Actively Waiting and Praying

Kenyan warriors eating tamarinds.

As I write each post I am keenly aware that sometime in the future, someone may be reading this as they start their own missionary journey. I remember soaking in posts from other missionaries as we wrestled with the same emotions, doubts, questions and struggles that they had gone through – encouraged that we weren’t alone, God was sufficient and He would lead us through. So, I hope for two things as I write each post: that our partners feel closer to us and can share in the journey that is also theirs, and that my posts may resonate with and so encourage those who are praying about or endeavoring to take a similar path.

While I have wanted to be a missionary since the 6th grade and Lance since shortly after college, we specifically felt God told us to get ready to go in March of 2010. We had already tried various ways to get ourselves to the mission field previously, rather than waiting on the Lord to move, but all were (thankfully!) failed attempts on our own ingenuity. Now however, like Abraham, we felt He was telling us to get ready to “Go…to the land which I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)

In our eagerness, of course, we thought it would be just months, at the most by the next year, before we would be on the foreign mission field. However, we had learned to wait on God. So, instead of doing mad Internet searches for missionary information like I wanted to, at Lance’s leading, we started to pray and actively wait. Actively waiting for us meant getting rid of the vast amount of things that had accumulated in our basement and organizing the rest. God had told us He was going to send us, so we needed to be prepared for the time when He would tell us to go.

Apparently, much to our surprise, we needed 4.5 years of waiting and praying. During that time we sought counsel of others who had been on the field, prayed, got rid of many, many things, prayed, went to our church leadership for guidance, prayed, made life decisions based on our future assumed lifestyle, and prayed. Now we can look back and see Him leading and growing us in specific ways, until the time was right for Him to send us – but never did we expect 4.5 years! Thank goodness God is Sovereign and we don’t have to figure out what to do – because that would not have been my plan!

Now the actual time of going is here. True, we still don’t know where God will take us after our year of training, so in a way we are still actively waiting and praying. But like Abraham, and as He has shown us in our life, we know we can safely trust in Him to show us the way. And once we’re there, we can rest in the knowledge that it was Him who has led us, and not we ourselves.

Psalm 100
1. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2. Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
3. Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4. Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5. For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.