It all started on March 4th, the day I was born. When told of my birthday, a friend of my dad’s said “March fourth – she’s gonna be a go-getter”. What he meant was that through a play on words I was going to be someone who would “march forth” in life. I’ve also heard it said its the only day of the year that’s a command. Kinda neat if you ask me. So since that day I began to go after life – and what a ride its been.
Maybe, in a very subtle way, my call to missions began in a grade 8 Social Studies class. I might owe a curriculum and a textbook called People Through the Ages some credit. This textbook was full of facts, information, photos and stories about eras and cultures of people throughout the history of the world. Ancient cultures, the Renaissance, the Reformation the Industrial Age etc. But what really caught my attention was the ancient history and culture units. Mayans, Incas and my personal favorites: ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. I was fascinated! I had an insatiable curiosity about each civilization we covered. I wanted to know how they lived, what their customs, languages, art and music were, what they believed and why. I wanted and to find out why they did what they did, why they were no more and how we could learn from them. I wanted to meet these people! I found myself buying books about ancient history and often seeing if I could catch documentaries or shows on the Discovery Channel. To this day the right title on a book or name of a show on satellite will stop me in my tracks. And it all began with a grade eight textbook (which I will find someday and get my own copy! That way I can relive the wonder anytime!). So while I didn’t feel a call to missions at the time in middle school, it got me wondering and dreaming. I truly believe that God used that class in school to begin prepping my heart and my love for different cultures and people throughout the world.
After I graduated I took a year off to work and do ministry. I led a cell group for high school girls and was the worship leader for middle school ministries at my church. It was a good year and God taught me alot. Then in fall 2007 I did a Discipleship Training School (DTS) through an organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Lakeside Montana. It was there that God gave me a heart for the lost and I was broken for those who didn’t know him. Until then I had been apathetic and I guess I thought “well, if people don’t choose Jesus its up to them. I can’t do anything about it except live my life in a good way and maybe they’ll see something different and ask. But until then, I can’t really do anything.” But something changed. I remember falling to my knees just weeping one evening because in our society and in these times, nobody cares about God. They chase after things that only hurt them more instead of running into the loving arms of their Father. It just really hit me that people are going to spend eternity away from Him and it is going to be the worst thing imaginable. It really hit me. I remember thinking “I HAVE to do something! People NEED to know Jesus!” I suddenly had a sense of urgency and the apathy was washed away.
For the outreach phase of the program I went to Thailand and Burma for two months to do missions and it was incredible. I had always thought travelling would be a great thing to do cause the whole idea and notion of it sounded exciting but I really had no idea of what it really was since I had never been overseas. As you now know, I was always fascinated by other cultures and languages growing up but I was just as surprised as anyone when God gave me a heart for missions and for the lost. I could stare at a map for hours just looking at each country wondering what kind of people live there, what languages they speak, what their culture is like etc. and most importantly, what God is doing in their nation.
After I got back home I got a great job at my dad’s furniture store as a sales associate and picked up where I had left off with leading cell and worship teams. What followed was an extremely tough year of many trials, wrestling with my calling and waiting on God. I grew like crazy, although I couldn’t see it at the time. I looked into many options like music school, university, college, travelling and thought about going back to YWAM for secondary schools or to even staff DTS, but everything I tried didn’t sit quite right and I knew I was taking control and trying to sway God’s hand into action. So I continued to surrender my dreams to Jesus and learn to trust him as I waited. This was hard because I’m passionate about people, music and missions and I knew there had to be more to life than sales.
Enter the World Race. Long story short, God made if very clear that this is the next step I have been waiting for and its better than anything I could have hoped or dreamed of on my own.
