2018 is here! At the beginning of the year, I went on a 21-day fast with the organization I work with here in Thailand. During this time, God spoke to me about this blog a little bit. This blog is intended to inspire. So I will begin writing each month about my walk in missions, and hopefully, people will look at it and be encouraged in their walk into missions, or just be encouraged in general! I hope my experiences in getting to the field and remaining here will help people in the future to circumvent obstacles I had gone through.
I would begin my first post with the call to the mission field, but that’s already been done! If you want to hear about my story in being commissioned for missions you can go here.
After being called to the field, the enemy immediately started to get me to excuse myself as to why I shouldn’t go. One of the first things being medical. I had been diagnosed with Narcolepsy in 2011 and was on a medication that cost $400 a month. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it. But God always provides a way! You can read the story about how that got resolved here.
Next, you might be thinking, well, what do I do now? I’m called… and I don’t even know what it is like! I don’t know what to do. That’s OK! Neither did I. I didn’t know of any sending organizations, any trips, etc… nothing. But God surely does open up doors! I will tell you one of my favorite stories of getting on a missionary trip to see what mission work is really like.
One of the first things I decided to do when I felt called to missions was to build a bucket list of places I wanted to visit. I said, “God, if you’re calling me to do Your will overseas, then I want to see these places!” You might be sitting there thinking about how selfish that sounds, but I’m telling you, the first place I ever went to was a place on the very top of my list. It wasn’t even something I searched out, it just “happened” to be available to me. Now, yes… I do mean that God surely opened up the door. It was DEFINITELY Him.
One day I had come back home from Christ for the Nations, the Bible school I graduated from, and met with a family that I view as my own family, Gary, and Michelle. They’ve helped me so much through the years, and I just love them to pieces. We were coming back from eating Chinese food and I was sitting in their vehicle telling them about my change in direction to missions. I told them the story of Heidi Baker and the calling. After finishing, I was beginning to tell them about this bucket list. I told them about the list and I was RIGHT about to say that one of the places I really want to go to is the country of Trinidad and Tobago. Before I could even get those words out, Michelle interrupted and said “Hey! Do you want to go to Trinidad?”
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??????
I was, well, for lack of a better word, speechless. I just eventually said something like, “Well, yes actually” and explained to them how that was one of the top places I wanted to go. Long story short, I went and saw what missions is really like, I met a team leader who I became close with who also supports me today, and I got to be a part of something I would end up feeling called to do in missions, crusades.
I don’t believe that wasn’t God for one second. I really don’t. That had to have been God. Psalm 37:4 says “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” Why Trinidad and Tobago? One of the most fun times in my life is when I played the steel drums at San Jacinto College in Houston. If you don’t know what they are, go look them up real quick. Steel drums were so incredibly fun for me to learn and play. Trinidad and Tobago is the steel drum capital of the world, and I’ve always wanted to go to be able to see some part of the culture that birthed this awesome instrument. While I was there, I was blessed with an opportunity to go meet a man from an international steel drum group and see all of their steel pans. Hebrews 11:6 lets us know that God “is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” I was incredibly fulfilled in this endeavor.
My point from all of this is that when you do not know what your next step is, do not worry. God will surely set something up if He isn’t telling you already to go somewhere else. Dare to ask Him to send you to places in the world that you desire. Psalm 24:1 says that the whole world is His. So why would He not bless you for expanding His kingdom? Seek His kingdom and the expansion of it, and watch Him bless you beyond your expectations.