The Bovo family had no idea what answering God’s call would involve, but God did—and He made sure to prepare them.
"Are you ready for a change?" Eduardo's voice carried an indefinable excitement that might have caught Evelyn off guard had she not been sitting in the hairdresser's seat after months of debating whether to radically cut off her long locks. Of course she was ready for a change.
Evelyn smiled at her cell phone, enjoying the moment of sharing life's little adventures with her husband.
"Yes — definitely!" she replied.
She would not understand the full scope of that question until later, when he picked her up and took her out to dinner. And even then, she could not have imagined what that change would entail.
This is what it looked like: pregnant, holding her two-year-old daughter, sitting on the dirty floor of a parking garage because there was no electricity to power the elevator nine flights up, wondering how long this would last. It looked like hiding in the safest room in the house while explosions went off. Like being thrown backward by the force of what would later be called the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history — watching metal window frames sail past her own window as she lay flat on the floor.
It looked like Eduardo, repeatedly asking himself the question that had begun to press harder with each passing month: What am I doing here? Am I being responsible — is this how a man takes care of his family? It looked like finding their two little girls crouched in the corner of their grandmother's bathroom during a visit home, trembling because they had heard a plane overhead and had no other association for that sound than a bomb.
That is exactly what happened. And had the Bovos known what was coming, they might well have thought twice about saying yes — had it not been for the dream.
The Dream
Both Evelyn and Eduardo had grown up longing to serve God in underserved regions of the world. After marrying, they had explored different options, with nothing working out. In the meantime, they had found a vibrant church community of professionals who gave their time to make a real difference — surveying community needs and working to meet them in tangible, meaningful ways.
Eduardo's work in advertising opened the door to a partnership with a professor from Unasp who owned his own agency. Recognizing Eduardo's gifts, this man proposed a collaboration that fulfilled Eduardo's long-held dream of running his own video production house. The business took off, thriving even during a national economic downturn, winning awards and earning wide recognition.
Nine months into their marriage, the couple could only give thanks and conclude that God had called them to serve right where they were — and to use their resources to support missions elsewhere.
But then came the night Eduardo couldn't sleep — something he had never experienced before. As a child, he had taken charge of his own naps, dozing off wherever the need found him. More than once his mother had discovered him peacefully asleep beside his toys on the floor. The gift followed him into high school, where he was known as the guy who could fall asleep anywhere — mid-conversation, mid-board game, mid-anything.
So when a Friday night in December arrived and Eduardo could not fall asleep, he felt alarmed. Tossing and turning, he finally reached for his phone and began trying every trick he could find, one after another — but nothing worked.
Around 4 a.m., he finally dozed into a fitful slumber and found himself running for his life through an expanse of tall, dry grass. Explosions and the sounds of war chased him in every direction. The scene was dark, washed in sepia.
Eventually he spotted a house off to the right and followed the path to the front porch, where — to his great surprise — a large lion sat with his right paw crossed over his left, calmly watching Eduardo approach. As Eduardo reached the steps, the lion raised his right paw and swept it slowly inward in a wide arc, from right to left.
"Do not refuse my call," he said, his voice resonant and full.
Eduardo walked inside and found a woman working under the hood of a car in an attached garage, struggling to get the engine running. He pitched in, and soon the car came to life. She drove off, leaving him alone in the house.
Turning to leave, he noticed the lion still on the porch. As Eduardo passed, the lion repeated the gesture — that same slow, sweeping arc — his rich voice filling the air and echoing into Eduardo's soul.
"I will not call you twice."
Eduardo woke up shaken.
Of course I am willing to follow you, Lord — but where have you called me to?
Disturbed and excited, he relayed the dream to Evelyn. She was thrilled — God was calling them — and brimming with curiosity about what it all meant.
Eduardo moved through that Sabbath and the following day deeply affected — part of him still inhabiting that sepia world of explosions and running and the house with the lion. By Monday, the weight had begun to lift. There was nothing to anchor the dream to. Then, on Wednesday, he crossed paths with a fellow church member who shared his decision to move to a city where there was no church.
"I have family there, and there is no congregation," the man said. "I want to plant one."
They talked for a while, agreeing that Jesus was certainly coming soon and there was so much more to do.
The Call
The day after that conversation, Eduardo was sorting through incoming messages on Facebook when he noticed the Message Requests tab. Hmm, he thought, clicking on it. I've never noticed that before.
It opened more than four years' worth of unread messages, mostly people asking about his services. One man explained he had been getting married and wondered if Eduardo did wedding videos.
"I'm sorry I missed your message," Eduardo wrote back. "Maybe I can do your anniversary video," he joked.
It will be tedious work going through all of these, he thought, and instinctively scrolled to the most recent message — one that had arrived only ten minutes earlier.
"Bovo, do you do motion graphics?"
"Absolutely! I’d love to hear more about the project. Send me the details, and I’ll prepare a quotation for you!" he typed back.
"Sorry, I wasn't clear," the reply came. "I'm calling you to come to Hope Channel in Lebanon…"
The moment Eduardo finished reading, he typed back: Yes. Then added: Let me just tell my wife — knowing full well what her answer would be.
"Are you sure?" the man wrote.
What Eduardo didn't yet know was how long and how fruitlessly his contact had been searching. He had reached out to former colleagues one after another, only to be turned down every time. Many of them pointed him to Eduardo, but when he looked up the business and saw the awards and the success, he concluded: If people already working for the church won't come, how on earth would someone with their own thriving company accept? Still, finally, to be at peace with his own conscience, he had decided to send one last message — at the very moment Eduardo discovered the tab.
Then Eduardo picked up his phone and called Evelyn. He had his fun with it, knowing she was mid-haircut, asking a simple question that for the moment was a private joke between him and God.
"Are you ready for a change?"
"Absolutely," she replied.
And she meant it just as fully a few hours later when Eduardo shared the invitation — and suddenly the dream clicked into place. "Wow," she exclaimed, her excitement spilling over. "I can't believe God called us today!"
A New Boss
As thrilled as the Bovos were, Eduardo was dreading a couple of conversations. Evelyn's brother and his family were already serving in the MENA region, and they expected her parents to be supportive, but Eduardo wasn't sure about his own father, and he was especially concerned about what his business partner would say.
He invited his partner to lunch and told him everything, plainly and honestly — the dream, the circumstances of the message, all of it. "I believe God is calling us," he said. "I need to go."
His partner was quiet for a moment. "You are the engine of this company, and losing you will be a tremendous loss," he said at last. "But how can I not respect a call from God? You shouldn't refuse it. I'll support you however I can."
It meant legally dissolving the company and his partner purchasing Eduardo's share — a process that came together miraculously quickly. As Eduardo shared the news with clients, he found people moved in unexpected ways. One woman, who held only a nominal faith in God, began to cry when she heard the story. "I didn't think God still called people like this," she said.
When Eduardo called his father — a man who had run successful businesses of his own — he braced for pushback. Instead, he received confirmation.
"Son," his father said, "you're moving from being the boss to serving the best boss there is."
Looking Back
Countless times since, the Bovos have looked back on that call — the dream, the unopened tab, the ten-minute-old message — and held those details like anchors. God, in his kindness, had made the call unmistakably clear, so that when they faced the cost of their choice — careers, stability, their children's sense of safety — they could trust, and watch how he worked even this for good.
Evelyn will tell you it has been an ongoing experience of learning deeper trust, and the joy of watching that trust take root and grow in their children.
During a visit home, someone asked their young daughter why the family was so far away and only came back once a year. She replied seriously: "We're there because we're preaching the gospel. We want to see Jesus soon."
Another time, passing through an airport, the same daughter looked around at the crowds moving through the terminal. Something registered on her face.
"Dad," she said, "these people don't know Jesus? Don't know he's the Savior? So many people don't know?"
"That's why we need to tell them," Eduardo said.
She thought for a moment. "I'll learn their language," she said with conviction, "and I will go tell them."
Often now, when Eduardo and his father talk and Eduardo shares the latest news, his father always finds his way back to the same conclusion:
"Your Boss takes good care of you."
Yes he does, Eduardo agrees. Yes he does.