bit envious of his calling. And who can blame them? “I worship him for calling our team,” he said. “I worship him for calling me. I mean, how humbling is that? God is calling me to gather his children!”

Story by: Lori Richter
Photography by: Kim Ellis

Ryan, Ann and baby Henri are pioneers on the mission work frontier. Where they are going, there are no churches, no gatherings of believers. “We have confidence that God is going to save them,” Ryan states. “We may not see the fruit in our lifetime, but Jesus purchased them.

Ryan admits that “Frontier mission work is easy.” His boldness comes from Revelation 5:9, “By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” This is the basis for Ryan and Ann’s confidence. God’s mission is to have worshipers from every people group around his throne. Therefore, Ryan declares, “We just have to go get them.” 

Scripture flows out of Ryan, “‘I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice’ (John 10:16 ESV). And so we go. As we talk about Jesus and share life together with them, he’s going to bring his sheep together and build his church.”

Two years ago, God began to reveal the plight of unreached people to Ryan and Ann. God tugged at their hearts as they learned that there are 2.5 billion people who have no access to the gospel. But for every 100 missionaries who go out, only one goes to an unreached people group.

Then about a year ago, Ryan’s heart once again stirred. He began to look into planting a church in the Austin area. However, he realized that anyone in the United States can drive to a good church. God once again brought his focus back to the 2.5 billion unreached of the world.

Through the process of an intense study of Abraham, God destroyed the comfort and security idols in Ryan’s heart showing him that when you follow his mission, there’s no such thing as a risk. Even if you lose everything, you still have everything in God. God freed him to consider planting a church overseas. Ryan came home to a sympathetic Ann and told her, “God is calling me to plant where there is no church.” 

Ryan wants to go where “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37). He and Ann hope to start a church planting movement in the midst of an unreached people group that will continue long after they’re gone.

When asked about the biggest change God has made in her heart through this process, Ann said, “God has increased my trust and reliance on him. It’s ok not to know what it’s going to look like a month or two from now. I’m just being able to let go of a sense of security with baby Henri. They can take our stuff, but not take our lives. But if we do lose our lives for Jesus, we can’t fail in the end. I know that my trust and reliance on God will continue to grow and flesh out more with time.”

With regard to Henri’s safety, Ryan says, “Here [in the States], there’s a sense that though you totally get God’s sovereignty, you still feel that you’re in control of your children. But over there, you know you’ve got nothing. It’s all God. He’s got to take care of our kids. In reality, the situation is exactly the same, but over there you’re forced to understand that it’s all in God’s control.

Ryan and Ann understand the anxiety that comes with leaving everything behind. They get that it will take time to adjust and that security and safety are a completely different experience in the Middle East. It won’t be easy. But the fact remains that Jesus is going to bring his sheep in. That brings comfort in the midst of knowing how hard it’s going to be.

Story by: Lori Richter
Photography by: Phillip Glickman

 “She’s not my child. I came to the realization that these beautiful daughters I call mine are not. Ashley belongs to God. If he’s ready to take her back to be with him, that’s fine,”  said Theresa Chandler  as she remembered her daughter’s brush with death in May 2011.

Tony, Theresa and their two teenage daughters, Ashley and Jane, are peaceful, hopeful, calm and confident. After talking with the Chandler’s for just a few minutes, it is obvious why they are so nice to be around: God is their source. Their relationship with God, their Father, runs deep and because of what He did for them.

In November 2010, God called the Chandlers to prepare to move tothe Middle East as part of the Austin Stone’s 100 People Network. Fundraising had started, their family was moving into a temporary home, and – after being laid off from his job – Tony began to work toward moving their family to the Middle East.

During Thanksgiving, Theresa and the girls spent the holiday with family while Tony traveled to the Middle East on an exploratory trip. One evening, without warning, Ashley got sick. This healthy, athletic young woman found herself exhausted when she simply walked across the room. God gently spoke to Theresa: Go to the ER. There they learned that Ashley was in heart failure, kidney failure and had fluid in her lungs.

With Tony in the Middle East, the Chandler’s missional community sprang into action. They moved quickly to help Theresa and Ashley in whatever ways they could. They prayed, arranged for Skype calls, brought food, and spent an entire day in the hospital waiting room praying. Meanwhile, Tony’s team on the trip with him also began to pray and arrange for him to catch the next flight home. Remarkably, Theresa and Tony say that they knew God was in this situation with them. They never felt panicked. Theresa said, “I knew God had her.”
 

Tests revealed that Ashley had a rare disease causing inflammation of the arteries, a diagnosis that typically goes undetected until a catastrophic event occurs.It’s plain to see that God was involved in Ashley’s early illness and diagnosis. She was released from the hospital after a month-long stay and was home for Christmas.

Then, in May, Ashley’s blood pressure unexpectedly shot up again. Unable to bring it down, doctors at Dell Children’s Medical Center suggested that Ashley be flown to a nephrologist in Cleveland, Ohio.  Ashley underwent an angioplasty and renal artery bypass surgery. During the surgery, Ashley crashed and doctors administered CPR. Twice. After a grueling 12 hours of surgery, Tony and Theresa were finally told that their daughter was successfully out of surgery.

Again, the Chandler’s missional community sprang into action. People prayed and sent out the message to pray  and the word spread. A few members of their community even traveled to Cleveland to visit with the family while Ashley was hospitalized. They soon realized that Ashley was about to miss her high school graduation ceremony, so the community petitioned the school and creatively made arrangements for Ashley to participate via Skype with balloons, cake and, of course, a cap and gown. As her name was called to walk the stage during the ceremony, Ashley heard the Frank Irwin Center erupt into cheers as the hospital staff simultaneously broke out into applause.

During their stay in Cleveland with Ashley, the lease on the Chandler family’s house expired and they needed to move. Their community packed, moved and unpacked the family in their new house. Their furniture was placed in exactly the same place as their previous home, even down to the smallest detail. When the Chandlers came home, their dishes were in the kitchen cabinets and their clothes were in the closets. Their missional community also helped pay for the family’s return plane tickets and put together a fund to help with Ashley’s medical bills.

Sharing life together in this missional community went to the extreme. As hospital staff, friends and family watched people care for the Chandlers, Theresa and Tony made a point to be intentional about telling them what God was doing in their lives and the support their missional community gave them. They boldly told them, “This is the way Christ’s people act!”

Today, the Chandler’s have a story to tell; a story of God’s faithfulness and how He uses His people to meet the needs of his children. They said, “This is a story to God’s glory. When you’re living for Christ and not the world, you’re going to have trials. It’s going to happen. One way to prepare is to be in a missional community. We couldn’t have endured through this experience without the love and support of our missional communities.”

Tony, Theresa, Ashley and Jane Chandler are planning to leave for the Middle East in the summer of 2012.   

Story by: Brian Lundin
Photo by: Scott Wade

With its current population of over 1.21 billion people, India is on track to become the world’s most populous country by 2025. Greg wants to see a church planting explosion there that would rival what has taken place in China. For someone with such high hopes, washing the feet of the poor in the countryside might seem like too meager of a beginning. But Greg is following the example of humility that Christ displayed for us: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).

Greg was raised in church, but by the time he started school at The University of Texas, he realized he was not living in obedience to God. Originally, his goals were to obtain a degree in computer science, find a good job and pursue what this world has to offer. But at the invitation of a good friend, Greg started attending The Austin Stone and going to a campus Bible study. At that point, God made some remarkable changes in his life.

When asked about the change, Greg states, “I started living in response to grace.”

Two years ago, while at a ministry on campus, Greg saw a flyer about a rural foot washing ceremony performed by Christian workers in India for the Dalit–the “untouchables” or those who are “broken to pieces.” On this flyer, Greg saw Christians going to these broken and outcast people at the bottom of the caste system, kneeling before them, and humbly serving them.

According to Hindu teachings on caste, only through good karma and the cycle of reincarnation can one escape poverty and desperation. Greg desired to bring the message of grace into this culture, to bring the good news that Christ has delivered us from death regardless of caste, society and our very own sin. He wanted to show the Indian people that the gospel saves and that their value does not lie in which caste their society places them, but rather in what Christ has accomplished for them. Eager to watch God restore the Dalit and transform the nation of India with the same grace that is transforming him, Greg pursued the opportunity on the flyer and went to India to wash the feet of the poor and broken.

After that trip, Greg’s longing to serve the Indian people, the poor, the broken and the outcast, continued to grow. When The Stone launched the 100 People Network, Greg saw a direct path to pursue his calling. “I think it is biblical to be sent by your home church,” he says. Upon joining the network, Greg found more than support and camaraderie. “It didn't take long for me to understand that God put me in the 100 People Network because he understood that I knew nothing about being a goer, and they were prepared to train people like me,” Greg states. “I learned so much about God, serving him and loving him more. Not just that I'm loving him more, but that I'm inviting people to love him.”

In a few weeks, Greg will be back in India. However, this time, after the foot washing and preaching events have concluded and the teams have moved on, Greg will remain, serving the people of the town and showing them a life lived in response to grace. He will focus on building relationships, making disciples and planting a church—a church that Greg hopes will be one of many.

Greg has the support of his friends and family. Understandably, his parents are worried, but their joy in Greg’s role in God’s mission to the unreached overshadows their fears. Greg’s concerns about moving to India--how much he may miss country music and fishing—do not compare to his desire to follow Christ’s example to take the gospel to the broken. He’s excited to see their response to God’s grace.

Story by Allicia Garza
Photo by Tiffany Palmer

In a few days, Maddie Pearson will leave her life in Austin and move to the Middle East. Despite the fact that she is leaving everything she’s ever known, the hardest part has been giving away her Calphalon pots and pans. “That was a big deal,” she said, “even bigger than selling my car."

Maddie first considered international missions as a high school student, but like many students, she assumed she would first get her college degree and then go. With her plan set, she headed off to Texas State to pursue her studies. But college wasn’t all she thought it would be.

“I never really liked school. I just went because that’s what you do. I loved learning, but hated college, and I think there was a reason for that,” Maddie explained.

After getting involved with The Austin Stone, she was asked to go on a vision trip to a country in the Middle East.

“I had the worst time ever. Everything went wrong. But I knew I wanted to go back because I fell in love with the place.”

The next summer, she had the opportunity to return to that same country, and it was on this trip that God confirmed where Maddie’s mission field would be.

“When I was there, it felt like two magnets finding each other. It just instantly fit. I loved it more than Texas, which was a lot. That was a really weird and new feeling for me,” Maddie recalled.

After returning home to Austin, Maddie felt God calling her to pursue the mission field as soon as possible.

One spring day in 2010, she was too distracted to even read her Bible.

“My disobedience was so convicting. I just set down my Bible right there and said, ‘Okay. Let’s do this.’ I wasn’t super amped about it, but I knew it was obedience.”

The next Sunday, she received confirmation through a sermon at The Austin Stone.

“It was crazy because he was preaching and said verbatim, ‘If God wants you to drop out of school and move to the Middle East, you do it.’ That next week I called and told my parents that’s what I was doing,” Maddie said.

It’s been a little over a year since that day, and Maddie is ready to see what God is going to do while she’s there. Although her team has made a two-year commitment, Maddie is prepared to stay indefinitely. But if she must leave someday, she knows the legacy she wants to leave behind.

“I hope if I leave [the Middle East], I’m just a glimmer of what my friends [there] remember. I hope they remember the way that God worked through me.”

With her departure day approaching quickly, Maddie is learning to rely on God.

“I’ve been learning that while I’m there, [I’ll have to] trust Jesus with my money, my words, my friendships, and the souls of my Middle Eastern friends. I’m realizing that it’s going to be hard knowing that I have to trust Jesus to save their souls, that I can’t do anything.”

Maddie is encouraged daily by the words of Matthew 5:14 and Jesus’ vision for the church: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Maddie is excited to see God fulfill his promises. With a heart full of hope and her bags packed, she is ready to leave her life in Austin and her Calphalon cooking set behind.

“I want the church to see the need for Jesus in the world. This is so much more important than an education, career, friendship or comfort. It’s about being a light in such a dark place. There is just such a big need. We need more workers.”

Profile by Sarah Vanhoose
Photo by Todd White

Grant and Brandi Duncan enjoy playing obscure European board games and are particularly fond of one in which the object of the game is to build railroads that connect faraway places.  As self-described planners, they delight in working together to develop a strategy to solve the problem and win the game.  In a twist of beautifully divine irony, the Duncans will soon be serving as the real-life pieces that connect the unreached people groups of Southeast Asia to Christ and his message of love. There they will have the opportunity to help translate the Bible into many native languages. 

Coming from Christian families, Brandi’s grandfather, aunt, uncle and sister were long-term missionaries, and Grant had participated in several short-term mission trips in college.  The two had foreseen short-term missions as a definite part of their married future, but it wasn’t until a year ago when they moved to Austin and took a Perspectives course that they began to consider the idea of long-term service abroad.  Their introduction to the 100 People Network also served as a means for God to reveal to them his heart for the nations and the reason they were called to go.

“What we’ve realized is that there is an obligation, a responsibility, for us as believers to share the gospel and we are gladly accepting that responsibility.” 

Reflecting on their history, they see God’s careful detail in bringing them together to ultimately glorify him in their lives and in their marriage. They met while serving together at a Christian organization on campus at a college in California and, as it turned out, Grant lived only one floor beneath Brandi.  He pursued a career in pharmaceuticals and Brandi completed her Master’s Degree in Speech Language Pathology. They spent the first two years of married life in California and learned about the Austin Stone before their move last year; they listened to sermons online and were convinced even before their arrival to Austin that this was to be their new home church. 

As missionaries, they’re constantly confronted with the ever-popular question, “When did you feel called to go?”  They candidly struggle with an emotionally impacting response as their personal decision never involved an earth-shattering sign from above, but rather a steadily strengthening confirmation of where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be doing. 

“We’re very logical people, and we believe God gave us logic to make this decision.  This makes sense for us.” 

The blessing and calling that God has personalized for the Duncans is his undeniable creation of their availability and a freedom to make such a sizeable change. This has manifested itself in a number of ways: Grant’s contract with his employer just expired, their apartment lease is up, and Brandi has just completed school. 

Just having returned from training with their sending organization, God has magnified their passion for the mission at hand according to his impeccable timing. They have learned about the dire need for Bible translation in an area of the world in which Islam, fear and darkness permeate the culture. Grant and Brandi have seen the potential for their willingness to submit to the call stirring in the hearts of others, like the couple in their missional community that have prayed with them step in their process and are now making initial preparations for long-term service as well. 

Their fear of learning new languages is far outweighed by their conviction that they’d have much more to fear if they abstained from this calling of God on their lives. Brandi takes comfort in her mother’s old adage that proclaims, “The safest place for anyone is always where God wants them to be.” 

There is no doubt they’ll miss many things about life in Austin, but they radiate with excitement when considering what a blessing it will be for their full-time jobs to be so directly glorifying to God. The Duncans are uncertain about how long they’ll stay, only knowing it will be until God is properly introduced and his power is demonstrated to a people that need to know him. They plan to stay until the message of his unending love and complete omniscience is communicated to the people in this region in a language that they can understand. 

All the while, Grant and Brandi will make it clear that none of the victory in this real-life quest is of their own effort. They long to live in such a way that it’s said of them, “God must be with them, because there’s no way they could do any of that on their own.” 

Profile by Allicia Garza
Photo by Jen Crane

It was their hearts for the nations that first brought Scott and Shelly together at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

“It’s kind of neat when you meet somebody and they have that same unique interest as you do,” Shelly recounted. “It’s not every day when you can talk to somebody about your love for Africa.”

This love for Africa eventually led the two to Kenya. “It was on that trip that the Lord solidified that this was the person I was going to be serving with. This was the person I was going to marry,” Scott said.

They planned to adjust to married life here in the States for a year before embarking on the mission field, but God had other plans. “We were never on the same page about going,” Scott explained. “We prayed for God to [give us direction], and about a week later, The Austin Stone announced the launch of the 100 People Network.”

Though both Scott and Shelly had a heart for Africa, they had never thought about the possibility of serving in the Muslim cultures of North Africa. However, after learning more about the unreached people groups in the region, they began to pray seriously about serving there. Not long after they started praying, a friend asked them to consider taking a vision trip to a country in that area. “I didn’t even know where it was! I had to look it up!” Shelly confessed. “We didn’t have a clue about the lack of Christ’s presence in the Muslim world. God very much showed us while we were there that what we had always assumed about our lives wasn’t necessarily his plan.”

After that trip, the two knew the place they would be serving. They quickly connected with a team of families that were interested in going to the same region and started learning everything they could about the culture. Despite the peace that they’ve experienced about their move across the world, the two admitted they will have to make some difficult adjustments.

“In Muslim culture, it is unheard of for the man to be seen cooking, and I love to cook,” Scott acknowledged. “Maybe I’ll try to take up fishing instead!”

Along with Scott’s cooking, the couple said they would miss simple things such as Austin restaurants, air conditioning, and the constant love and support they receive from friends and family.

“The support we’ve had from our friends and community here is amazing. I can’t imagine taking a huge step like this without that [support],” Shelly said.

The couple believes the support they’ve received is evidence of the entire body of Christ at work. “You don’t have to be a goer to be a part of the 100 People Network. There are 100 people going, but there are hundreds more people supporting [them]. The goers aren’t any more important than the senders or mobilizers. You have to have every part working in cohesion.”

With the support of their loved ones and with a baby on the way, the couple is confident that the Lord has big things in store for their family and for North Africa. “He doesn’t have us going there for no purpose,” Shelly said. “We have to believe that what we’re doing is making an eternal investment.”

“I’m excited to see God fulfill his promises in my own life and on a global scale,” Scott added. “To uproot my family and move to the desert—there’s no hope in that unless you believe God’s promise to bring all nations to himself. If I didn’t believe that, there would be no hope in going.” 

Profile by Casey Henegar
Photo by Jami Sall

Lillian remembers having a deep desire for community and fellowship at a young age. Although she attended church with her great grandmother or neighbors on a sporadic basis, the desire for her immediate family to attend together was always near to her heart.

After moving to a new city, Lillian was able to regularly attend church with one of her middle school teachers. She started attending the youth group and, at summer camp, she truly heard the gospel for the first time.

Trusting in the power of her new faith, Lillian began a pursuit of perfection. But it wasn’t long until she found herself acting as moral police, correcting others and putting on her own disguise of excellence.

While her life appeared to be ideal from an outside perspective, Lillian’s world began to crack. Her great grandmother unexpectedly passed away and she was torn with grief and emotion. Reluctantly, she went to camp two days later where God revealed a specific calling on her life to go to the nations. For the first time, Lillian felt fully embraced and known by God.

The mask of perfection began falling away, but her journey was far from over.

In college, a snow-tubing accident left Lillian temporarily paralyzed. During her recovery, she endured physical restrictions on her body and struggled with depression, anxiety and fear. She withdrew from school and moved home … only to realize that fear had taken over.

Months later, as she was listening to the lyrics of a song, she came to a realization. “The Healer shall set you free, you’re free to dance.” Lillian knew she was free from fear.

After graduating from college, Lillian moved to the University of Hawaii where she began meeting and sharing her faith with a group of Asian doctoral students. Her heart hurt for these students; they so desperately wanted follow Jesus, but had great difficulty overcoming their cultural and familial barriers.

She returned to Austin for what she thought would be a few weeks, but has turned into five years. While waiting for clarity in her next steps, God showed her that she couldn’t continue casually waiting. Instead, he taught her that she should begin actively living the lifestyle he had called her to right here and now.

During this time, Lillian had a recurring dream that she was carrying a basket. In this dream, God wanted to give her a gift but he knew that she couldn’t carry both his gift and her basket. One night, she saw into the basket. Inside was everything she treasured in life: her job, dreams, family and friends. As Lillian held this basket close to her heart, God told her that she had to be willing to lay it down.

Reluctantly, she put the basket and its contents down. She quit her job without knowing what was next. It was after that moment of faithful obedience that God began to open doors.

As she shared with others what God was doing in her life, she was presented with a chance to move to Southeast Asia in order to share the gospel with people who have never heard the good news of Jesus. With pure joy, she embraced the opportunity.

After experiencing true community here in Austin, she believes that her role on the team in Southeast Asia will be to bring unity to a body of believers that serves others, while showing the unreached what biblical community can look like. Lillian will also serve through relationship building, community development, team administration and storytelling.

Lillian has a great love for children and hopes to develop a relationship with a local orphanage. As the church grows, she hopes God will use her to help families teach their children about Jesus.

This time, Lillian knows God is getting the attention, and she gets the honor of being a part of his story.

Profile by Brian Lundin
Photo by Chris Hedlund

When he was a child, Cameron's mother had one single prayer for her son’s life; all she wanted was for him to follow God's will. It was a simple prayer, but it was that simple prayer that is now taking him to North Africa.

Preaching the gospel to an unreached people group in a foreign land was the farthest thing from his mind when Cameron walked into The Austin Stone Community Church for the first time. The look in his eyes and the confidence in his voice tell the story of a changed heart.

Before coming to Austin, Cameron was not walking with God. “I began to realize what a hypocrite I was, but I met a group of people here who really had a relationship with Jesus, who really knew him and loved him.”

This spoke to Cameron deeply and the change in his life began with simple, small steps. “I began to do the only thing I knew to do,” he said. “I began reading the Bible and telling God, ‘I want to know you more.’”

During his last summer as a college student, Cameron took advantage of a last-minute opportunity to spend his summer teaching English in the Czech Republic. His time among the Czech people confirmed a growing awareness that God was calling him to go and serve the nations. “God just opened this door and I jumped through it,” Cameron said. “But by the end of the summer, I knew I could do this for the rest of my life.”

On his way back to the United States, he made a stop in North Africa to stay with a friend. In hindsight, Cameron realized it was during this visit that his eyes were opened to see a truly unreached group of people in a place where the gospel is rarely preached. “In the five days I spent in North Africa, my heart was really drawn to that area,” he explained.

On the plane ride home, Cameron filled out an application to serve on the international missions team at the Austin Stone. A few weeks later, he had been selected and was starting his internship. While serving as an intern, Cameron met the leaders of a group that was preparing to go to North Africa and decided joined their team.     

In the midst of his final preparations, he knows that this call to go to the nations is not the end of a journey but, rather, the beginning of something much greater. “My time in the Czech Republic was a huge time of sanctification and growth in my faith. It’s not like [God] grew and sanctified me and then sent me out. It’s that I didn't know what I was doing. He sent me out and then used that to produce fruit in others and in my own life,”

Cameron’s first two years with his team in North Africa will be focused on learning the language and building relationships within the local community. He and his teammates are eager to fully immerse themselves in the culture of their new homeland. “Thirty years down the road, if we spent the first two years learning the language – and learning it well – it will be much more fruitful than if we did not.” After this intense time of language acquisition, the team will begin working to planting churches in one of the toughest areas of the region.

It was the words of Jesus in Scripture that helped Cameron say yes to God’s call, as well as to help calm any fears that may arise as he looks to the future.

“Behold, I will be with you always to the end of the age.”

It is with a distinct boldness Cameron claims, “When I read that, the Holy Spirit pierced my heart. It led me to a place of saying, ‘I want to be in a place where this is true for my life. Wherever that is, that’s where I want to be.’”