I first told God I was willing to go and serve Him on foreign soil at the first missions conference I ever experienced. Tom and I were living in Pensacola, Florida and were in our mid-twenties. Yet, the opportunity did not immediately come for me to actually go anywhere. In 2008 I was praying and asking God for an opportunity. “I’ll go anywhere!”I said. When my husband received an invitation to go on a trip because of his ministry position I asked hopefully, “Can I go, too?” I was overjoyed when the answer was affirmative. Then I thought to ask, “Where are we going?” I was surprised to find that my desire to obey the Lord’s call to “go into all the world” had overshadowed any limits on where. I had given God my YES in advance.
I’ll bet you are wondering where we went. That trip took us to Burkina Faso, West Africa. I had never heard of it prior to that trip and when I began to learn more about this poor nation where many people live without electricity and running water I found myself laughing to the Lord, “Well, I said I’d go anywhere!”
There are so many things I learned simply by saying YES to that trip. But the journey and learning didn’t start with the trip. It started at the missions conference and the first YES. I want to encourage you to consider where your YES might take you and what you might learn.
YES will take you where you connect with God’s heart. Long before I actually went anywhere my YES had allowed God to open my heart to His love for the world, the whole world and every person on it. By saying YES to Burkina Faso, God began to knit my heart with people I had never even considered meeting. Africa was never on the list of places I wanted to visit and it is the first place God took me.
One of the most beautiful memories I have is singing to a group of children. They had sung their national anthem for our team and the team told me I should sing for them. Singing is one of the ways God uses me and the team wanted me to represent them.
I didnt know what to sing. I knew nothing in their language. But I looked at this small sea of beautiful brown faces and began to sing “He knows my name. He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call” God filled my heart and I experienced His love for them in that moment. Whenever I hear or sing that song, my heart remembers those beautiful children and how God knows and hears each one of them. They are part of me now.
Your financial YES to a mission allows you to experience that same connection with God’s heart. Tom and I have personally supported a number of missionaries because of our relationship with them and our desire to see God use them. But, as a result of that support, our hearts have become connected with the people theses missionaries serve. Spain, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Colombia. Places I have never visited. Yet, my heart has a connection there because of the missionaries we support. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be.” (Matt. 6:21) There is so much truth in that. When you invest in something financially you have a stake in the outcome. You have a share in the people who will be touched. Perhaps God is not calling you to go right now, but He may be calling you to give. Where will your YES take you?
YES will take you where you need to trust Him more. There are so many ways that this is true. When you say YES to a mission trip, you take a step of faith that God is going to provide the means to go. Not only do you need to trust Him to provide financially, but also to provide the internal resources needed to do the work required of you. Including adjusting to the different culture, food, weather, schedule and so many other unfamiliarities. I experienced this in Burkina and also on a subsequent trip to Kenya and Uganda.
On this trip my responsibility was speaking as part of a leadership training conference. One night before I was supposed to speak I found myself sick. Even though I had been careful about what I was eating my digestive system was in uproar. I hardly slept and the next day, even though I felt better, I was very weak. If I could have, I would have spent the day in bed, but I couldn’t. I asked God for His help and strength and He provided.
In Uganda, I experienced the African flexibility with schedule. In the midst of the morning session, my talk was moved from after lunch to before lunch and I had a shorter amount of time to speak. I knew that the talk I had prepared wasn’t going to work in that time slot and trusted God to help me. I am one of those who over-prepares so this was way outside my comfort zone, yet I felt comfortable. Before I stepped on the platform to speak I knew what my message was. There was no nervousness and it was as if I had prepared it. The Lord provided what I needed.
YES will broaden your understanding of God’s world and your ability to love people. At a conference I heard Dr. A.R. Bernard say that you only grow to the level of your experience. When we stay in the same places doing the same things with the same people there is no need for growth. We know what to expect. Growth is not required. When we allow God to take us outside our comfort zones and into new experiences, our understanding of His world broadens in ways that we don’t even notice as we see things in a new way and learn to adjust. We grow cognitively, but we also grow relationally.
You only love the people that you can imagine. Singing to the Kenyan childrenn opened my heart to love them, and others, in a way that would not have been possible if I hadn’t been there.
One of my mentors, Sharon Williamson, said to “love the people Jesus loves.” When you support a mission or go to a country, or any place, where people are different from you then you have a broader understanding of who Jesus loves. We know in idea that He loves all people, but until we experience different kinds of people we dont learn to love them.
We had the opportunity to take a tourist trip to China. China was also never on the list of places where I wanted to go, but God had opened my heart to love China through an experience at EPCOT of all places. Since then I had been longing to go to China and when this opportunity came up I begged God and my husband for the chance. One of the stops on the tour was at a Buddhist temple. I had thought it was just a place to see, but when we arrived I realized that people were actually there to worship. What I saw gave me a greater sense of how lost people are without Christ. I felt a sadness that I knew was not my own, but His. I wouldn’t have experienced it if I hadn’t been there. Where will your YES take you?
There will always be another YES. One YES we gave God involved moving from the area where we grew up to a municipality only an hour away. I didn’t realize the culture and people would be so much different from where I came from and I have experienced many of the same feelings I have had on mission trips. In many ways, going on a mission trip prepared me for the move within my state!
Recently, I have said YES to a trip to Colombia, South America. You have to understand that whenever I hear about a mission trip I want to go. Every. Single. One. I suppose that is the result of the YES way back at the missions conference. But wanting to go on a trip and feeling called to go are two different things. I feel called to this trip. Why Colombia? I don’t know yet,, but I know that God is working in me as I prepare, opening my heart, stretching my trust, broadening my understanding. He will continue to work in me while I am there and I trust that He will also work through me and the rest of the team. .
God is always calling us beyond our comfort zones and closer to His heart. He calls us to places we never expected to go and people we never imagined we’d meet. The call is not about a task to accomplish. It’s about the people He wants to touch through the task. The call to go may mean foreign soil, or a neighbor’s front door. It may mean to send your treasure so that your heart will be there. The YES comes in advance of the knowing where.
So, where will your YES take you?
Key thought: Your YES will take you outside your comfort zone and closer to God’s heart.
A Scripture to Consider: “Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.” Matthew 4:19-20 NLT
A YES challenge: How is Jesus asking you to follow Him today? Is He calling you to go on or support a mission trip? Is there a neighbor or co-worker that He is nudging you to reach out to? What will you do today in response to Him?
Prayer: Dear Father, I choose to give you my YES today. I don’t know all that means yet, but I want to be willing to go where you send me and to love the people you send me to. Open my heart. Strengthen my trust. Help me be willing to let my experiences broaden my understanding of Your world. Love Your world through me. Amen.
If you would like to learn more about our mission trip to Colombia or if you would like to support me click here: https://portjervis.church/colombia. Be sure to put my name in the memo section. Thank you for your prayers!