It started with an email, which piqued my curiosity, which led me to see the call for a cello teacher, which I couldn’t get out of my mind. I wasn’t looking for a call, and yet I’ve seen one and I want to go. Is this You, Lord?

Five days later, I was driving and reciting Isaiah 55, and it turned into a very special experience. I didn’t hear an audible voice, but there was a very clear impression on my mind and heart. The Lord was calling me to recommit myself to Him and to pursue the call. He was with me, and this was Him.

In previous years, I have wanted to go out as a missionary; yet I knew that my reasons were selfish, so I didn’t pursue it. This time, I wanted to be very sure that this was not my selfish reasons once more, that this was the Lord calling to my heart. So, even after this special experience, I took a week to pray before acting on anything. During that week, I asked the Lord two different times for confirmation of my experience in the car with Isaiah 55. On both occasions, He provided something to reassure me within hours! When the week was up, I was certain in the call I was sensing and contacted AFM to begin the process of applying.

This is the very-much-shortened version of how I came to apply as a student missionary for the upcoming term.

In the weeks that followed, the initial excitement was wearing off and the reality of what this would mean began to set in. It is a scary thing to contemplate—putting my career on hold, living in a foreign land for nearly a year, and figuring out financial and physical arrangements for while I’m gone. What kept me grounded was my experience that week, the two confirming signs I had received. Anytime I started to question if this was the right thing, the Lord would remind me how He had been leading. In fact, He led me through a Bible study of different Bible characters who all received two signs in confirmation of their calling—namely, Gideon, Moses, and Jeremiah.

Moses. The story of Moses has been the anchor point for so much of my study these past several weeks, especially the story of his time spent in Midian and his call to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. In fact, I’d been coming back to the story of Moses so frequently that I started to think maybe Moses’ 40 years had some application to my life. Just as Moses’ 40 years in the wilderness was a time of preparation and education for the task the Lord would call him to, I have a time of preparation now, before I go to Thailand. I am focusing on specific areas of spiritual, personal, professional, and cultural growth. May the Lord prepare the soil of my heart, and may I be a good steward and increase what I have, so I can give my best and my all to my Master.

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