Hey y’all! Wow…this is all becoming so real! This September, I will launch on an incredible journey for nine months, sharing God’s hope and the love of Jesus with the people of El Salvador, Malawi, and the Philippines!
Hold up…..what?!? Nine months on the mission field for someone who…
1. Has hardly ever left the South, none the less traveled much outside of the United States
2. Has never been on an international mission trip
3. Is very goal oriented and has had a pretty strict plan to go to college for 7 straight years, get my Pharm. D, and conduct pharmaceutical research until I decide to settle down and have a family which I will then work in retail pharmacy and live in a small country town close to home
4. While not new to Christianity, is still pretty new to having a true committed relationship with Christ.
Of ALL the 7 billion people on this big green planet, why in the world would God think to put someone like me up for a task like this?? What business does someone like me with these far from needed qualifications think I have in taking on the huge responsibility of expanding God’s kingdom in other nations?
I am so grateful that I serve God whose plans are far greater than my own. While I no where near felt prepared or even remotely qualified when I felt God call me to this journey, I still have yet to feel anything but peace. As I have been praying for God to prepare my heart for this journey as well as the hearts of the people I will reach, God spoke to me loud and clear through what else but a Facebook post…
“God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called.”
Throughout the Bible, men and women that we consider some of Christianity’s greatest leaders – Moses, Abraham, Paul, Peter – felt the same way when they felt God’s calling. Moses was a murderer with speech problems and God used him to free his people from slavery. Abraham and his wife Sarah were barren, yet God gave them a son and used them to establish his people. Paul devoted his life to killing Christians, and God appeared to him and changed his life, then using him a one of the greatest missionaries to ever spread the Gospel. Peter was a fisherman and denied Jesus in his darkest hour, yet God still used him to build his church upon.
God doesn’t need perfect people to carry out His will. He simply needs a willing heart and an obedient spirit that is willing to take up their cross and follow Him.
