Dreams are funny things for us followers of Jesus to talk about. We want to be visionary and dream big dreams that only a big God can move forward, but we all know we need to hold our own “dreams” with an open hand. We must remember that not everything that excites us is part of God’s plan for our lives. Good dreams of good ministry are sometimes the hardest to hold loosely. But let me set the scene for you in a time and place where one of my dearest dreams was born.
The Place: Moody Bible Institute
The Event: Student Missions Fellowship
The People: A group of college kids, including Will Regier and Stephanie Mariani
The Year: 2003
Although those phrases do not set the scene for you as I would want them to, for me, they bring back vivid memories. Steph and I knew each other at that point, but we weren’t close yet. Spoiler alert, she changes her last name later… Like all college kids committed to changing the world, we were deep into brainstorming and planning with the whole Student Missions Fellowship team. We all loved missions. We were deep in the inner city. How could we maximize everything God had graciously laid at our feet?
Then and there, a beautiful idea with lots of cool for our age branding was born. We figured out how to give a great gift to some youth group kids in Chicago and further global missions. We would send inner-city youth, some of whom had never been less than a mile away from their homes, on mission trips to Africa and Mexico! What amazing title could possibly grace such a bold and beautiful endeavor? C4, which stood for Cross Cultural Missions Cross Culturally… Mic. Drop. LOL, we thought we had cracked the inner-city, global missions, and marketing codes simultaneously! We were working as cross-cultural workers with the inner city youth groups, and we were going to add the layer of doing that cross-culturally in other countries. As much as I like to poke fun at my former self for the sake of your amusement, it was a really sweet and well-done project. Many students experienced a life-changing trip and returned as ambassadors for global missions in their churches. They did VBS-style events where they shared the Gospel with hundreds of children in Ghana and Mexico. You might think this was the “dream” come true, but it isn’t. I helped with planning, but I was not able to go on either trip. Steph served in a youth ministry that involved many Hispanic youth, so she went on the Mexico trip and loved it. But both of us wanted to go on the Africa trip. It wasn't because we felt we could do great work there; we were just college kids, but we wanted to see the people and places where we knew God was already at work.
Last year, I had the opportunity to be part of an FEC trip that was mostly members from Grace Community Fellowship in Hillsboro. Marc Compton, and FEC pastor in Ellsworth, KS, and I got to go along to teach a Pastors Conference to rural pastors, and I got to experience a lifelong “dream” to visit Africa and see God at work. And He was! In the Gaborone, Botswana area, churches are being planted, and Jesus is welcomed in their public schools and police stations. For me, it was a trip of a lifetime! When you give to the Lord at Grace, you give to trips like that! Steph was so excited for me to go because she knew it was very special to me.
But if I were to say there were any slight regrets about the trip, it was that I couldn’t share it with Steph. Many of you might have known us 10 years ago when we were at Grace, and Steph's chronic health issues were in full force. If you've experienced anything similar, please reach out to us. We would love to hear your story, cry with you, or pray with you. The thought of me even being able to leave her long enough to do a trip like that would not have entered our minds, and many of our dreams went dormant at that time. Vision is often a slave to survival, not that it should be, and I could probably write books on that at this point as well.
Fast forward to 2024, and the Pastoral Care Coordinator from the FEC, Steve Adriansen, reached out to me to see if Steph and I would accompany him to Botswana to host a Soul Care event for the church-planting pastors near Francistown. We added an Exploratory trip to those church plants, which the FEC has not yet been able to do in that region. We both get to go and join in with the work God is doing in Botswana! “Dream” comes true. Going along with us are some of your fellow Gracers! Brian and Marilyn Bisbee, Seth and Sarah Hershberger, and Brett and Jess Warkentine will all be leaving with us on a jet plane this summer! They have each been a joy to work with, and it is clear that God has built this team. Please pray for us! If you'd like to hear about what God is doing in Botswana or what we're asking Him to do there through this trip, please find one of the team members.
Blessings,
Will