Two Steps Back...One Giant Leap Forward

To say I am passionate about numbers is an understatement. I was hooked from that very first accounting class my junior year of high school. I knew even then I had a gift, a calling and an ultimate destiny as a CPA. Sounds nerdy huh? True, it's not for everyone but for me it was part of my DNA.

That accounting class ignited a passion within me that provided the fuel I needed to begin the long journey ahead. After completing my masters degree in accounting, I landed my first big career job. I worked in the corporate tax department of one of the largest public accounting firms in the world. I was captivated and embraced the opportunity, becoming a quick study working with major mega corporations located in multi-states, multiple entities with multiple tax planning, consulting and filing issues and requirements.  The opportunities with my new company were endless with the possibility to have a very lucrative career and ultimately the chance to work on the foreign field. Yes, it was win win in my book. However, God had other plans.

As I began to flourish in my new job, I found myself with a lot of internal struggle. That struggle was soon to intensify as my husband's missions dreams started becoming more of a reality. What I haven't said, and don't have a lot of time to detail out in this blog is, there was also a very real passion in me to not only pursue God but to help my husband follow his call with his work in missions. My life long pursuit for my career and my devotion to God and my husband set me up for a real opportunity to put my faith in action and introduced me to the struggle and the sacrifice it would require.

My first big opportunity to put my faith in action, and seemingly take a back seat with my desires, came with leaving my dream job to move across the country to begin our first missions organization. Not only is starting an organization from scratch a big step of faith but the possibility of leaving my first big career opportunity with no clue about what lies ahead was as well. I have found with each step of faith I took along my journey, it initially felt like I was taking steps backward. Practically speaking, it seemed like a downward spiral for several years and it began with that move.

I did secure a new position with a local public accounting firm that specialized in nonprofit work and, as well, had a large client base in small businesses. Though it was not where I expected to be, it turned out to be another master stroke in God's ultimate plan. A couple of WOW moments that happened as a result...1) I had no idea how working in this niche and learning this area would catapult me into the position I am in now and be the backbone of my current firm,... and 2) I struggled with my initial decision to work at this firm because financially it set me back to where I first began in my career. How could that ever be God right? Ha! I have found that God is so much more about adding character and experiences than he ever is about the bottom line. A very difficult thing to understand at first for a "bottom line" kind of girl, but this was only the beginning.

The real test for me was soon to come. After a few years working with this public accounting firm (please understand that all along this desire was in me to help my husband pursue his calling in missions), God spoke to me to make the ultimate sacrifice. Now there were a lot of other things playing out in the background with the missions side of our life (too much to tell here)....but God spoke to me to walk away from my career to fully put my attention on helping my husband build his mission, his nonprofit, his call, God's call on him. I remember walking away from that job to absolutely zero salary and zero clients (well only one, our own nonprofit). I was scared, deflated but also a wee bit excited at the prospect of being with my husband, traveling the world, and experiencing God together on this next journey. However, it took me about a week to get off the sofa after I left my career. Ya know, I just needed a moment to mourn. However, I quickly picked myself up and stepped into building the finance and accounting department of our own nonprofit and traveling across the globe helping manage projects, teams, build churches, schools and preach the Gospel alongside my husband. The experiences, the people met, the hardships endured and the progress made is something I will never forgot. 

I have loved every moment of our missions work. It has been exhilarating, difficult, adventurous and amazing, but the desire for my CPA work always lay deep inside me. While it may have been on life support it never really truly died. I never forgot it but I was always willing to let it go for good, if God required.  I was always heavily involved in our own nonprofit finances, but along the way, I also found myself fielding more and more questions from various businesses, nonprofits and individuals all along our travels, mostly of which were donated services. But I still could not let myself go there as I felt that during that season of our life I was to give myself completely to our mission.

As time progressed, the season changed, and God began leading me to start my own public accounting firm; a firm that would create a revenue stream for us personally but also help resource our nonprofits. This firm was the ultimate unify-er of my passions. I no longer had to chose, God chose it for me. I would never have initiated this new endeavor on my own without first stepping away from my career and giving myself to the mission several years back. I learned, in walking that season out with my husband, about faith, strength, and ultimate courage. I understood more than I had ever known in my life what faith feels like, smells like and looks like. I experienced God in those villages of Central Asia. I knew from that experience, if I could do that and God could supply that way...then I could certainly start my own company. 

Five years ago, I began my firm and never could I have ever imagined it would develop into what it has become. In God's prescribed path for us, the steps He leads us in, things are always right on time. My company is God's doing and not my own. He initiated it after seasons of pruning me and building faith and character in me. Looking back along my path, walking completely away from my career to pursue Him were some tough steps... but there is History to follow. One of the many true stories from the Bible I always took courage in was the story of Abraham and Issac. Talk about sacrifice...after years of longing for a child, God asked Abraham to sacrifice him only to say stop. I just wanted to know if you were willing? I gave him to you and I never really wanted you to give him back...I just needed to know I had your heart.  So there is precedent...and there are so many people just like this, same requirement, same sacrifice, same faith, albeit different journeys. Now, with confidence I can definitely say, I know, and God knows, He definitely has my heart, my career and my life.