God's direction to serve Him among the nations least reached by the gospel is still viewed by many as a very ridiculous thing.
The missionary Antonia Lenora, describes this in a simple and profound way in her text "Missionary: Crazy, martyr, beggar or what?" in the book “Vocation and Youth”. We are these ‘crazy people’ who got married and with a 2 year old son, we accepted the commandment to go to the most distant peoples of the earth.
Sometimes we hear: “What courage, what madness!”
It is not about being crazy or courageous. But yes, it is about obeying and trusting. When we think of leaving the security of your own country, the financial stability of a formal job, the coverage of health insurance, and many other factors, these all reflect internal fears about God and the trust we have in Him. The fear of giving yourself completely into the care of and dependence on God. Deep down, we know that the one who gives us health, jobs, opportunities, is God, and at the same time, we attribute to our own effort the credit for what we have achieved. Almost a contradiction.
Our fear of trusting is because the invitation to serve in the full time ministry, at first, means giving up the strength of our arms to trust that He will create the means, opportunities and give everything that is necessary to live well, after all, “we are worth more than birds ”(Mt 6:26).
When we were 25 years old, we got married and one month later,, we accepted the challenge of moving to another state, to serve in a NGO. We served full time, during four years, caring for children and teenagers at risk. We were paid by the NGO and our only concern was to live entirely for those children. We knew it was only a matter of time and God would guide us to serve among the least reached peoples. And so it happened, the time came, and all these tensions about security, financial stability, health, etc., came to our minds and hearts. A great step in Faith and Trust was needed from us.
No matter the place or the time, the call is for everyone, only the individual direction is specific.
The tensions were gone as we experienced the Father's care in the smallest details, in miracles that were impossible for our hands to achieve. These are lessons that can only be learned during practice. And despite the butterflies in the stomach that we felt at the beginning, we are still in the process of being molded to live by Faith in a Love that casts out all fear. Today, we remain steadfast in our purpose. We arrived in Asia in awe of such great deeds of the Lord on our behalf. Today we not only believe, but we testify that even in the face of human uncertainty, our God certainly never fails.
We are not special because we obey God’s guidance. We were all called by the same Master, Baptized in the same Name, and we will live in the same Heaven. No matter the place or the time, the call is for everyone, only the individual direction is specific. We differ only in what direction our gifts and talents will be used for the Glory of God and the praise of the Nations.
We were created for the Glory of God, and the world will see the manifestation of its children. (Rom. 8:19)
* K., her husband, and their 2 years old son are serving in Southeast Asia, in partnership with WNI.
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