My husband’s and my backstories share quite a few similarities — and just as many differences. We both grew up in the church, attended private Christian schools, and experienced quite a bit of social awkwardness up until late high school. We are both intellectually driven and, let’s call a spade a spade, nerds. When we first met, we bonded over being made fun of a lot in middle school and our obsession with C.S. Lewis.

It is real life and, as such, can be tedious and hard, but getting glimpses of eternity as often as we do is a beautiful gift.

That’s where the similarities end. My husband is a dreamer, a risk-taker, and confident about 99 percent of his decisions. He surrendered his life to Christ at 13 and hasn’t looked back. Jesus is his hero, and he would and has followed Christ anywhere. Kyle knew he wanted to go into vocational ministry before he got to college and knew he wanted to be a missionary with Reliant by the end of his freshman year. To him, the math is pretty simple: humans were meant to be in relationship with God, Jesus makes that possible, we should tell people about this.

I am not a risk-taker. I surrendered my life to Christ at the age of six, but it has looked more like prying my hands open finger by finger than the headfirst dive into the unknown that my husband’s faith resembles. Looking back, I can see God calling me to vocational ministry as early as my freshman year of high school. Over the next eight years, God dropped experiences, opportunities and people into my path that all equipped me and encouraged me toward full-time missions. My pastor would call these “burning bush” moments. Though not all of us are as lucky to have our path laid out as clearly as Moses, there are times that — in hindsight — we see God directing us. When I finally realized what God had been doing, everyone else around me already knew. Telling people I was going to be a missionary with Reliant wasn’t as much an announcement as it was a statement of the obvious.

Fast forward almost ten years, one wedding, three kids and one church plant later, and in many ways we’re still doing the same thing we did when we first became Reliant missionaries. We tell college students about how much we need Jesus and how we think everyone else needs Him too. This is no small feat, given the material comfort and means of escape within the campus culture. You can go a long time without realizing your need for Christ.

In my humble opinion, a college student fully realizing his or her need for Christ is the best thing that could possibly happen to him or her — far better than landing a great internship or job or meeting a future spouse. People who know their need for Christ approach decisions with humility, they seek counsel, and they open themselves up to accountability. They are full of grace toward others and, just as importantly, toward themselves. These are the kind of people who marry, parent, work and live only by the strength of God because they know they lack the ability to do it on their own. Our world desperately needs people like this.

So we spend most of our days sitting with these young adults laughing a lot, crying some, worshipping, playing board games, wading into heavy conflict, going grocery shopping, seeking freedom from sin, sharing meals together, talking about how you know you’re ready to get married and other extraordinarily ordinary things.

It is real life and, as such, can be tedious and hard, but getting glimpses of eternity as often as we do is a beautiful gift. We are grateful that God has called us to serve this portion of His Body.