"He came to Jesus at the age of eighteen.... He did not have much background in the faith, but he was hungry to learn. He be gan to read the New Testament and was taken by the four Gospels.The author then adds this comment
He fell in love with the work and the will of God. He simply trusted God and tried to live his life under the authority of scripture. Reading what he later learned was the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and another word in Acts 1:8, he thought, “This is God’s word and it has authority over me. God says in his word that I should go the nations, so I must do that if I am to be Jesus’ follower? It was simple and straightforward. With joy, this uneducated man had understood that the entire world was open to him for ministry. That is what God had told him in his word. And that is what he believed—until the day that he encountered the mission agency.
He was married now, and thrilled at the prospect of following through on the biblical command to “go to the ends of the earth,” With his wife, he applied through his denomination to serve overseas. Soon he and his wife were in a small room with some men in suits. They looked at him and said, “Tell us about your call to foreign missions.” He innocently looked at them and said, “I read Matthew 28:18 and Acts 1:8.” They smiled. “That’s good,” they said. “but with this board, there has to be an experience of ‘a divine call’ to foreign missions. Tell us how God called you to overseas missions.”
The young candidate was confused. “I read the Bible,” he said. “I read Matthew 28:18 and Acts 1:8. I read God’s command to go to the nations—and I am trying to go!” By now, his wife was in tears. Raised within the denomination, she could see her husband did not know the secret code words that opened the doors fix overseas missions. With patience, the men in suits explained again the agency’s position about “a call” that would allow the agency to send a family overseas. Not knowing any better, the candidate replied, “I am simply trying to be obedient to what God has commanded me to do. It seems this denomination has created a special call to foreign missions that would give people an excuse not to he obedient to what Cod has already commanded.” Dead silence. Surprisingly, he was approved. He and wife headed overseas."
(Five Lies about Missions, Nik Ripken & Barry Sticker. EMQ, Jan 2008, Vol 44, No1, p.34-35)
"But our conversations about call should be focused on where we have been called rather than on whether we have been called."
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