(This is a long entry,
I tried to put most of the information in the first part so if you don’t have
time you don’t have to read it all)
God gives those who follow Him promises, just look at all
the opportunities He gave Israel over and over again to be His chosen
nation. Heck, I need to look at myself
look at all the opportunities and blessings He gives me over and over
again. The breath I take each day, my
salvation, His provision are all gifts from Him. God wants to use me, He wants to use all His
people to expand His kingdom. He invites
us to join Him in His work. What an
amazing God that is. I believe He
promises us blessings as we are obedient to him; I am not saying life will be
great but when we attempt to see the eternal picture those that know the Lord
are truly blessed.
As part of His plan, I believe God gives specific promises
to specific people and I believe this “call” (more about the quotation marks in
the last paragraph) I have to missionary work is a promise from God. I hope those of you that follow this blog
know that I have never doubted this, I have just been wondering when, where,
how, etc (ok, He created me as a planner).
I do feel that He has had me in a period of waiting, after lots of
prayer and guidance as well as confirmation I think I am supposed to start
moving. Right on God’s schedule, in the
fullness of his timing and in the middle of His will (from Experiencing God by
Blackaby).
In the last month alone so many things have started
happening. I have mentioned before that
I feel I am supposed to go somewhere very different than I have ever been for
my next short term mission trip. After
much prayer and now much confirmation I am in the process of applying for a
short term trip to West Africa for the fall.
Please pray for this opportunity, for God’s guidance, for the
application process and if it is His will for the financial provision. I have also been given the opportunity to
serve and teach in the 4 year old classroom at church. Pray for myself and more importantly for
those children that God would speak through me and through the church into
their lives. I believe these serving
opportunities are specifically to
prepare me for the mission field.
God is so good, both of these opportunities have truly come
in somewhat miraculous ways. My prayer
for a while has been that I not make things happen and certainly I did not make
these doors open. I was doing a little research
on missionary agencies, actually just curious about one someone had
mentioned. This search led me to their
website and after some clicking their short term medical mission’s trips. I did not even know they had medical
missionaries with this organization. I looked at the list and prayed over the
opportunities and there was one that kind of jumped out at me. Of course, this was the one with no further
information and as much as I wanted to know more I couldn’t at that
moment. So, I started filling out my
application and of course me, in my flesh was kind of frustrated because I just
wanted more information. I love as I
type this how often I and me come about; yes I know that was the problem. I emailed the organization for something not
at all related to the trip, a paper for my world mission’s class. The email I got back was from a wonderful
woman, a nurse practitioner who has been a full time missionary to the country
I am looking at going to and who happens to be the person leading that trip J. I had to laugh out loud when I got that
email. As far as serving with the
children, I got an email from our preschool director stating she had been
praying about someone to fill an open slot in the 4 year olds and my name came
up. She had no idea I used to work with
4 year olds at my previous church and that age is my absolute favorite age, let
alone that I was praying about more opportunities to serve.
Now, back to those quotation marks around the word
call. I am taking a world mission’s
class which is absolutely amazing.
Despite the crazy work load I am loving it (yes, my instructor may be
reading this I am just being honest here.)
Some things in the class have really got me thinking and I am going to
attempt to summarize a bit of what we are studying just because of the impact
it is making on me. One of the interesting topics early on has been looking
into a biblical “call” to missions. The
word call in the bible is usually used as a call to salvation, there are no
clear missionary “calls” just confirmations.
Interesting and something I had never looked into. The authors of our text and several other writers
/ educators describe more of a burden or a guidance than a supernatural
experience of a call. This really got me
thinking and to me it makes sense. Our
text also outlines 7 steps to the mission field and I was kind of blown away
that when I took an inventory of those items I am already doing them;
confirmation of this journey? Only God
knows and I am striving to be near Him and be obedient.
Please pray for
ongoing guidance and wisdom for myself and I pray the same for all of you. Sorry about the length of the entry, for
those that know me well when I get really excited you just cannot shut me up……
