Over the past few weeks in Zimbabwe my team and I have taught at many schools ranging from elementary to college, from the kids’ stampedes of hugs to the uplifting worship times. We have done life skills lessons, bible studies, games, activities, and sometimes teachings. We have met children from all types of backgrounds and have high-fived so many enthusiastic, reaching hands. Basically, our ministry this month has been to unconditionally love children the way the Lord does and to empower the teenagers to grow their relationships with the Lord.
Stella, Emily, and I have taken a special interest in the girl’s high schools and colleges. We have been teaching on the book of Esther, especially chapter 4:14 which says “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Our focus has been on the calling that the Lord has given each of them. That they are worthy of this calling, and He equips them with tools, skills, characteristics, and people to assist them along the way. Using an activity we actually did at our last leadership weekend, we wanted the girl’s to go around the room and write encouraging truths on each other’s papers. This allowed the girl’s to see a value in the community they have, that the same girls in their classes can encourage and lift them up. At the end of the exercise, we let the girls read what was written on their papers, and their faces were so lit up with smiles. Not only were these truths how their classmates and friends view them, but it is also how the Lord, their father, views them too. We want them to know that they are worthy, beautiful, radiant, strong, and so loved by God that He will build upon their callings and desires.
He loves and thinks the world of His sons and daughters. He has put desires and passions in our hearts. When we pair them with His desires and passions for us and allow Him to work through us, He can take take those desires and turn them into something beautiful (insert NEEDTOBREATHE song: Something Beautiful here). He wants to make our life, our works, and our love into something even more beautiful and better than we could’ve imagined. For Esther, He called her to be queen, but little did she know that He would turn her calling in to more than just being a queen but a savior for her people. For these girls, He may be calling them to be a doctor, social worker, environmentalist, mother, cook, the president of Zimbabwe, but it’s not just those professions to which He is calling them. He calls them to love the people they work with, to build relationships with patients, to feed the last and the lost, ultimateley desiring to glorify Him in all aspects of their lives. If we can seek to bring His kingdom in our lives, He can lead and guide our lives making them something beautiful and glorifying to Him.
While talking to the students about callings, I guess I still don’t know what the Lord is calling me to do, specifically. I know I love people, especially around the world, and that I want whatever I do to be helpful and practical to help improve lives. But maybe I am learning that it’s not a matter of me finding the perfect job or the perfect degree but that whatever it is I want to seek to glorify the Lord in it and allow Him to use me as His vessel. He can turn whatever happens into big things for His purpose, so I am trying to learn to still pray about it but that it’s okay to not know for sure yet. It is hard because I want to know my future now because I want to know His plans for me. Still I am trying to be patient (once again) and continue to seek His will each day.
