Our contributor Melissa has graciously allowed us to feature her writing with our readers. Stay tuned for more contributors in the future! This article was originally posted on MLove Life.

If you’ve been following our journey on Instagram you may have noticed a stream of Instastories featuring our travel in France.  This may be one of our biggest leaps of faith lived out from years of prayer.  In 2007 I began to learn about one of the world’s largest injustices, human trafficking.  It literally stopped my heart in its tracks to witness such a huge devastation to mankind.  As a member of humanity I simply couldn’t continue life knowing this was taking place on the very soil I walked on.  I had to get involved with my best efforts.  My best, at the time, was on canvas.  My husband and I created art to help bring awareness and drive funds to an organization that is directly helping rescue women and children out of trafficking.

As 2014 rolled around we began cultivating a brand I had always dreamed of bringing to life, ShopStickyRice.com 

My husband quit his job to come alongside me with his time and efforts in building the vision, website, social media, etc.  We created a plan and a goal and took it as far as we could.  We prayed over it and left it in God’s hands because He was working on our next adventure, Poetica.

My husband and I knew we always wanted to travel, connect with other Artists and help as many people as we can with our talents and gifts while providing a full learning experience for our children.  We always said, if our daughter wants to learn about elephants, well why not take her to Asia or Africa to get a first hand experience?! We loved the idea of world-schooling, a branch of unschooling, even though we didn’t know it was a thing at the time we spoke it into our future.  

Fast forward to our current moment, here in Paris.  We talked about it, prayed over it and then took the leaps of faith.  Here’s a little on how that went down. 

In July 2016 we planned on moving back to California in October 2016.  God had to have been pressing in on my husband’s heart to begin traveling to do missions.  In September, he said, “Let’s book our tickets to Europe!”  And that’s when we booked our one way ticket to Paris.   That week he was fired from his job of cutting commercials.  I remember saying, “Praise the Lord!”  And he agreed pensively.  I knew God’s hand was all over it.  He knows exactly where we are and what doors need to be closed if even only to see our faith.  He is the only one that promotes and I know He hears my prayers.  Later the next day Daniel got a call telling him that his ‘let go’ was a mistake and even applauded for his cool, calm response to being ‘fired’.  I must say I am so proud of him and how much he has truly put his position in God’s hands over the past several years. This is not the old Daniel I once knew to use every physical, mental, emotional and financial effort to keep abreast in logical household leadership as far as being the provider for our home.  I have been able to witness him place his trust in God so boldly and courageously, I must say, AMEN!….cause it really has left me speechless.  Don’t tell him I said this, he’s probably going to read it anyway. Hehe!

Shortly after he began talking with our brother, Eli. (Also another prayer of mine answered)  I love when family comes alongside Daniel to speak life into him.  I can totally tell when He’s been talking about our Father because he seems more tireless, stronger, courageous, connected, brokenhearted for what matters and deeper in conversation.  Not to mention, we get our first connections to more family throughout Europe as Eli’s father is a pastor and he has met many people doing great things throughout the world.

Thankfully, Daniel already works from any location.  But, the next step of leaving with full faith was to let Daniel’s job know he was leaving the country.  He went in person twice, sent emails.  No response.  So his last attempt to let them know was a phone call in which he very well knew it could cost him the job and was in no way concerned because he knew who was for him couldn’t ever be against him.  The verdict?  He still works for them and will do so until it is no longer in His plan. 

Our initial step of faith in Houston has been met with our next mission in Europe to do what we have been able to do with God’s Rainbow. Through another friend from Los Angeles, our first lead was to do life with a couple here in Paris that goes to bars and talks about religion and politics.  I was like, ‘no way! Sounds like our type of people!’ haha! Unfortunately, our schedules didn’t match up and so we will have to revisit that if ever the opportunity arrises again.  Our second lead is to work alongside a school in France and then an organization fighting against human trafficking in Spain.  I don’t want to give too much detail as of yet as we want to remain respectful to those we help as well as keep our specific whereabouts private.  

Faith has a way of amplifying trust in God in retrospect and I think it was very well designed that way.  Sure you can ride the boat through the storms, but WOW is it amazing when you take God at His Word and walk on water.

PS -I’ll also be posting pics via instagram and video instastories!  Please follow me there too and watch out for my travel pics #MLoveTravels

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 5.03.43 PMHi, I’m Melissa I want you to gain back your confidence & energy in the way you think, speak and act through life-giving decisions.

Health is an excellent way to exercise stewardship for the service of others.

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