Missions

Ever since I was saved at 13, I've known God wanted me to do something missions-related. Short-term? Long-term? I never knew. I never felt a clear calling like, "Go to such-and-such tribe in Africa." For example, my mom has a heart for the people of Rwanda. I've never felt that for any particular country or people group. That made things confusing for me. When Aaron and I were dating and engaged, we talked about it from time to time. He knew God wanted him to do something missions-related as well, but like me, he didn't have a clear calling. At one point in 2006, he was scheduled to go to Ecuador for an aviation missions trip. One person promised to provided all of the funding, and then backed out after it was too late for him to raise support. He was unable to go. As we got closer to the time we were to get married, I started idealizing my own life and pushing this calling away. I knew God wanted me to be open to foreign missions, but I wanted to be married, have a successful career, eventually have kids, own a nice big house and nice cars, travel for leisure, etc. When I was 8, my dad said God "called" him to become a pastor. Over the years, this meant moving almost every single year, sending my brother and me to 7 different schools + homeschool, never having a "home", and never having any stability in my life. I absolutely hated it. I told myself that I would never do that to my kids. I hated that my parents did it to me, and I would never do it to anyone else. Since I wanted to have kids, I decided "no" to missions.

About a year ago, I really felt God telling me to be open to missions again. Frankly, it scared me. The only image I'd ever had of missions was basically someone living in a hut and preaching. When we started going to Blue Ridge, we'd see missions videos in church from time to time. The one that grabbed at my heart the most was House of Hope in Nicaragua. We don't just send people down there to preach about how sinful these women are-- we send people to give them school supplies, clothes, and teach them trades so they don't have to resort to prostitution. Blue Ridge also supports Gospel for Asia, which also gives donkeys, chickens, and water-buffaloes to support people. They don't just go and preach-- which can be more offensive than productive. They help people. It's really opened my eyes to missions again. We're both really open to missions now. We've felt this way for about a year, but more so in the last few months.

Today, Aaron filled out the preliminary questionnaire for Mission Aviation Fellowship. We first heard about MAF in 2006 during missions emphasis week at LU. At the time, Aaron looked at their pilot missions program, but he was vastly under-qualified. Today, God laid it on our hearts to check them out again. We looked on their website and learned they use all kinds of professionals-- not just pilots. The woman who recruits for their business department is out of town, but she wants to talk to us when she comes back. Please pray for us. Remarkably... I have peace in my heart about it. It's not just a job, something to pay the bills. It's meaningful and exciting. This may not even be the way God wants us to go. We don't know yet. But I have so much more peace and joy since surrendering this to God. I know He'll take care of us as long as we are following His will for our lives. I'm really excited about the possibility. I've been really wanting to go on a missions trip for so long, but God hasn't really orchestrated it yet. I just feel so much peace with this mindset.