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May 11, 2025 06:00am

Be Here and Tell the World

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As a child, I dreamed of going somewhere remote to serve as a missionary, just like the brave men and women I learned about at GA’s. As I grew, I did not feel God calling me to pack up and fly away, though. Just as important, my husband never felt led to serve in international missions. (I’m “pretty sure” -as in certain- God would call us both, if that’s what He wanted. God doesn’t normally call spouses to purposefully live separate lives in different countries permanently.) As much as I may have wanted that life, God had other plans.

I was expressing this to my aunt when we were watching my young children play. When I told my aunt I had always wished to go to another nation and serve God like the spiritual heroes I had admired, she hit me with some truth that altered my perspective from that point forward.

My aunt told me that God placed me where I was, with the family I had, for a purpose, and every day I wake up I am walking into a new day on the mission field He designed for me. She encouraged me to prayerfully consider how God was writing my story to impact His kingdom from right in my little city…even right there with my own little family (that could be considered its own people group)… intentionally, exactly where God chose to put me.

My aunt encouraged me to attend an event our church was hosting to provide conversation practice for international students from the local colleges in our town. It is called Conversation Club. I had never heard of it, but I definitely had plenty of practice conversating…and she said the kids were welcome…AND, we didn’t even need to bring a thing, because area churches were providing the meals each week. That was an easy yes!

So, once a week, my husband and I would take our three children to Conversation Club….and it was such a blessing to us. Not only were we able to make friends with students from all over the world, enjoy delicious dinners, meet other families, but we were also given opportunities to share our faith in a setting that was not intimidating at all.

Probably 10 or 15 round tables were scattered in the room, with sheets of paper on each table with conversation prompts on one side and idioms on the back. The sweet leader was filled with passion for this ministry after she experienced Christ, herself, as an international student before she graduated with multiple degrees and became a professor at a local college. She knew the impact this had on students who desired better communication skills, a deeper understanding of American culture, and who she knew God had brought to our community on purpose.

One night, the leader stood on the stage, looking out at the sea of faces all reflecting different cultures, but all made in the image of the same Creator. She instructed the participants to discuss the prompts on the front page of our sheets and encouraged the Americans to see if our new friends might be able to guess the meaning of the nuances and idioms listed on the back. Before she opened our time, she said a prayer, and then she explained to the students that there was a movie called The Bucket List, followed by a brief synopsis, before sending us to fill our plates.

At our table, we began the discussion by listing things that we might have on our own bucket lists. One of the students said he wanted to visit every country in the world before he died – quite the feat. As we went around the table, we heard so many bucket list ideas – cruising all the oceans, attaining the education and accolades one might desire, having a family, and so on. When we got to one sweet friend, she said something that made my insides tumble with excitement. She gave me a direct opportunity to evangelize right there. I had a chance to share my faith with someone from a small village in Africa, while I sat eating yummy food at my church in my own hometown.

The college student looked at us and said that in her village, there was a belief that a person had to do a certain number of things that were on a list in order to go to heaven after they died. She said that that would be her bucket list.

I felt like God was giving me a little nudge, reminding me that he had placed me exactly where I was on purpose. He didn’t need me to go all the way to this African village. He needed me to be intentional in my life where He placed me.

I asked the student what things her villagers said were listed as requirements before being allowed to go to heaven. She said that she needed to be generous to those who are poor. I asked her how generous she needed to be. I asked if there was a certain amount of money that she needed to give. She said she was not sure.

The next thing she said was on the list was to take care of the elderly and the orphans, those without family to care for them. I asked her how much she needed to help them. I asked if there was a certain amount listed for her to do for each of those people, or if she knew how many people she needed to help. She said she was not sure.

The student continued to list out the things she was taught she needed to do from her villagers, and I tried to just listen and gently ask how she knew she had done enough of those things as she listed them, and who got to decide if she had done enough. I was a little bit afraid that I was scaring her away. I prayed silently while we talked that the Holy Spirit would allow her to not be scared off by my questions and that He would reveal to her what the gospel really was.

After my new friend finished explaining her bucket list, I told her that that list sounded like it was very burdensome, and that it would be difficult to know if I had ever done enough. I said that I would not want anyone else to have to decide if I was good, because I knew that I certainly was not. I asked her if she knew anyone who would be worthy to decide if she was good enough.

I had a perfect window to introduce my new friend to Jesus. We talked about how even the very best people we knew messed up sometimes, and that I knew I was among the worst of those I knew, and I knew I didn’t deserve to be forgiven or allowed to be with Jesus. My heart was beating so loudly I was certain everyone else could hear it, but everyone seemed to look like it was just a normal conversation still. I prayed, took a deep breath, and attempted not to seem too giddy about this opportunity. I was still concerned that I might scare my new friend away from my table! I think I said something like, “Thankfully, I can live my life with God…and you can, too-not just AFTER we die, but even now….and we can KNOW we will be with Him in heaven after our time on earth is done, too.”

Our table lit up with discussion about who could decide if a person is good ENOUGH or not. I said that I was so grateful that God sent His own Son, Jesus, to this earth many many years ago, that He lived a perfect life on this earth, and that He chose to die on the cross to pay the penalty for MY sin and everyone else’s. We discussed how it only made sense that a price had to be paid for the bad stuff we had done in our lives, and I said, “What a relief to know God’s own Son chose to take my penalty, and yours, and anyone else who admits we actually are messed up and need Him to be the One who pays that penalty, because I can’t imagine there are any other perfect people who would deserve that authority.” I told her that I was so grateful that I did not have to worry about whether I had done enough good or if I had done too much bad. I asked her if she would be interested in knowing more about that. She smiled, nodded profusely, and said, “Yes, yes! I think I might have heard about this story once.”

And right there, sitting at a plastic table in the city God led our family to live in, in small-town America, God brought a villager from a small country in Africa TO me and let me be used to further His kingdom right at home!