Hey Ya'll!
For my first blog entry ever, I’d like to share with you a little about myself and my journey to GoCorps and the mission field. I grew up in a large family in a small community in western North Carolina. Although I only have 3 brothers that live in my parent’s home, I grew up with all my cousins very close by and that made it feel like I had many, many siblings. My mother is one of 10 children and my father is one of 3 and everyone lived in the same town while I was growing up. I am very close to my family and the impact they all had on my life was substantial.
I grew up in a Christian home by Christian parents who had been raised in Christian homes. My mother’s family often sings in many churched during revivals, homecomings and funerals. They all showed me what it meant to “serve the Lord with gladness and enter into His presence with singing”. For most of my life, I felt the Lord’s presence most strongly during song. It’s no wonder that during a song I felt the call to be a missionary.
I was about 12 at the time and in Southern Baptist churches it is common to do an alter call at the end of the service when the opportunity presents itself for anyone in the church to come to the alter at the front and get things straightened out with God. They usually played a few verses of a song then prayed to dismiss the congregation. I was looking out the window at the time and listening to the last strains of “Just as I am” when I heard a voice not with my ears but with my heart say, “One day you will go past those mountains to tell others about me.” I didn’t have to ask who it was speaking to me, I just replied, “Ok Lord, but You’re gonna have to pay for it because I don’t have any money.” I’m sure God just smiled.
Long story short, I got the opportunity to go on many very short term missions without having to pay a dime out of my own pocket, the Lord provided every time. As I entered college, I knew I wanted to be a nurse so that I could be more useful on the mission field and I also felt nursing was another one of my callings. As I approached my senior year, I felt I had no direction. Yes, I would graduate with my nursing degree but then what? Do I stay and work or do I leave right away? I again surrendered my life and my future to God and asked Him to lead.
A couple of weeks later, He spoke. A group called the Travelling Team visited my campus and my campus chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU). They talked about the unreached peoples, which I had heard of, and the mission outreach to them, which I had not. They said that less than 1% of missionaries go to these people who had never heard the good news! My heart broke and I started praying and doing research. Part of the Travelling Team’s message included a manila envelope with different ways to serve during and after college. The option that jumped out to me was GoCorps and they had a medical track! But after reading some of the placements for medical, I wasn’t sure where God was leading. I kept checking back until one was laid on my heart, a clinic in a rural village in Africa needed nurses to help with antenatal (pregnant women) care, HIV care, and general care and they were willing to accept a brand new nurse like me! The words leaped out of the computer and into my heart. I began to pray earnestly about how God was leading. I wanted to be completely sure of God leading and not just me wanting to do something different and exciting. I prayed for 4-6 weeks before submitting an application. I felt God leading; I felt Him asking me to do something hard; I felt Him encouraging me that I would not be left alone. He was guiding me, all I had to do was follow.
You see how obviously God was leading otherwise I would not be working on this blog. He showed Himself so many times to me during my journey of support raising and just preparing my heart and mind for the mission field. I knew this was not going to be easy, I loved home and family very much but Jesus had called me. He even said, “if anyone loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me… and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10: 37,38) I didn’t want Jesus to call me unworthy. I wanted to serve Him. He paid for my sins, surely I can devote 2 years to His service where I may not always be comfortable and accepted. He devoted His life for me, yet how little He asks in return but to love Him and keep His commands.
In Him always,
Bekah