If you’ve spent some time on my blog, you will have noticed my passion for missions.
Where did this passion come from? One of the first books I ever read as a Christian, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, certainly threw gas on the fire. But what ignited that fire was not a book, but my own experience of regeneration.
At the age of twenty-three, I experienced a very powerful conversion through a direct encounter with the Holy Spirit. My book-in-progress, Power in the Blood, details my testimony. Here, I will just say that one of my first thoughts after becoming a Christian was, “I wish somebody had told me this. I wish I’d known sooner. If only I’d known, I could have prevented so much suffering in my life.”
I felt motivated to tell others about Jesus because I wished that someone had told me about him.
People just like me were searching for meaning and answers and hitting a dead-end. Compassion welled up in my soul. To love others as myself included evangelism–because I wished that someone had evangelized me.
Perhaps because my personality tends towards the extreme–or perhaps because I was most troubled and moved with compassion by those suffering the most–I soon began to pray, “Lord, send me to a place that desperately needs the gospel, and where no one else is willing to go.”
As I prayed, the Holy Spirit directed me to the passage in the Gospel of John where Jesus says, “You know not what you ask. Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” I knew that the Lord was telling me to deeply consider what I was asking. I considered all the worst possibilities: What if a sadistic torturer skinned me alive? Or held me hostage and raped me repeatedly for months? What if an ISIS fight cut off each of my fingers and toes individually? What if I were burned, electrocuted, or disfigured with acid?
I said, “Yes, I can drink the cup that you drink, and be baptized with your baptism.”
The Holy Spirit then led me to continue reading the words of Christ. “Indeed you can, and you will.” He then showed me, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”
I would be completely consumed with a love for God. This would drive my work as a missionary.
At this point, I stopped in my tracks. How could I ever do what I’d just prayed? Without even getting up from the floor, I began to pray that God would prepare me.
Several years later, I am now doing everything I can to position myself for this calling. My goal is to pay off my remaining student debt this year. I plan to use this year to build up references to have a solid application for seminary–and get full funding.
One part of this preparation is to actually go on a missions trip.
This September, I will go with a beautiful organization, Missionary at Heart, to Uganda on a two-week mission trip.
My dear friend, Joanie, started the organization ten years ago. Every other year, she goes to Uganda. Her stories of how God has answered her prayers on the mission field sound like something out of Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret–or like the New Testament.
Our trip will include:
- Helping at a girl’s school and orphanage
- Local outreach, including distribution of soap and other necessities
- Wellness Revelation Fitness Classes
- Preaching (They asked me to preach!)
- Working with Ashley Easter to run a She Learns program
The total cost of the program will run about $3,500. Head over to my GoFundMe page, and you can help send me to Uganda! Remember me in your prayers, and please share!
Photo Credit: The picture at the top of this post comes from Missionary at Heart. Joanie, the founder, is in the center, surrounded by Ugandan children.
