So this is one that I get a lot...I know most of you have some kind of idea of what I do, but just wanted to take the time and share for you...
Let me first start off that I'm at the North American Mission Board which is in Alpharetta, directly north of Atlanta. It's an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, just like the International Mission Board and LifeWay. Most of you know my first experience here came the summer following my junior year in college when I applied to work with World Changers Summer Staff. They ended up giving me a position here at NAMB working on everything that came back in from all of the projects. It was a good summer, but it wasn't until I got back to MTSU that fall that I really began to think back on it and how much I loved it and actually missed it. I decided I would definitely do it again the next summer. As it turned out that's when I didn't get into dental school and lined everything up to stay and continue working with World Changers as a semester missionary...
Well, looking back, God completely orchestrated all of this and the course of my time here these last few years. I had asked David to write one of my references for my World Changers application that first summer, and we were only friends at the time. He wrote on there how I push myself so hard by taking on so many projects at once or something to that effect, and I found out later that was the reason I wasn't placed on a traveling team at the projects. They thought that since I could apparently handle so many tasks at once they gave me the job of evaluating all 68 projects instead of just working with four or five! At the time I was really upset, but God knew even then what all was to take place in our lives!
My faith was tested throughout all of it after I did get into dental school that second summer after I graduated, but I really was struggling with a search for significance. I had become so wrapped up in a success-driven profession even though I knew in my heart I would be ready to go into medical missions if God called me to that. I kept hearing His still, small voice though, and I knew all along what my passion was. That first summer that I did World Changers after my freshman year in high school, that was a huge spiritual milestone in my life and the point that I fell in love with missions.
That position working with World Changers, I felt that I could do that the rest of my life even though it was only as a temporary status. That's when my current position came open, and everyone tried to get me to go for it, and I know now God created it just for me. At first I was disappointed that I wouldn't be working with World Changers any longer, but the good thing was I would still be working with student missionaries.
And that's what I do. My exact title - Student Missionary Specialist. To break it all down, I work with high school and college students both, as well as some graduate and seminary students. It's so funny that because of it my life still is on the same cycle of fall semester, spring semester, summer. Of course most of our students serve during the summer when they take a break from school. We usually average around 120 Sojourners (these are our high school students, juniors and seniors) and about 250 Collegiate Summer Missionaries. However, we do have college students that serve year-round as Semester Missionaries. We have the current count at 237 for this fall semester, and they are keeping me busy!
My responsibilities: well, everything that we have that's promotional material or on our website, my name, phone number, and email are listed on those so I get a lot of general inquiries about student missions. Mostly from students themselves, but also from churches and ministries wanting to know how students can serve with them. I also handle all of the files for each student that applies. They come in electronically, and I set up a physical file and wait on their references to come in. I see them through the whole application process of approval and placement, and once placed at a ministry, I send them their placement information. Usually I get lots of questions back from them before they begin serving, so I try my best to get them ready to go to the field.
For the students that are on the field, I keep up with their monthly reports, do all the statistics on them for gospel presentations, professions of faith, etc. I also do the monthly stipends for our semester missionaries and submit those to accounting. We provide insurance for them, so I keep up with that too, as well as all of their travel. We cover that, and if they drive I do their mileage reimbursements. I try and send out newsletters to them periodically with info they need and reminders to turn in their reports too.
Other stuff - I keep a lot of stats. Numbers of students serving, states they're serving in, where they're from, number in process...Mailouts, I do some promotional mailouts to churches throughout the year. Also, we partner with our state conventions, and each state has a state supervisor of student missionaries, so I work with them a lot to keep our lists accurate as to who is serving or will be serving in their state. Needs list updates...that is constant as we have new projects come in and current ones filled all the time. I occasionally get to travel and do some conferences or speak at churches. One of my first entries was from this summer when we got to go and visit some of our missionaries this summer. I always love to do that cause it blesses my heart so much to see ministry going on.
That's the hardest part of my job, not seeing the work that's done firsthand and getting out there and meeting people. I'm trying to make my job more personal this year and not just have paper files that come across my desk. I forget sometimes that these are real kids out there. I love that I am not so far removed that I can relate to them well. I've just been through so much of what they're going through, and I love to hear their stories at how God is at work in their lives.
I also am amazed at how God has brought so many people back into my life through this. My college minister my first two years at Belle Aire Baptist Church, Aaron Coe, he is now working in our Strategic Focus City with a large group of our semester missionaries in New York City. He and his wife were just appointed as Career Missionaries with NAMB and were in the office a few weeks ago. Bill Wade, also one of the college ministers I knew in Murfreesboro, he is the National Collegiate Ministry Specialist at LifeWay now, and we partner with him a lot. He just called the other day...Matthew Harding, who took Aaron's place at Belle Aire, he is part of this collegiate network, and I even got to go back to Belle Aire and promote student missions one Wednesday night in the spring. It was so amazing to go back there and share! Because of he and Aaron though we have tons of students serving from MTSU, and I love it! I even have good friends of mine that I was in Bible study with while I was there that are serving, and it's been a blessing to keep up with them. It's just the biggest encouragement to me any time God allows my path to cross with someone from before. It makes me feel as though I'm exactly where I need to be and always have been in each step of my life.
I truly do love what I am doing, and I have no doubt that this is what God has called me to. I went in my parents' Sunday School class on Sunday morning, and he started off by asking, "Do you simply fill a position or fulfill a calling in your work?" I know without a doubt that this is my calling. I work with some amazing people who all share in my love for missions, and it's a blessing to be here. I never, ever would have dreamed God had this planned for me, but my heart is always becoming more and more passionate towards the work that I do. As I see all that is going on in the world, it encourages me to know that somehow what I'm doing is making a difference, an eternal one. I know there are so many things happening and lives I'm touching that I may never know about, but it all goes back to that feeling that what I'm doing is significant. I looked to find my success in life, and even though so many people don't see me as that in the work that I do, I know I have found my own success in this significance.
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life?" Matthew 16:25-26
1 comment:
that is awesome.
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