We were asked to write a blog on how we were called to this Mission Trip… so this is how was I called to this adventure around the world. God has been working in me in some amazing ways this past year that has brought me to this moment of completely surrendering my life to him in every way. I have been a Christian all my life and grew up in the church but didn’t really grasp what it meant to be a Christ follower until college. When I was really young I wanted to be a missionary (faith like a child) but then missionary turned into doctor, lawyer, or business woman as I got older. I did everything according to my own plans and wanted worldly success, and lived my life to reach that success. In high school I got good grades, was in national honors society, had a great job, actively involved in my youth group, was the captain of my soccer team, etc… everything looked great on paper. But life behind the success was not always pretty, and quickly learned that everyone has their story. Much of my life I internalized and kept hidden from everyone else, because I thought it was weakness to show vulnerability. So in order to keep up my worldly success I decided to go to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a big ten school, with one of the best business schools in the country. I thought business was my calling in life and that making money was naturally what we in this society are supposed to make. I was pursuing a career that could make me a huge worldly success and became a workaholic. But what did this pursuit really do to my life….?
It broke me! Studying money the past four years, broke my heart for those who have nothing. Last year I prayed to the Lord to really make evident in my life what he wants me to be doing for Him and not myself. After really diving deeper in the word, God kept showing me what it was really like to be a Christ follower and not just going through the motions. “What you do to the least of these, you also do onto me” really stuck out, and how Christ loved those who society rejected and who would be viewed as failures in the corporate capitalist society we live in, he loved the homeless, widowed, and orphaned. He held nothing back from them.
Like from the book Blue Like Jazz, the quote, “I never liked jazz music, because jazz music doesn’t resolve… sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself… after that I loved jazz” I watched people fall in love with missions and Christ. My roommates made commitments to give a year to the Lord and follow him wherever He wanted them to go. Over the past couple of years I watched my roommates go all over the world to serve the Lord and do mission work. I looked at them and thought how cool, that they are willing to give up their lives to be real Christ followers. While I decided to have three jobs and work 70+ hours a week to move up the corporate ladder and boost my resume. I watched them fall in love with missions and I wanted that as well! But I didn’t know exactly what that would look like in my life.
Then one day while walking down State Street in Madison last year (which is always full of homeless men, most of them having nicknames from the university students) a man came up to me who was blind and asked me to spare 5 dollars so he could eat. Usually I would just walk away figuring there is a reason they are on the street because they were lazy and didn’t want to get a job… but this time it was different. I thought I was a broke college student and couldn’t afford to help those kind of people to justify walking away, yet I would still go and buy my 4 dollar lattes with no problem. But My heart broke this time! The Lord kept saying to me, “What you do to the least of these, you also do onto me” over and over again. I saw Jesus in this man, and I didn’t even hesitate to take out my wallet and give him everything I had on me. The Lord worked through me that day to stir a new passion, a passion for the poor. After studying money the past four years my heart has grown exponentially for the poor, and I kept praying to the Lord for direction on what he wanted me to do with my life.
At the end of the school year, I started up a conversation with my friend Ben Eppinger, and asked him what he was planning to do after graduation. I figured he had planned out which medical school he was going to, and was getting ready for that. But he told me about this opportunity that the Lord placed before him called the World Race. He was giving up Med school for now to serve the Lord wherever He wanted Ben to go around the world. After he told me about the World Race I decided to check it out myself and started the application process the next day! Every day I fall more and more in love with the Lord and this is what He wants me to be doing with my life… surrendering it completely to Him! Giving up a career, money, security, leaving behind family and friend is what I am called to be doing. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself!
I am so excited for what the Lord will be doing this year in the mission field and I know He is already working in these countries and the heart of the people there…. So that is how I was called to the mission field. God Bless!
