When God Chooses You By Maureen Kambarami
A God adventure is an instant trip or opportunity that God gives us at any point in our lives. There is often no warning before-hand since God expects us to trust Him completely, since He has our best interests at heart, for He knows the plans that He has for each one of us (Jeremiah 29:11). However, our participation is entirely voluntary, we can choose to either accept or reject the offer and if we choose the latter, God will still find someone else to carry out the mission. This reminds me of the story of Esther in the Bible when Mordecai asked her to plead to the King on behalf of the Jewish people. Esther naturally hesitated, for who in his right mind would knowingly approach the lion’s den? However, Esther’s hesitation so infuriated Mordecai that he sent her this harsh message, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish” (Esther 4:14, NIV) This clearly shows that even if we turn a God adventure down, God will still find someone else to carry out that mission. However, His choice of a person is based on our life experiences. It is those same experiences that qualify us for the job because God is the one “who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor 1:4, NIV). This qualification, therefore, makes us confident of taking any adventure, knowing that God never makes mistakes in His choices.
I had my first God adventure when I was still a teenager, and when it happened, it wasn’t expected at all. I was 16 years old when I finished high school and was at a crossroads in my life. Unlike my peers, who knew precisely what they wanted to study in college, I was caught between two choices: nursing or teaching. No matter how hard I tried to make a choice, I just could not convince myself that it was the right one. It is at this point that my mother advised me to take a gap year, hoping the time out will clear my foggy mind. My pastor then came to my rescue and advised me to join a group of other teens who were going away on a 12 months’ missionary experience at a remote mission hospital. That is how I found myself packing my few worldly possessions and bidding my teary-eyed mother and sibling’s farewell. To be honest, I had not the faintest inkling of what I was getting myself into, but I was just glad that I was going to work at the mission hospital for nursing was my first love. Upon arrival at the mission hospital, I was assigned to the male ward where I was supervised by a registered nurse. The latter was a highly sociable person and a good teacher; her only weakness was her perennial late coming. As a result, I had to man the ward by myself most of the time as she either came to work late or extended her tea and lunch breaks. It was during one lunch break that an unusual incident happened. The previous day we had admitted a male who came in with 60% burn wounds inflicted by his wife with
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