"I Am a Missionary"

When I was nine, I felt God call me to missions. Over the years, this calling has taken on a wide variety of applications— from serving my family, to serving the local Church, to coordinating Christian conferences, to directing discipleship programs, to one-on-one mentorship, and more. It is, in its very essence, a call to serve, and I intend to serve for the rest of my life through whatever opportunities God places before me.

When I bought my camera two and a half years ago, I knew that I wasn't pursuing a hobby or a career. My camera would become another tool in my pocket. I didn't know how to do it, or what it would look like, but I knew I was supposed to go after it anyway. I prayed for definition for my photography for two years, without receiving any answers. It was as if God would not allow me to pursue Him about the subject.

But in January of this year, all of that changed. God finally gave me the freedom to pursue Him for direction and definite purpose for my photography, and once I started asking, He answered. Over the course of three months, I received clear direction for photography, discipleship, and business, and I'm doing my best to pursue them. If you would like to read more about what that looks like for me, you can find that document here.

The short version is that I am a missionary. My goal is to love God and love people, and my work is to build God's kingdom. I define it like this:

1. I will influence, mentor, and equip as many people as I can, and as deeply as I can, in as many ways as I can. My goal is to raise up world changers— people who fearlessly and purposefully pursue God and walk out their individual, God-given life callings.
2. I will use my camera to document the faithfulness and redemptive love of God around the world:
⁃ To bring it back to strengthen the faith of His children.
⁃ To support the people who already walk out their callings.
⁃ To motivate others to pursue God and serve God keeps dropping things in my lap.

It's exciting to watch, and even more exciting to live. I repeat Oswald Chambers words to myself almost daily— "The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty, consequently we do not make our nests anywhere... We are uncertain of our next step, but we are certain of God."

I don't know what God is doing in my life. I can't see. I can feel Him at work, and when I look back, everything is covered with golden fingerprints. But looking forward, it's all "gracious uncertainty." This life is an adventure, and I don't always know what to do with myself. But when God drops things in my lap, I run with them.

All that said...

I'm going to Kenya in July. A woman in my Church is looking to start a foundation to support East African orphanages, and is visiting a school/orphanage in Mombassa to see if this is a ministry she wants to get involved in. She asked me to go along as her photographer to document the trip, as well as to do portraits of the orphans for potential sponsorships. Carol, her daughter Taylor, and I will leave on July 21 and will return August 7.

Please pray for me as I prepare! We will be at the school for ten days, during which time we will lead devotions every morning for children in two age groups. I don't know much beyond this. I prayed for a long time about going, and told God that if He wanted it to go, to just make it happen. I kept praying, and then all the sudden I had a ticket. So I'm going to Kenya.

I'll update regularly here on the blog, so please subscribe or follow us so you can see what God is up to throughout our trip.

In the meantime, please pray for our preparations. I need to earn or raise enough money for the plane ticket, as well as some in-country and preparatory expenses. Carol, Taylor, and I need to come up with curriculum for the devotion times every morning. We need clear lines of communication between the three of us, and with the school directors in Mombassa. We desperately need prayer for protection and direction, both while we're in Africa, and in our time of preparation here.

And more than anything, I need to love God more.