My Experience Fundraising & “My Lil’ Wedding Feast”
If you were to ask me three months ago, I truly saw fundraising as a necessary evil. “I mean it’s what missionaries seem to do, so I guess it’s what I’ll do too”. And along with my presupposition about fundraising, I had underlying fears stepping into when seemed such a daunting task. Would I be a burden to others? Would I come across as inauthentic or disingenuous? Was I even worth the funds? Sure these fears question my identity but more than that, they questioned the character of God. That realization brought me to my knees in repentance. I found myself echoing Peter’s words in John… Read moreA Time of Change & Uncertainty
The fundraising season is a weird one to navigate. Everyone talks about it, trying to prepare us. However, I didn’t truly understand until I found myself in the thick of it. There are a series of emotions and challenges I anticipated coming up, followed by a whole other series that came straight out of left field. This season has consisted of many things thus far– determination, hope, questioning, apprehension, discouragement… you name it. Alongside this rollercoaster of emotions, it has also consisted heavily of learning more about the character of my Father. The Lord has revealed… Read more
Learning About Weakness
Leading up to Christmas, I ended up reading a lot of advent devotions by an artist named Scott Erickson that focused on the incarnation: God as a human, God with us. He is Creator and King, Alpha and Omega, King of Kings and Prince of Peace, and also was a human being. He was born as a helpless baby, bloody and gooey, and placed in a feeding trough. He had his diaper changed and, as an adult, probably had dirty, calloused feet. He cried at his friend’s funeral and prayed for God to take the cross from him, and he died naked, bleeding, and mocked. The theme I saw over and over again through… Read more
Launchpad: Apologetics & Evangelism
Welcome back to my mini-series called "Launchpads." In this mini-series, I am sharing things that God used to "launch" me to the mission field. In the first post I talked about missiology, which is the study of Christian missions. I studied missiology to learn more about the past movements of God and how He is moving today. During my senior year of college, I slowly shifted from studying missiology to studying apologetics and evangelism. I wanted to learn how to explain the Gospel to people of other worldviews and religious backgrounds. My studies led me to participate in an evangelism… Read more
Closing Chapters
As another section of girls nears graduation, there is a sense of excitement and uncertainty in every conversation I have with them. The girls are realising that the joy of celebrations comes with much trepidation about returning home. Each girl's response develops uniquely, as some become clingy, others develop a melancholy disposition, and, of course, you have those who openly begin to act in defiance. It's hard to fully comprehend what many will return to as, like all people, they live in a myriad of circumstances. There are some who transition back into loving homes and others who walk… Read moreGive Us This Day Our Daily Bread
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD I pride myself on being capable and getting things done for myself. Maybe it is because I am stubborn or just fiercely independent but asking for and receiving help does not come easy to me. One can imagine then that the idea of support raising was not at all appealing to me. My initial thought was that I was going to be essentially begging people to give me money so that I could go to North Africa. And with that came the self-doubt and this feeling of being trapped. By then I had turned down job opportunities, withdrawn from seminary, ended… Read moreDefy Fear
I’m so freaking scared. How many times have I written that sentence in my journal over the last year? How many times before I traveled to the Czech Republic alone for a vision trip? How many times after I said yes to moving there for two years? How many times as I’ve done trainings? How many bazillion times as I’ve been fundraising? I’ve written it too many times to bother counting, and it was true every time. You wouldn’t expect God to send someone who’s struggled with anxiety for twenty years onto the mission field. Or at least, I didn’t expect it. … Read more
Launchpad: Missiology
As I have thought about what has led me to the field, I realized much of my journey has involved more academic content like missiology, apologetics, evangelism, and even Islam. These next few blog posts will talk more about those disciplines and what I learned that helped launch me to the field. The first launchpad: missiology! Missiology is the “academic study of the Christian mission history and methodology.” Simply put, I read as many books and online articles about missions and missions history as I could. I love reading stories of how God is moving all over the world and the methods that… Read more
Behind the Scenes, but Not Behind the Mission
At the moment, ministry looks different than I expected. I’m on a medical ship that’s supposed to sail to isolated villages in Papua New Guinea, offering medical care and gospel outreach. But the ship has been stuck in harbor for years, undergoing extensive repairs. Instead of direct ministry, I spend my days procuring parts and coordinating maintenance. It’s easy to feel like this isn’t "real" ministry. But God has been teaching me that this behind-the-scenes work is still valuable to His Kingdom. Without a functioning ship, we can’t reach the villages. Every part I secure and every repair… Read more