Meet Lori and Joshua!
Lori’s Story
Hi everyone! I’m Lori one of the co-creators of Jesus Said ToGo. Jesus Said ToGo is a Christian missionary blog Joshua, my husband, and I started in hopes you find encouragement in seeking God’s will in your own life in bringing the Gospel to all of creation. But I am getting ahead of myself! First let me tell you about my walk with Christ. So, grab a cup of tea and some popcorn because it is about to get real and messy.
I was the textbook definition of a lukewarm Christian. I attended church services and small
group at least a few Sundays a month. I prayed regularly and attended the occasional bible study. I thought my relationship with Christ was at its peak, but I could not have been more wrong. In my early 20s I thought my life was great. I had been accepted into a Physician Assistant program, engaged to my high school boyfriend, and had the next 5 years of my life planned out. I was happy and content with the way my life was going. But shortly after starting school my life took a turn. The workload and stress of PA school was becoming too much to bear. Anxiety and depression slowly creeped their way into my life. So, I did what most of our society does, I turned to the worldly things for comfort. I was quickly overcome with the three temptations: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But I didn’t stop there. My life finally hit rock bottom after I was unfaithful to my previous fiancé which caused our relationship to come to a swift end.
I was broken and empty. I didn’t recognize myself when I looked in the mirror. I felt like I was drowning in my sin, and I didn’t know how to come up for air. A few weeks later a friend, now my husband, invited me to a church service. During worship I felt the Holy Spirit wash over me and I knew I had a choice to make. I could continue living for the flesh or I could start living for Christ. From that moment on my life has been devoted to Jesus Christ. The one who saw me at my lowest point and loved me despite it. I wanted to know more about Him, the perfect savior who gave His life on the cross for my sin.
Thus began my journey to a deep and personal relationship with Christ. And the more I learned about Christ the more I felt the old Lori fading away. He was breaking my chains one by one. Until one day, the old me was dead and I was free. He made me anew.
And that my friend is my story. It is messy, controversial, and real. But I am living proof of God transforming the human heart. So, stick around and join Josh and I on our walk with the Lord!
Joshua’s Story
Hey guys! I’m excited and grateful that you’ve found your way to our page. There is a lifetime of stories that have led up to these moments, however to save you some time we’re going to skip ahead to when I felt God directing my life in this mission-oriented direction.
While attending college, my cousin and I always discussed starting a non-profit organization
together. Our approach to this was incorrect, but the core belief was we felt God would
use us in other parts of the world to accomplish His work. In a juvenile approach to faith, we
prayed for God to show us where we would serve, then threw three darts onto a world map. We kept the map along with a signed paper explaining the events that night.
After just shy of seven years, I felt God calling my wife and I to leave our careers as Physician Assistants to pursue medical missions. My crisis of faith stemmed from fear of losing financial security, retirement accounts, and stability. I presented this before God multiple times to find peace and direction. With each prayer, God answered with scriptures, devotionals and sermons clearly directing us to act in faith and present our lives as a living sacrifice to live a life dedicated to Christ. We finally reached the conclusion it would be terribly irresponsible not to follow this call.
To gather more information, I reached out to Samaritan’s Purse to see what locations were in need of Physician Assistants. Of the four available opportunities, Togo stood out to me. I reviewed the map from seven years ago and found to my surprise that my dart had marked this region. I realize God didn’t have to use this event since it was a juvenile approach of faith from two spiritually immature college students. However it was a beautiful, overwhelming reminder that seven years ago He saw every step I would take and knew exactly where He was guiding my life.
I now see this as an opportunity to take a leap of faith and pursue that which is everlasting: To use my medical knowledge as an avenue to spread the great news of Christ to all of Creation. My hope is that as you read our story, you are encouraged to ‘take the leap’ in your own life and follow Christ down whatever path he leads you!
