I never planned on being a missionary. I mean until the last few years when I met a few real live ones, I didn't even think they came from real normal people. I figured God just kept some special ones on reserve like He used to with the Levites. And honestly if you told little freshman in college Kacie that she would have earned her degree to go work as a missionary in another country for free, she would have laughed at you. So how did I end up leaving college as a missionary teacher in the Philippines? Glad you asked. Here's where that story picks up (I started it in my blog post from the day before).
In the beginning of September, I was talking to one of my good camp friends on the phone. As we were discussing our futures that were soon dawning upon us as we both are approaching graduation in May, she mentioned to me that I might want to look into a mission organization called TeachBeyond. A friend of hers had recently gone to Africa through this mission agency. She explained that with my love for adventure, ministry and teaching this could be a cool opportunity. This idea intrigued me at the very least. To humor my friend I agreed to check it out.
I looked at the website but wasn't satisfied with the amount of information given to me. So I just sent a simple email inquiring for more information. When I got an overenthusiastic email back from a lady at the agency the next day, I was overwhelmed. They didn't just want to give me information, they wanted to recruit me right then and there! They even gave me a list of some schools that were looking for math teachers! This might seem really exciting to some, but for the commit-a-phob in me, I needed to back up. It felt like when you first meet someone and they're just too into you. But there was something about this agency that I really did seem to like as I learned more. And as I browsed websites of the potential schools the agency lady sent me, one in particular stood out to me. Faith Academy in the Philippines. For some reason the website just caught my eye and gave me this feeling as I looked at it. It's the only one I kept going back to. And the Philippines reminded me of Haiti, the place I had earlier decided I could live in someday. The Philippines is full of poverty, so I can help in practical ways, and is a tropical island, which is a definite plus for someone like me who can barely survive these cold Michigan winters. Yet I wasn't even sure that I wanted to be a missionary at this point.
So I prayed. I talked to those close to me to see what they thought. Although everyone had somewhat different ways of saying why, every single person that knew me well said that this sounds like exactly the sort of thing that I would want to do. I talked to my pastor. He said it sounded like and amazing opportunity, but gave me other opportunities to look into. So I started doing my research and homework. And prayed more. But as I looked into each opportunity, I noticed there was just not the same feeling when I looked at these agencies and volunteer opportunities. (Looking back I know that feeling was the Holy Spirit.) And realistically I still had my original plan that I could turn to: graduate and get a real job at a school here in the States. But as the weeks passed, I couldn't seem to imagine myself doing anything but working at this little school in the Philippines and teaching with this agency. The normal life I once dreamed of now started to seem like taking the easy way out.
It took a lot of courage to finally fill out my application, but that story is so long and so insane I figured it deserved a post of its own. (Stay tuned in the next few days for that epic adventure.) So let's skip ahead. I interviewed with the TeachBeyond, got accepted, and got my first email of a school expressing interest in an interview a few short days later. Faith Academy in the Philippines. This new email meant things were getting more real every moment. When I first got it, I freaked out. Although I knew how much I had liked this school, I knew that even more I wanted to be where God wanted me.
So I prayed if that's where God wanted me, He would give me peace about it. About 10 minutes after I prayed that, I got a message back from one of the girls on my prayer team saying that she was so excited that I had heard back from Faith. In fact, she said she had been to the Philippines a few years ago on a missions trip and they set up a medical clinic in that exact school and she raved on about how fantastic it was. Talk about confirmation. But God said, "No, child just wait. I have more." That week on Wednesday I was running a worship night that Standing in the Gap put on. I was advised after doing my part and kicking things off to just stand in the back and make sure everything was running smoothly. Yet 20 minutes in, I saw two girls relatively new to our group kind of just looking around. I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to go talk to them. So I did. Eventually I saw the one girl's Bible which was thick papers and made some lame joke about how there was so much paper in there that she must be adding her own books to the Bible. She laughed, "No, these are just letters from the child I sponsor....in the Philippines." Oh, in the Philippines, interesting. In fact although none of these people knew my prospective plans, the Philippines came up in probably 5 different conversations in the week. And I don't know about you, but foreign countries rarely come up in my everyday conversations, let alone the same one over and over. By the end of the week, I knew that this was all God confirming in my ear that this was exactly where He wanted to be.
So I applied. I interviewed. I got the job. And now I'm on to the next part of the journey, the part that goes so beyond me: support-raising. This is the part that will stretch my faith, increase my need to rely on the body of believers (something Christ intends for all of us), and will really just be a journey of its own. I'd love for you all to join me on this journey so we can work together to expand God's kingdom around the world, learn to trust in God's provision, and learn to give ourselves fully and sacrificially to God's work. I want to learn with you, grow with you, bless you and allow you to bless me. I'll keep updates going through this blog and through monthly newsletters, and would love to contact each of you personally about how you can partner with me in this God-given journey. But mostly, I can't wait to see what the Lord does through us.
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
No comments:
Post a Comment