The Calling - from March '06 Chronicle

The Question.
What are going to do when you grow up? It’s the question we ask kids from the time they begin to toddle. And the pressure only gets worse through high school and college, as everyone wants to know what direction you’re heading in. Some people seem to be born knowing what they will do, others of us have to search and wait. Almost four years out of school, I have searched and waited and searched some more. I’ve always been very interested in missions, but I’ve fretted about choosing an education and career that would work both here at home and away. The world offers a smorgasbord of options and I was beginning to feel that I was drowning in the middle of them. One day I stopped asking God to help me choose well, and started asking Him to choose for me. I don’t know if God always answers that kind of request, but He answered this one. He answered by giving me the clearest sense of a calling that I have ever known. It is a calling I am ecstatically excited about, and I think I’m well suited to, but I never could have expected it.
The Calling.
Did you know that over half a million women die each year in childbirth? Or that 32,000 children, under the age of five, die each day of preventable causes? Both of these tragedies are complex and require much prayer and work for those numbers to fall, but both of these statistics can and must be changed! Seven weeks from now I will begin a mission-midwifery school that will prepare me to assist women in having safe and loving pregnancies and deliveries. And to offer health education regarding the care of young children. On June 12 the 2006 Mercy In Action midwifery school kicks off with three months of condensed study in Boise, Idaho. Followed by a year of clinical work providing free midwifery care to the poorest of the poor in Manila, Philippines, where we will learn and use skills to literally save lives. After completing this school I will have the certification required to register and work as a midwife nearly anywhere in the world! And hopefully, the chance to go as God calls and offer compassion to His children.
The Future.
What the next two years will hold for me, I can barely imagine. I expect they will be both very exciting and very difficult. As I step into this calling I hope I can be the hands and feet of the GP Church of Christ offering mercy in the Philippines. I am hoping to build a team of people here who support me and this work that God is drawing me into. If I have piqued your interest, or if you have any questions for me, feel free to send me an email, or stop me at church on Sunday.

“Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

Psalm 85:10