The words above are lines from a song written by Ray Price, “Where He Leads Me.” They express a sentiment that many people love to sing about. The Sagemont members in this story have a special calling that was given to them as a result of participating in mission trips.
Shelby Bradley is our first person to share her transforming experience:
In July 2011, at the age of 18, I went on my first mission trip to Kenya/Tanzania in Eastern Africa to the very place that my parents and older siblings had lived nearly 20 years before serving as Baptist
Missionaries. In my childish, immature mind, I saw it as an all-expense paid vacation to an exotic location. Little did I know that the Lord was very shortly going to make a beautiful mess out of my life.
All of the stories about Africa that I was told while growing up instantly came to life—the good as well as the bad. For the first time in my life, I was seeing people who had absolutely nothing in this world, yet had a “joy unspeakable.” Their joy was infectious, their love for the Lord and their passion to make Him known to their community was the picture of true Christ-like discipleship. It was there in the midst of the most densely populated slum in the world, with sewage, trash and human waste piled on each side of me that I understood why the Lord had brought me there; it was to humble me and to call me. I was in awe because these believers who had so little would gladly give it up for the sake of the gospel. It was there that the Lord set a fire in my heart that has not gone out since. In fact, it was that fire and passion for missions (and ultimately the call to ministry, as I would realize later) that He gave me in Kenya that has driven my life ever since that moment.
After I returned from Africa and finished my year at community college, the Lord used strategic people in my life that led me to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where I am currently close to finishing my Biblical Studies degree. Because I was a female student in a male-dominated arena and I had a love for teaching, God was able to give me the desire to reach the women who do not have the luxury of attending seminary or Bible school. My ultimate desire at this point in my life is to find work with a church planting group that travels to foreign countries. While the men train the local pastors, I want to teach the pastors’ wives Biblical basics and truths that they will in turn need to reach the women in their husbands’ congregations.
Mission work has taught me that it extends so far beyond VBS, crafts and community service. Those things may be what being the hands and feet of Christ look like, but if those people never explicitly hear the gospel, then the significance of those actions will be lost. A mission trip radically changed my life and my goals, ultimately shaping them to look like Christ’s. The focus of mission trips is the people we are ministering to, but great and small impacts are made on the missionaries’ hearts and souls as well; and in my case, that impact will hopefully lead to the Lord allowing me to help make His name great and to build His Kingdom vocationally for the rest of my life.
Celia Ortiz-Izaguirre related to me that a mission trip changed her life. In the summer of 2008, she went on a mission trip to Marseille, France. It was one of those super-organized trips during which they use the first few days to train the missionaries exactly what they are to do, and what they are to say and when everything is to take place. All of this is very important because the missionaries have to say several sentences in French and even one or two in Arabic. The project was to distribute packets to people who were traveling to their homelands of North African countries. These people were now living and working in France. The packets contained The New Testament, the Jesus film and other Christian literature including some for children. The distribution took place at the port. Celia remembers the leader of the project saying, “Be ready and open to God, and to focus not only on the work that we were about to do, but to think and focus on what God may have for us.” The three shifts ranged from 4:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Celia shared her story:
I experienced firsthand the hard work that they were doing and realized how unprepared I was to do the work. I also had several encounters with people and realized how unprepared I was to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was our last day when our leader preached and asked if someone wanted to share what God had done in our lives during that week. I felt that God called me to prepare myself in order to serve Him better. I asked God that if that is what He was leading me to do, to please open the doors of the seminary here in Houston. It was the end of July, and I went to the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary here in Houston and submitted my application and within a week, I received the acceptance letter. My goal was to go on at least one mission trip per year and be well prepared. God has been awesome to me, and I have had the privilege to go on an average of three mission trips per year. Praise God!! With God’s help, I will be graduating in May 2014 with a Master in Christian Education and a Master in Theological Studies. The next chapter is in His hands.
Tammi Mallory:
Right after becoming a Christian, I reluctantly went on a mission trip to Indianapolis with my church. It was a youth trip, and one of the chaperones had something come up, so she couldn’t go. It left me to go since I was the only other female who worked with the students. Being a new Christian, I had no desire to go on a trip, and to be honest, my attitude probably showed it. While there, I encountered homeless people, children living day to day in survival mode, and homosexuals who believed the church hated them. God changed my heart about all of them, and it was that trip that He used to give me a heart for missions and to call me into full-time service.
A few months after this, I went to Brazil and I was hooked. A few months later, I quit my job and applied to be a full-time missionary with NAMB (North America Mission Board). My appointment was in Hawaii, and I served for two years there at the University of Hawaii Hilo as their Baptist Student Union director. During my time there as a NAMB representative, I traveled all over the country speaking in churches and educating others on the importance of home missions. I also traveled to China and took some of the Hawaiian students with me.
As my two-year appointment was drawing to a close, I knew God wanted me to continue so I began looking at seminaries because in order to continue with NAMB or IMB (International Mission Board), a seminary degree was necessary. In 2002, I moved to Ft. Worth, Texas and began working on my Masters in Missiology degree, all the while, serving wherever and whenever I could. As graduation approached, I began to pray about where in the world God wanted me to go. Being single, I was ready to move wherever He wanted me to move. It was a VERY exciting time in my life. It seems Houston was the mission field He was getting me ready for.
I drove a school bus for Crowley ISD in order to pay for my education at the seminary. During that time, I built a lot of relationships with my students and really loved the job. I believe now that God used that job to nudge me toward becoming a teacher. I was hired as a middle school Bible teacher in a phone interview, put everything I owned in my car, and headed south to Houston.
Ten years later, I am a public school teacher, and I see my job as one of the most difficult ones for a Christian teacher because I can’t openly share my faith with words. I have to live it out every day in front of my colleagues and students. I still go on trips with Sagemont Church whenever I can. Over the course of my missions calling, I have been to a dozen or so countries and over half of the United States. It’s been a VERY exciting ride, and it’s not over yet!
Leonel Rodriguez told me that he never wanted to be a missionary because it seemed that they travel to sometimes unwelcoming countries and sacrifice the lives of their families. He asked his wife, Lisa, what she thought about going on a short-term mission trip to Hildago. He was hoping she would say “no,” but she said “yes.”
Leonel talks about being in Hildago:
The experience there changed my attitude, and I could say possibly my life. Just to watch these people sacrificing their limited funds to cross the border and come to the Mission Center in Hildalgo to receive the clothing, school supplies and food that is given to them impacted my life forever. I’ll never forget how these beautiful children, when given a choice of what they wanted - candy, a toy or a pencil or any school supplies for that matter - they would pick a pencil, an eraser or a crayon instead of a toy or candy. That picture is engraved in my heart forever.
A lady living with an abusive husband asked Leonel and his wife, Lisa, to pray for her and afterwards, with tears in her eyes, said to remember her when they go through troubles back home. Leonel says, “That’s when I realized that on these trips, we can share the Lord to the people around the world in darkness and our presence at this particular time may be the only chance they have to hear the Word of God.”
Since Leonel’s attitude is now completely changed, he and Lisa went on a mission trip to Israel. He says:
The way to present the gospel there is completely different to the way we present the gospel in any other country, but they are paying attention to what we do while there, and that provokes them to ask questions, and that’s the door that we’ve been waiting for. We reply with another question, just like Jesus did every time He was asked something, and that opens up a conversation.
His heart was broken in Honduras as he watched the little children run around with their raggedy clothes and nothing to eat.
Then they want to Spain, a country with a highly educated population. He tells about having dinner one night with a group of fifteen people. He had been warned that all of them were declared atheists. He remembers:
At this particular dinner, I had never before felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as vividly as I did that night, and I asked these folks’ permission to say grace for the food, and they allowed me to do it. I was on cloud nine as were the other missionaries attending with me. After dinner, before we said good bye, I asked permission again to say a prayer and to hold hands in a circle to which all but one agreed. This one told the hostess, “I am not holding another man’s hand,” to which she replied, “Do it!” So he did, and I prayed to close the evening, and thanked them for their hospitality. Isn’t our God AWESOME!!
Leonel believes that missions opened his eyes to the needs, not just around the world, but also around our own neighborhoods to share the Word of God. He says:
We don’t know if we are going to be the only ones who may have a chance to share it with them before they are called to the presence of God.
Sam Norton:
From his early childhood, Sam Norton has memories of stories from his parents about Baptist missionaries around the world. He heard a sermon as a young husband and father about a pastor who took his daughter on a mission trip. Years later, he was able to go to Mexico to help construct a church, and his daughter was able to go also. After the trip, she went to college and became very involved in Campus Crusade for Christ. Sam continued an active role in mission education and leadership in his church.
Sam received training through NAMB offered to volunteers in various aspects of disaster relief—“yellow hats,” as they are known. These are the ones who, immediately following hurricanes or tornadoes, not only provide food, remove trees from houses and make repairs, but also offer tremendous hope and encouragement as they share the reality of God’s great love. Sam says:
One great joy is not just seeing how appreciative the people are to receive assistance in times of great need, but to see how these experiences transform the lives of those that serve. How can you not share the Good News of Christ with your neighbor or your co-worker who is hurting if you’ve gone to great effort to share with someone far from your home? It gives you a whole new look on your role as a local missionary.
In 2004 Sam felt God calling him to do more with missions than organize mission events at his church. Soon after that, a tsunami crashed onto the shores of South Asia, washing away entire towns and killing over 200,000 people. Within a month, through the IMB, he was connected with a nearby church which had missionary contacts in the country and had already formed its first disaster recovery team. Sam joined a team of medical professionals within a month and served for two weeks in small villages on the shores of the Indian Ocean. His pastor’s words were at first expected and then surprising. He said, “Of course our church will pray for you and the team. But God wants you to do more. You need to return again and lead a team.”
Using this strategic opportunity to touch an unreached people and partnering with Baptist IMB missionaries, he was able to organize and lead five more mission trips to South Asia. He has also been on a mission trip to France with his wife. Sam says:
It is worth all the expense and effort to travel around the world if just one life is touched for the Kingdom of God. We’ve seen miracle after miracle as we witness God’s glory working in different lands and cultures. It is such a blessing to see the dedication of believers around the globe and to encourage our missionaries who live in these foreign lands to share God’s love with people everywhere.
Gerry Saccane shares how serving in missions has had an impact on his life:
On my first mission trip I was assigned to go door to door sharing the gospel with two other folks. I was trained and was given a record that was in Spanish about a mother sharing with her child the story of Jesus. Little did I know that I was going to an area that only spoke Spanish. So we knocked on the first door and to my surprise a Spanish lady came to the door, so I played the record and she smiled and invited us into her home. By the way, none of us could speak Spanish. My next thought was now what do I do? After a few moments, a young boy about the age of nine came running out from another room in the house. The thought entered my mind that maybe he could speak English, and of course, he could. I asked him if he would share with his mother in Spanish some things I would share about Jesus in English and he said yes. So from that point, the young boy translated the gospel of Jesus to his mother and both his mother and the young boy prayed to accept Jesus as their Savior. After that we went to many homes and shared Jesus and many folks trusted Jesus as Savior. From this experience, God changed me and I realized I needed to go on mission trips sharing the gospel as well as in the USA. I learned that if we do God’s work, He is available to make it happen, and we can rely and depend upon Him to be successful in life. From my perspective, going on mission trips is where I get to see God perform miracles as we share the gospel with those who may be seeking Him. It is not that God doesn’t perform miracles in Houston, but there are many activities in our life that sometimes take away from our focus or listening to God. So now I spend my retired years serving in missions at Sagemont and continue to go on mission trips helping to further God’s Kingdom.
“I can hear my Savior calling.” Can you hear your Savior calling? Are you ready to go wherever He is leading you? Are you listening to that special plan for your life? It may come when you least expect it. Be ready to hear Him. He’s always ready to hear you.