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Happy New Year! We have spent the beginning of this year running around preparing, packing, and doing all the things you do before international travel. We leave in ONE WEEK for our 6-month trip to serve local ministries in SE Asia through the gifts the Lord has given us. We are so excited to see how God uses us and blesses His people in SE Asia through our ministry. Thank you for subscribing to the blog. Our goal is to tell of all the amazing things the Lord is doing overseas to encourage people everywhere that He is still on the move. So please share the blog with your friends and family, read, and be encouraged. He is doing BIG things. We have officially bought flights, visas, and travel health insurance. It is getting so real. We have been in communication with ministries all over SE Asia, but still need contacts in Vietnam and Malaysia. Please reach out if you know a ministry in those areas. We would love to serve them. 

The nerves started to catch up to me last week. I found myself being reminded of all that a life in missions entails. I started thinking about the long, exhausting travel days, the illnesses that come from never slowing down or having a balanced meal, the fear that comes with walking alone in a place you don’t recognize while being watched by locals, the sights and smells of a new country that can feel less than welcoming, the BUGS! 

But now, for some reason, that doesn’t worry me as much as it did before. I mean, I’ve done it before, I lived. I keep rereading my old blogs from my yearlong mission trip. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they make me wonder why I was ever afraid to step into this in the first place. I see God’s footprint all over every single one. I can’t stop remembering what He has done. Each memory cuts through the fears and insecurities until there are none left. Yeah, I might get sick, but when I was sick in Albania, we got to share the joy of the Lord with the young doctor. I may have long, exhausting travel days, but in Central America, we made so many incredible connections with locals through a bus ride or taxi that made it all worth it. Sure, there may be bugs, but … actually, I have nothing for the bugs. They were the worst. 

People keep asking me if I feel nervous, but if anything, I feel joyfully expectant. Reading through my old blogs, I remembered the exact feelings, sights, sounds, and everything that was going on in the moments I wrote about. I am encouraged when I remember so vividly being in the van in South Africa on our way to share the Gospel with the families living in the squatter villages. I remember the first day, wondering how the Lord could possibly use me in that setting. But He did. I remember the second and third days, praying on the van ride that He would use me again. He did. I remember as the weeks went on, my prayers shifted. I didn’t just hope that He would use me, I was excited and expectant to see just how He would do it. I prayed for His glory, His words, not mine. I still pray this every time I go into most intentional conversations (and blogs.)

I remember the deep breath of relief that I took in the van, the peace of knowing that God would provide the opportunities to share my story for His glory. I remember the feeling of gratitude that came with knowing He was in control, He had been preparing their hearts and mine for that very moment, He had a plan, and He wanted to use me. That’s exactly how I feel now. He is Sovereign, He is in control, He planned this, not me. That is how I can feel so much peace, even one week away from a missions trip we can’t afford, with connections we have never met, in countries we have never seen. I feel expectant. I feel grateful. I feel peace. Just like I did in that van in South Africa. 

God is orchestrating something beautiful, a magnificent story, for the ministries we support, for the countries we visit, for our own lives, for His glory. So no, I am not nervous, I am ecstatic. I am so thankful that the Lord would call me to this, so thankful that He would bring me the perfect partner for this, so thankful that He wrote this story with us in mind. With Him in our corner, why would we be nervous?

All for His glory,

Kallan

(Kaley + Allan)

Fundraising Update: So far, we have raised about $1,000.

We are so grateful for every donation we have received this far. Sadly, this amount is only enough for the first month of our projected 6-month trip. We trust that God will provide every dollar we need for this mission He has called us to. As a storyteller, I can understand why He may want to wait until the last minute to bring in the funds, as it makes for a more exciting story. But as the one fundraising, it makes me pretty anxious. We are on the edge of our seats, but still, we trust. If you have felt called to donate or have been waiting for the perfect time to do so, I urge you that the time is now. We cannot do this without our community of brothers and sisters in Christ. We are grateful for every donation and are looking forward to seeing how God comes through in the final days before the trip.

Well, 2025 was an interesting year for everyone! Big changes in politics, pop culture, and the pope. Big changes in our lives, too. For us, 2025 was the year we got engaged, got married, and got the call from the Lord to go back into missions. Let’s be honest, that call was always there, but now in a new way. Even 3 years ago, when we came up with a mission and vision statement for our relationship, serving was always at the center. God gave us a new way to live it out. He gave us the idea to support local ministries around SE Asia through our gifts and talents. This has been a dream on our hearts for a long time.

Personally, I have always been passionate about missions, specifically mission stories. I spent one summer working at a summer camp in Colorado through a missions organization. Many of the teenagers who worked alongside me were the children of missionaries. They lived anywhere from Japan to Argentina, India to Indonesia. I remember asking the teens to share stories of all of the amazing things God had done through their ministries. I shared my goal of sharing missionary stories in the future. There was a theme amongst them all. They all shared that their parents had hundreds of amazing stories, they were doing amazing work, but between feeding the hungry and housing the unhoused, and working with the most forgotten populations, they just didn’t have time to write any of their stories down. No one heard their stories, and it was impossible to get the funding they needed, because no one knew they existed. They used every dollar they had to provide services for those in need, every second of their days dedicated to preparing for their outreach events. They had nothing left to hire a photographer to capture said events or a website creator to update their homepage from 2004, so donors could see the impact of what they were doing. 

I remember telling them I would someday travel to meet their parents in the countries they served and write down all of their stories for them. I had dreams of telling their stories to the world, supporting the good work they were doing through words. 

Throughout my time on the World Race, I had the opportunity to be a Storytelling Intern. I wrote stories of all that God was doing in and through my team and the wonderful work of the ministries we served. I loved feeling like my writing had a purpose; like it mattered. During that year abroad, I met my now-husband, Allan. We were working at the same nonprofit, both passionate about serving God and His people. We spent hours talking about serving the Lord together, serving His people that the world had forgotten. At the time, we both thought that meant staying in Nicaragua long-term, but God had a different plan. These past few years, we knew we would eventually go back into missions, but had no idea when or how. God used these past few years to grow us and strengthen the skills that we will be needing in our upcoming missions work.

Allan is an incredible website developer; he made this website effortlessly, using code and script and matrix-looking digits. He would type things like “8-//= +0lwr Enter” and then, boom, we would have a home page. I believe he can actually do anything with just a laptop and some average Wi-Fi. He has always dreamed of using his tech skills to support those in need. We often dreamed of starting a nonprofit to teach these skills to underprivileged teens, to set them up for a better life, and share the Gospel along the way.

Together, we came up with the idea for Missionary Tech Support, a ministry to serve other ministries. Our goal is to use our God-given talents in photography, storytelling, and all things computers to serve those who don’t have access to these things otherwise. I can take photos of the ministry and write stories of how their work is affecting lives for Christ, while Allan adds them and other features to a website, app, or whatever they deem fit. Once we had this goal in mind, we reached out to our friend, a missionary in Thailand, and asked if it was something that would actually be helpful. At this stage, it was just a pipe dream. We reached out to her just to see if it was even something worth continuing to dream about. 

She responded with an emphatic “YES!” She said those areas are in high demand, but oftentimes feel out of reach or impossible to ministries with such few resources. She also mentioned that she had a huge network of missionaries, ministries, and churches in the region of Southeast Asia. She immediately got us connected with two amazing ministries led by missionaries from the U.S., one an orphanage, and one that teaches work skills to underprivileged teens. They even asked Allan to lead a coding class, his literal dream. Both of these ministries were in dire need, praying for God to send people with the very skills that we were looking to give. 

Since then, we have been connected with countless other ministries and missionaries in the region. Our goal is to spend one month in each country, serving as many ministries as we can before heading to the next country. We plan to stay in SE Asia for 6-8 months, depending on the need, but we are flexible and relying on the Lord to show us where to go and when. We trust that He will continue to open and close doors according to His good and perfect plan. 

Our work will be 100% free for the ministries we serve, a blessing instead of a financial burden. This is why we are fundraising now. We were called to leave in January, and God has been opening all the doors necessary to make that timing possible. The last part to fall into place is the funding. We only have one month to fundraise our full budget. We trust that God has a plan in all of this and that He will bring the funds for this mission that He so clearly called us to build. We pray that He uses this next month, and hopefully this Giving Tuesday, to bring the donations we need to head out in January. 

We are beyond excited for this next chapter, yet humbled by it at the same time. We still find it insane that He would use us in this way, use our gifts in this way. If you have connections to any missionaries, ministries, or churches in SE Asia, or just Asia in general, please reach out and let us know. We would be happy to serve them as well. Please consider sharing our mission with your network: your family, your friends, your book club, your Uber driver, everyone. We are stepping into a new chapter that still holds a lot of unknowns, so we can use all the prayers we can get.

Pray for us as we walk in this calling. Allan worked for a nonprofit full of missionaries in Nicaragua for almost 10 years, but this will be his first time in international missions himself. It will be my first time in missions to Asia, my first time in missions without a sending organization, and my first time in missions as a wife. Pray that God will bring the necessary funds, pray that He uses us to build His Kingdom, and most importantly, pray that we can support His plan to bring big growth to ministries all over Asia and the world. All for His glory. 

-Kallan 

(Kaley + Allan)