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Feeling the Call and How God Made it Happen

In March of 2019, I was in the middle of my final semester at Moorpark College, and beginning my search for a University to transfer to. All my units were complete and I was considering applying to Cal State Northridge to get a degree in Education, or to a school up north where I could play volleyball. I remember talking to my dad about plans for the next school year. He asked me “Have you thought any more about doing missions?'' I was really interested in the idea when I was in high school but never thought it was possible because I wanted to play volleyball. I said I would think about it, but honestly I was slightly annoyed. I think this was because I wanted to do what I wanted to do and sort of never thought to let the Lord really be a part of this decision. I remember again in that moment feeling like the idea of missions wasn’t practical. Later that week, laying in bed at night I remembered the conversation that I had with my dad. I thought to myself, “It wouldn’t hurt to pray about it”. So I began to pray and ask God if this was something I needed to consider.

I truly expected God to say something like, ‘Just keep praying about it and in time I will reveal it to you’, which I would take as a nice way of saying ‘this is not the season’, because I have gotten that answer before. But that's not what God said to me. As I lay there it was as if the Holy Spirit cut me off from finishing my question. I felt in my whole being the word “GO!” and as I began to weep, I knew this was what the Lord wanted for me in this next season. After feeling that call, a call that left no room for me to doubt that it was straight from the Holy Spirit,I began to ask God, “Okay but where?”

For the first time I realized that everything was about to be completely and utterly out of my control. I think often when God calls us to do something, our first response is fear. I know that was true for me. However, what I have learned about God is that even when we stand in the face of fear and the unknown, when we stand with our loving Father, an abundance of joy always follows. That’s what began to happen. I told my parents that weekend, with tear filled eyes, that God called me to “go” and that's about all I knew. Then began the process of looking for a missions agency and learning to listen and trust God.

I started researching different organizations that I might want to be a part of or places I wanted to go. I even got a bit stressed out, thinking ‘I don't have a plan at all’. That was my call to trust the Lord. So, I said ‘I’ll keep doing research and looking into organizations, but if you want to intervene Lord, and you want me somewhere else, then your will be done’. So I graduated from Moorpark in May and told the coach who had been recruiting me that I was going to take a year off to do missions. I kept researching, and I started to pray a lot. In July, I was spontaneously invited to have dinner with Phil and Laina. Some missionary friends from Europe, the Heymans, were in town and would be having dinner with them, so Laina thought it would be a good opportunity for me to get to know a missionary family, and hear their story. Justus Heyman is the head pastor of a church plant in Crossroads Thoiry, which came out of a church that Laina’s dad Linus Morris started several years ago, called Crossroads Ferney. As we began to talk, I shared with the Heymans about what I was doing in this season, “waiting on God” and that I felt God calling me to missions. They began talking about needing help with the youth ministry at their church. They asked me, “Have you ever thought about interning at a church?”. Honestly I hadn’t, but I was totally open to the idea. I wondered if this was the door the Lord would open for me. I was able to get Justus’ contact information and we began emailing about the possibility of me interning at Crossroads Thoiry. I learned later from Laina that prior to them flying out to California that summer, the church leadership at Crossroad Thoiry had already begun praying about bringing interns on to help with youth ministry.  It was clear that summer that God was opening the door for me to go serve in France.