Ministry: The Netherlands

Sending Church: Chisago Lakes Baptist Church—Chisago City, Minnesota

As a recent college graduate, Kyle discovered a great paradox in the Christian life: Pain can be part of the Lord’s kindness. Fresh out of journalism school and newly settled in Canada, Kyle faced nonstop job disappointments and financial struggles. The challenges were so great they made it feel like God was being cruel—but in reality they were the instrument of God’s kindness. He used the disappointments to redirect Kyle toward ministry. Kyle’s pastor in Canada, Jim Tillotson, had just accepted the presidency of Faith Baptist Bible College & Seminary, and Kyle decided to enroll in their seminary. If it weren’t for the pain, Kyle would have missed out on the good and perfect gifts God had in store.

During his seminary studies, Kyle visited the Netherlands on FBBC&S’s Chorale Tour in 2019. The country’s spiritual needs struck him as he visited and preached in a church led by BMM missionaries David and Crissie Boyd and Daniel and Heather Boyd. The church members told Kyle that churches like theirs don’t exist anywhere else in the Netherlands. Kyle had just begun dating Natalie, and he joked, “If we end up getting married, I’ll bring her back here one day!”

That prediction came true. Pandemic restrictions delayed their trip until early 2022, nearly two years after Kyle and Natalie’s wedding. When the two had met at college, missions was an idea still taking shape in Kyle’s mind, but Natalie had pursued missions since childhood. Missionary stories stoked her passion to serve the Lord. Even with her quiet temperament, Natalie witnessed boldly among her childhood friends. In college, she studied nursing and made trips to Uganda and Ukraine but didn’t feel settled on either location. After she and Kyle married, they kept their hearts and hands open to receive whatever God wanted.

The Clines’ 2022 visit to the Netherlands signaled a confirmation: this was the place. Natalie’s gifts in evangelism, mercy, and serving paired with Kyle’s gifts in teaching and administration equip them well for working alongside the Boyds and in planting new churches as God leads. Currently Kyle serves as assistant pastor at their sending church. Until they leave for the Netherlands, he and Natalie are passing on to others their passion for missions and for the local church. They challenge their church’s teens to wrestle at least once to see if God wants them in missions: “The best way you can fulfill the Great Commission is by making Jesus the center of your life and by making His church central.”