I Had a Plan. The Military Had Orders.

The career I didn’t get and the calling I found

Written By: Tayler Burcham

We Were Going to Be Missionaries

Before my husband ever put on a uniform, we had a plan. We were going to be missionaries.

We didn’t have a country picked out. We didn’t need one. Missions was already in our bones. He had served in China and Romania. I had led teams to Mexico and did mission work in India, and I worked as a missions director at our church. Packing a bag and going wherever God sent us? That was the dream.

God did send us. Just not the way we pictured.

The Wrestle

Then came the military. And with it, a moving truck, a new zip code, and a whole lot of “Lord, what is happening?”

I’ll be honest: those first years as a military spouse were hard on my heart. I had a degree in Christian counseling, specializing in marriage and family. I wanted my own practice but I wanted the mission field.

Instead, I had orders. It is tough to build a counseling practice when you can’t promise a client you’ll still live in the state next year. I couldn’t take off into the mission field when my own husband wasn’t even home. We then dreamed that he would retire with the Navy and THEN we would go on the mission field. I kept waiting for life to settle so the “real” calling could start.

The Mission Field Had a Zip Code

Here’s the funny thing. While I was busy grieving the mission field, I was already standing in it.

I was inviting neighbors to church. I was having real, deep conversations over coffee and car-line chaos. Friendships were turning into discipleship without me even planning it.

That’s when God spoke to my heart: this is the mission field. Not someday. Not somewhere else. Right here. The address would keep changing, but the calling wouldn’t.

Walking the Road Together

During one of those seasons, a dear friend was going through a very difficult marriage situation. I was working at a church and raising little ones, and so was she. We were both just trying to follow Jesus well in the middle of real life.

I counseled her. I prayed with her. Mostly, I walked beside her.

What I didn’t know was that a year later, I would walk that same road in my own marriage.

In a way I never would have chosen, God used that friendship to prepare me. I had seen what it meant to not walk alone. I knew how much it mattered to have someone who would sit in the hard place with you and keep pointing you back to Christ. The mission field was never just about what I could give. It was about the body of Christ carrying each other.

Why Women Soaring Exists

That’s a big part of why Women Soaring exists today. We talk about all the things: the exhaustion, the deployments, the marriage struggles, the doubts. Because we know what it feels like to walk through hardship and feel completely alone. We don’t want that for you.

And we still get to be missionaries. One of my favorite ways is through our T3 Bundles (Thriving in Trying Times). These care packages go to military spouses during deployment, and some of the women who receive them don’t yet know the Lord. Every box carries Scripture, prayer, and a reminder that someone sees her. That’s the love and light of Christ, shipped right to her door.

Your Turn, Sister

Maybe you’re in a season that doesn’t look like the dream either. Maybe you’re waiting for life to settle before you start doing what God put in your heart.

Friend, you don’t have to wait. Wherever you’ve been sent, you’ve been sent on purpose.

So let me ask you: what’s one thing you can do in your current spot to live out the calling God has placed in your heart? Invite a neighbor to dinner. Text the new spouse in your unit. Sit with a friend in her hard place.

Send us an email! I’d love to pray for you.

Wherever you’re sent.

With Love,

Tay