Missy Jean Dedrick

Missy Jean Dedrick on Mission: Turkey 2019. (Photo by Gary Fallesen)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Serving with Climbing For Christ is not a job, it is a calling. We rejoice today (Jan. 2, 2020) as Missy Jean Dedrick, who accepted the call to serve full-time with us a few months ago, GOes to work with us. Our paid staff now consists of Missy, who is based in Denver, Colorado, and Jordan Rowley, Elaine Fallesen and Gary Fallesen, who are in Rochester, NY. Brandy Fisher, in Beaver Mines, Alberta, remains a volunteer C4C Canada coordinator. We also have financially supported nationals serving in East Africa (Damson Samson), Haiti (Gilbert Lindor), Nepal (Megh Gurung) and Peru (Edwin Milla), and additional partners in ministry in Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Turkey. This is the family Missy is joining. Here are her thoughts on this exciting move in her life:

Quitting my day job

By Missy Jean Dedrick, development coordinator, Climbing For Christ

I am often flabbergasted at the mysterious workings of God. In the midst of a fallen and broken world I envision each of our lives like puzzles, each piece held in the Creator’s hands as He graciously pieces them together, unbeknownst to us. Though sometimes, the good Lord lets us see how some of those pieces fit together.

I was first introduced to Climbing For Christ (C4C) in 2011 by a former Board member, Derek Fullerton. At the time, I was serving as a Chaplains Assistant in the United States Army Reserve. Derek was the Chaplain I worked for. I was a baby Christian, to say the least. I remember he had two directives for me: The first, and most important, was to get baptized as soon as possible. The second was to sign up for membership with C4C as soon as possible. Thanks be to the Lord, I did both.

Since then, it has been my goal to do mission work. I’ve heard the still small voice of “GO” for as long as I can remember. A couple years ago I developed a plan. I began going back to school for a Master’s degree in Public Administration with a Non-Profit Concentration. My plan was to work for a non-profit locally that allowed enough vacation time for one mission trip a year, while at the same time volunteering for a non-profit ministry, possibly on the Board, in administration work, development or anything the degree would help me do.

This plan changed dramatically while on Mission: Turkey 2019. On the way to Turkey, I met C4C founder Gary Fallesen and family ministry/communications director Elaine Fallesen in the JFK airport in New York City. We grabbed a cup of coffee and began the wait for our next flight. During our small talk and catching up, Gary jokingly commented, “You want to come work for C4C, don’t you?” I think I replied something like, “It’s been in the back of my mind.”

I was thinking he must have really meant “volunteer” and thus I was really thinking, “Not yet, I can’t. I have full-time work and full-time school, but as soon as I’m out of school…”

And then we went to catch our flight.

There was one more encounter like this during the Evangelic Expedition (my second with C4C) where Gary jokingly said, “You want to come work for C4C, don’t you?” Clearly, he was planting seeds and me being a little slow needed a couple prods to realize he actually meant “work,” as in “a job.”

So, one cold and windy evening in a tent at 10,170 feet in the Aladaglar Mountains, I said: “Gary, what do you mean ‘work for C4C,’ what does that even look like?” After he told me he was referring to a full-time development position where I could use my degree, work remotely from Colorado, and GO on missions, my jaw dropped.  All I could think was, “What!? I can quit my day job and work for God’s ministry with all my days!?”

After working through a mountain of insecurities with the Lord, praying, and seeking council over the following weeks, I heard a resounding “GO!” And I said, “OK, here I am!”

God is so, so good, and surprising sometimes, and I’m so thankful that He holds my puzzle pieces. I can’t wait to see the work He continues to do through C4C. My prayer is that He is glorified in all that we do.

The Word