You should know that we’re telling you these things to justify ourselves but instead so that you should know the truth.

It’s a convenient package to tell our story as this:  A couple was tired of working their jobs, so they quit them, sold all of their stuff and hit the road in search of an adventure.

Certainly, there is some truth to that.  There are many sides of our story.  But I can assure you that simply being tired or annoyed with our jobs would not be enough to precipitate such a drastic action.

After all, 90% of Americans are to some degree unhappy with their jobs.

The first and most important piece of our thread is about Jesus.

We knew when we were living our lives as Americans are taught to live them that there must be more to life.  We knew we believed that faith and obedience to Jesus are the only way to live a fulfilling life.

So we had to ask ourselves, do our lives show that?  The answer was no.

The answer wasn’t “no” because we were some sort of heinous sinners and drunkards.  In fact, just the opposite.

We went to church, we gave large portions of our income away, we spent hours and hours each week volunteering with our church youth group.

So, we decided that if we wanted to radically obey Jesus, why not try radically obeying Jesus?

Jesus says at least a dozen times in the gospels that we should leave the world behind—friends, family, money and whatever other attachments we have.  Sell all your possessions, he said.  Give to the poor, he said.  And follow him.

So we sold and gave away our possessions.

Now we try and follow him.  Now we try and find people that need help in order to demonstrate the love of Jesus.

But you’re right, if we just wanted to help people we could have done that in Columbus, Ohio.

I think we’re out here for three reasons.

#1 – A radical demonstration of faith.
We pray that by our example our friends would see that we are not completely full of shit.  When we talk of abandoning the Earth for Jesus, we really mean it.  We want our lives to be a demonstration that our trust in Jesus is greater than our trust in jobs, health care, and easy living.

#2 – We’re here to learn.
In order to help people to the best of our ability, we need to go out into the world and find out how people live.
There is no better way to learn to trust in God than to thrust ourselves into a place that requires absolute faith.

#3 – We’re out here to help people.
We pray that others are inspired by our message.  We pray that others see us and question their lifestyles.
Maybe people will ask, does my faith really look like what Jesus said it should?
Does my church look like the church in the book of Acts?
Christians, as a religious culture, have become very good at figuring out, and rationalizing, why Jesus didn’t really mean what he said.
Jesus knew what he was saying.

We had to demonstrate to ourselves that we’re committed to Jesus, as well.  For a time, we need to remove the distractions and temptations of the easy American life.

Believe it or not, we had good jobs.  We stayed at them for a year to be honorable, and then we left because it’s a worthless and unproductive way to live our lives.

If we say that we believe in Jesus, and we believe that the bible is truth, then what excuse could there possibly be to not spend 100% of our time and resources trying to convince others of that.

We’re all dying.  Many of us, through our faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only son of God and only way to heaven, are going to spend eternity with the one true living God.

I don’t know what that heaven will look like, but I am certain of this:  This life is worthless.

There should be no greater joy in life than serving Jesus to the best of our ability.

For us that means abandoning the world of possessions, retirement and an easy life.  For us that means devoting ourselves 100% to the pursuit of God.

Jesus message was very simple.