As I have drawn closer to Christ, I have felt a growing desire to do international mission work, but nothing has ever panned out until recently. Over Christmas break, I was at home watching a program from the 2015 GYC conference. During one of the preliminaries, Dr. Duane McKey, assistant to the General Conference President, introduced a mission trip to Rwanda, sponsored by the General Conference. The mission trip is part of the General Conference's "Total Member Involvement" initiative for this quinquennium (2015-2020). Suddenly, it clicked. It was as if God was telling me, this is the opportunity that you have been waiting for! It was not that God did not want me to go on missions previously, it just wasn't part of His plan. I felt immediately at peace with the prospect of going on this mission, which was a sign that God wanted me to step out in faith and He would orchestrate the rest. But as they say, old habits die hard.
After making the mental commitment to move forward with this mission, my first thought was, how am I going to afford it? It's not exactly cheap to fly to Africa and back! One evening, while I was showering, God put the thought in my mind: use your tax refund check to buy the ticket. Boom! That was easy...Thank you, God.
With the airfare out of the way, my second thought was, how am I going to get over two weeks off from work? That week, during one of my team meetings, with some trepidation, I brought it up to manager, not knowing how she would react. Well, not only did she grant my request, but when I told her what it was about, she was even excited for me!
Friends, God works in mysterious ways. His ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). While I was leaning on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6), God had already opened a door; He was just waiting for me to walk through it! Hallelujah! Forgive me, Lord, for my unbelief.
