Growing up, I didn’t know anything about missions or missionaries. What was this? Who are these people who call themselves missionaries? I honestly can not recall the first time I met a missionary; it probably was in college, but who knows?. To me a missionary is not only a person that travels to a third world country talking about Jesus, but also a person who lives where the Lord has called them serve. So now, I know tons of missionaries all over the place, but as a child, nada…aka nothing.
I always knew who the Lord was, but not fully. When I was in my freshman year of high school, I accepted Christ at an evangelism outreach. I was really struck off-guard; I hadn’t cared up to this point about God or any faith seriously. I was a “Christian” by default. The question the speaker posed was “Are you going to heaven or hell?” I was almost scared into believing I wasn’t going to heaven, but that night, I knew God was calling me to something more than what I had been living. At the time, I had no idea what that was to be, but later on God showed me a ton of direction. My attitude at that point was how can I let my friends turn and run from God? This was the beginning of the calling that is now upon my heart.
Moving on…freshman year of college, so 4 years later, I went to New Orleans as a service project with some friends and their church in Southern Minnesota. It broke my heart to see the poverty that people were living in, not only monetarily, but spiritually. These people knew no love or joy. It broke my heart to see the hurting that occured at this place.
Sophomore year of college, I started to attend a new church with some of my friends. Immediately, I felt like this was the place I was supposed to be for the next 3 years. This church is my body, to this day out. I grew in what it meant to be missional and intentional. God really spoke into me this year, as to who Rachel Martin was to be. In the Bible, Rachel was a mother who was crying out for the unborn and raised children on the Word. This could be taken literal, but spiritually this was and is what God had been and is still speaking over me. This is huge to why I’m called to the missions field. I have always had a heart for orphans and as a “mother” I need to be there to support and raise these children on the Word of God. This year I also went to England for missions serving those who were in our sister church.
Junior and senior year of college, my heart kept breaking for the people bound up in chains of lies, despair, depression, pain…With the church I had become a part of, I went out and did some evangelism and saw people walk in Truth. To be able to bring hope to a person who hasn’t been able to feel it is where it’s at! Through all this, God just kept saying “This is where you need to be…you need to be loving people all over the world. Intercede on their behalf and speak of the great things your Lord has done for you.”
Finally, fall semester of Senior year, God revealed AIM to me. To make things short, because this could be another whole post, which it will be! 😉 God changed and molded me into a new creation, who is to be a missionary. Let me just say, I left my heart in Peru. God broke the chains of indifference, shame and despair off my life…I need to proclaim the freedom I have found in Jesus to the world. I need to intercede on behalf of the orphaned children, widowed wives, and abandoned prostitutes.
Now looking back, I know God has gripped me and brought me from the pain of life. He saved my life, literally and spiritually. Literally, (it will be another post, yet again!) God is good, no matter what pain and suffering we go through…if God is eternal and was good way back when, how can He be bad now? He can’t. I rest my case.
This is how God called me to the missions field, and I like it very much!
