How I Was Called to the Mission Field

     We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip… In today’s world, we have the opportunity to connect to or physically travel to any area of the world within hours. It really is a global village. I have stayed in my corner of the village long enough. God is at work in this world and I want to see Him moving. 
      Jesus has commanded us to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” Sure, I have neighbors on my street, but I also have neighbors in Swaziland, in Bosnia, in Thailand and the Dominican. I have neighbors who are blind, who are recovering from addiction, are in prison, sick, fatherless, and need to know that God loves them and desires relationship with them. Jesus came and healed wounds, gave sight to the blind, cured diseases, loved the poor and outcast, and called us to do the same.

      It has been made plain to me that following Jesus means caring for the poor, looking after orphans, loving my enemies, and that following Christ will cost me my life. Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” He says that to love the least in the world is to love him and that whatever we do to the least, we do to him. So by serving the poor and those in need we are serving Jesus himself! To look into the eyes of a brother of mine in Haiti or a sister in Cambodia and know that by serving them I am serving Jesus himself, my savior and King, what a wonderful thing it is!

      I felt a stirring within me as my college career came to a close last spring, and knew that something had to be done. I wanted to give my life over to God and just serve. I want to love those who don’t know love, to be with those who have been cast out, and to let God work and speak through me. The World Race will allow me to see so much of our village, and to see God’s love transform it and me.