We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story…it all started last summer with an accepted application to go to Japan with the People to People organization. Great news, right? Absolutely, that is…until a few months ago in December of ’08. I had so many questions about the trip and I finally figured out that I did not have ‘peace in my heart’. I put that in quotes because I’d never really understood what that meant, until now. I kept raising questions and wondered if I trying to justify going to an awesome country with an awesome group. After all, if I got too excited to go, God might decide to close the door, right? Nope. Everywhere is a mission field, Japan just was not for me right then, God made that clear because I was not calm in my heart about it.
So, mom to the rescue, we start looking for a mission trip. Before we even pulled up the internet, I told my mom that I really wanted to do missions with kids, especially orphans. First thing we find is AIM, which my mom recognized as the missions group that has been highly referred to her many times over many years. I spied Swaziland, and we clicked on it. The first paragraph we read was about spending most of the time working with orphans. Is our God amazing or what?! So I applied and now here I am, completely blown away by this wonderful opportunity. Does that mean I’m now forging ahead, completely relying on God every step? If I was, then I wouldn’t be human. But I am learning to trust because when I do, it just seems to ‘magically’ fall in place, because we have a God beyond our wildest imaginations. As my pastor said yesterday, I’m just an average person with an extraordinary God. And when an average person is empowered by an extraordinary God, they can extraordinary things.
I’m already a full-time missionary, all of us are, because wherever I am is a mission field to God. I have never been to Africa let alone Swaziland, but never has a such a country tugged so strongly at my heart. Sometimes I get scared thinking about what I’m going to meet over there, because I have no idea. The unknown is very challenging, because suddenly, there’s nothing familiar, nothing routine or ‘normal’. I don’t know why God has called me to Swaziland; little, scared me. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in my life, it’s that the safest place to be is bowing at the feet of Jesus, not trying to give Him advice. The mission field is battlefield, a warzone, with powers I cannot see, but if I’m in the middle of God’s will, then that’s right where I need to be. I would say that being in God’s will to me is both the scariest place (because that’s exactly where Satan does not want me) and the safest place (because if God is for me, who can be against me?). So that would be my little story and reflection upon how I was called to the mission field. God bless you!
