Initial Interest in Missions
I believe God has called me and opened doors for me to be a
missionary in Peru. When I was young, my pastor had a specific vision for our
church concerning missions. He prayed for one family from our congregation to
rise from our church each year in order to give their lives to full time
missions. Though my family was not one of those families, I grew up knowing
that missions was an important aspect of following Christ. Thus, my family
encouraged me to go on mission trips. I’ve been to Mexico four times, Haiti,
Peru, and many trips within the country. I have always enjoyed participating in
Mission trips, but it wasn’t until I came to Clearwater that I realized that
God had given me a passion for Missions for a reason. He wanted me to invest my
life into a people group outside of the United States.
God’s leading through Academic Majors
I started my college career majoring in Elementary
Education. My mom has been a teacher since before I was born. My grandma was a
teacher for many decades before that. I thought teaching was in my blood. I sat
through three semesters of Education classes.
The classes were fine. They didn’t bore me to tears, but I wasn’t
exactly on the edge of my seat ready to race into a room of second graders.
During Christmas break of my sophomore year, I started talking to my parents
about switching my major to Church Ministries. At this point I was starting to
realize my fascination with missions. I knew I could use teaching on the
mission field, but I wanted to broaden my focus. I wanted to learn how to
effectively minister to people in areas other than teaching. I looked at the
check sheet for Church Ministries and saw that I could take classes in
Christian counseling, camp ministries, music ministries etc. Those options
simply weren’t available in the course of my very full Education degree. I
vividly remember sitting at the kitchen table with my parents a few days before
Christmas. After explaining what I wanted to do and why, my dad gave me a
pitiful face and explained to me that he didn’t see how a young lady could
support herself with a Church Ministries degree. In our church and many similar
to ours, the majority of the ladies involved with the ministry are volunteers.
However, I could not be dissuaded. They told me to pray about it, and they
trusted me to follow God’s leading. So I came back to school under the Church
Ministries Major.
An incredible Opportunity
Dr. Abel was my new advisor. We looked at the classes I had
already taken and those I would have to take in order to graduate. We realized
that all of my elective credits had already been filled with education classes.
However, it wouldn’t be a problem. I would still be able to graduate without
any difficulty. A few weeks later, I met a couple named Pastor Jim and Becky
Carlton. They are missionaries in Peru and also happen to be the in-laws of my
roommate from freshman year. They were finishing a year of furlough and were
supposed to go visit their families before heading back to Peru. However, God
changed their path and brought them to CCC instead. They came to present the
ARRIBA ministry opportunity to the students. However, I had no real intention
of talking with them about their ministry. I just thought I’d go talk to them
about my former roommate and see how she was doing. That conversation didn’t
last very long and soon they were telling me about an incredible opportunity. As
directors of the ARRIBA program through Baptist Mid-Missions, their job on the
mission field is to bring college students (like me) to Peru for one year and give
them a first hand look at what missions is all about. Unlike the short-term
trips that I had been on before, this trip teaches students the utter
difficulties as well as the overwhelming victories that missionaries face each
year on the field. Not only do the students see missions up close and personal,
they also get a years worth of college credit for it! The Carlton’s told me
that students usually take the trip during their junior year. However, since it
was already the second semester of my sophomore year, they advised me to go for
my senior year. I wasn’t a fan of that idea. Senior year away from my friends?
No thanks. I told them I wanted to take the trip during my Junior year anyway.
They said they would do the best that they could, but I only had three and a
half months to get everything organized.
The organizational Process in Fast Forward
First I had to break the news to my parents that I would be
leaving for a year. I think they only said yes because they didn’t think I’d
actually be able to pull everything off in fourteen weeks. My next step was to
convince CCC to let me go. They had never had a student participate in this
program before. The division chairs had to meet three or four times before they
decided that they would in fact accept the credits that I would be taking
during the academic portion of the year. The next few steps happened in a blur.
I had to be officially accepted into the program through Baptist Mid-Missions.
I had to fill out applications and get shots and write papers and get
references together. I also had to sit down with Dr. Abel again to see if my
already full schedule would allow me to take the courses offered by the program
and still graduate in May of 2014. Keep in mind that I had already changed my
major once. Now I’m trying to add another program on top of that. It was
definitely a stretch. Most kids who participate in this program plan ahead and
set aside those classes to be taken in Peru. However, I had just found out
about the program. I had already taken half of the courses during my freshman
and sophomore years. However, Dr. Abel pulled some strings and manipulated my
transcript to allow me to graduate with the rest of my class. By the time I had
gotten the thumbs up from CCC and had gotten accepted by Baptist Mid-Missions,
it was the first week of April. I was scheduled to leave at the end of May.
Since one of the purposes of this trip is to give students real missionary
experience, I had to raise support. I spent Spring Break sending out letters
asking people to help me spend the year in Peru. Then I had to get what seemed
like hundreds of shots since I would be living in a developing country and
taking trips to the amazon jungle. By this time I was getting ready for final
exams and packing up my dorm to head home. I drove thirty-six hours to
Colorado, unpacked just to pack again, was commissioned by my church, and hit
the ground running to Ohio for three days of orientation with seven perfect
strangers. From there we started our eleven-month ministry in Peru. During
those eleven months, I fell in love with the country: its people, the food, the
missionaries, everything. I came back from that trip a changed person. I knew
God was calling me to go back full-time.
The Call: A Personal Experience
Many people say they were “called” into ministry. I had never
really figured out what that meant. I’m still not 100% sure how to define it.
I’m sure it’s different for everyone. But I know that God has placed a passion
in my heart for the people of Peru. He opened doors for me before I even knew
they existed. First, he opened my eyes for the necessity of missions through my
pastor and through short term trips. Then he led me to change my major when I
didn’t even know exactly why. If I had still been studying to be an El Ed
major, I never would have been able to fit the Peru classes into my schedule.
God changed the Carlton’s path so that they could come to CCC and tell me about
their program. He also provided the money for the trip in such a short period
of time. He worked through Dr. Abel and the other division chairs to allow me
to use the credits I’d be receiving through the trip. Even though I can’t
define “God’s call,” I think this series of circumstances is God calling me to
Peru. He put a passion in my heart, opened doors, and guided me right into the
country of Peru. That’s not coincidence. He put me there on purpose. I believe
he wants me there full-time. I am excited to once again be apart of the
ministry that is still happening in Peru.
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