The Beginning

After we got married in January 2009, both of us felt a pull toward serving with the Peace Corps. At the time though, Kirstie had a job at Willow Bend Environmental Education Center in Flagstaff through AmeriCorps and Isaac was finishing his degree in forestry from Northern Arizona University. We had a half-formed plan in the backs of our minds to wait until Isaac had graduated and Kirstie's AmeriCorps term had ended to further consider Peace Corps.

Plans change. Kirstie's stay at her job was extended temporarily, and Isaac secured a staff position at the Ecological Restoration Institute where he'd worked at as an undergrad. We settled in to make our stay in Flagstaff, Arizona. We bought a car. We made good friends. We started thinking about buying a house.

Plans change again. In fall of 2010, Isaac learned that, due to loss of funding and budget cuts, his position at the ERI would end in January of the next year. Kirstie's job would end at the end of the school year. Though we were sad that our time at our jobs and in Flagstaff would end, both of our minds immediately turned back to the Peace Corps.

The Peace Corps application process proved to be long and, for our part, rather frustrating. We had hoped to leave in June of 2011, but it took much longer for us to get medically cleared than thought (mostly because Kirstie had to have her wisdom teeth out...) So we packed our things, moved from Flagstaff, and spent the summer volunteering at SIL-UND in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where Isaac's parents work in the summer. We now expected to leave with the Peace Corps in fall of 2011.

And then plans change. The Peace Corps is going through massive budget cuts of its own. We found out that no new applicants would be leaving until 2012. That included the two of us. We now had to fill four months with something that was constructive and would continue preparing us for Peace Corps service.

SIL-UND has daily chapel services. At one just a few weeks ago, a representative from LEADAsia spoke about their exciting community development work in southern Asia. By that evening, we had decided to volunteer with LEADAsia this fall. We'll be raising support for our trip from September 23rd until December 12th. (We'll talk more about LEADAsia in a later post.)

We can only admit to feeling frustrated at many stages in this process, but looking back we can see that none of it has been an accident. We both gained valuable knowledge and experience at our jobs in Flagstaff as well as during our time in North Dakota. And it was in North Dakota that we learned about LEAD.

It's exciting to see God shape our adventure, and we're ready to see where he takes us next!

..Isaac and Kirstie..