Faithful in the Little Things

I grew up in a small town. Scratch that. I grew up in a rural community outside of a small town. Next door to my grandparents’ farm and within a mile of the county line, I was the first one on the school bus every morning and the last one off every afternoon. Keep in mind, we have one elementary school, while the middle and high schools share a campus, for the entire county! ​

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My father was raised on the Irwinville Farms Project, spent some time in the Navy, then took on several different jobs throughout the years until he started his own plumbing & electrical business. My mother married her high school sweetheart, only to have him pass away tragically in their mid-twenties after having three baby girls. She was set up with my father (who also had a son and daughter who lived with their mother) and married him soon after. Three years later, I came along. Mama was a hairdresser, and eventually Daddy closed in the carport so she could run her own business out of our home. At the age of 40, she started college alongside my sisters. Her first year of teaching was my freshman year of high school, and I couldn’t have been more proud to have my mama teaching my classmates!

Mama, Daddy, and me as a high school senior

At my dance recital of The Nutcracker

My family taught me the virtues of hard work, determination, and perseverance. They also encouraged me to follow my dreams, while keeping my head on straight. As a little girl, I dreamed of going to New York City and being a Rockette! I soon realized that wasn't going to happen, but I still dreamed of living in the big city. I was not going to be stuck in the small town of Ocilla, Georgia. You know, sometimes, I think God chuckles at us when we resolve that we’re not going to do something. We have no idea what He has planned for us, and that’s probably for the best!

​My junior year of high school, I started dating a guy that I could actually see spending the rest of my life with. He was different from other guys I had gone out with. He had dreams of his own to go to Georgia Tech. First of all, that meant he was not a University of Georgia fan, which automatically made him stand out from the crowd, but it also meant that he wanted to live in the big city of Atlanta. At first, we agreed to have no expectations in our relationship - just see where things went. As we got more serious, though, we agreed that if we ever broke up, that was it; no on-again, off-again like so many of our friends. We had fights and plenty of times I thought we might end it, but we never did! 

Chris's senior prom. I was a junior.

Chris came home from Georgia Tech for my senior prom.

Sigma Sigma Sigma - Theta Xi Mixer

My roommate, Jessica, second from the right, waits for Chris to propose to me.

Chris was so nervous before this moment, and I honestly had no idea he had planned to propose that night. I was so excited, the DJ had to ask me if I said yes or not!

​While Chris was at Georgia Tech, and I was at Oglethorpe University (also in Atlanta), we had our own friends and activities. We continued to live our own lives, but certainly shared with each other. Visiting each other’s campus and hanging out with each other’s friends was re-invigorating to each of us because of the differences.  It was also fun when we brought our two worlds together, like the time his fraternity hosted a mixer with my sorority, or when his fraternity brothers came to our formal with my roommates. Perhaps the most memorable was when my roommate attended his fraternity formal with one of his brothers so that she could see Chris propose to me!

Chris was involved in a campus ministry at Georgia Tech called Christian Campus Fellowship. I began attending with him most Thursday nights as my class and work schedule allowed me to. Through that organization we found out about Globalscope, which partnered with Christian Missionary Fellowship to build campus ministries at colleges and universities around the world. We raised funds throughout our engagement so that within a week of our wedding we could participate in a summer internship with missionaries in Brazil! Family and friends still joke with us that they paid for our honeymoon!

The beginning of our wonderful, crazy life together!

That summer of 2001 was so eye-opening and the best way we could have started our marriage. We did have a team to work with, and we lived with a young couple and their toddler daughter, but we really only had each other and God to lean on. There were breakdowns and culture shock, all of which brought us closer together.

After that summer, we went back to our normal lives in Atlanta, Chris completing his final classes and working part-time with a civil engineering firm, while I began my first year teaching middle school. Even though this was the life we had always dreamed of, something was still missing. We felt like we had left part of our hearts in Brazil and began to have new dreams of going back. Soon, we were presented with the opportunity to go back to Brazil as full-time missionaries and help create a Globalscope campus ministry. We were so excited!

The following spring (2002), Chris’s family farm was featured on a Food Network show called “Food Finds.” If you’ve read my blog “Muscadines, Grandma, and a Husband,” you’ll know that his family grows muscadine grapes. Chris’s grandfather, father, and uncle were interviewed for the show, which focused on the capsules “Papa Jacob” was making from the seeds of the muscadines and the health benefits they offered. At the time, he was making them by hand in his home office. I remember watching the show in our little apartment with one of our friends from Ocilla who also lived in Atlanta. Afterward, we all just giggled and stared at each other, amazed and bewildered at what we had just seen on TV! 

Later that week, Papa Jacob called Chris. The phone had been ringing non-stop, day and night, with folks all over the country ordering Muscadine Seed Capsules! He believed that there was a real opportunity to create a value-added business based on products made from muscadines, and he wanted Chris to come home to start that business. That summer, we left our big-city life to return home. The plan was to get things started, then leave the company in someone else's hands so we could return to Brazil. 

Over the following year, it became more and more evident to us that we were supposed to stay in Irwin County. Serving God was our first priority, but we realized that we didn’t have to leave the country to do that. Looking back now, I can see how God worked through us and the chain-reaction of events that continue as a result of our decision to stay.

That summer, I discovered I was pregnant! Chris and I wanted to share our exciting news with our family in a fun way, so we went to The Shoppes at Fourth and Cherry to purchase a frame for our ultrasound picture. Roxie was at the register, so she was technically the first person we told that we were expecting. We had always known Roxie, since we went to high school together, but we weren’t close friends at the time. Little did I know how close we would grow!

In 2004, one of Chris’s fraternity brothers came to visit us to get away from Atlanta. This was fairly common, as many of his fraternity brothers would visit us, but this guy began to stay more and more often, and eventually he decided to purchase a building and business here in Ocilla. As a result, Matt was introduced to Roxie, and the rest, as they say, is history! You can read more about their story in Roxie’s blog, “Grow Where You Are Planted.”

Thirteen years ago, we could not have known how our decisions would affect the course of our own lives, much less so many others. Although we always tried to be faithful to what we believed to be God’s will, we haven’t always understood while in the middle of it. So many times, we’ve wondered what life would be like had we gone to Brazil. Our boys think it’s crazy that they would know how to speak Portuguese! We still have a special place in our hearts for the people of Brazil. I used to wonder if we missed God’s will by not going to Brazil. And, while I know that God would have used us there, I feel like our purpose is to be here, in this small town, to encourage this community, and to share it with the rest of the world. I feel like for the last thirteen years, we’ve been on the cusp of something great in so many areas. 

I’ve struggled with not feeling like I’ve accomplished very much, especially for someone voted “Most Likely to Succeed.” What I’ve come to realize, is that I may never do anything great myself, but I am a part of so many things that are. And, God has worked and will continue to work through my faithfulness to support those “missions.” God may never call me to do great things, but He has certainly called me to be faithful in the little things. That is how I should measure my success. 

Had we gone to Brazil, Matt and Roxie would have never met. Roxie and I would not be such good friends. The Shoppes at Fourth and Cherry would most likely have closed. Paulk’s Pride may not exist. Chris would not be a county commissioner. Matt would not be mayor. The Southern Mercantile may have never happened. You would not be reading this post right now! ​

Please know that I am not taking credit for any of this, but I do wonder how this all would have turned out if I had not played my part. God is using my faithfulness in the little things, and He will use yours too. When we’re struggling, let’s remind each other of that!