“What do you do? What is your degree? What is your job?”. These questions young adults face all have an underlying probe- “What is your purpose?”. It can eat at your brain as you weigh possibilities, your body as you lose sleep at night, and your spirit as you keep knocking on God’s door for answers. Consequently, either having an idea of your purpose or attempting to find one, you construct a game plan. Sound familiar? “Here is my map to purpose: I’ll get this degree, maybe spend a couple years getting experience so that I can have that on a resume, polish my credentials in any and every way possible so I can finally do what God made me to do. Then I will do this one thing for the rest of my life”. That’s what I did. Then, I got frustrated as God kept tearing up the map I kept trying to draw for myself. He started to teach me that my understanding of purpose was too small and looked too much like me.
Fast forward to present day, and I am about to embark on two years of learning in East Asia caring for at-risk children, a population very near and dear to my heart. I often ask myself, "how did I get here"? I became a believer at the ripe age of 19 and spent the past 6 years changing my mind about how I would fit into God’s purpose. I started out with a music degree and had the doors of my faith blown open when I spent my first summer abroad with an unreached people group: there were whole populations who had little to no access to the gospel!? But they were made in his image! God’s desire was for them to know him as well! But how did Jenna fit into that? I assumed that I needed to be a “missionary”, whatever that looked like, to take the gospel to the nations. However, God surprised me by teaching me that, in fact, every single one of us has that purpose. In other terms, we all have a role in bringing glory and worship to our Creator by reaching the least and the lost. I went on to experience another internship in the Middle East where I was faced with the very harsh realities of the world. I realized that there is great need, both physically and spiritually, in the world, and that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. It has since become the deepest desire of my heart to continue my learning journey in cross-cultural ministry to effectively serve God’s unreached children. I now have my degree in intercultural studies and have felt my heart being pulled in a million different directions, and God has continued to hone my passions, gifts, and experiences. I knew I cared a lot about at-risk children, I loved music, I had a research brain, I loved reading, I wanted to learn about anything and everything.
Then GoCorps visited my school and I felt my heart strings being tugged: No matter who you are or what the Lord has gifted you in, the Lord can and will use you for his global kingdom! Do we all have the same map then!? The needs in the world are diverse, and so are God’s children. I finally started to grasp the beauty of that. None of us have a map, really, but we are all given a compass to guide us in our endeavors to bring God glory: the Holy Spirit. As we seek to align with our Father's heart, all we have to do is say, “Yes. Here I am. Send me”. Put your "yes" on the table, and God will put it on HIS map, and He will use every part of who you are. Even if you can’t see it yet. I am excited to see how God continues to use every part of my story to uniquely show himself through me, and I can’t wait to bring you on that journey!
For the joy of all people and God's eternal glory,
Jenna