A few years ago I was absolutely certain that I was not and never would be called to the mission field.
I am here to tell you that God has a sense of humor.
To begin, let's get a little background that will help make later events make more sense. As a senior in high school, I decided to major in Air Traffic Management and ended up choosing to go to the University of Oklahoma (1,000 miles from my hometown near Cleveland, Ohio). My sophomore year of college I started getting an itch to work at summer camp. I never went to camp as a child, but I just desperately wanted to work at one for some random reason (AKA, GOD!). I applied and ended up working a camp near Mohican in Ohio. The camp is a Christian, outdoors-oriented summer camp. I have come to love this camp more than words can say.
My first summer at camp (2011) I learned so much. I have never been so exhausted, stretched, and worn out in my entire life. I also have never been so filled with love from others, encouragement from friends, and passion for furthering God's kingdom. The friends I made there have supported me so much. Whenever I was ecstatically happy and bouncy and ready to go, they were there. Days when I was an emotional wreck, they were there. Days when I did not understand what God was trying to teach me, they were there. It was also crazy to see that summer how God had been preparing me to work at camp my entire life! Whenever I was younger my family took a lot of backpacking trips or went hiking. We have woods behind my house, so dad and I often spent days just walking around. I developed a love for the outdoors at a pretty young age. This is definitely needed when you spend about 16 hours a day outside. I also didn't like children when I was younger. They were just snotty-nosed, teary-eyed, rugrats who were desperately trying to annoy me. But my heart began to change in my first years at school and I spent a lot of time volunteering through a service organization, mostly working with children. Obviously a love of children is also necessary when working at camp. These circumstances and events in my past were God's way of preparing me, little by little, for my time at camp.
After returning back to the "real world" after that summer, all I could think about was getting back to camp. My academic advisor had told me that, due to the way my program was set up, if I wanted to study abroad, it would have to be during the summer. And since I was a junior by this point, I only had one summer left. Studying abroad was always something I wanted to do as a student, but I eventually came to realize that working at camp again was more important to me. After weighing the pros and cons, I chose to go back to camp for a second summer.
The summer of 2012 was another fantastic summer, although incredibly different than the first. My heart ached for the kids more than ever before. I just wanted them to get it. I just wanted them to grasp how infinite God's love for them truly is, no matter what they've done. I can remember a week where my co-counselor and I spent several nights, up late into the night, trying to figure out a way to explain this love to our campers. One night in particular we spent crying on the couch in the staff lounge for a good hour or two, simply not knowing what to do, praying for the Holy Spirit to give us the words to say and to work in these kids' lives.
Once again, I went back to school in the fall, this time for my senior year! I thought about those campers often. And school began to seem more and more meaningless. What was the point of taking all these tests, doing all these projects? (mind you, I have always been a pretty good student). Wasn't teaching people about Christ, sharing His love, and growing in Him infinitely more important than all this busy work? The answer is yes! I started seriously evaluating my career choice and looking at what it would mean for the future. Air traffic control is hard, and can be very stressful for people who do not like it. That is not me. I love air traffic and it fascinates me. However, I started realizing that the hours, lifestyle, and stress of the job would most likely result in giving up time with my family for the sake of my job, or at least, quality time with my family. There is a reason that it is a male dominated field (AND THAT IS NOT BECAUSE FEMALES ARE INCAPABLE). Women simply have the nurturing qualities (designed that way by God) that help grow a family. Not that I plan on having a family any time soon, but these were serious things for me to consider at this time.
Anyway, right about this time is when I first heard about the World Race. Suddenly, it all clicked. Pleasure is meaningless. Intelligence is meaningless. A career is meaningless. (See Ecclesiastes 2-while these things are not inherently bad, desperately striving after them to gain happiness is futile. God MUST be involved). The endless pursuit of all this stuff WILL NEVER bring eternal satisfaction!! The ONLY person who can bring eternal satisfaction is Jesus Christ! This realization was kind of a slap-yourself-in-the-face moment. I had known this fact my entire life. Yet the busyness of life kind of got in the way from letting the fact get from my head to my heart. The importance of sharing the love of Christ, the only source of eternal satisfaction was raised to an entire new level and I decided to apply for the Race.
I chose to apply for the January 2014 trip because I felt God calling me to another summer at camp. Leaving for the Race in January allows me to spend my summer at camp, go to training camp in the fall, spend some quality time with my family (something I've missed after being at OU for 4 years), and leave in January without anything conflicting.
I am incredibly excited to see how God is using me, the person who is certain she will never be a missionary, in the world. I want to give my life, because, after all, He has given His!
