Wisconsin: Unexpected connections

Some people say no more than seven degrees of separation remove any person from the next person. When I was placed on the Northern Exposure team to Wisconsin, I expected maybe one or two strange connections with people the entire time I was here.

Jessica BarrowAs I boarded the plane at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, I thought the story of my trip to Wisconsin was just beginning. What I didn’t realize was this story really started 20 years ago in the small Texas community of Duffau, with a “yes” to a calling from God and the prayers surrounding a little country girl.

We landed in Wisconsin and knew I was in a different world. That morning I had left Texas in the heat of June. We were welcomed to Wisconsin by a blanket of fog and 62-degree temperature. After church the next day, my supervisor Pastor Trey Turner and his wife, LeaAnn, invited my team and me to spend the day at their house to get to know their family and get acquainted with others from the church.

That afternoon and over the course of the next couple of days, the Turners and I connected over shared places, family friends and loved ones from the Central Texas area. So many of the people that have made an impact on my life and my walk with Christ were friends, mentors and co-workers of the Turner family during their time serving in their first church in Duffau. Trey and LeaAnn Turner in 1995.The pastor of my home church at college, my junior high English teacher, and mutual close family friends are just a few of those we named. Our first connection we made however, is by far the one that I will cherish the most—their neighbor, my great granddaddy, Papa, Bob Cavitt.

In 1995, Trey and LeaAnn Turner answered “yes” when God called them to Duffau, where they served until 1999. In the time they served there, they got to know many people, including their neighbors Brother Robert “Bob” Cavitt and his wife Wanda. Brother Bob and Wanda were long-time residents of the Duffau area. “I spent plenty of time sitting at the Cavitt’s kitchen table or setting on their couch discussing theology and life with them,” Pastor Trey said, reminiscing.

I was born in 1995 and lived one or two towns over from the Turners. As one of their first great-grand-babies, I spent a good deal of time with Bob and Wanda Cavitt over those years. While Mama was finishing up school at Tarleton State and Daddy was working, Nanny and Papa (Wanda and Bob) took care of me there at their house in Duffau. 

“I remember going by the Cavitt’s house or dropping in to say hi and their little grandchildren would be running around and playing,” Brother Trey said. “It’s amazing to think that one of those little kids ended up coming to Wisconsin 20 years later to join us as a student missionary!”  

Bob and Wanda Cavitt.Until a couple of days ago, I had wondered, “Why Wisconsin?” I never felt a draw to come here or to this particular ministry of sports camps or children ministry, but I knew I was being called here. Now, I see I was supposed to come to help Trey and those of the Church of Wazeecha—a minister and church all but one of my home churches has supported and continues to support. Someone who loves and has been loved by the same people I do. Someone my Papa and Nanny shared life with and encouraged, just as they both always did with me.

My being in Wisconsin and working with Trey and the Church of Wazeecha is a testament to how nothing is simply by chance when it comes to God. Each person we meet, pour into and get poured into by, impact our lives in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It makes me think of Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” 

I had no idea why God was calling me, an ag major, to help with a sports camp in central Wisconsin. In my limited understanding, I still don’t get it. But the beauty is, I don’t have to. I know God’s called me here, and seeing God’s preparations for this mission trip that began over 20 years ago affirms that. And I believe if God put that much preparation into this trip, then there has to be a reason that I in my narrow understanding cannot begin to fathom.

What I do know is this: People I know, love and look up to are the same people who poured into Trey and his family years ago. They are the people whom continually support the ministry of Church of Wazeecha. They are the people who made this trip possible in more ways than any of us will probably ever fully realize. The foundation has been laid for God’s work and I am honored to be a part of whatever is going to happen over the next few weeks here in Wisconsin.

Jessica Barrow, a student at Tarleton State University, is serving with Go Now Missions in Wisconsin.