Over the course of the last few months, I’ve tried to write this post at least half a dozen times and I’ve always deleted it, unsatisfied with the direction I ended up taking. But this time, I think I’ve cracked the code.
On June 27th, my wife Becky and I will celebrate our first year of marriage. It’s been a hard and painful year, but a year also marked by the mighty movement of God in our lives and in our marriage.
Here is the highlight reel of our first year:
- Two weddings (Tennessee & Pennsylvania) & a Honeymoon (Hawaii)
- I quit my salaried job < 2 months into marriage and entered a surprisingly fruitful season of unemployment. This was maybe the best thing I could have done for our marriage and I’d do it over again without question.
- Began leading the Missional Community that meets in my home. That couldn’t have happened had I not quit my job.
- Becky’s dad died on Halloween and we spent 10 days in Pennsylvania with her family.
- I began substitute teaching. Yay for income!
- Christmas in Arkansas and Dallas (woohoo 1,672 mile round trip road trip)
- Becky’s grandmother died two days after we got back from Christmas break so we went back to Dallas for several days.
- January-March were marked by prolonged sickness and what seemed like 437 trips to the doctor’s office. But March also brought a dramatic life altering shift in our marriage that has repercussions long into the future. (see below)
- April brought lots of exploration and lots of substitute work.
- Another wild life change happened in late May/early June (see below) and it’s something that will define the first three months of our second year of marriage.
- On Monday, June 8th my grandmother died suddenly and Becky and I got to vacation with my parents and extended family in the aftermath of the funeral.
Australia & The Iron Yard
In March, we spent Spring Break at Universal Studios in Orlando with our friends Jason & Sarah-Marie. Our second full day at the park was spent at Harry Potter World (which is AWESOME) and we were waiting in line for a ride when God began to work on me. Long story short, he began reigniting my calling to mission work. It’s something I’ve been called to since college but a negative experience when I was applying with a mission agency in 2011 left a sour taste in my mouth and it dampened my desire to go. But this experience in March while standing in line for a roller coaster lit a forest fire in my soul.
After about 6 weeks of intense research and prayer, we felt as if God opened a door to us toward eventual church planting in Australia. At that point, we got in contact with TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) and are in the process right now of applying to work in Adelaide, South Australia to do mission work in a long-term capacity.
The other big event is just days away from starting and I’m super excited about it. With Becky’s urging and encouragement, I began to teach myself front-end web development (HTML/CSS, JavaScript & jQuery) but I wasn’t as successful at teaching myself as I’d hoped I would be. Then in May, over coffee with a developer friend, he encouraged me to look into a software school in Nashville…and so I did.
I aggressively researched my options and landed on attending The Iron Yard-Nashville, a three-month intensive course that will help jumpstart my career in web development. Web development for me is definitely a regular source of income, but it’s also a ministry tool that I can use here in the states and then I can use that when we eventually move to Australia.
In closing, here are a few thoughts:
- Marriage is the most rewarding and most trying thing I’ve ever done. May I have many more years of it.
- Love changes. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns. I love Becky differently today than I did a year ago.
- Leadership is hard, but its mine to be responsible for. I love Becky too much to let her languish in my lack of leadership. If it means her flourishing, I’ll break my back to lead to the best of my ability.
- Death, loss and grief are easier to bear with a spouse. At least that’s my experience.
- God has given us both more than we deserve.
Here’s to many, many more years. Allons-y!
Jordan Wilhite 
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