How did I get here?

I listened to last weeks message from John Piper this morning.  Apparently, for the last few weeks, Bethlehem Baptist Church has been focusing on missions.  Today, Pastor John presented a beautiful picture of the round about way that God opened the door of salvation for every tribe, tongue, language and people and challenged those who have felt that leading of the Spirit to go cross culturally to call the lost in to that open door.  It was a great reminder to me, a missionary, of something that can grow cold in my heart from time to time.  Yes, I live in Bolivia, a country and a culture vastly different from my own.  I plan on staying here, Lord-willing, until my children are grown and have left home.  But, this has become my normal.  Sometimes I forget the calling that God has put on my life, as He has on all of ours if we are His children, to bring good news to all people.  I get caught up in my day to day life, the mundane, and lose sight of the awesome privilege I have.  So, I thought, for my own encouragement and if it would be of use to anyone else, I would remember God's first call and how I came to be in this lovely country.

When I was a teenager, my church had a small room somewhere off the main path called the prayer room.  On the door was a time sheet where you could sign your name for increments of a half hour, all throughout the day and night, to pray for the needs of the church.  The room had a plush chair in one corner, with a lamp next to it, a few devotional books, and a desk where a rolodex of prayer requests from members of the church were hand-written.  There was a cork board next to the desk that had letters from the church's missionaries pinned on and those could also be read through and prayed for.  I usually spent an hour in the prayer room each week and was amazed at how quickly that time went by.  I prayed for people I knew and many I didn't.  I rarely read the missionary letters.  One day, when I was struggling to focus in that extremely quiet place with a soft ticking of the clock in the background, my gaze drifted to the cork board.  I saw an index card with this verse written on it, "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9).  All at once, I found myself weeping as I heard, inaudibly but very clearly speaking to my heart, the voice of the Lord compelling me to be one who would take this amazing gift that we can not even conceive of to bless the nations.  And that neither I, nor they, could imagine what He had in store for us, whom He loves.  I knew in an instant that my God was calling me to a lifetime of cross-cultural ministry.  I can't remember if this is something I shared immediately with my family or roommate, but I knew at 17 where my life was headed (in a very vague way at that moment in time).  I felt no compulsion to go immediately, but to follow the "normal" path of gaining first a college education and I entered into a major that interested me, but that I assumed would never be put into practice.  I hope to think those 4 years in school and working matured and prepared me enough to take the big step of leaving my country.  After I graduated, I began the overwhelming process of trying to figure out how and with whom to go.  Food for the Hungry very quickly caught my attention in my web engine search and after spending a few months communicating with them, I flew out to Phoenix to meet the staff and become even more convinced that they were the mission I would set out with.  Shortly after, I had an assignment in Cochabamba, Bolivia working with international youth in a youth group setting.  6 months after arriving in Bolivia, I met Scotty and the rest is history.  This is all very simplified, but the main point is that God moved in amazing ways to bring this shy, home-loving, not adventurous girl to another continent on the other side of the equator for His good purposes.  And, I have seen so many of those loving purposes at work in my life, maybe far more than I've seen how He's used me in the lives of others.  But, I continue to hang on to His call when things get tough, as they have especially in this last year, and thank Him for choosing me.