How Global Experiences and Mission Led Me to My Call

A  thousand voices from a hundred different countries join together, all singing God’s praises in a 130-year-old church in Bahrain. People of different faiths rest upon a dune in the Wahiba Sands of Oman, staring up at an array of brilliant stars, contemplating the glory of God together. A mural is painted on a wall in Bethlehem to represent the hope we can find in God, despite the despair the people behind the barrier feel under a brutal occupation. Wells bring a promise of a better future in the Kenyan savannah. All across Europe, pastors and missionaries find innovative ways to engage increasingly secular societies that are searching for purpose. Young adults from the United States feel the wind whip through their hair as they bump along on the back of a truck in rural Nicaragua and visit beneficiaries of ministries whose lives are being changed for the better. 

All of these realities are ones I’ve been blessed to witness firsthand, and every single one changed my life in profound and intricate ways. From an early age, being missionally engaged in the global church has been a part of my traveling experiences. My exposure to the global church and the incredible work being done through it helped me shift my perspective on issues I may not have understood and opened my eyes to realities I had failed to see previously. 

What I didn’t anticipate was the global church bringing me home. Now, a part of me lies within all of the places I have been and the people I have come to know there.

Related: Four valuable lessons from the global church today

As I transitioned into young adult life, my relationship with the church was undoubtedly broken. I was struggling with the rift between how I saw the heart of Jesus and the way I saw the church as an organization. I saw how the church is often a place where people feel judged rather than loved, and I reflected on how that was a part of my story as well at certain times in my life.

Related: 3 ways the church can be hospitable in a time of faith deconstruction

Although I continued to grapple with this reality of the church in the states, I also had the chance to continually see the hope and heart of missions that the global church had to offer. My parents had accepted a missionary position in the country of Bahrain; within my first visit to the country, I fell in love with the culture and the incredible church that welcomed me with open arms. After college, I had the opportunity to travel with the Reformed Church in America to visit different mission partners in Europe and to grapple with the cultural reality of increasingly secular societies. The missionaries and church planters in Europe were—and are—finding unique ways to engage a population that has completely disregarded the idea of belief in a higher power. Through these experiences, I began to redefine my idea of faith in a context that resonated deeply with me, rather than what others wished me to believe. Seeing things through the lens of the global church helped me heal my relationship with my faith and begin to use my voice as a young adult in the church.

When the opportunity arose for me to become the Reformed Church in America’s coordinator for young adult global engagement, it became increasingly clear why God had led me through all of these experiences. I am ecstatic to lead other young adults through experiences similar to the ones I have had in my own life. It has been amazing doing exactly that and journeying with a group of young adults to Nicaragua this past summer. It is already evident how this global experience changed their lives; one of the participants decided to take a gap year and serve globally, while another solidified her decision to pursue pastoral ministry after the interactions she had on this experience.

The opportunity to extend beyond a reality of comfort and familiarity and to engage in a different, unfamiliar context pushes us to grow. Through these kinds of experiences, we are forced to think outside of ourselves, which inspires change and conversation. That is exactly the sort of change I am pursuing in my ministry. It is a wonderful gift to lead young adults through these experiences, and I pray that God continues to use my passions and life story to journey alongside young adults while they witness the work of the global church firsthand and use these experiences as a conduit for their own lives and in the reality of the church.