I am about to start reading a book by Dr. David Sills called The Missionary Call. Knowing that and having been asked by a relative to share my call to missions with her again, I've decided first to go back to it myself, and then to share it with you. For those of you wanting to know more abot me, I've included in a lifesketch format to give you a little background. Here is is:
On July 08, 1968, I was born to Arnold Sr. and Elaine Austin in Baton Rouge, LA. I have two sisters: one older, one younger. Susie and I were wed on November 26, 1988. We have three children: Alisha born August 19, 1991, Ben born December 30, 1992, and Patrick born May 15, 1996.
I was raised in a Christian home where we were taught to love both God and others. My parents taught me how to pray and study the Bible. We attended a Southern Baptist church. I was involved in most church activities and classes, one of my favorites being RAs. When I was 8, I learned of God's plan of salvation for my life via the children's church ministry. After church one Sunday, my father led me through the scriptures, answering my questions about salvation. I prayed the sinner's prayer and was baptized at the First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, LA. As I grew in spiritual maturity, I became further enlightened as to what my commitment meant to me.
Because I never had to study hard to maintain honor roll status, my parents allowed me to work. They were extremely supportive, allowing me to open up a banking account and secure a car loan at an early age. I enjoyed the responsibility. As a youth, I surrounded myself with Christian friends. We were a support group, not a click. We simply used our common bond in Christ as a means of accountability as we interacted with people of all backgrounds. In middle and high school I was active in various Christian student organizations.
Before my senior high school year, my father became pastor of the First Baptist Deaf Mission in Shreveport, LA. I stayed in Baton Rouge with a church family to graduate from "my" high school. I moved to Shreveport in December, graduating from high school early and starting college. I attended Summer Grove Baptist Church.
I mostly dated girls from my church; however, Susie and I met at a McDonald's in Shreveport where I was working. Six months into our two-year dating period, I knew that on present course I would marry Susie. She was raised in the Church of Christ. When the relationship became serious enough to consider marriage, we decided to take a step back and discuss our denominational differences. Specifically, we decided that we would not marry if a common denominational affiliation could not be found. We started by searching the scriptures to understand the differences and similarities in our churches. I visited hers, she visited mine, and together we visited other churches to understand their doctrine. It was an interesting exploration that continued for the first two years of our marriage. Prior to marriage, Susie and I felt called to become international missionaries. We looked into missionary training classes. We did not get the affirmation that we needed from family and acknowledged that it was not God’s time for us to act on the calling.
During our courtship, I had a major financial disappointment from the church where my dad was pastor. Being a mission church, most funds were provided by a parent church. Part of my dad's salary package included my college education cost. The parent church decided to remove this from his salary package. The loss came at the same time that we had decided upon marriage.
We moved several times during our first few years of marriage, never placing membership in a particular church. We both managed restaurants. I was good at it and enjoyed the people interaction that it allowed. It gave me good experience in leadership and small business management. We had the opportunity to join in a financial partnership in a Subway sandwich restaurant. To shorten a long story, it was part of a larger business venture that was doomed for failure. This put stress on our personal finances and on our responsibilities to the business. A decision was made for me to return to school, majoring in Chemical Engineering.
My engineering career was in Process Control. I programmed computers to automate the control of manufacturing processes. Each year I received some type of recognition for consistently providing customer satisfaction. My project based work kept me on tight deadlines. I enjoyed the pressure. I was both good at and enjoyed my job. I am confident that all of my career experiences are not by accident and that God is using parts of everything that I have done as I dedicate the rest of my life to full time missionary service.
After college in 1993, we moved to Baton Rouge where we joined Parkview Baptist Church and have continued as part of that body of believer's. We felt that the doctrines held by Southern Baptists most reflect our view of the church that Christ established. My involvement at Parkview included: deacon, FAITH outreach, Sunday School, AWANA and RA teacher, choir and handbell instructor, usher, greeter, and participation on various committees. My last participation before leaving was in our youth department, volunteering for many projects, retreats, and outreach ministries. In the late 1990s, I taught in the RA program at Parkview. I was reminded of my call to missions. In the meantime, I was traveling internationally and seeing the need for people in other places to hear the Gospel message.
In the years leading up to the rekindling of my missionary call, God had placed a bond between the Christian band Audio Adrenaline and us. It was no coincident that most of their music is missions minded. I had been working with fundraising for an Orphanage in Haiti, which is now a reality, having 33 children. While working on the project in May 2004, the calling to foreign missions weighed heavily on my heart. I attended a concert in Chattanooga, TN, on June 5, 2004. Audio Adrenaline has a song that specifically talks about foreign missions called "Hands & Feet". During that song I submitted to God's call. I cried through the whole song, except for the last three words, which I repeated, "I WILL GO". On the way home, Susie looked as if she wanted to say something to me, but didn't. I tried to convince her, but she said, "If the topic is meant to be discussed, you'll bring it up specifically." I knew God was rekindling the same desire in her heart, but was too scared to talk about it. I stayed silent until July 6th, 2004 when my boss was in town to take us to dinner. The kids were staying at a friend's house. We planned to stop at Jack in the Box for the kid's dinner. As we were driving, I told Susie that I was ready to talk about "it". She said. "About what?", but she knew what I meant. She reminded me that I was to bring it up specifically. I told her that she knew it to be the same topic. She asked, "But what if it's different?" I was confident that they would be the same. We went through the drive through, but got pulled over to wait for the order. As we sat there, I tore the receipt in two. I gave half to Susie and said for her to write what was on her heart on her half and I'd do the same. I gave her mine, but she would neither give me hers, nor look at mine. We arrived at our friend's house and decided that we would give both pieces of paper to her with the instructions to simply say whether they were the same or not. She opened them up and said, "Yep, they're the same". Mine said "Foreign Missions". Susie's said "Missions Work". We had many affirmations; including that from both sides of our family.
That's the story. I hope reminding you has given you as much encouragement as I have gotten by re-reading the path that got us here. Thank you to everyone who was obedient to God, playing your role in our lives.
