Broken. Wounded. Scarred. Rejected. Insecure?

Don’t you see?  He loves you.  You were created for a reason.  He desires to take you right where you are and make your life a beautiful reflection of His glory!  Nothing–NO ONE–is beyond redemption.

REDEMPTION:  an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed. [dictionary.com]

As a young bride, if God had made a phone call to me and said, “Vickie, some day you will be a pastor’s wife–and will one day speak to large groups of women as far away as Uganda, Africa”…

…I would have been terrified!

My low self-esteem had allowed me to say no to God far too many times.  The excuse “I can’t” became curse words in my vocabulary.  I knew that God was asking me to do things for His glory, and by saying these simple words– I.CAN’T.– I was really saying an emphatic “NO!” to God.

Not long after God convicted me and I repented of this sin in my life, He made it very clear to me that I was to take my very first overseas mission trip to the country of Poland.  I had no idea why He wanted me to go only that I needed to obey.  What I didn’t know was, how this act of obedience would change my heart and life forever.

No other experience had stretched me and grown me like that one did.

It wasn’t a new experience to share the plan of salvation or my testimony, so why was this different?  I believe it was because sometimes God calls us out of our comfort zone so that we can hear Him more clearly.

God was showing me that this was something that I needed to do.  He could use any person or method He chose to take the gospel message to that dozen people I would be teaching in Poland, but HE CHOSE ME!

How humbling to know that the HONOR of taking His message to Alena, Paul, Sylvia, Maciek, and others was given to me.  Teaching conversational English and sharing my personal story wasn’t the difficult task.  The hard part was saying “yes”.  Once I made the committment to go, God prepared the way.

The people of Poland were no different from you or I, or my neighbor across the street–they needed Jesus.  Some would have genuine heart changes, some would choose not to accept Christ’s offer of salvation.  But I was different:

By living out my faith in obedience, I learned more about God and about myself than I would ever learn any other way.

I love missions, participate in missions, give to missions and pray for missionaries.  My children are even career missionaries, but Is that all there is?  I might have thought so before, but not after experiencing this first-hand.  God wanted me to see the world from His perspective.  Missions is WHERE WE ARE.  We are called to be ON MISSION wherever we are–in our homes, our workplace, our activities.

Stay-at-home-mom:  It’s your children.  Their friends.  Your friends.  Family.  Neighbors.  People you meet at your children’s extra-curricular activities…

In your workplace:  Your co-workers (maybe even your boss!), the people who serve you and the people you serve.

In School:  Your friends, teachers, classmates, teammates.

Wherever God has you right now is your mission field.

The question is, are you willing to open your eyes to the world around you and then, are you willing to obey what you know He wants from you today?  My simple act of obedience affected me in a big way, but it doesn’t take travelling half-way around the world to see God at work. He is always at work around us, and in us, when those of us who claim to be “Christ-followers” walk forward in obedience, “proclaiming the praises of the One who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.”  Print that verse out and memorize it.  Paste it to your mirror as a sweet reminder of who you are and WHO YOU BELONG TO!

Won’t you step out in faith?  Trust Him enough to BELIEVE HE WANTS YOU, and to walk the path He is leading you on–OH THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

~~Vickie