Have you ever confidently followed GPS directions for several hours and found yourself in a different location than you intended? While on deputation in rural New Hampshire (and before smart phones were ubiquitous), I ended up in a cemetery across town from the church I was intending to visit. Thankfully, the town was fairly small, and it was easy to find the correct location after a few laps. There have also been times in my life when I have set out with a fair amount of confidence as to the nature of my role and work as a missionary, only to find the Lord leading me to different roles and work that He had graciously prepared for me. I’d like to share with you how the Lord used a burden for medical missions to broaden my exposure and perspective on missions and eventually guide me into the rather different role I now have on a church-planting team.
Exploring Missions Through Short-Term Trips
God used two short-term medical missions trips spread over the duration of 27 months to change my abstract ideas about missions into a more concrete understanding. He also redirected some of my plans. In high school, God had used a missions conference at my church to challenge me to commit to missions. I had no specific leading as to how I should engage in missions work, but I had always considered medical missions as a possibility. After getting a degree in nursing and working for three years as a medical-surgical nurse in our local hospital in Concord, NH, I applied to Gospel Fellowship Association’s short term missionary program. I was still thinking that I was gifted for medical work but not necessarily for a teaching or primarily evangelistic role on a team of missionaries. GFA directed me to work in a remote part of Papua New Guinea with a church planter, who in addition to planting a church was juggling a small medical work, as well as the many tasks associated with maintaining body and soul in the bush of PNG. After nine months of working with and learning from this church planter and his wife, I accepted another short-term assignment in which I would replace a GFA missionary nurse practitioner in her clinic while she took her first well-earned furlough. In both cases I was pursuing what I thought was my gifting or role in missions, but God used this trip to move me toward a different focus.
Discovering Different Burdens and Desires
While working in these locations and rubbing shoulders with a few missionaries from other organizations in PNG, God began to give me a desire for teaching and working in the heart language of the local people. During my second short-term stint, I taught clinic patients and Sunday school students using the national trade language called Tok Pisin. However, over time it became evident that when people really wanted to communicate with each other, they used the local tribal language rather than the national trade language. I began to realize that I was missing out on a whole realm of opportunity for conversation and teaching. Since a missionary’s primary job as a gospel ambassador is communication, God started giving me a burden for learning the local tribal language.
When filling in for the nurse while she was on furlough, I also inherited her upper elementary-aged Sunday school class. I found that I enjoyed teaching and getting the lessons ready from scratch using the simple outlines she had provided. In the past I had often helped co-teach children’s Sunday classes, but because of having an irregular schedule as a floor nurse, I had never been the main teacher or carried much responsibility. Teaching these classes in PNG as a short-termer opened my eyes to what children were capable of learning and also showed me that God had given me some measure of aptitude for and enjoyment of teaching.
Leading to My Current Role
God used these medically-focused short-term trips to move me towards my current, multi-faceted role on a church-planting team in Kiari Village, Papua New Guinea. The months-long short-term ministry showed me missions in reality and not in the abstract. I learned that missionaries are really engaged in much more than what they feel capable of and gifted for. I learned that the neatly laid plans and ideas I had for mission work might not necessarily be God’s leading and gifting for me. I had to be willing to put aside some of those plans and propositions and ask God to lead me towards His plans for me.
After a lot of prayer and seeking some counsel, I came into my current varied role on a church-planting team in Kiari Village, Papua New Guinea. Two days per week are dedicated to helping the community medically in a small clinic. The rest of the week is given to individual Bible studies with local ladies (both believers and unbelievers), teaching adult literacy, preparing a Sunday school curriculum, and translating and recording Bible study materials as well as the Gospel of Mark into the local tribal language.
I am thankful that God used the short-term medical experiences to guide me toward my current role. Both experiences clarified and directed my thinking as well as exposed me to other opportunities of service as a missionary. It is not the role I expected to fill, but by God’s grace, He has given me the desires of my heart in the work He had prepared for me.