How I Was Called to the Mission Field

We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to the mission field.  Here is my story…

 

My first exposure to missions abroad was the summer of my freshman year in high school.  My church youth group goes on an annual Mission to Mexico trip each summer for one week.  On this trip, we build 1-2 houses through Baja Christian Ministries and spend time loving on the neighborhood kids in Tijuana, Mexico.  As soon as I got a taste for missions, I was hooked!  I was amazed that in the process of blessing others, in this case with a new home, we are so blessed in return.  The teamwork and community that mission trips form are pure gold to me, and the way God uses His broken, imperfect followers to achieve His purposes never ceases to amaze me of His power.  Out of my years in high school, I went on the Mission to Mexico trip 3 times and my life was made infinitely richer by all 3 trips. 

 

Having had a fire lit in my soul for missions, I was thrilled to be responsible for coordinating and executing this past summer’s mission trip, and to be an adult leader for the first time.  Now that I was out of high school and working as the Student Ministries Assistant at my church, it was an incredibly humbling, growing, and stretching experience to make that trip come together logistically.  God showed up in big and small ways during the preparation of the trip and especially during the trip itself.  As the week came to a close and our high school group returned home, my heart ached to spend more time in a missionary context.  Over the next couple of months after the trip, I felt a strong calling on my heart to spend a semester in missions.  I longed for the chance to develop meaningful relationships with the people I was ministering to; a week just isn’t enough time to build a strong relationship!  I was originally planning on going away to school this spring and continuing a normal routine, but the necessary doors closed and opened as I was directed to Africa and Adventures in Missions.  The whole process, spent on my knees in prayer, was confirmed over and over again by the opened doors, closed doors, and voice of God.  I’m a planner – I freak out a little if I don’t have a plan set – so when my plans changed directions, it threw me in circles for a little while, but I am confident that this is what God is calling me to do.  God is on the throne, not me, and that’s a beautiful fact to rest in. 

 

I absolutely can’t wait for January, to start this trip and meet the team!  May God be glorified through us as we love eachother and the African people deeply.

 

“Here am I.  Send me!” Isaiah 6:8