Walk Where There's Land

This will be my tell-all piece about myself in relation to missions.

I will go for You. 

This, I declare, with nervousness and excitement - but without hesitation. Nervous, because I seriously have no idea what's in store for me. Excited, because I am confident that God's direction brings nothing but complete joy and peace in one's heart.

Missions, more so being a "goer", was not something that I ever saw myself doing. Yes, I have been exposed to it - thanks to our church which God uses to open the eyes of its members to the big picture of God's plan for the world. But never have I thought that a day will come when I would completely understand and embrace God's assignment for me - my itsy-bitsy role in His masterplan. Being a goer, by simple definition, is being a missionary - to your own locality or to a different country or culture. 

If we have been friends for a long time, you may have heard me say this a couple of times - "lakad lang ng lakad hanggang may lupa!" (Keep walking where there's land!) Being the go-getter that I am, the idea of exploring new places and experiences excites me a lot. And my closest friends know how far I can go especially when I am seriously passionate about what I am doing.

Now, what makes this whole "missions" thing important? 

Two years ago, before our church's Missions Conference, a group from our church has enrolled to this missions course called Kairos. They were so eager to get everyone to enroll in the course while I had no single idea and interest or whatsoever. I was even thinking, "Why do I need to learn about missions? I have no - as in zero - desire or plans of becoming a missionary." Well, not until a missionary visited the church. She is a missionary from North Africa who testified of her work and how life goes on for her on the other side of the globe.

Bang!

There goes the interest. There goes my curious, exploratory mind. I cannot understand why I felt that way about the place where she's ministering to, but I can clearly remember uttering to myself these words while I was listening to her story - "I can do what she's doing."

From that day on, I began praying for North Africa, specifically, the country where our missionary works (exact names undisclosed for security purposes). I am writing this with mixed emotions because I feel like I am making a public declaration which the Lord will one day hold me accountable for. In the last 2 years of praying, the Lord has been very faithful in teaching and leading me to experience Him through the good and the bad. Every single thing that happened to me in the past years, even prior to 2014, as I look back, has contributed to make me understand my God-appointed role.

It was just lately that I realized why my life verses were Philippians 1:3 and John 4:34 (open your Bible to know what's in the verses). It all made sense this year.

Since 2014, I have been asking the Lord for a "Word of the Year". This year, the word revealed was "SURRENDER." What a word, right?! And the scripture tied to that is Mark 10:27-28 "Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”

The moment I read those verses, I began asking God, "Seriously? Really? This is what You have for me this year?" And yes, my year began with excitement and nervousness. To somebody who sees herself as living everyday by grace, reading these words "all things are possible with God" gives me so much power and inspiration to do the things that I really love; to follow through with my plans and to explore greater things that I only used to dream about. At this point in my life, I am blessed to clearly understand how "living for His glory and by His grace" really means. At first, I felt afraid of being stripped of the things I consider dearest to me, but the Lord has been faithfully assuring me that as long as I am walking closely with Him, there is no such thing as discontent and deprivation.

As much as I would like to write every detail of my walk with the Lord, I need to drop the bomb. What is this post all about, really?

This is about God, using this blog post to ask you, what have you done to know your calling? How hard have you prayed and asked from the Lord, "What am I here for?" Yes, we are Christians. But we were not called to be mere Christians who accepted the blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ. While you are reading this, there are billions of people who have never heard of this Jesus whom we say we love.

I am taking my first step on the role that God has revealed to me. I understood my calling not by chance but through fervent prayer, asking and begging Him to reveal Himself to me in every situation I'm in. 10 days from now, I am stepping out to see what He has in store for me. Journey with me and let us witness the Lord's movement somewhere out of my comfort zone.