We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story…
I remember the first time this whole missions thing really hit me as a personal calling. It was just last summer. I work at the Rec Center at Texas A&M and during the summer we have alot of camps and events. While I was working one of the camps, I was sitting by a basketball court reading my Bible. This adorable older couple casually walked up to me and we just start talking about the camp going on. It turns out that the woman’s husband graduated from A&M back in the 1950s and they were in town for a reunion. They were more than willing to share some great stories about the school back then (side note to non-Aggies: a HUGE part of Texas A&M is tradition. so this was like an aggie-goldmine!) and the sweet woman started asking me about what year I am, where I’m from, and all that jazz. Then she asked the question most college seniors dread: “Well what are you planning to do after you graduate?” Most of the time I would groan and say something witty like “Got any good ideas?” hoping to avoid the question. But this time I didn’t. Without even pausing to think about it, I heard the words “I’m going to do mission work for a few years” come out of my mouth. Wait WHAT?! She encouraged me in my pursuits and we exchanged a few more tidbits of conversation then the cute husband and wife strolled away from me, leaving me dumbfounded at what I just professed to be my future. I want to say it was “word vomit” and just something that spilled out, but the more I sat there wondering why in the world I told this random stranger what had been tugging at my heart for such a long time, when I hadn’t even told my closest friends the thought of serving overseas had crossed my mind, the more I started to see the significance of what I had just said. At this time I hadn’t even been on my first mission trip, so to think about pursuing a career in missions was pretty crazy!
Over Christmas break before that I signed up to go to Zambia, Africa with Family Legacy Missions International. FLMI started CampLIFE in the capital of Lusaka to serve the overwhelming number of orphans, completely hopeless in a country ravaged by AIDS. Two girls from my sorority went last summer and shared their 
experience back in August. Jamie and Kendall knew the truth of these kids’ lives shouldn’t be kept quiet and were completely open and honest about what they saw, heard, and experienced. It brought me to tears. I had honestly never felt like I was supposed to do mission work. I loved the idea of traveling but I never saw how I could have any effect on the world. Going to Africa was for people who were completely devoted in their faith and could things like recite the Bible from memory. I felt like I had just started to pursue the Lord and was so green in my faith. So I was a little surprised when, through Jamie and Kendall’s words, I thought “I want to help. How can I? They don’t deserve this and someone has to do something.” I was too chicken to go talk to either one of them about it after they spoke (which is so funny because I now consider both of them among my closest friends). I forgot about it for the most part with all the craziness of school and work. Then in October I tore my ACL (God humbling me yet again) and had surgery right after finals in December. I spent that whole break reading and spending so much time with the Lord. Everything I read talked about the Lord providing. My biggest hesitation in that first trip was money. I still don’t even remember what brought Zambia back to my mind but I found out it cost about $5,000 more than I had. But with every story I read and every conversation I had with Him over those few weeks, God calmed my fears. He repeated over and over that He WILL provide. So, with my mom standing next to me, I signed away 3-weeks of my life and agreed to jump off the bridge of my selfish world into His loving arms. I gave the planning, the fundraising, and the heart-shaping that needed to happen completely to Him. Looking back, it was the first time I completely trusted the Lord…and boy was He faithful!
July rolled around and I didn’t know anyone else leaving from Houston so I was off on my first mission trip, and my first international flight, all by myself. Great. But sure enough, on my very first flight I met 3 people who not only were going to Zambia, but were from Texas A&M too. Talk about comforting! We ventured across the globe and landed in Zambia to find a warm welcoming party and people just completely filled to the brim with love for God. The first few days we just got to enjoy the beauty of Victoria Falls and the Lord just revealed so much love to me. These people genuinely wanted to know me and pursued real relationships with me. Honestly, in my life that was kind of rare, so to have these complete strangers asking me about my life, my faith, my joys and struggles was absolutely amazing. And to hear the passion in their voices when they talked about serving the Lord was such a gift.
Needless to say, coming back to life as it was before just wasn’t an option. Through so many different people and organizations at Texas A&M the Lord just continued to use me in ways I never would have imagined. Missions was heavy on my heart as I looked toward Doomsday (aka Graduation), but that just seemed like such an impossibility to me. One week in the middle of the semester the Lord just decided to give it to me straight. Summer camps come and recruit at A&M pretty regularly and one particular camp has branched out to establish camps in Russia, France, and Kenya. During recruiting week, I just kept running into different people who continually referenced Kenya or missions of some sort. I found myself having random conversations that entire week with complete strangers about missions. Every time I left those seemingly insignificant chats, I was joyful at the idea of serving and filled with purpose. Finally I went to talk to this certain camp about Kenya. Unfortunately it was a lot shorter than I felt like I was supposed to do and knew as I walked away from the table that I wasn’t going with this particular program. But I also walked away knowing, without a doubt, missions were in my immediate future. I texted my prayer partner “holy moly I’m going to Africa”. She knew all along where my heart was so without any surprise in her voice, calmly responded “well don’t forget your passport!” The next day we met up to “study” and ended up chatting about everything the Lord had been telling me that week. Again, she was supportive but not surprised at all. She’s one of the few people I was capable of being vulnerable with at the time so I just opened up about the overwhelming amount of fear and hesitation I was feeling. Bridget, in all her wisdom and humor, calmed my anxiety and reinforced the Lord’s calling. Now during this whole time we were sitting on a couch in a cool little coffee house in College Station. About an hour after we started this conversation I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around, I realized it was the woman who had been sitting in the chair beside us. About 20 minutes earlier she had packed up her stuff and left, so I was surprised and curious as to what she was doing back and why in the world she tapped me. She politely introduced herself and then, without hesitating, just spoke the few sentences that would rock my little world. She said something along the lines of, “Please don’t think I was eavesdropping but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation about Africa. I just wanted to ask your name so I can pray for you and where the Lord is leading you.” She spoke words of encouragement for about the next 5 minutes. This complete stranger left, and felt so moved by the Lord to pray for me, that 15 minutes later she came back to ask my name! How cool?!? As she’s speaking I turned to Bridget who just nodded her head enthusiastically and gave me the thumbs up, jokingly emphasizing that she was right all along and that God doesn’t usually send messages a clearly as the one sitting before me. That woman (who we discovered was about to leave in a month for missions herself) probably doesn’t have any idea what her few words of encouragement meant to me that day, but I haven’t looked back since. I feel like everything just sort of turned in that moment and formed a clear path to serve in whatever capacity He would reveal.
I feel like the entirety of this last year in college has been a “Missions Prep-Course”. The people closest to me, the organizations I was in, the most amazing woman pouring into me and discipling me, and even my college classes all seemed to point back to the heart He’s given me to just serve. I know this is just a blog and I hate that I can’t really communicate my passion through typed words. All I really know is I love my God. He loves me more than I can understand and it overflows abundantly in my life. I just want to spread this overflow. The love of God can’t be contained, it will never exhaust, and is the source of the greatest joy I’ve ever witnessed. People need to hear the Gospel to understand Christ and I think people need to see the love of God lived out to truly understand it. What better way to use this life, which He gave me, than to spread truth?
