I leave for the field in 5 days. There are a lot of emotions going on right now and one of those is nervousness. I'm not really nervous about moving to a new country, or living in the Middle East, or learning a new language. I'm nervous about how I will contribute to a team when I have virtually no experience.
I'm not a scholar of theology. I don't know Arabic or Persian. I don't know much about Islam. I have no experience working with refugees. I haven't traveled all over the world on short-term mission trips and study-abroads. I've never been to my host country before. I studied neuroscience in college- not really applicable to the field. And I don't have some beautiful, meaningful reason for choosing the country to which I'm headed.
But I do know, without a doubt, that this is where God wants me to be.
God doesn't require a ton of experience and expertise in order to use me. In fact, God is always using people who aren't exactly qualified for the job. David, the youngest son of Jesse and a simple shepherd, defeated Goliath. The disciples were fishermen. Paul persecuted Christians. The less qualified the individual, the more God can be glorified in their successes because the end results can't be attributed to just human skill and ability.
So I may be nervous, but all I need to do is have faith. Have faith that God will provide me with the skills, words, and situations to accomplish His plans in the Middle East. Even when I don't have confidence in myself, I can have full confidence in God.
God doesn't always call the equipped, but He always equips the called.
"My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9