HERE I AM

Missionary Nun on horseback, South Africa
Photo credit: Ebay

BY KATHY FULTON

When I was younger, I had this image of what a missionary was like. The female variety was an older lady, gray hair in a bun, erect posture, tough as nails but wonderfully kind and compassionate. Nothing ruffled her feathers. She could hike up a mountain with a heavy backpack, wade through deep water along the way, and quote scripture from any book of the Bible with divine guidance so that the most edifying scripture was delivered at just the right moment. She began each day with an hour of prayer, Bible reading, and meditation, and was in constant communion with the Lord.

As I have aged and have met many, many missionary women, I have learned that missionaries come in all shapes, sizes, skill sets, and even varying levels of spiritual maturity. Some missionary women I have known really do seem to fit my old stereotype. But many are very different, and yet are still called by the Maker Himself. One thing they have all had in common, though: They have a willing heart.

A few years ago, we stopped at some dear friends’ house in Florida on the way back from a short-term mission trip to Haiti. I explained to our friends how ironic it was that God had called us to do mission work in Haiti. I am certainly not the rugged or adventuresome type, I don’t have medical training  (or aspirations of entering the medical field) as most do on our medical mission trips, I’m not even a heat-and-beach-loving person. It seems counterintuitive. But my wise friend told me this is precisely how the Lord often works. He sometimes calls the most ill-equipped to do His work. If He only called those who are most adept in a given place, the rest of the world would not understand how wonderfully He alone can provide.

When God called Moses to bring His people out of Egypt, Moses’ first words were, “Here I Am.”  He followed that by explaining to God how ill-equipped he was to do the task at hand. But God let Moses know that He didn’t expect Moses to do everything, but God would work through Him. All Moses had to do was be willing.



Goomba the Capuchin (not Mark)
and I in Honduras

So Here I Am, about to embark on an exciting and uncertain mission from the Lord Himself. The only assurance I have, and the only assurance I need, is that God will provide. I don’t even need the gray hair in the bun.