This could not have come at a better time.
We (my family, a friend, and I) just returned from World Mandate, a world missions conference in Waco, Texas put on by Antioch Community Church and once again I am dissatisfied with my walk with the Lord and am seeking a deeper relationship and a bigger heart.
Over the course of three days, we attended sessions, listened to speakers, and felt inspired and challenged, encouraged and convicted each day---sometimes at the same time. There were moments when I did not know whether to leap up and dance, cry, worship Jesus, or plaster myself on the floor because He is so great. We were able to visit friends, catch up with people we haven't seen since last World Mandate, take a tour of the Baylor campus, and hear what God is doing around the world.
The theme for World Mandate this year was Run To The Battle, which I thought could not have come at a better time. As a senior in highschool, I am facing some of the biggest decisions in my life: where to go to college? What do I want to do with my life? How can I make an impact in the world and in the lives of others? What would I be happy doing for the rest of my life?
Before World Mandate, I felt rebellious---maybe I wouldn't go to college; I had no idea what I truly wanted to do anyway. Maybe I would go on missions trips and go through training schools before possibly getting on staff with a church or till my book was published. Basically, I was so overwhelmed with the applications and college visits ahead of me that I coped by creating for myself the option that a college education was over-valued, authors did not need to go to college, yadda yadda yadda.
But before World Mandate officially started Friday evening, we went over to a family's house for lunch. They were the same family Olivia and I had gone to India with three years previously and we consider them to be surrogate parents who have had humongous impact on our spiritual growth. (Surprise, Mrs. Johnson, if you didn't know that, haha.)
Mr. Johnson is on staff at Antioch and had just returned from a trip to the Middle East so he shared all these amazing and inspiring stories of what God is doing in the Middle East and I burst out saying, "See? Why do I have to go to college? Why can't I just do that?"
He looked at me and replied, "The future of reaching people is through vocations. It is through people's giftings that countries are opening up to the Gospel. When I sit around a table with people who are changing nations, I am sitting with some of the smartest people there are in their fields. Find something you're great at and become the best you can be in that particular area; then you will have something to give. You can't just show up at a country with only your mouth, you have to bring something that they need."
Thoroughly chastised, I sat and mulled that over. I had never truly thought of my career in that way. At the session later that evening, Mr. Seibert, the pastor of Antioch gave a message on bringing whatever you had that God's given you to the battle. So I thought: what have I been blessed with? What did I have that I could offer to nations when I show up at their borders so that they'd welcome me in and doors would open for me? The most useful thing I could think of would be a nurse, doctor, or teacher, but I am none of those things. Boiled down, my giftings are leadership, being a good communicator, and writing. Here I thought in frustration, what can I do with any of that? What can I offer?
You're a storyteller, God told me.
Big deal, I thought. I'm writing a young adult fantasy trilogy. How is that going to get me places except on book tours? How is that something I can offer people?
At that moment, I looked up at the screen above the stage that flashed announcements and whatnot, and there a link flashed:
http://www.hisdeeds.com/, it said. Below it I read: Telling the Stories of God.
Suddenly I realized that people need to hear the stories that are being created around the world. God is moving in the Middle East but how are people in America and Mexico and Canada going to hear about it if people don't tell them? How are people in California going to hear about a revival that happened in a grocery store in Boston? This could be an avenue that combined all of my skills.
I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do but World Mandate helped orient me and give me a vision for what I can possibly do with the gifts God has given me. In many more ways than one, God used this conference, the people there, and the news tidbits flashing on the screen to help me see the potential being a good writer and speaker has.
We (my family, a friend, and I) just returned from World Mandate, a world missions conference in Waco, Texas put on by Antioch Community Church and once again I am dissatisfied with my walk with the Lord and am seeking a deeper relationship and a bigger heart.
Over the course of three days, we attended sessions, listened to speakers, and felt inspired and challenged, encouraged and convicted each day---sometimes at the same time. There were moments when I did not know whether to leap up and dance, cry, worship Jesus, or plaster myself on the floor because He is so great. We were able to visit friends, catch up with people we haven't seen since last World Mandate, take a tour of the Baylor campus, and hear what God is doing around the world.
The theme for World Mandate this year was Run To The Battle, which I thought could not have come at a better time. As a senior in highschool, I am facing some of the biggest decisions in my life: where to go to college? What do I want to do with my life? How can I make an impact in the world and in the lives of others? What would I be happy doing for the rest of my life?
Before World Mandate, I felt rebellious---maybe I wouldn't go to college; I had no idea what I truly wanted to do anyway. Maybe I would go on missions trips and go through training schools before possibly getting on staff with a church or till my book was published. Basically, I was so overwhelmed with the applications and college visits ahead of me that I coped by creating for myself the option that a college education was over-valued, authors did not need to go to college, yadda yadda yadda.
But before World Mandate officially started Friday evening, we went over to a family's house for lunch. They were the same family Olivia and I had gone to India with three years previously and we consider them to be surrogate parents who have had humongous impact on our spiritual growth. (Surprise, Mrs. Johnson, if you didn't know that, haha.)
Mr. Johnson is on staff at Antioch and had just returned from a trip to the Middle East so he shared all these amazing and inspiring stories of what God is doing in the Middle East and I burst out saying, "See? Why do I have to go to college? Why can't I just do that?"
He looked at me and replied, "The future of reaching people is through vocations. It is through people's giftings that countries are opening up to the Gospel. When I sit around a table with people who are changing nations, I am sitting with some of the smartest people there are in their fields. Find something you're great at and become the best you can be in that particular area; then you will have something to give. You can't just show up at a country with only your mouth, you have to bring something that they need."
Thoroughly chastised, I sat and mulled that over. I had never truly thought of my career in that way. At the session later that evening, Mr. Seibert, the pastor of Antioch gave a message on bringing whatever you had that God's given you to the battle. So I thought: what have I been blessed with? What did I have that I could offer to nations when I show up at their borders so that they'd welcome me in and doors would open for me? The most useful thing I could think of would be a nurse, doctor, or teacher, but I am none of those things. Boiled down, my giftings are leadership, being a good communicator, and writing. Here I thought in frustration, what can I do with any of that? What can I offer?
You're a storyteller, God told me.
Big deal, I thought. I'm writing a young adult fantasy trilogy. How is that going to get me places except on book tours? How is that something I can offer people?
At that moment, I looked up at the screen above the stage that flashed announcements and whatnot, and there a link flashed:
http://www.hisdeeds.com/, it said. Below it I read: Telling the Stories of God.
Suddenly I realized that people need to hear the stories that are being created around the world. God is moving in the Middle East but how are people in America and Mexico and Canada going to hear about it if people don't tell them? How are people in California going to hear about a revival that happened in a grocery store in Boston? This could be an avenue that combined all of my skills.
I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do but World Mandate helped orient me and give me a vision for what I can possibly do with the gifts God has given me. In many more ways than one, God used this conference, the people there, and the news tidbits flashing on the screen to help me see the potential being a good writer and speaker has.
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