I’m going to tackle something today that is really an area of insecurity to me as we prepare to head to the mission field full-time: our education and training.
You see, neither Blaise nor I set out to become full-time missionaries in the sense that we would pack our bags and move to another country to spread the Good News. We never thought that it would become our occupations. I am a teacher; that’s my training, that’s my expertise. Blaise is a sheet metal worker; that’s his trade, that’s his expertise. We never attended seminary, we never went to Bible college. So, more than once I’ve listened to the Enemy when he’s whispered that his lies that we’re unqualified for this caliber of service…You don’t have what it takes. You don’t know enough. You don’t have the abbreviations that follow your names or the ordination as pastors. You don’t belong and you should just sneak away before everyone realizes that you’re completely out of your depth.
It’s something that I struggle with in my own little head, and it’s especially something that I struggle with when we meet with churches and they ask what training we’ve had to prepare us for this calling. I fumble. Blaise fumbles.
No, we aren’t seminary trained and on paper, I guess we look like the wrong people for the task at hand. However, then the Holy Spirit swoops in with some precious reminders. It’s said that God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. It also says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” And in the Gospels we see that Jesus selects the Twelve, not because of their education, degrees, or qualifications, but because of their willingness to follow Him and to serve. In fact, many were, for the most part, not men of high education. But Jesus didn’t ask them where they studied…He asked them to follow Him. And that’s what He’s asking us.
Here’s the bottom line: We love the Lord fiercely and we are truly willing to give up everything we have, everything we are, to serve Him to the fullest. And we love the South Sudanese passionately. I cannot explain the fire we feel, the absolute desire to be there–loving, serving, and teaching our South Sudanese brothers and sisters…not to mention learning from them how to love, give, and praise to the fullest. We just want to do life with them…to be the Lord’s hands and feet. We are completely open and willing to let the Lord use us and wreck us for His glory and His Kingdom. I know that we have a lot of learning to do, some of it during our six months of training in Houston before heading off to the mission field, but most of it during our day-to-day lives in South Sudan as we follow Christ.
This is probably something that I will always struggle with, truthfully, because there will always be missionaries and other godly leaders with far more qualifications than us. There will always be someone skeptically asking how we feel that we’re qualified for this service. There will always be that nagging voice in my head telling me I’m not good enough; I don’t know enough. In the end, though, I just have to trust that God will equip us and strengthen us for the exact job to which we have been called. I have to trust that He will work through our weaknesses, maybe not even in spite of them, but because of them.
We can do all things through Him…