We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story…
There definitely wasn’t one defining moment where things clicked and I instantly knew what God was calling me to do. And I honestly can’t say that it is only to the international mission field or a call to missions, but rather a call to be open to Him.
I actually was quite a different person years ago. I had walked through life with such an inner focus, that life became more about each day I had to prove myself, oblivious to all other things going on around me. Of course after a while of trying to grasp onto the next best thing, things around me crumbled and failed and I fell hard. I had to fall hard to really begin to grasp the concept that it is through Christ that I am saved, not of my own doing, but of God’s love. I had to feel that desperate need for grace before finally opening up to God’s will. And as I began to open up to Him, to learn more, to love more, God began to reveal who He created me to be. I have a passion to serve Him, trusting that He will provide the path, just as He has walked with me through it all.
While grasping onto God, He began preparing my heart to show His love with others around me, to share that joy that only He provides. And He keeps transforming me. In 2005, God led me to Zimbabwe where He began to show me the heart of sacrifice and praise. I spent New Year’s Eve with my fellow sisters in Christ, doing nothing but giving God thanks and praise for all He had done. We praised God all night long. And after my return I knew my heart had been changed. It was scary to be honest. He revealed something in me that I had never experienced and I knew more was to come.
In 2007 and 2008, while in Malawi and Zambia, God opened my eyes to the meaning of service, humility, and stirred within me compassion. I became more open and vulnerable, realizing that it was all God making the work there possible. I needed Him. And by being so vulnerable to God and to others, I experienced the idea of community and the family of Christ…for we are all brothers and sisters.
When I returned, I came home to the same place my wonderful sister and her family lives, to the same job that I had always enjoyed, to the same group of friends that have really accepted me, to the same church family that has always supported me, and yet I was restless. Was I ready to take that step from the known and comfortable, to the unknown? I soon realized that it wasn’t about having the excuse that “I am not ready”…but to have the faith that God is leading. And so after many prayers, here I am, anxious and excited to not only share the Truth with others, but to develop a deeper relationship with God so that He becomes Greater.
