How We Were Called…

 

As I said on the bio page, I became a Christian only a few years ago and before that I was a Buddhist. To me, Christianity was so different from Buddhism. In my opinion, Buddhism is all about doing the right thing for your own sake. Don’t do that, or do this if you want to be a good thing and not a dog or an ant when you are reincarnated.

 

But Christianity is not all about doing good things for your own sake. It’s all about LOVE. It’s about giving grace and forgiveness even when people mess up and don’t deserve it. Buddhism discussed this too, but the motive was different. When you do give grace and forgiveness, you get to be a higher being in the next life.

 

They never talked about getting forgiveness from Jesus though for all your sins. In order to cancel out the bad things, you have to do many good things, and so on. But Jesus is so different! He just gives you forgiveness freely, without you doing anything, all because of His LOVE and how He cares for us.

 

This kind of love from Jesus is something I felt called to tell the whole world about after I became a Christian. I want to go around the world and show Thailand and America that people who have God, but have nothing in the world are more content in life because Jesus gives them everything they need. I want to show the people who might not know God in the countries we go to that God came into my culture and showed me His love and how God can come into their culture and show Him His love too.

Hmm…this is a hard question for me to answer because I think when someone becomes a Christian and realizes His love for them,.. SNAP…  they have then been called to the mission field. I think we are suppose to be missionaries no matter where we live or where we go. So I guess I was called to the mission field when I became a Christian when I was a kiddo.

 

But I suppose the idea of spreading His love to those around me, really moved from my head to my heart when I studied abroad in New Zealand, as I mentioned in my bio. Before I left for the trip I heard a pastor speak about how life is a missions trip. For some reason, this phrase fixated in my mind and it’s been a mantra I have carried since then. So I prayed that God would use my study abroad for His glory and asked Him to use me.

 

And whoa, did he answer that prayer. The first day I arrived in NZ, people
were already asking me about my faith, and none of it was prompted by me in the slightest. I hardly ever started any conversations about God, but the Holy Spirit just knew how to use me and guided me to people and circumstances, and God always came up. So I saw Him faithfully answer my prayer that He use me, but my one friend was an astounding testimony to His faithfulness.

 

When I first met Dawn (who eventually became one of my best friends and was even in my wedding) she seemed to believe in many religions and I thought she had so many strange beliefs. I invited her to our bible study and she came, but I remember writing in my journal, “Oh God, how will she EVER come it know you??”

 

But it wasn’t up to me, it was up to Him, thankfully, and by the end of my 5 months she had become a Christian, and two of my other friends as well. It was here where I saw God’s love spelled out in how much Dawn changed and how faithful He was to draw her to Him. His love and redemption became so real to me in NZ. 

 

Then I continued my missions trip by going back home and starting a bible study with non-Christian internationals. Even if some of them haven’t become committed Christians yet, I loved seeing the Bible through their fresh eyes, and just learning about their cultures and loving on them and praying that God will continue to grow them. 

 

 Of course then I went to Thailand, not with a “missions group”, but just independently, and tried to again live my missions trip life. I haven’t seen as many people come to know God as I did in NZ, but that’s not really what it’s about cuz that isn’t up to me. It’s about spreading His love and letting Him do the work.

 

So now I feel called to keep growing. What made me so eager to go on the World Race was reading all the stories of how God is working in the participants and changing them so much to bring Him more glory.

 

I loved the quote, “We must be changed before we can change the world.” My soul is eager for this hard, intense, renewal, to be shed of more of my dragon skins and for His motives to burn in my heart even brighter and for my human ones to evaporate away, so I can better serve Him and the world as I continue my missions trip of life until He calls me home.