The Squeaks

I recently just told about everyone I knew that I was going to Congo for one-and-a-half years for a missions internship.  So how did I end up here instead of a normal American university? 

Back in January, I shot John Merrell a facebook message about how I was called to his organization, college plans to prepare for that calling, high-school goings-on, and the whatnot.  He just got out of a conference that shared about Engage, a missions apprenticeship program that gave college students the opportunity to be discipled and trained by veteran missionaries on the field while taking online courses for up to two years.  Due to the timing of the conference and my message, he felt that it was for me.  So I checked it out for myself.  A particular site in the Democratic Republic of Congo piqued my interest, since OLI works mainly in southern Africa.  After talking with parents, pastors, friends, admissions counselors, missions department heads, and God, I became certain that Engage was for me. 

And so I've spent the majority of my summer preparing for this trip, which will start in less than 4 months.  Less than 4 months.  It’s a little hard to imagine moving in to college in 3 days.  It’s a bit harder to imagine moving to Congo in what will soon seem like 3 days. 

I've been carrying on conversation with the Congo site missionaries, Bill and Sonia Shaw, for some time, and one of the main areas he has stressed about the missionary life is communication with supporters.  Which is the main reason why I started this blog.  He and I have this joke going, that I’m the guinea pig in his Engage operation since I will be the first student with him in Congo.  You know those squeak sounds they make?  That’s what I want this blog to be.  I want to squeak about how God is preparing me to be a missionary in Congo so that everyone who is supporting me through finances and prayer can see the harvest from what you have sowed into me. 

So what will I be doing over there?  Since Bill and I will be building this whole program deal from the ground up with my tiny rodent hands, I really can't squeak much from experience now.  The main thing I will be doing is learning—learning how to establish indigenous churches in cross-cultural contexts through my online SAGU courses, learning how to be a missionary through working alongside Bill and the Congolese pastors, and learning to live with purpose in another country so that I don’t fall victim to dropping out in my first term as an actual missionary, as an alarmingly high percentage of new missionaries do.

But for the 4 months from now until the day when I leave the DFW airport on January 15, I won’t be a guinea pig just yet—I’ll be a lion.  For one short semester I’ll be studying at Southwestern Assemblies of God University.  So until January, look forward to posts about the indelible texture of ramen noodles, what my roomate’s socks smell like, incredible professors, amazing witnessing encounters with international students at UTA, and preparing for, well, this once-in-a-lifetime preparatory experience in DR Congo.

*Squeak*

The Beginning

It all started on February 20, 2011.  Another Sunday morning.  The high school Sunday school, led by none other than Stephen Burnett, was held in the children’s center.  Slightly distracted, my eyes wandered around the room... the candy table, the puppet stage, Buddy the Buddy Barrel, and the block pyramid.  In the following children’s service, the kids would play this game where 6 large blocks were hidden throughout the room, and they had to find and stack them so that they correctly displayed the week’s scripture verse.  Today, for reasons unknown, I paid special attention to verse on that pyramid: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33.  Soon into the main morning service, I learned that the guest speaker for the final week of Misisons Emphasis Month was John Merrell, director of the Oral Learners Initiative (OLI).  He shared his vision of delivering the gospel through stories and pictures to oral-learning cultures with no written language, training illiterate pastors in the Maasai tribe of Kenya/Tanzania using solar-powered handheld audio bibles, and much more.  His entire discourse on these ancient yet novel methods of telling the gospel captivated us, but his exhortations during the closing call forever changed my life.  Sorrowfully, he announced that his retirement was drawing nigh, with his head of grey hair and wrinkles giving testimony to a long service on the African missions field.  He then challenged the youth to step up and take the call to missions.

You know that feeling when someone special giving a speech mentions your name honorably and you squirm a little within yourself, or you’re about to present something before a group of people and you fidget about beforehand?  I felt that after he gave that challenge.  He was talking to me.  Inevitably, the infamous thoughts of “But God…” followed.  As a counter those doubts, the scripture verse printed on those children’s church blocks echoed that simple reminder of trust in the Lord.  I thought about it more during the afternoon, and come the evening service when John further shared, the feelings were confirmed.  God was calling me to be a missionary in the Oral Learners Initiative!

Actually, maybe it all didn’t start on February 20, 2011.  This is the purpose that God had destined me to fulfill since the beginning.   This is the niche that God has been working and molding me to fill my whole life.  This is my aim.  This is my call.  This is the making of a missionary.