Consider your Calling

By Marti Smith, Pioneers

You’ve had a taste of it, and you want to change the world; you wonder if there’s a place for you among the 400,000 or so long-term foreign missionaries serving around the globe. Yet maybe you compare yourself to missionary role models and heroes and wonder if you have what it takes. You’ve seen friends make emotional commitments they didn’t keep, or watched people you thought were in it for life come home beat up and confused. All this makes the question seem more serious. Before you set about finding a fit, preparing to go, and getting sent, you’re asking God: Lord, is this something you’re leading me into? Do you want me to be a missionary?

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Becoming a Missionary

Oftentimes it is in the midst of serving in missions short-term that God begins to tug on your heart and breathe life into the spark of passion that rests in your soul. His voice whispers to you that giving your life to go to other lands to help others find a relationship with Him is His plan for you. It’s so exciting to think about! God wants you! He has created you for this and is calling you to trust Him and follow His voice. So what should you do next?

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Missions as a Career

The following section begins with a readiness quiz and then provides practical steps to take if you are pursuing missions as a career. Several links will bring you to Ask a Missionary, a valuable resource for those seeking information about missions as a career.

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Special Considerations

By Dennis Vogan

Now that you are well into The Next Mile E-zine, I am sure you realize that your short-term ministry experience impacted you in far greater ways than you ever imagined it would.  Life and relationships feel differently than before you first landed in your short-term ministry location.  In fact, you may even grasp that it is not merely your perspectives that have changed, but you have changed, e.g. a deeper, even different kind of walk with the Lord, life values – purposes - priorities, and even what’s next for your life because you want it to count for eternity. You might even be asking the Lord if missions as a career is what He has in store for you.  It’s a humble question, one that I myself didn’t consider up until the end of our two-year short-term experience. It’s a question that the answer may seem daunting to you but it is one that is answered in simple but authentic faith, step by step.

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