Kendall Martin: Pray & Play

By Amy Boyle

When it comes to shepherding, play and prayer aren’t usually the first words that come to mind.
But for Kendall Martin, prayer and play are how she partners with the Holy Spirit to shepherd the next generation—in her home and in her workplace.

Kendall and her husband, Jace, were both raised in the church and committed their lives to Christ from a young age. As teenagers, they each sensed God’s call to the mission field, and not long after, they were married.

That was over a decade ago.

In Kendall’s words, “God calls you to things that you couldn’t have predicted, and places you couldn’t have imagined.”
That statement couldn’t ring truer of her own shepherding story.

From Grant County to Missouri to Colorado, returning to Indiana (and staying) was far from what the Martin family had envisioned. Yet it became the place where the Lord led Kendall to pockets of belonging and people to shepherd and serve.

Coming back to Indiana in 2020 was already a step of obedience. Letting go of Colorado Springs was costly, but Kendall and Jace had a deep assurance that God wanted them to serve as missionaries in Spain—beginning with support raising in the place where they had grown up.

After moving, Kendall quickly found that what she thought would be a temporary season became a new beginning—for her faith, her family, and the future she had imagined—when they learned they would no longer be serving in Spain.

Being back brought loss and grief for Kendall and Jace. But it also brought belonging—and invitations to find purpose in unexpected places.

It was through a coworker, Madi Williams, that Kendall and Jace were introduced to College Wesleyan Church: a people who, in the midst of many losses, made them “feel like [they] belonged.”

Through people who took the time to know and remember her name, made plans to meet outside of Sunday, walked slowly out of the sanctuary, and lingered in the lobby, the church became for Kendall an “anchor” in a “dark and confusing season”—one where she wanted nothing to do with shepherding.

“By being obedient to what God was asking them to do,” Kendall said, the church “kept me connected to God” and “introduced me to who He really is.”

The rhythms and routines of worship were what God used to redeem her pain—drawing her out of disdain and restoring in her a heart to shepherd. No longer as an obligation or a chore, but as an honor and a joy.

Now, through prayer and play, she holds her roles with bravery, remembering that “it didn’t always feel that way.”

Most of her shepherding these days happens at home. Tending to her children—through prayer and play—fills most of her hours, and to Kendall, this work of motherhood has been her “favorite job.”

“God has been faithful to make…” being mom to Pearson (3½) and Palmer (2) “feel like where I’m supposed to be.”

The same could be said of how she tends to the teenagers she coaches. God’s fingerprints are all over her story, turning a season that “felt like a fluke” into a shepherding space she could never have imagined.

For more stories of how God’s at work within every vocation, visit discipleshipatwork.com.