April 25, 2024
Chris and Casey Willis, along with their four children, are preparing to deploy to Africa through the International Mission Board.
By Roger Alford
NASHVILLE – Chris and Casey Willis had been living the American dream in Augusta, Ga., with their four children.
Chris had a good job working for the Social Security Administration. Casey was homeschooling the kids. But when they realized God was leading them toward foreign missions, they made the decision to give up the typical American lifestyle, join the International Mission Board, and settle into a new life in Uganda where they will work with refugees fleeing war-torn South Sudan.
Chris, 40, and Casey, 37, said they had felt change was on the horizon for a few years leading up to Monday when the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board gave them and 62 other new missionaries a celebratory send-off in Nashville, one day ahead of the SBC Annual Meeting.
“We had settled into a comfortable life, and God began to tug on our hearts that there was something else he had planned for us,” Casey said. “It’s been a long process. We’ve always loved missions, and I think even when we were younger, we thought that might be something we do one day. But it wasn’t until 2015 when we knew for a fact that the Lord was calling us.”
Short-term mission trips with Augusta’s Warren Baptist Church, their home church, helped to confirm God’s calling. In time, Chris said, it became very clear that God wanted him, his wife, and their children, ages 7 to 14, to move to Sub-Saharan Africa.
The decision to give up their home and life in Augusta and move to another part of the world wasn’t made quickly. It was a process they had to work through together.
“We’ve seen where God’s hand has been with us through all of that,” Chris said.
International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood said the 64 missionaries celebrated on Monday will join 3,631 of their peers, along with their 2,700 children, serving around the world. He said the training and deployment of missionaries continued despite the Coronavirus pandemic of the past 15 months.
“I admit that I questioned at times that we would be able to do everything that is necessary to appoint, train and deploy new missionaries in the midst of that global pandemic, but by God’s grace and with his help, you’re sending of more missionaries through the IMB has not ceased,” Chitwood said. “We’ve had plenty of hurdles, more than a few disruptions, but more than 500 new missionaries have been appointed since the pandemic began. Our work has not been thwarted.”
