Going to Cebu

I never planned to do missionary work, but sometimes God has other plans for our lives. I’ve always been an introvert, and I’m usually afraid to try new things for fear I’ll fail, or for the thought that I should leave “that” to someone else who’d do it better. So naturally, the thought of mission work makes me nervous. I’m afraid I won’t know what to say or do. I feel like I’m too shy to share the gospel boldly. Luckily, I’ve come out of my introverted shell a little more in the past few years, and have pushed myself to take on leadership roles that I was a little scared to try at first. However, I still never really gave mission work a thought until last semester.

A representative from a program about teaching English through the bible in foreign countries came to talk to one of my classes last semester. Normally I’d think “that’d probably be too much money,” or “I don’t know if I could do that.” But for some reason I was really interested in the opportunity and really had an urge to look into it. After that I kept hearing about a lot of different opportunities for mission work. I felt like it was all around me. One of the programs I was hearing a lot about was Worldwide Witness. I knew WWW was a highly trusted program and I had only heard great things about it from people who had gone on mission internships through the program. I started looking into WWW more and talked to Gary about where I would want to go. I really love kids, so he helped me look into some locations that worked with children. I was still really hesitant to commit to the program, knowing I really needed an internship, and this would be my last summer before I graduated. I talked to some professors to see if I could double my missions internship as my field experience for my family studies major (having a focus in child development). My professor sounded like it might could work, but he didn’t seem very confident in that statement. It didn’t sound very promising, leaving me torn between doing this internship and trying to find a “normal” internship in Texas. However, I couldn’t seem to let go of the opportunity to serve abroad. I finally decided if I felt such a strong pull to be an intern with Worldwide Witness when I had never wanted to do mission work before maybe that meant something. I decided to let go of all reservations and just trust that God would work out the rest.

As soon as I made up my mind I felt a peace about my decision and an excitement about the opportunity of this summer’s internship. That doesn’t mean I don’t still get nervous sometimes. But at the same time I am also really excited, and I know God will do great things. I am really excited about the opportunity to experience how faith is lived out in another culture, as well as just experiencing a new culture in general. There will be many different opportunities for different types of mission work in Cebu including working with children, new churches as well as established churches, and the bible college. I am really excited about working with the children in the ministry as that was what I wanted to focus on coming into the program as well as with my degree. However, I am also excited to experience an array of mission work. I know that my eyes will be opened, and I will learn so much.  I have a heart for people and a heart for Christ, and I am ready to use those passions to love, serve, and share the Good News!