Mobilizing

We had a Senegal reunion dinner last week, and once again the story was told how in our November team, we all doubted our skill set, but through the course of the week realized just how needed we were.  Which is easy to say when you helped deliver a baby and shared the gospel on the radio.  But even though I still have no idea why I was needed in November, I think I've realized something about my role in life.

I'm a mobilizer.  I may not be so good at the doing; in fact, I will be the first person to tell you how not-great I am at missionaryhood and just the normal Christian practice of telling people why I worship Jesus.  But Donna asked, "What if we had said no when God called us to Senegal?"  And I thought, "Well, none of you would have gone either."

Which got me thinking.  I may not have changed Senegal by living there for three months.  But the world around me has changed because of it.  A team of six went last March.  A team of four went in November.  A team of five is leaving this March.  And another team might leave in November.

Money has been given to the Forsythe ministry.  Work has been done at the Fatick hospital, OCC gifts have been distributed, and missionary women from all over Senegal have been encouraged.

The ladies at the Dunlap Public Library have learned about a new culture and have given money to support people less fortunate than themselves.

Because I went and developed a passion for missions, I was asked to teach a missions lesson every Wednesday night to grade schoolers, who weekly pray for missionaries and missionary kids around the world.  I am about to start teaching my junior high Sunday School class about missions, and how valuable and necessary it is.

I don't pretend to think that God couldn't have done awesome work in Senegal had I not gone there.  But I do think the people of Woodland would not have been the ones to do it.  Maybe all that weight really is on my shoulders.  So when God asks me to do something in the future, I have to do it, if not for myself then for others who might be influenced by my decision.  Even if I'm not good at whatever it is, even if I am not actually the part that matters....maybe my choices impact the choices of others, and affect the amount of workers going out into the mission field.

What if the only reason God called me to Senegal was so that Bill and Christina and Donna and the Wineingers would go to Senegal?  This is both incredibly humiliating (because I am the equivalent of a kick in the butt) and also empowering (because I can use my words to enable other people to use their gifts to bring God glory).  I'll take it.