To future Goers:
The life that you've chosen is hard. There's nothing fancy about traveling across the world and living with the poor and broken for two years. It's not vacation, it's not a Europe tour, and it's definitely not something to take lightly. You will cry, question your purpose, second-guess your decision, and want to give up. And then you'll board a plane and do it all over again, but in a new city with a foreign language and people you don't know. You'll get hurt, you'll be broken, and you'll be knocked down and propped back up so many times you won't bother to count.
And you'll be better for it.
The front line isn't pretty in war. Wherever you've chosen to go, whether it's Africa, South Asia, or the Pacific, you chose to go where the fighting is the thickest. The apostle Paul aptly says that we don't fight flesh and blood, but the powers and authorities of this world. And out in the front lines, in the frontier, our enemies are desperate to hold on to what they've claimed. This thing you've chosen, this journey, will not go uncontested.
Be sure of your choice to go. Make peace with yourself and with God. And stand in that peace, cling to it like an anchor, because everything else around you can change. One Goer was disowned by their family, another found out they had cancer. One Goer I work with has had their funding cut almost in half without any notice. I knew a family who had worked in my country for 10 years, and left last year after losing their faith. Cling to God, and cling to that peace.
The apostle Paul also said, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up." My friends, do not give up. If you are anxious or tired or simply can't go on, don't give up. There will be a harvest.
I graduated from college in May of 2017. I then went through GoCorps training, fundraised, and left the States in less than six months. That summer of '17, I was a broken and beaten-down young man. I struggled with bulimia and depression, I was completely broke, I had no hope of my life ever being worthwhile, and I had all but rejected God. I had no friends and no idea how to find work; all I had was two words from God: the name of a country I couldn't pronounce, and the word GO. That was two years ago.
People change on the front lines. I found hope, found purpose, found meaning in life. I found a wife and found friends who, for once in my life, took the time to listen and care about me. I found strength to face the world we've been given, and subdue it like He commanded us from the very beginning. Before, I felt like my life happened to me; now I can feel the power and authority of the Holy Ghost coursing through me. I was reborn.
Cling to Him. Cling to your Creator and Savior. Remember Paul's words; write them on your wrists and forehead if you have to. We will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. You will reap a harvest, if you do not give up. You surrender to one thing and one thing only: the glory and power of the Lord Almighty. You will be broken and remade and broken and remade again. But trust the Potter. He will forge you into a masterpiece, a warrior, and a saint.
Cling to Him.