The chairman of AIM, and one of the founders of G42, Andrew Shearman, recently gave me the option to “get out.” He sat me down in his office, talked for a little while about family and the Air Force, but then suddenly stopped smiling. The Spain Training center was still dream at this point, and there were still many obstacles to be overcome. He laid it out for me: I had a family to support, 3 babies to feed, and so much earning potential in the business world. Was I ready to commit myself and more importantly, my family, to pioneering a training center in a foreign location; to commit myself to initially raising support until the training center becomes viable; and to begin a complete lifestyle of relying on faith?
Up until this point, I probably was relying somewhat on Andrew’s power of personality. I figured “it” would get done because G42 was such an amazing vision for Christianity, and who wouldn’t want to be involved with it? But Andrew was taking himself out of the equation–challenging me to question where my faith was founded. He told me to not do this because it was his dream–but do this because it was God’s dream. Do this because we [my wife Rebecca and I] were called to do it.
After a few minutes of thought, where I “reviewed the tapes” in my mind to make sure I wasn’t doing this because just because I was Andrew’s son-in-law, and I wasn’t doing this because I was simply tired of the Air Force life, and I wasn’t doing this because I wanted to live in Europe— I knew I was doing this because I was called to do it.
God has called me to minister to the youth of America and to mobilize them to affect the nations for Christ. From an early age, my heart was tugged by missionaries’ stories, my mind was caught up by the cultures and the lives that are going on, right now, all over the world–without the love of Christ in their hearts. And I’ve built my experience working with and leading ministries for kids and young adults, and I’ve built my experience running projects, some small and some large. Which all puts me in a perfect place–building the vision of G42: Developing a training center from the ground up–from the selection of the facility to administering the training, to teaching leadership and ‘warriorshepherdship’… to overseeing and running the daily operations of the ministries of G42.
Oh no, I’m not doing this for man. I’m not relying on man to take me by the hand… I’m setting off, walking in the destiny that God has given me.
In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do to me. Psalms 56:11