Sometimes God asks us to do things that feel impossible or overwhelming or completely outside of our capabilities. Often, He calls us out of the boat to dance with Him on the waves. Sometimes this dance is just shaky legs on an already unstable ground.

This is exactly what it felt like when God asked me to quit my full-time job in 2017/2018 and move to Mae Sot, Thailand as a support raising missionary. The ground under me was not solid. It was the crashing waves of uncertainty, the unknown, and the impossible.

A Life in Thailand

I moved to Thailand to co-author a book with my dear friend Kristy Mikel. This woman was my mentor in high school, my confidant in college, and my sister in these full-on adult days. She is my ride-or-die person, my middle-of-the-night friend. She’s the maid of honor in my wedding, and the most consistent phone number on my recent call list. It was an absolute dream to live and work with her, and it still is.

In 2017, the Father had given us and our other friend in Thailand a vision for a book so much bigger than we could have ever known. And so I quit my job, raised some money, moved to Thailand, and began a brand new life I never could have imagined.

Over the next two years, the Father took us on a journey of discovering exactly what He wanted to say through this book. I can honestly say that our first drafts look nothing like the final product, and I’m so grateful for that. So often, we like to think we know what God is up to. We think we know what He wants to say or is saying or will say. And so often, we are wrong. Our God is a God of the process, of the unfolding and uncovering. He’s a God who molds us and shapes us and chisels away at our hard and stubborn hearts. This is exactly what writing our book felt like.

An uncovering.
An unveiling.
A chiseling away at our desires, our words, our hearts to reveal the Father’s.

A Place Called Braverly – Available for Pre-order

Throughout this entire process, our dream has always been to publish this book in Thailand and Burma to use in discipleship with the women we serve and the churches that exist in these countries. But we’ve also dreamed of publishing our book in the US, and on June 21, 2022, we will do just that!

In the Fall of 2021, we signed with Morgan James Publishing and have been working with their incredible team of editors, designers, and marketing geniuses to publish our book! We are so humbled to announce that our book, A Place Called Braverly, is officially available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, our own website, and more! Click here for all the details.

Honestly, these days still feel like the ones of 2017 and 2018—of stepping out of the boat time and again, of taking one more step toward Jesus, of walking unsteadily on the waves. I feel like Peter most days, slipping under the crashing water, but Jesus is always there. Every time.

Thank you!

Since we announced our book is available for pre-order, I have felt so humbled by people’s response. As a writer, it’s easy to slip into my own thoughts, my mind that tells me I have little to offer to others. But then, every once in a while, the Father allows us to see and feel the love and support and encouragement of our community.
 
So thank you, little community. Thank you for your kindness and grace and unwavering support! Writing a book is hard. Publishing a book can feel impossible. Launching this same book into a world that can be so cruel and unforgiving feels scary and vulnerable. It makes me want to crawl back to the boat and just wave at Jesus from the safety of it.
 
But that’s not what He’s asked us to do. He’s asked us to write, to publish, and to build the Kingdom in our little way. Because of you, we get to do this!
 
So, if you want to be a part of this movement, if you want to join us on the waves, click here to preorder the book! We can’t do this without you!
 
Together, let’s dance on the water with Jesus.