It’s been well over a month since I got on the airplane in
Washington D.C. and took the voyage to Tanzania. I have to say that I didn’t
really know what to expect when I got here and I wasn’t quite sure what I was
going to be doing. I mean don’t get me wrong; I knew I was going to be doing
work that involved journalism and writing, but I didn’t have that clear sense
of what I was going to be doing like I had on every other mission trip I went
on. What I did know and still do is that God was calling me here. It was just
one of those things that I knew God was calling me to do. Some of you reading
this blog may know that I’ve always had a love for missions. I’ve been on so
many mission trips and they have all impacted me in some way. Last summer I
went on a two and a half week mission trip to Haiti where I stayed with a Haitian
host family and taught English in the schools. Haiti left a huge impact on me
and because of the trip; I began to start thinking seriously about being a missionary
after college. What does being a long-term missionary actually mean though?
This past year while I was at Urbana Student Missions
Conference, I had the opportunity to commit to missions after college. I had
this feeling that I was supposed to be a missionary, but I had no idea how my
talents and skills could fit in with missions. Despite the questions that I
had, I really felt like God was calling me to missions, and it’s something that
I prayed about constantly while I was at Urbana. While I didn’t know how my skills could tie in with missions, God did.
While
I was walking through the Exhibition Hall at Urbana, I was a bit overwhelmed. Being
in a room full of a bunch of different mission organizations was cool, but
there were just so many of them and I had no idea where to start. I honestly
didn’t think I was going to find any answers to my questions in there because
there was just too much going on. However, when I was about to leave, something
caught my attention. I saw a booth with a big banner that said “Africa and
Media.” So I started talking to the people at the booth, and it turns out that
it was Pamoja Ministries! I had a pretty cool conversation with this guy named
Jacob Mills (one of the missionaries and the Director of Ministries at Pamoja) and
he told my about the ministry and how they are “discipling cultures through media.” He told me that Pamoja needed people with journalism skills to
volunteer, and that journalism was a huge need in the mission field. I knew
right then and there that God was calling me to serve with Pamoja over the
summer. It was an unmistakable feeling. So I decided to listen to God’s call,
and here I am, in the beautiful country of Tanzania serving with Pamoja
Ministries. I really do feel that I’m doing what God wants me to do at this
time, and I feel like there is a purpose for why I’m here.
Volunteering with Pamoja has shown me that my skills in
journalism and writing really can benefit the Kingdom. Now I know that there is
a need for these skills in the Kingdom, and I feel like God is calling me to
help with that in some way. I think that God opened the door for me to serve
with Pamoja to show me that I can benefit the Kingdom by using these skills. I’m
not saying that God is specifically calling me to serve with Pamoja long-term
after I graduate from college, nor am I saying that He isn’t, but I do think
that God is calling me to make a difference using my skills somehow. I feel
called to be a long-term missionary after college; I pretty much know that, but
I’m not exactly sure what that means for me. It doesn’t necessarily mean that
God is calling me to serve overseas in a place like Tanzania or Haiti either.
Although there is much need in these places, God obviously doesn’t call
everyone there. All I know right now is that God wants me to use what He gave
me to benefit his Kingdom, whether that is in Roanoke, Virginia, or Arusha,
Tanzania. It’s something that I need to pray about and look to God for the
answer.
Right now, I feel like I’d rather serve somewhere overseas after I graduate than
serve in America, but I want my priority to be what God wants for me. What I’m
trying to say is, it really doesn’t matter what I want to do, it’s about what
God wants me to do. It’s definitely something that I need to pray and ask God about. I know
that God is calling me to be a missionary, but then again, He is calling us all
to be missionaries in some way. Remember the Great Commission? Jesus said, “Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you.” Those are some pretty powerful words. And they carry some heavy
meaning in them. God is calling us all to serve! I’m not special in that I feel
called to missions; we should all feel called to missions in some way because
we are! We were made for Him to benefit His Kingdom. I don’t really know what
the future holds for me, but I do know that God has it under control. I just
have to listen to Him.
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