The Call To GO

"What do you mean you're not going?"

For weeks, my family and friends had heard my non-stop talk about being a missionary, and now I was telling them I wasn't going. Even I wasn't sure why, but something wasn't right. I got a weird feeling about this commitment I'd be making. Two years seemed like a long time, and I began to have doubts.

It all started with a mission trip to Africa when I was in college. The missionaries I met there told me about their work, and their stories stuck with me. I knew this was something I wanted to do. I finished college and went to work for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, but six months into the job, the Lord stirred my heart to start praying for the nations.

I heard about the International Mission Board's journeyman program, in which recent college graduates work with career missionaries for two years to learn the "tools of the trade." This was for me! I applied, and the next thing I knew I was in Richmond, Virginia, at the IMB's interview conference listening to more missionaries with more stories - each with different affinity groups. I learned from them what kinds of jobs were available in the different countries, and I signed up to go to the Philippines.

That's when the weird feeling started. Was I scared? Yeah, maybe. Not ready? Definitely. I decided to turn down the job in the Philippines.

But the desire to go never went away. For six long months, God worked in my heart, humbling me and preparing me. He had called me, and in His patience and lovingkindness, He brought me to a place of total surrender. No more doubts. No more fears.

Yes, Lord, I will go. Wherever You send me, I will go.

After letting go of my doubts and fears, it appeared that God was sending me to Eastern Africa. However, I ultimately landed in another country in the Horn of Africa, serving a different people group through an orphanage and a feeding program in the city. It hasn't taken me long to learn that when it comes to responding to God, you have to be flexible!

I arrived on the field in early October, and share a home with my missions partner, Caro, and two other single women who are nurses. Caro and I spend four hours each morning in language school where we are learning to communicate. The first few weeks of school have been hard because we're only supposed to listen and not speak. Our language helper is very patient with me, and just keeps saying the word when I don't point to the right thing. Needless to say, she has to point a lot!

But you know, listening is good. I'm on an amazing adventure that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't responded to God's call, and then continued to listen and hear His plans over my own. My world looks different now — from the way people dress here to my purpose for starting each day. I look forward to being flexible and usable in God's hands. I can't encourage you enough to listen to God's voice and respond as Isaiah did, "Here I Am, Lord, send me!"

by BethAnne Clark
written by Nancy Flowers

Want to know more about Global Missions at Pinelake? Check out the 2012 Missions Projects here or log in to myPinelake.org here for more details.