May 11, 2016

A Marketplace Worker Story

By John Spadafora

Blog

Read the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Justin and Samantha understood that Jesus’ command to make disciples applied to them — wherever God placed them. For a long time, that meant in the U.S. Sometimes discipleship happened at church or during a volunteer opportunity, but more often than not, those opportunities to share Jesus came through Justin’s job as a software consultant.

“When I would travel for work with colleagues, there would be more relaxed conversations where we got to know each other on a personal level,” Justin said. “I was surprised how easy it was to bring up faith. People at work would seek me out when they had difficult things happen to them, and I was able to share spiritual truth.”

Justin and Samantha prayed about how God could use them to make disciples beyond North America, among the world’s least-reached. That led to a conversation with the human resources manager at Justin’s company in which he asked to be considered for an international transfer.

A year later, Justin and Samantha packed their bags for Europe.

Even before they left, they knew they would need help to be effective at making disciples cross-culturally.

“My company provided a lot of support for moving logistics, finding a place to live and coordinating our visas,” Justin said. “But we knew that missions organizations had a lot of expertise in how to make the gospel understandable to another culture and how to be intentional about sharing our faith. We didn’t fit the profile of traditional missionaries, but we wanted to connect with an organization that would support and equip us.”

That search led them to Crossworld. The dream of disciple-makers from all professions resonated deeply with Justin and Samantha. They participated in some cross-cultural and disciple-making training before they left, but the connection with Crossworld didn’t end after they moved to Europe.

“We have been very encouraged by the mentoring we’ve received from veteran Crossworld workers,” Justin said. “Crossworld paired us with coaches who worked for 30 years in Ireland as vocational religious workers. Although we’re working in a different country, they’ve been through a lot of the same things that we are experiencing with adjusting to a new culture and being intentional about getting to know people around us. Coaching from Crossworld is a key lifeline for us as we work to reach out to people who need Jesus.”

Justin and Samantha are pioneering a new part of Crossworld’s dream. Think of the impact if hundreds of Jesus-followers like Justin and Samantha intentionally took their jobs to places where there are very few believers!

Could you take your job and work internationally? Do you know someone who could?

The people in this story are real but italicized names have been changed to protect identity.