| How did you become a missionary and whats it like? These are questions that many people ask. How do an appliance repairman and housewife leave their family, friends, church, work, home, possessions and go? The same way any believer serves the Lord. You obey! Maybe the Lord isnt calling you to be a foreign missionary but to serve Him where you are, and be assured He is. He saves us for a purpose and that is to bring others to Him in a saving relationship. He calls to us all, Come, follow me and we, in faith, follow where ever He leads us whether that be in your home, community, church or as in our case, to foreign lands. We were new Christians, serving and growing in our faith, at our home church of Elim Free Lutheran in Lake Stevens, Washing when Darwin first heard the call. Thats because he was listening. It took me, Mary Ann, a little longer to open my ears and heart to the call. We were both serving the Lord in separate ministries and in some ministries we worked side by side, together as a couple, some as a family. When I first thought the Jesus might want us to be missionaries I closed up tight and wouldnt entertain the thought. Thats when the Lord started working on me in other ways. Over time my life got really stressful to the point that I couldnt take it any more and I surrendered to the Lord, telling Him, Okay, I give up! I will obey. I cant do this without you. I am going to need help in taking the first step and each step along the way, but I am willing. That was it. So easy, just say yes. Too bad it took me a couple of years to get to that point, but I had argued that the ministries we were involved in were important and we should continue in them and not make any drastic changes like what becoming missionaries meant. Our house went up for sale and 24 hours later the sold sign followed. We began the process of finding a missionary sending agency. We found one and they wanted us to study for two years. Darwin quit his job. We sold everything we owned in one huge yard sale over the weekend. Years of stuff we had collected, gone. We moved to a tiny apartment and studied missions for one year in Washington. We moved again. This time to Minneapolis to live with our sending agency, The World Mission Prayer League. We attended the Association of Free Lutheran Bible School and Seminary for another year. Then we were off. Off on adventure to a small, remote village somewhere in the Sierra Madre mountains in Southern Mexico. And thus began our missionary service in 1997. Was it easy? Has it been easy? No, absolutely not. But..if we never step out in faith to do what the Lord asks of us, we will never grow spiritually. We will remain as we are or even grow stagnate. How boring does that sound? And we never would have received so many blessings. God has opened the heavens and poured out His blessings in so many ways. New friends, new family in Christ, new daughter that we adopted, new experiences, and new converts: bringing the gospel to people who have never heard it, and best and most important of all, we have found our God to be faithful! He never has and never will fail us. He cant! It isnt His nature to do so. So, whats it like to be a missionary? Awesome. |
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