"I have a part in the work done in God's kingdom"
How did you get into missions?
Since I came to faith in 2009, I strongly felt that I want to work for God on a full-time basis. Originally I said “anything but missions”, but God opened doors for me to do MDT in 2014 and I soon realised that I had many misconceptions about what missions is. It was during MDT that I realised that I want to be in missions long term, even though I had no clear direction at the time.
What is your mission experience?
In one word: forming. Some days are extremely blessed and wonderful where other days are much challenging and painful. Sometimes I cannot thank God enough for His work in my life and sometimes I have a lot of questions. I don’t think missions is that much different from the life of a true believer, at least it shouldn’t be. However, I do find myself out of my depth more often than I think I would have outside missions. But this is where God takes over and these times (though mostly hard) are the times I can see and feel God working the most in my life, these are the times I feel God forming me more to His will.
How do you deal with cross-culture?
Honestly I love it! I love meeting different people from different cultures and having friends all over the world. There are always challenges work-wise when different cultures have different ways of working, but I think growing up in a multi-culture country prepared me for it in a sense.
Please share one story from ministry/mission field that influenced you most.
During MDT I had my first GO Challenge experience and promised myself “never again”. But a little over a year later I felt God call me to join the GO Challenge 2016 team and this made 2016 one of the best years of my life. Everything I did was new and there were many challenges. Particularly, I battled with all the admin. There were times I thought I would never get up to date, but most of all it felt as though I was not really doing missions because all the work was just admin and behind the scenes. But at the end of GO Challenge when the teams shared their testimonies, I felt God show me that I had part in the fruit of the outreaches even though I didn’t participate in them myself. And this is my joy: even though I don’t always feel or look like a missionary I have part in the work done in God’s Kingdom. And so are the people that supports me. This is worth hanging on to when challenges come.
What is one thing you will always remember from this experience?
To rely on God for everything. Not just the things I struggle with but also the things I am good at. Because it is when we assume we will succeed in our own strength that we set ourselves up for failure.
If someone wants to join OM, what words of advice do you have for them?
Don’t quit. Be prepared to be challenged and changed. Be open-minded and be sure that this is where God wants you. When you have certainty that you are at the right place you will find a joy and peace even in the worst times.