I (Sheila) felt called to missions at an early age when missionaries visited our church. I often thought about where I should go, but in my mind missionaries were all old people. My vision faded as I became a teenager and sought the things of the world. I lost sight of what God wanted for my life, choosing to live for myself and not for God. Ron and I got married and had four children, and I turned back to God. I desired to live for Him, but at the same time I was still holding on too tightly to the things of the world. I always wanted what money could buy.

In 1994 our pastor asked us to go with him and a group of teenagers to Mexico doing evangelism and building a home for a poor family. We both realized after the trip that we had a desire to serve God by helping people around the world in whatever way we could. We made four more trips to Mexico, taking teams of adults and building four houses in four days. We felt blessed to see the joy these small homes brought to these people.

We felt guilty coming home to a big house, two cars, and living so comfortably while knowing some of the people in Mexico were getting whatever food they could at the dump. Our children were married, and we had nine grandchildren; I didn’t think I could leave them to go into missions full-time. When God says to “go,” however, He doesn’t mean for us to look at what the cost is to us, but He says He will be with us and provide for us.

In 2002, my husband and I bought a house and over the next year and a half we renovated it inside and out. It was going to be our retirement home, and we were looking forward to having a comfortable, relaxing life in our dream home. In February 2004 our plans suddenly changed.

We were visiting friends in Texas who had left our hometown of Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada to work with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a Christian organization that trains people to go into the world spreading the gospel and ministering to the needs of others. While visiting them, we offered to volunteer at the campus for a few days and were stirred with the needs of the campus and of the world. We began to feel that our retirement years might take a different course than what we had envisioned, but we knew that we wanted to use our career experiences to somehow help others. We felt that we were to sell our house and go into missions using our retirement years to serve wherever we were needed. We had no idea where that would take us and what we could do, but we were willing to trust God to lead us. He finally got our attention.

The first thing we did was call our four children and let them know our plans and asked them to come and take whatever they wanted from our house. We gave away things we knew others could use. Next, we had a big garage sale, selling furniture, exercise equipment, garden tools, etc. When I saw my husband’s workshop tools being sold I knew it was for real. We packed up the things we wanted to keep, bought a storage unit, and then had another garage sale to get rid of the remaining items. What we didn’t sell we gave away. We sold our house and after buying a truck and 36-foot RV, we hit the road. It was goodbye rocking chair! We still have a life to live.

That was five years ago. Now, we spend part of our year in Canada visiting our family and friends and the other part of our year volunteering abroad and in the USA at the YWAM Tyler campus. My husband loves to fix things, and there is always a need wherever we go to do that. I have worked with mentoring young students, training them in various life skills such as baking, cleaning, and sewing. We love building relationships and have made lasting friendships wherever we go. We have traveled to many parts of the USA, St. Croix, Grenada, and Mexico. We have been to Mongolia three times working with a rehabilitation program for alcoholics and teaching English. In April 2009 we went to Haiti with a team to help build a school and church. We couldn’t ask for a life better than this.

We have learned what we need to have with us and what we can leave in storage. It’s good having updated pictures of the grandchildren with us, and we have purchased a computer to keep in touch. We are happy that we have given up cleaning a large house and doing yard work to work for the kingdom of God. It is so rewarding and keeps us feeling useful. Over the years we collected so much stuff, and now we are content with the little we have. They say home is where your heart is and wherever we park our RV, we are home.