CALLED? WHO, ME?
As a young child who grew up in a family of Ministers and church workers, most people seem to assume that I will follow my mom's footsteps and be a Deaconess one day. I never liked being teased as a child especially being teased to a "ministry calling" which I really didn't quite understand at that time. For some reason, I grew up trying not be what they were expecting me to be and did my own thing. Now I am older, it has crossed my mind a few times, did I ever miss a "calling" when I was younger or to a worse account did I just ignore or totally denied God's calling in my life? Have you done the same or even thought of it?
HOW WOULD I KNOW MY CALLING?
Just a couple of months ago, I hosted a Book Club with a few of my Bible Study friends. We read and worked through this book by Paula Faris titled "CALLED OUT: Why I Traded Two Dream Jobs for a Life of True Calling". She explored how her life took a total turn to answer her life calling. What I really loved learning from her was what "Calling" really is and the clear difference between "Faith Calling" and "Vocational Calling" to how she found her own calling.
Simply putting it, she started with Matthew 22:37-39 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ as basis for her faith calling. "Faith calling" is simply 'who we are' and as Jesus followers we are called to love God and love others (as ourselves). On the other hand, "vocational calling" is what we do. Everything we do (vocational calling) becomes our vehicle in sharing God's love with others (faith calling) that is rooted in Christ.
Just before CoViD-19 started, I met this missionary at one of our church activities. She was one of our church's Mission Partners. She joined us that morning to share her life as a single woman serving in the mission field in a far country, away from her parents and family for months on and at times life in constant danger. And so for this reason we will not be using her real name nor have a picture of her or mention where she is serving currently. Just for the sake of this Missionary's story I am about to tell you, we will call her "Maggie", our "Missionary Maggie".
"CALLING" is probably an overused word in the christian circuit, but our Missionary Maggie took that calling very seriously at a very young age. Born from a family of believers, she was privileged to grow up knowing God and His Word. She came to know Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior at the age of 6 or 7 from Vacation Bible School (VBS). Much the same time, she has started talking about being an overseas missionary. Maggie said that she can't remember a specific time or instance she was called to be a missionary but it is clear that at an early age she's already had that heart beating for the missions.
How do we know if we are being "called" to serve in a mission or a ministry like Maggie? From the same book I mentioned earlier, Paula Faris interviewed David Shedd who shared about questions we need to ask ourselves in order know or realize our vocational calling. These three questions are:
What are my innate skills? (What we're good at)
What am I curious about? (What we love)
What skills and proficiencies have my mentors and friends recognized in me? (Mentor encouragements).
Now going back to Missionary Maggie, maybe she can't remember when she was called but clearly she realized her vocational calling soon enough. Using these three questions to look at Maggie's life, we can see that she really did realize her vocational calling to be a Missionary early on.
Maggie's curiosities on being a Missionary came when she was still a young child. She met this family friend 11-years senior than her who became a mentor to her. She would come visit and tell her all about her involvement in missions at colleges. She also enjoys telling Maggie about how God is at work in the mission field every time. She also taught her some new words she learned herself from the people she's met. This family friend invested a lot of time on Maggie, a main influence in cultivating a love for the missions including love for learning foreign languages. There was also her uncle who never got tired of talking about Jesus and how one should live like Jesus everyday. These two people have been a big part of Missionary Maggie's desire to walk with the Lord and pursue missions.
Mentor presence and encouragement....CHECK!
With the excitement shared by her mentor, of the beauty of speaking a foreign language, she has grown to love learning to speak in other languages quite easily. And her love for foreign language led her to choose Spanish as a major in college and English as Second Language (ESL) as her minor in Education.
Her curiosity in learning a new language (Spanish & ESL) ..... CHECK!
These curiosity in a new language, made more solid by her college education, was further supported and developed when she had a chance to join short term trips with the church youth during her preteen years. She loved communicating and developing her language skills with the local people where they were serving. At age 14, she had an opportunity to join a trip to South America. Out there they use drama performances and service to have the chance to share the gospel to the locals. These and many more years of going back to some other South American countries just further lit the flame burning inside her to serve as an overseas missionary.
Innate skills ....CHECK!
By now, it is quite clear for Maggie what she wanted to do. This desire to serve and be an overseas missionary was nurtured with God's Word by her dear uncle and her mentor all throughout her young life.
So what is a Missionary then? What do they do?
OUT INTO THE MISSION FIELD
A "Missionary is a follower of Christ who is obedient to God and seeks to make Him famous no matter where he or she lives geographically." This is how Maggie defines what being a missionary is. She also believes that whoever we are in life- a stay-at-home mom, a student in elementary, a doctor, etc. - if we are Jesus' followers then we can be a Missionary. We can be everyday missionary in the place where we are working, serving, enjoying, resting, etc. Our lives should be shining God's light to others that they may see God's glory" (Matthew 5:16).
Obedience to where God has called you is an important part of being a Jesus follower and a Missionary. Quoting Colossians 3:17, Maggie emphasized our need to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus as we are all called to love our neighbors and she sees them as basically everyone. Just what the Bible says who our neighbors are on Luke 10:25-37 (The Parable of the Good Samaritan) and who should we love (Matthew 22:37-39) all contained in The Great Commandment. It could be your next door neighbor or a neighbor from another side of the world, but what's important is that we can continue to shine God's light wherever we are and to always share the hope of the Gospel to our neighbors (literally everyone around us). In essence, everyone who call themselves a Jesus follower can be a Missionary... and is a Missionary!
"Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food." - D.T.Niles
Preparing for an upcoming assignment as a Missionary can be both an exciting and a trying time for most of them. Exciting because you will be working in a new environment, outside of your home, independently (maybe for the first time), meeting new people and exploring a new place or country. But how does one missionary get ready for all these changes? One can get ready by researching on the place where you will be going. Reading books and searching the world wide web about the history and culture of the country and place you will be going is a good start. Knowing the local people group you will be working with and how they interact with other people outside their community will be something good to note about too. Connecting with someone from the local community, if you have access to this, would be really helpful. Trying out the food and some local recipes can get your taste buds familiar to another big change. Of course, learning the language beforehand can be a great advantage. Learning how to integrate with the locals is very important. Missionaries need to respect the culture they will belong to.
Maggie personally suggest to "identify your areas of weaknesses or unresolved hurt" before you sail off. She always remind herself that home culture can be hard, then it would be doubly harder out in another place and a different culture to learn in the mix. Just like our Missionary Maggie, she pursue to learn Spanish as a second language looking to being a missionary in Brazil which is not what the Lord has planned for her. So coming to another country with a totally different language means trying to adjust doubly harder with both culture and language too.
It is important to keep pressing onto Jesus. Missionaries need to fix their eyes on him all the time, especially during the preparation time as it can be both stressful and distracting.
Maggie was primarily serving in the mission field as a teacher, she was able to use her profession. She helps homeschool the children of another missionary family. This is to free them up so they can put in more time in the community and in learning the local language too. Maggie also teaches English in a local school. This builds relationships with families in the town she lives. Apart from those, she also teaches a few ladies in the town. Quite a few of them ask private English lessons from her and in return they teach her the local language too.
Interacting with the locals and offering to serve and help them in ways she can are some of the foundation of Maggie's missionary work. Though initially she was there to teach the missionaries' kids, so that the missionaries can give more time and energy to the ministry, she is slowly becoming accustomed and acclimatized to the local culture.
HOW IS THE GOSPEL INCORPORATED IN THE MISSION?
Missionary Maggie shared a story with me on how she found herself with an answer to her long-time struggle if: "God really loved her". About a year and a half ago she visited a neighbor with a malnourished child in the country she's serving. She brought some formula for the baby as a gift. When the neighbor opened the bag, instead of thanking her she said, "Is that all you are giving me? This isn't enough. I need more." Her reaction deep inside (but never voiced it out).. "A thank you would be nicer!". Maggie thought indignantly, "How could she be so ungrateful?" Wouldn't you think the same at first?
But this exact exchange made Maggie show more love for this woman rather than entertain her thoughts. A love that can only originate from the Lord. She replaced her initial feeling with compassion for her, keeping in mind that this woman does not even know Jesus yet. She doesn't understand how it is to be loved by the Lord.
This was a dawning moment for Maggie, it gave her a better understanding of how God's love for her is transforming how she responds to such an insult and face rejection from this woman. She obviously remembered and shared this story because it made her realize a few things as a christian and as a missionary. Here's a couple: (1) It is the power of God alone that could enable her to respond in love to an insult, for it is through His strength that we can do this, not our own; (2) It reminds her of how gracious God has been to her personally. She recalls how many times she, herself has responded to Him with ungratefulness and yet He keeps pursuing and blessing our dear Maggie.
Isn't it just amazing how our faith calling is lived out in our everyday life? How Maggie's vocational calling (serving as a missionary) can be the vehicle to advance her faith calling (loving GOD and loving her neighbors).
When you are a missionary you build relationships within the community you belong, for example where Maggie is now, they value relationship highly. Maggie spends a lot of time just trying to be a good neighbor and friend to those around her. It might mean visiting a neighbor's home every week even for just a few minutes, attending a wedding or a funeral, going out to work in the fields with the locals, or it could be as simple as sitting with them on market day for a while. Sounds very simple to you? Yes, it might look like that but what our missionary's trying to get at is really trying to learn the culture and live with the locals.
Then when that authentic relationship is established, sharing the Gospel comes naturally during their time spent together. For Maggie, opportunities to share the gospel can come in many forms like: studying a Bible story as part of her language learning, or it could also be a moment just sitting with a friend who lost a baby, or it could also be so personal as to being questioned about her singleness. For Maggie, she takes every opportunity whether happy or sad, good or bad "to share and lift up the name of Jesus to those around her."
A MISSIONARY'S LIFE IS NOT WITHOUT STRUGGLES & CHALLENGES.
All of these does not come without any struggles, especially in the life of a single woman missionary. At first, Missionary Maggie was overly excited to graduate college and finally be able to do overseas field mission work. She was very convinced that God would call and send her to a Spanish-speaking country like Brazil to do His mission work. Instead, she found herself back home teaching Spanish in a local high school next town to her parent's. For a couple of years, she struggled in seeing God's plan for her life as a missionary. She was so convinced and determined that she has a calling to do missions overseas, that at some point she was thinking "what if God never wanted me to do mission overseas, would I still love and trust God?"' This was probably the hardest thing to do for Maggie...to surrender her desire to be an overseas missionary, so that God can work through her.
While in the waiting, Maggie served as a kitchen crew in a christian summer camp. One day, while she was chatting with the kitchen ladies at camp, she mentioned about her longtime dream of serving as an overseas missionary. One of the ladies looked at her and ask if she's into hot weather. God does work in mysterious ways! This lady apparently knew a missionary family overseas looking for someone to teach their kids while they do missionary work. This got her all pumped up and told her parents about it. Every single one in the family did not agree for her to go on this mission trip as it might be too dangerous for her. But Missionary Maggie has never been so sure that this is the Lord directing her to do it. Her family's opposition became her biggest stumbling block. She wrestled through this, doubting God's plan in the process making her uncomfortable and into thinking that this might not be her calling after all. Have you struggled with fear, doubt, and many other feelings while finding your calling?
Paula Faris on her latest book "Called Out" dedicated a chapter called "How To Cultivate a Desire Bigger Than Any Fear". Here she encouraged me that if we have a clear vocational calling, then all these intimidation, criticism and sometimes sabotaging can become less frightening. We can become confident to push through all these challenges. And just like our Maggie, she found confidence through the Word of God as she went back to read and study His words so that she can be reminded again and again about her faith calling (that she was called to love God first and then love others as herself). She also had a good circle of friends that shared some timely words to her as she was going through this trying times. All these support helped her push through any circumstances and so she decided to give it a try for nine months and maybe when she comes back she would be ready serve a Spanish-speaking country (her initial desires still linger).
What she didn't know was THIS nine-month MISSION was God's plan for her. As soon as got there, she immediately fell in love with the people, the community and the mission work. Knowing that this is not a Spanish-speaking country, more challenges came up as she would need to learn at least two or more new languages in order to be an effective missionary there. Through God's work, her family's opinion changed dramatically and their heart have been softened. They now support her mission work wherever she's sent forth, even in this place where she is now. They still worry about her safety, but now they can get pass through that and continue to support her decisions as they can see God's hand in all of it. Indeed "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)
Just like how CoViD-19 has affected us, Missionary Maggie had some challenges during this pandemic too. She was delayed in going back to her mission due to travel restrictions. It is with gratitude for God's travelling mercies that she has finally gone back there without any trouble. She had to follow some protocols to make sure that she's safe getting on and off the plane and mingling with her community again.
MISSIONS WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT OUR SUPPORT
The life of a missionary is never easy. Here in Maggie's story we've seen some of the challenges she's facing and that's not everything. She has not shared her day to day life with us, but knowing that she cannot divulge where she is right now because of safety reasons, already tells us that it is not an easy life for them. They sacrifice and endure a lot of hardships so that they can be witnesses of the Gospel to these people group who do not know about Jesus and His saving grace.
But just like what Missionary Maggie said earlier, we can be missionaries wherever we are living or working. We can support our missionaries in some way or another. There are those who are workers (missionary) and those that are senders (supporters). Like our church, it partners with some of these overseas missionary to help them with physical, material, financial and spiritual needs. If your church does not have any, you can connect HERE and be a Ministry Partner.
PRAYING for our missionaries everywhere is the first and foremost support they need. Maggie is requesting to pray for "New Workers" to have spiritual discernment as they seek the Lord where He might be calling them. We can pray for courage and joy as they obey God's plan for them. We can also pray for these missionaries' families as they might be struggling with the changes in their lives and their material needs as they adapt to a totally new way of life too.
We can also pray diligently for encouragement, endurance and perspective for these missionaries, that they might not be discouraged by the little result or small progress they see in their work. Let us also pray that the Lord our God will soften and continue to work in the hearts and in the lives of these people group they are sharing the Gospel with; that God would prepare their hearts and ears to listen to the Word. We can also be spiritual warriors for our missionaries as we ask the Lord to protect them against spiritual attacks, that they will be able to recognize it when it comes.
Let us pray for the physical needs of our missionaries like their language studies and opportunities to learn more; theirs and their families' good health are also accounted for as they adjust to new environment, new culture, new food and all. They also need prayer for safety in the community that they are living and a part of, for their provision for clean water and healthy food not just for them but for the community they serve too.
And finally, let us continue to pray that the Lord will raise more people who will obey and go wherever He sends them "for the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few" (Matthew 9:37-38).
Of course, all these overseas mission are only made possible through continuous financial support for these missionaries and the logistics they need in order to have a life dedicated to serving the Lord and the people at hand. If your church is a mission partner that supports overseas missionaries, please take time to look it up and find out how you can help financially. Our church's Outreach Ministry is dedicated to such Ministry Partners where missionaries can partner with and get support. We get to know them when they visit and share about their life as a missionary, just like how I met Maggie, our Missionary.
Apart from our Global Outreach Program, Maggie and some other overseas missionary can be supported financially through their sending organization called PIONEERS. It is an international organization that "makes disciples" by training people who are called to serve as missionaries all over the world (both local and international) and to plant churches too; "reach the unreachable" through innovative and creative ways to bring the Bible and share the Gospel to far flung areas in the most culturally understandable way; and "partner" with local churches like I have mentioned above. Please spend some time to check and browse PIONEERS website and learn more.
Missionary Maggie would also like to personally connect with you and share her life's mission work through her monthly NEWSLETTER. She has graciously shared with us her forwarding email hisendlessgrace77@gmail.com too. If you want to know more of her life through her Newsletter or support her calling financially or for anything else like questions, just drop her an email and I promise you, she answers. Be patient and gracious too, as she might not be able to answer right away due to limited access to good internet connection every time.
GETTING PERSONAL WITH MISSIONARY MAGGIE
For this current season she shared not just one Bible verse but her favorite book of the Bible that has been really special to her. She studied the book of EPHESIANS in depth and was totally "fascinated by how the first half of the book lays out this glorious picture of what God has done for us", and the second half is how we should live in response to the good news.
She also has a knack for very good books, I actually ordered one and place the other on my Reading List for 2021! Missionary Maggie shared her most recent read, this book entitled "The Rest of God" by Mark Buchanan. I love this one as it talks about Sabbath and rhythm aimed towards refocusing our hearts to Christ. She loved this good read as for the kind of work she does it can make you weary a lot of times, but practicing Sabbath rest has been "a gift from God". For her, Sabbath is a reminder that what she does is not her work, but HIS. A done deal book for me, will be reading this one very soon! Here below is the link, just click on the photo.
The other book that she really enjoyed is the "The Path to Loneliness" by Elisabeth Elliot. It talks a lot about loneliness in general and at being single. What really caught her eye was that this book gave her a "fresh perspective about suffering" and an assurance that we can offer all these suffering and heartaches directly to our Heavenly Father.
I have mentioned in the very beginning that our Missionary Maggie is still single, and so much to my curiosity I asked her the question of "Single Blessedness".
"Heartaches on this side of eternity will happen, but it is not meaningless in our Father's hands."
She was very accommodating (even though I am sure she's been asked in all kind of good and rude ways about this) to share her thoughts and raw feelings about this matter.
Maggie is still young and of course she still desires for a husband and praying for someone who would serve with her in overseas missions. She knows that at present she's supposed to be single and okay with that, but there are days when this issue of marriage becomes a thorn in her life and ministry to the point that it can become an idol.
Through it all, she just keeps on trusting the Lord for His perfect plan for her whether that is to be married or to be single. One thing she knows is that "this life of singleness in missions costs me a great deal, but that very thing becomes an offering that I can lay before the Lord". She will just keep on believing that God is good and that she will be blessed for He knows what is best for her. I love her faithfulness shown through and through that while she awaits, she will be "faithful and full of joy" as God has gifted her today: singleness. And if that day (being married) comes, she will do it with the same joy and faithfulness.
TO CLOSE.....
We are called in different ways and at different times of our lives. We are also called to do different things, not because we are called to serve means we will be sent off to a far, far away country and live a hard life....not really. Being called to serve takes many forms - you can be an everyday missionary within your circle by the way you live the Gospel. You can also be a missionary by supporting those people sent overseas to do mission work. You can be a "sender" while the others are the "workers". One can also be volunteering his or her time and talent to a Ministry Partner in order to help make way for missionaries bring the Good News to the unreachable population.
Remember it is not what we do (our vocational calling) but who we are (faith calling) in Christ Jesus that matters most.
We might be called for different purposes and in different ways but one still remains we are all given the same command contained in the "Great Commission" before Jesus ascended back home to the Father with His mission accomplished here on earth He leaves us these words.....
"And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20