Two years ago I joined a bunch of my friends and spent a little under a month in Senegal, Africa. I fell in love. I gave my heart to those wonderful people, and in only a few days, my plans for my future changed dramatically.
I had planned to work in a salon, find a man, settle down and live simply. I didn’t want much, I didn’t want to go to college, I just wanted to find a little patch of land, and settle.
Funny how God can use something like holding an infant with AID’s and crying over him and praying for his life to change your own. That trip, those kids, the souls that were so lost captivated my heart, and I was sold.
I was not going to settle. I was going to live extravagantly. Thus began my passion for over-seas missions, for preaching the gospel where the name Jesus had never been spoken. Thus began the most difficult desire I had – to abandon my comfort, my settlements, and to live a radical life fighting for hope for those who had none.
But Sara, there’s tons of people in America who need help! Why are you trying to go so far when there’s much to do here?
I believe that it is my duty as a disciple of Christ to bring the light of Christ to everyone around me, and I wish I could say I was better at it. It’s easy to tell someone that has nothing that there is a God that loves them for who they are, and not as easy to tell a middle school kid with a super-cool cell phone and summer house that they need Jesus. America makes it real easy to find substitute gods, and so many people have sold themselves on the idea that they can make it on their own. Often I think I can do it on my own. But here’s the cold hard truth: we can’t do it on our own, no matter what stuff we pretend makes our lives great. Yeah, stuff is great, but it ain’t comin’ to the grave.
So, I am not going to Africa to become a missionary. I am going to continue the work that I am trying to do everywhere I go. I fail every day, and my flesh, my selfishness, gets in the way a lot. Like, a serious lot… but guys, there is nothing more fulfilling than a life chasing Christ. There is nothing more glorious than living a life that is glorifying to the Lord! I want to stand before Him one day and hear him say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
I’m so thankful for grace, because I mess up a lot. Here in Colorado as a middle school intern, I’m not in ministry 100% of the time. I work 15 hours a week for the church, and much of that isn’t even with children. It’s easy to find me time to do what I want and often I don’t spent enough time focused on the mission, or on God. So my point in this entry isn’t to toot my own horn, because I fail so much, but to explain why I’m going on this journey.
I feel a pull. I feel a call. There are people who need God, who don’t have substitutes for it. They’re like dry sponges, waiting to soak up hope, and I desperately want to pour LIFE into them. Guys, this isnt about a grand adventure, though I am certain it will be one, this is about LIFE and SALVATION and HOPE!
I will be abandoning my comfort, leaving those I love, not forever, but for a year, to pursue this passion. I will not sleep in a bed, this is not a vacation, this is an assignment. One that I am so desperately excited for. I have never doubted God’s love for me, and that is something that not many people can say. I wan’t to give people the same kind of hope and joy that I’ve always had. There is nothing more fulfilling.
I can not wait to share with you the glories that are to come, and when I return, the journey is not over. It is only just beginning.
