Tessa: Greek, from the feminine “Theresa,” meaning “to reap,” “to gather,” or “harvest.”
Names have meaning. It’s the first thing you share with someone when you meet a new acquaintance; nicknames sprout from bonds of familiarity and friendship; pronouncing someone’s name correctly communicates your love for them.
So why would I introduce myself as Tessa if that’s not even my real name?
There are a few answers to that question. Firstly, I’m heading to a closed country in the region of North Africa, so I can’t share my real name and specific location for security reasons. But secondly, the name Tessa and its meaning encapsulates some beautiful things God has been teaching me lately as I’ve prepared for my move overseas in the fall.
What has led me to deciding to move across the globe in just a few months? It’s the result of a calling God planted in my heart back when I was a kid playing make-believe "missionary" in the backyard, a calling that He has grown throughout middle school, high school, and college, until now.
I’ve been interested in overseas service for as long as I can remember, but by the time I got to high school I wasn’t sure what role God had for me specifically in His global work. I knew fulfilling the Great Commission was important, but I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to look like for me. Then, in the summer between high school and college, I got to go overseas for the first time. I helped lead English summer camps in East Asia, and immediately fell in love with the work, the country, and the people. When I got back to the States, I thought I had a plan: do TESL in college, graduate, and move back to East Asia to live longterm.
But God had a different idea.
During my sophomore year of college, I felt Him prodding at my heart. “It’s great you want to go back to East Asia,” I heard Him telling me, “but will you go anywhere? Are you only saying yes to a specific location, or are you saying yes to my call for you to go?”
That was a hard question to be faced with. But He was patient, helping me to slowly open my hands to His plan over mine. I surrendered my desire to live in East Asia specifically and opened myself to wherever He might be calling me to. As a result of this shifting perspective, He began growing in my heart a love for Unreached People Groups.
I’d heard about Unreached People Groups growing up, mentioned in church or when we prayed for the 10/40 window as a family, but taking the time to study and learn more deeply about them during my college classes was incredibly eye-opening. Not only are there people groups out there who haven’t heard Jesus’ name, but so many of them don’t even have access to the gospel. Paul’s words in Romans 10 kept coming to mind as I processed everything I was learning in and outside of the classroom: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’” (Rom. 10:13-15 NKJV).
There were people groups across the world who would not hear about Jesus unless someone told them. So what was stopping me from going?
Ultimately, nothing. Through God’s patient work during my college years of growing my conviction and pruning my desires, I was ready to accept the opportunity to North Africa when I heard about it senior year. I was no longer pinning myself down to a single location, but instead was open and ready to go wherever God was leading, even if that meant to a region of the world I had never planned on visiting. Now, grounded in the assurance of God’s purpose and His placement for me in this time of my life, I can take this next step with excitement. Seeds He planted in my heart over the past years are beginning to sprout and blossom, and even more seeds are being planted––seeds of obedience, seeds of surrender, seeds of prayer for the work being done in North Africa even now.
I don’t know what God has in store. When I look out over the field of my heart, it’s still pocked and muddy. But there is green here too, nurtured by His Spirit and watered by His Word. That's what I cling to when doubts and fears tempt to discourage me: I am simply being faithful with what He has given me, taking the next step in the story of faithfulness He has told through my life I want to encourage you, dear reader, wherever you might be right now. If your heart feels fallow, if the season you’re in is one of flood or drought––your story is still being told. Each furrow of your soil fits into the greater scope of God’s kingdom. Don't lose heart in whatever season you are in; the Sower is working in the dark.