The Beautiful Unknowing

“Why Africa?”

I seem to be getting this question a lot lately. And the funny part is that a year ago, I would have never even considered Africa.

My first international mission trip was in 2006… to Peru. I had been out of the country once before this, to Italy to study abroad. But Peru was different. I was not homesick one day of the trip (a rarity for me up to that point! Just ask my mom about the terrible international phone charges I racked up in Italy…) and I was utterly broken over the beautiful people of Lima and its surrounding villages. I fell in love with everything: the children, the food (yes, I even ate guinea pig ), the landscape, the culture, the church and the music. Everything. I was in heaven. I had never expected to feel so at home. It took me completely by surprise.

When I returned – with many tears – to the states, my heart was broken in a new way. I wanted desperately to go back to Peru. Instead, God started me on a very different kind of journey.

Three years later I wound up in Bible School, a place I had (ironically) vowed to never attend. I didn’t think ministry was “my call” (Instead I thought God would use me in Hollywood as an animator. Maybe not a bad dream, but certainly not where He wanted me). Isn’t God funny sometimes? MCM Ministry School became my new home, my new place of adventure… and at the end of our year, my class traveled across the world to Thailand for a mission trip. This was, also, never a place I imagined going. In fact, I had always held a personal distaste toward Asia. But being there with the people showed me how ignorant I had been. Thailand proved to be an incredibly stretching and beautiful adventure. Something again, that I never would have expected.

Piraporn heard about Jesus for the first time and chose to follow Him!

Not long after graduation, I had the opportunity to help lead a youth group from Allison Park Church on a mission trip to Mexico. WOW! Another place I didn’t expect but one I longed for since I imagined it might be similar to Peru. It was in some ways, but the trip was very different for me as well. Instead of having all these experiences, I worked with 2 other leaders to encourage the students to have the experience. It was humbling and amazing to see them take each challenge and run with it. This team will always have a place in my heart.

And so now that I am heading to Ethiopia and people ask me, “well, why are you going there?” I have to smile. Because it really has nothing to do with me. Over the course of my short life in missions, I have seen how much God uses us when we are faithful to obey Him. And that, my friends, is what it is all about. I believe I was blessed beyond measure to be able to choose my first international exploit to Europe. I didn’t really ask God about it, but had always wanted to go. I certainly believe that He gives us the desires of our heart and I loved Italy… yet it proved to be a fiery testing semester for me. I learned how much I needed to rely on my Jesus and who I truly was in Him. I was extremely homesick and faced a lot of growing up challenges, but it was a very different trip from the ones which followed.

I am going to Ethiopia because God has told me to go. As I have planned and prepared, His fervent blessing on each step has confirmed this even more. Yes I believe that sometimes we get to pick where we are assigned. But many times the most powerful events in our lives have very little to do with personal preference. As we hear His voice and obey, we see miracles and meet people that we never would have met on our own clock.

Between you and me, there are specific nations which I long to visit; places that have stolen my heart and people groups whose faces haunt my dreams. Places which need the love of Jesus and the power of His Spirit so much. For a long time, Ethiopia was not on this list. Now I see that it is part of the journey… and now I have an eagerness and longing in my heart for Africa as well. Someday I believe God will take me to these other places in the right time. For now He is taking me here. It is a good choice. Because I would not have picked it. I want to lean on Him so closely that His heartbeat becomes mine.

There are unreached people groups in so many places. None of which is invisible to our God. He cries out for them all. Where do you belong? What mission, adventure, career, relationship, trip is He calling you to? Take it from me, sometimes it is not what you expect. But from what I have seen, the unexpected is the best. He is writing your life and you can trust Him. Where will He take you?

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