Hey, I’m Laura. Today (10 days ago) I had chicken nuggets for lunch, wore some pretty SICK green pants, and my song of the day was “Rosanna” by Toto.
It is currently the end of Go Week and all I can think about right now is how much I have [Microsoft®] Excelled at distracting others from being productive all week... that is, from starting their blogs.
I digress.
I guess if you’re reading this, you might be wondering how it is that I (spoiler alert) decided to serve as a missionary in Mexico City. That, or you’re itching to know how life is going down there… In that case, I’m still in The States, so check back in in 2 months! For those of you who have not yet heard the story of my calling to serve the people of Mexico, keep reading to find out!
In February of 2017, I basically woke up one day thinking about missions… like, nothing specific to missions, just the overarching idea. Random, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. Having already spent 2½ years working towards my Bachelor of Science degree in Theoretical Mathematics, I was absolutely positive that *insert drama* this teeny-tiny thought of “MISSIONS” that had been planted in my brain by Who Knows What would surely not grow into something that could ever have anything to do with my future… EVER. Of course, when we’re in denial of the inevitable, melodrama comes along for the ride; in other words: I was far off.
Sure enough, God plagued me (that’s a good thing) with this little and relatively idealistic [but soon to be very real] thought for months before I decided to actually pray about it, let alone entertain the idea in the first place. Fast forward a few months, and your girl is looking to her trusty friend Google to help her find some midterm missions opportunities—particularly for post-college twenty-somethings looking to utilize their hard-earned degrees to serve people and share the Gospel globally. That’s where GoCorps comes into the picture: ‘GoCorps is an on-ramp for Christian twenty-somethings to use their degree globally for two years’… how fitting. My mission coach (shout-out to Daniel Kenyon) helped me find a track that best fit my interests and [let’s call them] “credentials”. Of all of the opportunities to teach in multiple different regions of the world, in walks United World Mission with an opportunity for me to teach specifically math, among other subjects (of course!), to children and teens in Mexico City. Previously, I had been sure that being a missionary had nothing to do with my math degree, but, man, does God have a way of making things work out or what?!
Of course, I’d be lying if I told you that I felt entirely prepared and qualified to (1) serve as a missionary and (2) be a teacher. While I waited to hear back from UWM, I convinced myself that I would never in a million years be a viable applicant for this position, not without having gone to seminary or obtaining teaching certification. During this time of doubt, my college church was in the middle of a sermon series on the life of Abraham. (Bear with me… this is an integral part of the story). In Genesis 12:1, God calls Abraham to “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you”. Three verses later… “So Abram went”. There were no questions about it; he obeyed, point-blank. It was while studying this passage that I had this realization: If Abraham could leave his homeland and the “simple” (that’s relative) life he led for 75 years prior, what excuse do I have not to? God qualifies the called, not vice versa (1 Corinth. 1:27-29), so any feelings I had of underqualification were trivial. The Lord was asking me to trust in the plans that He has for me. If He truly called me to pursue an opportunity that I was seemingly not fit to serve within, then He would provide.
Anyway, you can probably infer how the rest of the story goes since I already told you I’m going to Mexico. While I would LOVE to blab your ear off about how amazing and difficult and inspiring and beautiful this experience has been so far, I should probably get going, but I’ll keep you posted as often as I can!
Signing off for now—stay tuned, Mis Chilitos`.
`My Little Chilis