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The calling in the heart of a high school sophomore would become real life!
Most American high schools have a homecoming spirit week. Before which, a student club brainstorms together to choose the themes of each school spirit day. And more often than not, career day is picked as one of those themes.
On career day, high school halls are filled with nurses, doctors, scientists, teachers, and business men and women. Some students even think outside the box and dress as actors, coaches, athletes, or millionaires.
At my high school, on my career day, I dressed as a humanitarian aid worker.
The inspiration for my choice came from earlier that year, when I went on my first out-of-country trip with my church youth group to Quito, Ecuador. It was everything you would expect from a short-term trip: VBS, painting over graffiti on the outer church walls, miscellaneous building repair projects, and plenty of time spent on the playground-- enjoying time with younger students who didn't care about a language barrier.
View from our hostel in Quito, Ecuador
The Lord used the ten days I spent in Ecuador to reveal what life could look like outside of the 'American Dream.'
This new view altered what major I planned to study, and which University I planned to attend.
College T-Shirt Day, 12th Grade
I chose Liberty --
Because out of other Christian universities I visited, I felt like the Global Studies program they offered was going to give me the real-life field experience I would need for my planned post-grad life.
Teaching lovely 7th grade students in Hong Kong
I studied Teaching English as a Second Language --
Because I knew if I was going to go where the gospel wasn't, I needed a reason to be there. Teaching was going to be my ticket into hard-to-be places.
A joy-filled, blurry selfie with some students in my class, after their English drama performance
I added a minor in Chinese --
Because 1 in 5 people in the world speak Mandarin, and of China's population, 141,344,000 people are considered Unreached.*
*See the report on the Joshua Project:
https://joshuaproject.net/countries/CH
Throughout College
I took courses like
- Intercultural Communication and Engagement
- World Religions
- Cultural Anthropology
- Global Work Career Preparation
- World Languages
- Modern Chinese Culture and Society
that taught me how to effectively create prayerful partnerships, raise finances, establish in-country relationships, resolve cross-cultural conflict, and communicate respectfully--all in preparation for going out as a Global Worker.
The Lord had other plans for what post-grad life would look like, though, when I found myself saying, "Yes" to marrying a Godly man. It meant going overseas to serve would be a calling put on hold, and instead I would trust that God would provide ways to tangibly help gospel efforts stateside.
this is where hope comes in.
Since graduating, moving several times and holding various work roles, I have longed to find a way to still invest in "Frontier" Communities. As you know, prayer is the most important part of this work.
But the prompting in me to find a way to utilize my skillset for the good of the Gospel and the Great Commission around the globe is an itch that has not yet subsided.
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I recently listened to HOPE International's Global Virtual Event. In the presentation, Peter Greer quoted the proverb that says, "A society grows great when they plant fruit trees that they themselves will never eat from." He explained how it is HOPE's mission to take this concept and apply it to impoverished communities. The mission exists because seeds have been planted in our own lives, he said, and we have an invitation to pay this forward, serving others as if it were Christ himself we are serving.
For me, there have been countless seeds planted in my own life. There were people praying for me while I was in Ecuador, and before that, others praying for me that I would know Christ and count it as joy to follow Him.
It is for this reason, I know I am called to invest in others and identify their potential, because the same has been done for me.
Creating a career at HOPE International with this in mind seems like a great opportunity to do just that--invest in underserved communities, and call out the dignified potential in others.
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