How did you end up here?
That’s a question I get asked a lot, in various forms and various contexts. To local people, my simple answer is that I want to learn about your language and culture. To my other expat/worker friends, I share more of my story and God’s leading.
It still doesn’t entirely explain it. Even when I examine my whole life, everything God has spoken to me and done in me, there’s still unknowns about why God brought me here.
A year and a half ago, when I first started this journey, I was deeply in love with another culture. I was studying abroad in Chile—improving my Spanish, making friends with Chilean classmates, learning their traditions, experiencing their unique way of worshiping God.
When I think about it even now, a love and longing fills my heart for those people. And yet, they are not the ones that I’ve been called to serve.
I’ve been asked to lay down my passion for Chilean culture, to give up my dream of living with them again. I’m taking up a new passion and new culture. My dream is now for this country, that they would know the Lord.
I can’t explain why I had to make this switch. I’ve wrestled with the Lord about it a lot, complaining that I already learned a language—Spanish—so why should I start over? I told Him that my personality fits better with Chilean culture. I argued that I already had roots there— relationships with Chileans, and connections with the local church.
He brought me to Job and asked me this question: Do you really think your wisdom compares? What can human wisdom say to the God of the universe? Can creation really tell its Creator what it thinks is best?
Humbled, I repent. Like Job, I say “Forgive me. I take back everything I said…I was talking about things I knew nothing about… I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.” (Job 42:3-6)
When I look around at the situation I’ve found myself in, I have questions for God. But when I look at Him, it’s enough.
I look at who God is in His Word. He is the God who fulfilled all His promises to Abraham and Sarah when He led them to a new land. He is the God who changed Saul’s heart of hate into His most obedient disciple. He poured out his Holy Spirit on the Gentiles who everyone thought were excluded from His covenant chosen people.
He is a God who cares about all His children and always gives the best to them.
This is also true when I look at God’s work in my life. He gave me the gift of that time in Chile. He changed my heart from simple interest and curiosity to a true love and appreciation for their culture. He used me to draw the people I met into deeper fellowship with Him. None of this was my own doing; it was only possible through Him.
In the same way, the fact of my being here is a miracle. If God wasn’t at work, it wouldn’t have happened. On my own, my heart gravitates towards another culture. However, God has provided the opportunity and all the resources. He has cultivated a love for the locals in my heart, and in His wisdom He knows how I am uniquely suited to usher in His Kingdom here.
I trust my God in all these things. Even when I don’t understand the story He’s writing, I know I trust Him to write it.