The Fullness of God’s Promises

 (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……