How I Was Called To The Mission Field

That Sunday our pastor was talking about missions and how the church
could do so much more in the world if we had the resources (people
willing to go and people willing to support). I felt like the sermon
was just for me that day. At the end of the sermon he concluded with
the results of a survey. The survey was directed towards a group of
older adults who were asked one question… “Do you regret the things
that you did or the things that you didn’t do?” He said 84% of the
people regretted the things they didn’t do in life and only 16%
regretted the things they did. At this point I felt convicted. When I
arrived home later that afternoon, I came up with a list of obstacles
that were preventing me from being a missionary. The first thing on my
list was finances. I was tied down to a mortgage and car payment. The
second item on my list was my auntie Carolyn (my mom’s sister who was a
second mother to me growing up). She had been battling cancer for more
than four years. The idea of leaving the country while her health was
deteriorating made me feel uneasy. The third thing on my list was my
job. I had this great teaching job and job security (which doesn’t come
easy in our economy).

CHAPTER 13: Go

Later
that same Sunday evening, I received a call from my mom. She told me
that Carolyn wasn’t doing very well and had been admitted into the
hospital a few days earlier. She called back later to tell me she was
leaving in a few minutes and planned to drive all the way to Chicago
through the night to see her sister. I begged her to stay. I wanted her
to wait until the next morning, but she refused. I prayed for her and
asked a few friends to pray for my mom too. A wonderful and Godly
friend of mine named Devon (who has never met my mom), took it a step
further and called my mom to talk to her during her all night drive
hoping to keep her awake. The next morning I called my mom on the way
to work and found out she just arrived in Chicago.
My mom told me that my dad and brother were going to leave sometime
Monday afternoon and urged me to go too. I told her I couldn’t go until
Tuesday evening because of my limited number of personal days. Tuesday
evening I ended up flying to Chicago
right after work. When I got to the hospital I was asked to stay up all
night with my aunt. She had a breathing tube down her throat. Normally
patients would be restrained so they wouldn’t be inclined to pull it
out in the middle of the night by accident. However, our family has
three nurses and they were able to convince the ICU nurses not to
restrain my auntie Carolyn. The nurses agreed as long as we promised to
keep someone in the room with her during the night and completely
awake. I agreed to do it so my mom and cousins (who had been doing it
for the past couple of nights) were able to get some sleep. It also
gave me the opportunity to spend some valuable time with my auntie.

The next morning after everyone was awake. I left the hospital to go
get some sleep at my aunts house. I ended crawling into bed around 9am and didn’t wake up until 5pm.
The problem was my phone interview was that afternoon and I slept right
through it. I immediately called “The World Race” contact and explained
my situation. The person completely understood, so we rescheduled the
interview for the following week on Thursday.

A few days later my auntie Carolyn passed away. I was able to stay the
rest of the week and attended the Sunday funeral. I had to get back as
soon as possible for work, but I went ahead and took another day off on
Monday so I could drive back with my dad. My brother and mom didn’t
have to be back so quickly so they stayed an extra day. On the drive
home my dad and I had some really deep conversations. He also talked to
me about giving me and my brother an interest free loan. I kept telling
him no thanks, but he kept insisting. I told him I had a great interest
rate locked in and didn’t have much debt on the house. For the past few
years, I had been paying extra each month to help pay off my mortgage
early. Plus I had purchased a HUD home, so it was less expensive than
the typical house (it just needed some tender loving care). I wanted to
live below my means and not live paycheck to paycheck. The loan my dad
was offering me wasn’t enough money to pay off my mortgage, so the next
day he called to ask me what my remaining student loans were when I
graduated college. He told me he wanted to pay me back for my college
expenses and wanted that part to be a gift. Now I had enough to pay off
my house. I had also been saving up extra money each month so I could
pay off my car early. When
I added up how much I had left over from my dad’s loan and how much I
had saved up over the past two years, it was enough to be able to pay
off my car loan too.


The next day I sat down with my boss (Dr. Dale) to tell him I might be going on a mission trip
during the next school year. I’ve always been really honest and upfront
with him. I also wanted to know if he would consider hiring me back
when I returned from my mission trip. He told me that I should check
into a leave of absence. I didn’t know much about it and never realized
it could be used for a mission trip. Immediately after our conversation I called the human resources department at Broken Arrow. The wonderful
lady who answered the phone told me to type up a formal letter to the
board of education. At the next board meeting she said they would vote
on it and reassured me they typically grant those requests. I submitted
my letter a few days later. About a month later it was officially
approved.

By the time the phone interview rolled around for the second time, all
three things on my list (that I mentioned as excuses for not
being a missionary) were gone. When I realized this I was blown away.
It had been less than two weeks since I had come up with “the list”.
The interview went great and they told me they would call me back in a
few days to tell me if I was selected to be on the August 2009 trip. In
the meantime, I started asking friends if they knew anyone who would be
interested in moving into my house. I couldn’t find any takers. I
talked to my dad and asked if he would check on my house if I couldn’t
find anyone to live in my house. He agreed to do it, but didn’t like
the idea. My parents live in another town about 35 minutes away, so it
would be very inconvenient. I knew it wasn’t the best option, but at
least it was something. I also realized I needed to find someone to cut
my grass while I was gone because that would be asking too much of my
father. I figured it would probably cost me about $50-$75 a month to
have someone cut my grass every two weeks. I also started adding up all
the bills for water, electric, and gas. I knew I had to pay them or
have them disconnected while I’m gone. Then I started to think about
how much it was going to cost for insurance and taxes each month and
knew it would cost me another $150 a month. Add on top of that I had to
raise over $14,000 for the cost of the mission trip… now I was
starting to get a little discouraged.

A few days later I was on Facebook and I noticed my friend Christy had sent me a friend suggestion for an old friend named
Kara (who I hadn’t seen in five years). I went ahead and added Kara
hoping to catch up with her. A few days later she added me and we began
talking on Facebook. We eventually decided to have dinner at one of my
favorite Japanese restaurants. During our conversation I told her about
my plans to go on this mission trip. I asked her if she knew anyone who
would be interested in moving into my house. She asked me where I
lived. When I told her she almost fell out of her chair. She told me
for the past 8 months she had been praying to find a place specifically
in that area. She was considering buying a house in my neighborhood,
but mentioned she would be interested in renting too. I told her that I
didn’t want much for rent because she would be helping me. She kept
telling me it would be a huge blessing and answer to her prayers. I
kept reminding her that she was a huge answer to my prayers. Later in
the conversation she said, “By the way, I love mowing and doing yard
work. I used to mow lawns in college. I miss not having my own yard and
love landscaping too.” I just about fell out of my chair, but God wasn’t even done yet. Towards the end of our conversation, she voiced one concern. She told me her lease ended at the end of July and wanted to know when my
house would be available. I was blown away. I told her
my trip leaves on August 1st. God
had not only addressed all of my concerns, but He had blessed me more
than I could have ever dreamed. For example, I’ve lived in my house for
over 6 years and haven’t done any landscaping and Kara was eager to
help me do it, not to mention she loved mowing too. She asked for time
to pray about it (a few days later she told me she wanted to move into
my house). When we finally left the restaurant I walked her to her car
and jumped in. In the middle of our conversation, I received a call
from “The World Race” letting me know I had been accepted. I was
speechless…

CHAPTER 14: It’s a Miracle

On Novemeber 27th, 2008 (Thanksgiving Day) I was outside playing with my younger cousins. They were excited about trying a new thing called geocaching. To do this you must go to http://www.geocaching.com
and figure out some riddle or problem to a question. The answer gives
you the longitude and latitude for some hidden treasure. Then you put
this information into a GPS device and you try to find the treasure.
Our treasure hunt took us along a creek. The competitive side of me
kicked in and I wanted to find the treasure. I carefully crossed the
creek by stepping across some small smooth rocks. I made it across the
creek without any problems, but my little cousin came running through
the creek and splashed all of the rocks I just used to cross. I looked
down at the soaking wet rocks. Then I glanced at my smooth bottomed
dress shoes and realized how much of a mistake it was to have crossed
the creek. I carefully started to tip-toe across the first couple of
rocks. I made it about halfway across the creek when my feet suddenly
slipped out from under me. I went completely horizontal and landed
awkwardly in the middle of the creek. I felt an extremely sharp pain
shooting down my left arm as I lay face down in the creek. I tried
getting up but my left arm wasn’t working. My first thought was I broke
my arm. In the meantime my brother was laughing uncontrollably while I
was lying on my belly in the middle of the creek. He and everyone else
had no idea anything was wrong. I finally rolled over on my right side
so I could push myself up with my right arm. When I was finally able to
get back on my feet I noticed that my left arm was somewhere behind me.
I immediately knew something was wrong. Either my arm was broken or
completely out of socket. I could barely see my crumpled hand behind
me. Shortly after getting to my feet the laughing began to die down as
family members could see that something was definitely wrong (since my
left arm was behind me). I started to get dizzy and my aunt said, “You
look green! You probably need to come to the shore and sit down.” The
pain was so intense that I just stood in the middle of the creek dazed.
I felt like I was going to pass out from the immense pain. I bent over
to relax and began taking deep breaths… Thoughts from the movie
“Lethal Weapon” kept running through my head. I kept replaying those
scenes where Mel Gibson would violently throw his shoulder into
something to knock it back into socket. I seriously considered dropping
to the ground and smashing my shoulder into the ground until it popped
back into place. Three things were stopping me… the immense pain, the
thought I would pass out in the process, and the simple fact that I
wasn’t sure it was out of socket or broken. Words can’t describe how
much it hurt. As I was contemplating my next move and trying not to
pass out in the middle of the creek, my shoulder popped back into
place. My brother was standing behind me and said, “That was the
grossest thing he ever seen (referring to my arm popping back into
socket)!”. My arm miraculously popped back into place after being about
6 inches behind me just a few seconds ago.

When I finally was approved to see specialist about my shoulder it was
mid-December. I later learned from my bone and joint doctor (Dr. Dukes)
that by relaxing my body was able to move my arm back into socket. He
said in most cases the pain gets so bad that the person tenses up and
they have to go to the emergency room to be put under sedatives so the
shoulder can be put back into its socket. That same day Dr. Dukes
requested an x-ray to be taken of my shoulder so he could see the
extent of the damage. When the x-rays came back he noticed a little
growth in my left shoulder. He said, “I don’t want to scare you, but
you really need to get this looked at.” I took his advice and went to
see my primary care physician, but he didn’t want to look at the x-rays
and wouldn’t order a cat scan. I sent a copy of the x-ray to my friend
Steve, who forwarded it to his old neighbor (who happens to be Steve’s
doctor). Steve told me his friend also encouraged me to have someone
look at it. At this point, I decided to switch my primary care doctor.
I asked Steve if he could recommend anyone on my list of doctors. He
saw a doctor on the list that happened to be a member of our church.
Later I was talking to another friend named Alissa and asked if she
knew of any good doctors. She told me about her doctor and how he’s
been her doctor since she was a little girl and absolutely loved him.
When she mentioned Dr. Reinking, who happened to be the same doctor
Steve endorsed, I made the switch. Alissa also pointed out that Dr.
Reinking was the father of our friend Amy. A few weeks later I found
out his wife Karen was going to Guatemala on
a spring break mission trip and was going to be my co-leader. A few
days later, on my first visit to see Dr. Reinking, he looked at the
x-ray and immediately ordered a cat scan.

At this point I had only told Steve, Bobby, and Marsha about the growth
in my left shoulder and asked them to pray about it. By the time
February rolled around I felt like God definitely wanted me to be on
this mission trip. All I had to do is remind myself of all the
obstacles I had already overcome, but at the same time I didn’t understand
why I had this growth in my shoulder. I couldn’t help but wonder why
me… I knew whether this growth was benign or malignant the doctors
would push me to have surgery to take it out for testing. I thought if
that happens I’ll probably miss the mission trip to Guatemala and the required
training dates in late May for “The World Race”. I didn’t understand
why God had given me so many confirmations that I needed to be on this
trip, but still had this thing growing in my shoulder. I thought maybe
God was just testing me to see if I would be faithful to go on this
mission trip. However, by this point I was SO ready to go. God had
completely changed my feelings about being a missionary in a few short
weeks.

The night before my cat scan, I was with Steve leading our group of
high school senior boy’s. As the evening concluded and we were about to
pray, Steve let the cat out of the bag. He told our small group I had
some type of growth in my shoulder. I was stunned, shocked, and a
little upset that he told them considering I hadn’t even told my
parents. He asked them to pray for me that night and the next day
before my cat scan. The next day I went in for the cat scan. When the
results came back a few days later, the doctors couldn’t find anything
in my shoulder anymore. I was blown away again. It was a miracle… Wow!

CHAPTER 15: Clarity

Looking back on my life I can see some things very clearly. First, I
know why I’m still single. I’ve realized that God has a plan for me. If
I had married the last serious girl I dated, I probably wouldn’t be
going on this trip… or if I had found someone I’d probably be engaged
(or wanting to see where the relationship was heading). Second, I
understand that God planted many seeds along the way, including that
spiritual gifts test many years ago. Third, God knew when I became a
teacher He could work on my heart (and give me a heart towards
missions). I never had opportunities to go on mission trips growing up,
so by becoming a teacher my schedule allowed me to go on mission trips
over spring break and during the summer.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”
(Hebrews 12:1).