6 minute read
My Calling
By Christina Massey, Mission Lead at Faith Home in Honduras
I grew up in a Christian home with loving parents and two beautiful sisters. I am so very thankful for my family and the things that they instilled in me throughout my life. They always encouraged me to be myself, while giving me advice and loving me unconditionally. My family is a huge part of my calling.
I was grounded in all the basics of church and being a Christian, and was saved at a young age. It wasn’t, however, until I was an adult that I truly understood and developed a relationship with God. From that relationship, I have embarked on an incredible journey with God. A calling to be a part of fulfilling the Great Commission, taking God’s love to the ends of the earth. A calling that drew me to Honduras.
Reflections from my journals....
September 2002: My first mission trip was to Choluteca, Honduras. I realized quickly, that I was out of my comfort zone, things don’t always go as planned and I had to totally and completely depend on God to do anything there. I thought that I went to ‘help people,’ but the things God taught me that week through the Hondurans and my teammates impacted the path of my future more than even I realized at the time. My prayer at the end of the week was “Lord, help me to not be satisfied with my comfortable life any longer. Use me to reach others for you.”
September 2003: I hadn’t intended to go back to Honduras. Through a chain of events and against many odds, I ended up going. It was during that trip, I prayed for the first time ‘Lord, show me how to best serve you. I surrender all. Here I am, send me.” (I was praying for direction in my life as to where to best serve.)
2004-2011: Several more mission trips and repeated opportunities to see God’s miracles, make incredible friends and be a part of His movement in Honduras. Each trip taught me more about God, made me love the Hondurans even more and left me less satisfied with my ‘comfortable life.’
One journal entry reveals “I love it here. I love the culture and the enthusiasm with which they worship. I could stay here forever.”
In my journal, I also wrote about how blessed I am and how I want to use those blessings for God’s glory. “Lord, I put my life in your hands. I give it all to you. Show me your will and I will follow.”
February 2010: As I sat praying in front of the team house at Faith Home in Honduras, looking up at the surrounding mountainside, I once again prayed ‘Here I am Lord, send me.’ I clearly heard Him say to me ‘If you really are willing to go where I send you, then get ready. Sell your house and get things in order. Get ready to go.”
I’d like to say that I ran home, sold my house and immediately followed God to where He was leading me, but I didn’t. Instead, I began a quest to seek God deeper, ‘find myself,’ and try to figure out (on my own) where I belonged and what that meant. I spent countless hours alone with God where He poured into my heart who He was and what it was to truly worship Him. There were so many opportunities to help people around me that I kept pretty busy and justified that it was enough.
During the course of 2011, I finally acknowledged that God was calling me to Honduras. I sought more information on mission opportunities and began to ponder the possibilities of what that would look like. But I still wasn’t quite ready to let go of my ‘comfortable life,’ my family, my friends, my church….MY life.
In September 2011, as we worshipped with the Hondurans at a new church plant site in Pimienta, I was overwhelmed. No more empty words to God, no more compromising…just obey God’s calling. Total surrender.
When I accepted God’s call to Honduras, the rest just fell into place in a whirlwind. I cried the tears of goodbye and embraced the excitement of hellos in the process of leaving my old life behind and walking into the unknown God had before me.
Journal entry 2011: “I know it won’t be easy, but I also know that no cost is too great if I’m following God’s voice. He will take care of me and everyone I leave behind. I am excited to see how God is using the children of Faith Home to reach their own country for Him. They will be the hands, feet, and heart of God to their country.”
I moved to Faith Home Honduras in 2012. The past nine years have been nothing like I had imagined, but more than I could have ever hoped for. I’ve learned that my ‘calling’ was not just to be a missionary or the administrator of Faith Home or anything that comes with a title. My calling was actually pretty simple all along… “Follow Christ.” Wherever He leads, I will go. Whatever He says, I will do.
The day to day operations of Faith Home are part of what I do, but the real ‘calling’ is letting God have control of it all, whether it be the daily decisions, how to respond to the person before me, looking into the eyes of the children to know how to best help them, or how to lead a Bible study in Spanish. Some days are filled with simply just ‘doing life together’ along with the Hondurans and allowing God to flow through the ordinary moments to create extraordinary opportunities to see HIM move in hearts and minds. Each day brings new challenges and unexpected moments, but as long as I stay ‘plugged in’ to the ONE who is in control I am constantly amazed at God’s sovereign hand.
I am so thankful for God calling me to Honduras and all of its blessings:
• Blessings to be a part of the Faith Home family and to be surrounded by God’s beauty in the people (as well as the landscape).
• Blessings to see God do amazing things in the lives of the children and youth at Faith Home daily.
• Blessings to walk through the valleys with the children and young adults and see God bring them up with the hope of a future in Him.
• Blessings to see God bring to fruition the visions of General Baptists as the youth rise up to be Godly men and women.
• A bonus blessing to have the miracle of my son Isaias that God brought into my life to remind me of His faithfulness and fill my home with joy. At five years old he already loves the ministry as well and has the heart to help others.
Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings…and for calling me.
Bonus Video Content!
Watch as Christina talks more about her calling and path to Faith Home. Find this, and all Messenger Bonus Videos, on the General Baptist Vimeo Channel. https://vimeo.com/526218827
