As we enter into a new format of updating our friends, family, and supporters of all things "MacKays," we wanted to take the opportunity to look back on all that God has done for us the past 3+ years and give you a bird's eye view of it all (just in case you're new here).
In late 2019, Caleb and I felt the Lord urge our hearts for missions, specifically Faith Academy. We created a Google Doc and began to write out our questions, people we needed to talk to, logistics, etc. By December, we were accepted by our mission, First Love International Ministries, and were planning on doing a 3-week vision trip in the summer before fully making a final decision.
In 2020, we announced to the public our plans and started sending out our newsletters, including our little victories of creating a Facebook page and submitting our budget to our mission. Things quickly ramped up as we were offered positions for the upcoming school year and our 15-month timetable was compressed to 4 months. Shortly after Faith's offer, Covid came along and shut the entire world down. We still had faith that God would move, but we were very uncertain of how He would make it all happen. With all of our extra time, I began to read a book called The God Ask, which opened my eyes to what fundraising could truly be: an opportunity to invite others into God's calling on our lives. We began to intentionally pray about who we should ask, the amount we should ask for, and put together a presentation to better show our vision. We stepped out in faith and asked boldly for people to come alongside us in this journey. We also stepped into a challenge of "100% in 100 Days" and GOD CAME THROUGH!! Our plans to fly out to the Philippines were delayed by 4 months due to the country being locked down but, by late November 2020, we were in the Philippines.
Finally being in the Philippines felt like a dream come true, even with all of the Covid restrictions (and face shields). We were so blessed to enter into Faith Academy with incredible "batch mates" and spent most school days having lunch together. All classes were online but staff were allowed to be on campus while maintaining social distancing. This was such a gift for us to be on campus and to still be in community with people. Throughout the year, we went from extreme lockdowns to being allowed to gather in small groups (Caleb was able to meet with some students for a brief time during the school year). During this time, we would occasionally gather at a friend's house to do house church since churches were not permitted to gather yet.
There were lots of logistical things that took place in 2021 as we had to get our visas, drivers licenses, set up a new bank account, etc. I also started to help out at Destiny's Promise early in the year as I found myself with more time on my hands than I had anticipated. Spending time with the kids there and helping them with their school became the highlight of my weeks. When we initially decided to come to the Philippines, we agreed on 2 years as we were uncertain if this was a long-term calling. By March 2021, we felt certain and applied to become career missionaries and made a 5 year commitment to the house we are now living in. And, of course, this was the year we found out I was pregnant with our sweet Paul!
2022 revolved around Paul - as it should. I stepped away from my job at Faith to enter into motherhood and, honestly, I think it was the best decision I could have made. My labor and delivery was nothing like I anticipated, going to almost 42 weeks and ultimately having to have a c-section. Thankfully, recovery went well and Paul was born healthy as ever! I stayed home a lot more and stopped volunteering at Destiny's as that would be too much of a time commitment for me. Caleb continued to teach Grade 3 at Faith and was even able to end the school year with students in the classroom! We had hoped to return to the States for the summer but didn't have all the necessary paperwork for Paul in time so my family came here to the Philippines for 2 weeks which was such a gift!
In the fall, Caleb was also able to coach soccer with one of our friends which was a great opportunity to be back in the sport he loves while pouring into older students. In October, we were able to travel to Vietnam to help out with a mission's conference and had the chance to explore some of the area! And then in December we finally flew back to the States to visit with friends and family over Christmas. Although the trip was incredibly short, we enjoyed getting to see our people there and cozy up in sweatshirts (a rarity here for us).
Now here we are.. 2023!! And this year has felt like the biggest year of growth for us. In August of last year, we began attending Favor Church, but have really started to become invested this year. I have been able to take a few classes offered by the church, we joined a connect group, I'm volunteering weekly, I participated in a promotional video, attended a conference, Caleb attended Men's Camp, etc. And that's all in the matter of 6 months! There's so much God has been doing in my life individually as well as our lives as a family. I won't get into here as I'll share more in my own personal "blogs" (and Caleb will have some, too) but that's the overview for now. Caleb is going to start teaching Grade 5 this year and is hoping to continue to coach soccer, God-willing. Obviously there's more to the story than just this post but we'll save that for another time.. maybe in person?
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