It was in my freshman year that I started praying for those that God would be preparing and sending out (as well as those He’d already sent out) as missionaries. The fields are ripe and the workers are few (Luke 10:2), so I prayed for those He was choosing, never imagining I’d be among them. [And that is odd, when I look back, because at so many points in my life, it seems I’ve known. I remember often feeling that I would be a missionary at some point, but thinking that everyone felt that call, and that most everyone just ignored it and went on with ‘normal’ life. About two years ago, I told a friend that I was afraid to follow God’s will for my life, because I was pretty sure I’d end up in Africa or Asia…]
Fast forward to my junior year. I’d been to Mexico right after my freshman year, and over Christmas break, I went to Washington, D.C., where our Alternative Break group dealt with hunger and homelessness issues. I went to North Carolina on a mission trip over Spring Break. One week isn’t much, but it was enough to open my eyes and make me see how much more I needed to grow in God and how much I had to learn. It was also after that trip that I realized how fulfilled and rejuvenated I felt when I was serving God and helping others.
When I first checked out the World Race website, I thought it was a fantastic opportunity…for someone else. I tried to let it go, but I couldn’t. I found myself reading the Racers’ blogs for hours at a time, often weeping at the stories (and if you know me, you know I cry, well… almost never). I had no peace. When three church services in a row (at both churches I attend) dealt with giving up your own will to follow God’s and all showed videos about the need in other countries and around our world (and I cried through them all), I knew I couldn’t ignore God’s call any longer. I’d been telling Him for a long time that I would go where He wanted me to, that I would follow Him wherever He led. I knew I was being called. I couldn’t not follow.
During the application process, one word often ran through my mind: inadequate. The word would pop into my head, the tears would come, and I’d log off the site. So, it actually took me like two weeks to complete the application. But here’s the awesome thing about God: we’ll never be adequate, we’ll never be enough, we’ll never be worthy. He loves us anyway and HE is more than enough in every way possible. It doesn’t matter that I’m inadequate, because it’s not about me: it’s about God.
One last thing: I am so excited to go on this mission trip, but one of the things I’ve begun to realize in the past few years is that the whole world is a mission field. We don’t have to step on foreign soil to be missionaries. We are missionaries every day, wherever we are. Where you’re sitting right now reading this? That’s your mission field. Your school, your workplace, the gym where you work out- everyone there belongs to God and we are to be missionaries there, too.
