Releasing Your Children To Serve In Ministry

For many years I have listened intently to missionaries share about their life on the mission field. As a teen, I loved hearing how life was in a foreign land. When I was 16, I surrendered my life to full time service thinking it was to go to the mission field. I eventually had peace that it was to be in full time service as a pastors wife here in the United States. Personally, I was relieved, as some of the stories I heard, I didn’t think I would fair too well. The Lord knew all along that roughing it in a foreign country and learning a new language might not be a good fit for me. Although, I do have a really interesting parsonage story to share soon that might put me in a category of roughing it.

With all of the missionary friends and acquaintances I’ve listened to, one thing I never heard was how their parents were handling having their child and even their grandchildren live so far away. It was just something I never thought of until I met Ann Bowman who had to say goodbye to her daughter, son-in-law and 4 small grandchildren to a third world country. I saw the heartache of Ann Bowman missing her kids. I also saw the fear when the country her kids were serving in went through a war. Many prayers were prayed for this family of my friend and for Ann’s peace to know that her loved ones would be protected from any harm or fears.

I’m so excited to share that Ann wrote her story and her book, I Never Signed Up For This, One Mother’s Journey To Surrender Her Children To Their Calling is now available on Amazon.

You may be a mom of a missionary or someone like me, who will be inspired by her journey and to better understand what a parent may go through as they release their children to another world not knowing if and when they will see them next. Ann’s book is a very honest and is a personal look into her struggles of surrendering her children to the mission field. You won’t be able to put the book down until you turn the last page. From now on, I will be praying for the parents and siblings of missionaries. After you read Ann Bowman’s book you will never be the same when listening to the next missionary at your church sharing their stories of spreading the gospel to a far away land.

Ann Bowman would be a great speaker at an event for women, moms, missionary groups, etc. She can be reached at her website www.NeverSignedUp.com

Ann has been interviewed on several podcasts and the links to those podcasts are on her site.

You can read more about Ann’s book here.

Until next time,