February 20, 2010 is a date I will never forget. Away from home on a business trip that straddled a weekend, I decided to have an all-day Saturday “date” with God. It would turn out to be the most dangerous date of my life!
I was so excited to just get into my rental car, listen to great Christian music, pray, read the Word and explore the Pittsburgh/West Virginia/Ohio region with God.
I started with a check of Disciplestoday.com to survey news from around the Kingdom. I read an article about taking the one year challenge and being on a mission team in China. My first reaction was “nice for some—but not for me. I mean, China: scary, especially for missionaries.” Now 30 years old, I had been a disciple for just over 11 years, with a great (although stressful) career working for an international health insurance company. I was in a great church, had amazing friends and a supportive family—life was good!
As I drove toward the Ohio state line I made my customary Saturday morning phone call back home. The conversation was filled with a lot of venting over events of the past week. My job was becoming more and more stressful, and I was becoming someone I didn’t want to be. I didn’t know what direction I wanted in my career and life. My mom asked, “What do you really want to do?”
I said, “Ma, you know I REALLY don’t want to be here!” She knew I’d had a dream for many years to go abroad, help a church, and experience a different life. “Then go,” she said, adding a tongue-in-cheek “and God forbid you return after a year and have to live with your father and me!” I didn’t realize it, but God was using my mom to fuel the flames of my dream. I finished my call and started praying.
I drove to a frozen mineral spring outside Pittsburgh. It was beautiful and deserted. February snow covered the ground and I was in sneakers and a wool coat—but I was going to hike no matter what! I prayed so much that day. I prayed for direction, for purpose, and to overcome any fears I had with the next steps that God had planned for me. I poured out my heart to God and shed many tears. It was one of those times where you look back and say, ‘That day, I will never forget!’
After that, I kept driving, had lunch with God, read my Bible at a library in Ohio, and then returned to Pittsburgh, thinking, ‘OK, I’m going to do it, I’m moving out of the U.S.!’ I returned Monday night and announced to my roommates that I was moving. I didn’t know where, but I told them that by August I would be living outside the U.S. They didn’t believe me and I couldn’t blame them. Before my business trip, I hadn’t really talked much about my desire to go—and when I did, it wasn’t with conviction. But in my heart I knew it would happen; the Spirit was pushing me forward!
Within weeks of my dangerous date with God, I made the decision to join the team in China. It wasn’t a quick or easy decision: I sought the advice of my ministry leaders, and spent hours in Skype calls with the leaders of the church where I would be going. I wanted to make sure my decision would be commended both by my home church and by the church I wanted to help. Convinced I was going with their blessing and not just for my own adventure, I sold my car, bought a plane ticket, got certified as an English teacher and found a job!
I left a pretty good life in America for the unknowns of China and—other than the day I made Jesus my Lord—it has been the most amazing, life-changing decision I have ever made! I am no longer who I was when I left the States on August 8, 2010. My perspective of the world is different: I see the harassed and helplessness more vividly. I love in a deeper way. I am challenged to use the Word to strengthen and encourage my friends more than ever so their convictions may increase.Most importantly, I see God moving here! The hearts of my Chinese friends are so amazing, so innocent, and so hungry for the love that only God can fully give to them! January 23, 2011 will be a date I never forget—it was the day my first Chinese friend died to self and became a child of God! I
pray for many more unforgettable China days.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” Proverbs 3:5-6
To top it all off, my mom never imagined that when she fueled the flames of my dream, God would grant one of her dreams. Last month, she came to China and we walked the Great Wall together!
Is God putting China on your heart? E-mail china.challenge@yahoo.com to get more detailed information you can discuss with your home church leaders.
