How does one get involved in missions once they feel the call?
Sometimes people feel the call, and they know intimately in their hearts that God is leading them to missions. The trouble is, sometimes, they’ll get that calling crushed and never see it happen. It usually comes from fear. That’s where you really need to build up your faith in the Lord. If God is calling you to do it, you need to take action. Just like a high school student with the calling to be a doctor. When graduating, they take a decisive step to go to medical school. They take active and practical steps to accomplish their calling. The same goes with missions. You need to prepare for the steps going forward. Set goals on fundraising efforts and departure dates. It’ll give you a lot of direction in life, and it’ll give you boldness in accomplishing your goal. If you believe that you’re called to do this, go for it with your whole heart, and accomplish it with everything you have. “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Just wondering how to get started in the mission field and what role women play?
One of the most interesting things we’ve seen is that most missionaries are women. Women have a faithful heart to go out and touch so many places in the world. They’re able to endure short-term/long-term missions just as easily as men and have a real boldness to go out and accomplish great things. Even though it’s often easier to travel as a man in certain war zones and remote areas we usually encounter a lot more women working in these places. Whether you’re a man or a woman, if you go out there with a faithful heart you will absolutely change nations for the Lord. It’s basically just taking that heart calling and acting on it.
Are you scared of the places you go?
That’s a great question! One of the things that we’ve learned is that when you’re called to something, you transcend the fears and act in faith. With faith you never worry about the outcome because you are convinced it will be good, even if you might face death. To expand on that last statement, we don't want people to think we are gung-ho crazy and not living in reality. We are wise as serpents and gentle as doves. When we go into a situation, we go in knowing that death might be an option, but we trust in God to protect us and go forward with the strength and power of the Holy Spirit. As you go forth on this reliance, you start to experience God’s graces in taking the fear away. Many times He has taken our fears away in situations like the war-zones we’ve visited in Somalia and Afghanistan and the drug missions we undertook in Columbia and Peru. God has given us a boldness to step forward in order to go even further and deeper into harder areas. By stepping out and asking God to use you, you start to refine your faith. And you’ll notice that with most of the questions that we’ve answered, it all comes down to faith. That’s really the root of it. It’s believing in who and what you are in Christ Jesus and the calling he has given you.
