It was at a CROSS Conference seven years ago that Nick and Siana caught the vision to go to the nations. CROSS is a national conference for young adults between the ages of 18-25 with the vision to make their lives count by making Jesus' name known. As college students, they went with the Citylight college ministry. Nick thought he was going to a worship conference, while Siana was reluctant to go because she knew exactly what the conference was all about. Nick and Siana had been impacted by the nations as children. Siana lived in American Samoa for most of her childhood and Nick at the age of 10 traveled to India for his sister’s adoption.
Throughout the conference, they heard from speakers who walked through the Bible from beginning to end and how it all pointed to God’s redemptive plan, the Great Commission, and His heart for the nations. They heard the question asked, “Do you think you are called to be a sender or a goer?” By the end of the conference, God began removing barriers and fears on what they wanted for their future, one by one.
“I was reluctant because I thought God would call us overseas,” Siana confessed. “Nick and I were both about to graduate college and get married. We were going to live out the American dream– two incomes and our own plans. The whole time at CROSS, I found everything to grumble about but I knew I had to pay attention. By the end, I knew God was calling us overseas. Nick and I thought about it and prayed separately, and had both decided that we would go.”
Over the next couple of years, God continued to gently and faithfully remove the “American dream” from Siana and Nick’s hearts and replaced it with His. His plan for them began to evolve in 2020. They were newly married and both working full time with Siana in nursing and Nick in software development.
“God shattered some idols,” Siana shared. “Nursing was not my identity anymore, and I wasn’t sure I could keep doing the job. We prayed and both asked, ‘God, would you give us something different and for a new purpose?’ We had previously decided that we would start pursuing this path once we had children and not long after, we found out we were pregnant with our son, Tunoa. God helped us give up our comfortable plans and instead be faithful to him.”
In 2021, they began to look for opportunities to serve overseas and found it to be more challenging than expected. They talked to over a dozen teams with no clarity of where to go and how to serve. In prayer and petition, God gave them guidance through the book of Psalms.
“Being a people pleaser, I found myself looking at the needs of all these teams and trying to fit my strengths into the needs,” Nick said with sincerity. “At the time Siana asked me what I really wanted to do. I then remembered Psalm 37. Verse 4 says: ‘Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.’ This made me think seriously and ask “What are the desires that God has given me and shaped my heart as I am trying to delight in him?” Honestly, I love software development. Can this be for a kingdom purpose?”
This questioning eventually led Nick and Siana to Love Justice International (LJI). LJI is a gospel-centered, local-church based organization that fights and prevents human trafficking (HK). Their mission is to “share the love of Jesus by fighting the world’s greatest injustices.” They were actively looking for a software developer to join their team. Fast forward to today, Nick and Siana (and their children, Tunoa and Leia) are being sent by Citylight to join the Love Justice team in January 2025. Nick described their global assignment:
“The team office is based in South Africa and provides all the behind-the-scenes funding, training and development for local Christian teams in various countries around the world who are on the frontlines. Right now, Love Justice is focusing their efforts on human trafficking through transit monitoring– a method that intercepts trafficking victims at airports and border crossings while they are in the process of being trafficked, but before they have been exploited. This also makes it more likely for traffickers to be arrested, since they may be caught during the process. Many of the people intercepted have never heard the Gospel before, and this provides the space for the Gospel to be shared while also serving physical needs of the people.”
“As a software developer, creating solutions for automation is a big need that I’ll be working on. Coordinating work for 300+ employees around the world can be a challenge with scanning data, analytics, spreadsheet creation and automation. Through software, we are able to see exactly how people are being moved across borders within a 24 hour period. I like to maximize solutions and problem solve, and there is so much potential for how software can be used to help workers on the field make further impact and share the Gospel with the people they are working with.”
As Nick and Siana prepare to go, new challenges and opportunities have been given. For Nick, it has been the emotional highs and lows from the beginning high of hearing the call to the low of the tedious work of Visa applications, support raising, and required theology classes. For Siana, it has been the highs and lows with family and time. Having now two young children has presented challenges with having less free time to do all what needs to happen to go while also making everything more precious and meaningful for their family with the time they have left in Omaha. Currently, they are thanking God for providing financial partners to help mobilize them to the field and trust that He will continue to provide through His people.
“Saying goodbye is hard, but we are excited to go,” Siana confessed. “It’s been a six-year journey God has taken us on so far. My prayer and need is for sure to be fully funded, but also for safety for our kids. It’s easier for Nick and I to be willing to go with the flow, but with kids, there’s more planning for safety. Our children are our primary ministry and that is our priority and clear purpose. Our son is excited to go on a plane to Africa, although he doesn’t know where that is–please pray for the flight! It’s so encouraging to know that the team we are joining has lots of young kids. Community was at the top of our list when looking, so we are excited about that. We love the community we have now at Citylight and we're sad to leave that, but to know there is a community already built-in is helpful. Also, most of the team has connections to Nebraska or Lincoln!”
Nick and Siana concluded with this:
“Honestly, we love Citylight. It will be the hardest thing to leave besides our family. We are encouraged by the Church as we have started the process and are so blessed by the relationships we have had. Community is so important and Citylight has done that really well. We are also in debt to the college ministry at Citylight, the teaching on stage, and the community in homes with City Groups. We are excited for what’s to come.”
Citylight is sending Nick and Siana out as our next global partners. It is exciting to see how Jesus is mobilizing His Church to incarnate the gospel in the darkest and hopeless realities of our world. The result is not only lives being physically saved, but individuals across the world being connected with the local churches doing this work, hearing about Jesus, the living hope, and being truly redeemed and discipled. This is how Jesus’ mission works… Jesus calls and we truly send. If you desire to learn more and/or want to be a part of sending Nick and Siana, please reach out to them.
For any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to our Global Missions Director, luke@citylightomaha.org.