APPOINTMENT
Walk With Steve Into Missionary Appointment
Steve and MK buddy
Steve (left) and other missionary kids
sing for their parents
Heart For The Nations
All week long I had enjoyed the intense African sunshine, the beautiful sandy-white beaches, and the powerful breeze blowing off the Indian ocean. Mombasa is quite the tropical paradise. The annual Kenyan AG field fellowship meeting was well under way. As a boy, I always enjoyed these times with other missionary families from around the region.
All week long, we—the missionary kids (MKs) in attendance had been planning a ministry time to our parents scheduled for the last night. As a part of this ministry time, we had selected to sing a closing song as a group. Being one of the youngest MKs present, I had no intention of actively participating in the events. I planned to observe the older MKs present; I would remain as inconspicuous as possible in the proceedings.
My plan worked marvelously until about half-way through the closing song. Without warning, my heart was suddenly arrested by the words we were singing. The words of the song were familiar to me for we had practiced them multiple times prior to this moment but it was different this time.
I suddenly realized that I wasn’t singing to the adult missionaries present as much as the Living God of heaven was singing over my life. A tear welled up in my eye. I desperately fought to retain composure—no one could see me cry. Not here. Not in front of my parents and certainly not in front of my fellow MK friends. My best efforts were to naught; the Lord was after my heart. Billows of heavenly love seemed to be literally bursting within me.
Suddenly, the tears poured down my face as the verse was repeated again. “Here am I send me to the nations”—the words poured out of my mouth and reverberated deep in the corridors of my soul. It felt as though I was stumbling blindly into the brilliant presence of a blazing love for the nations.
For a moment, I was no longer in that conference room in Mombasa, Kenya—I was lost in heaven’s beauty and purity sensing the Savior’s boundless heart of love for the nations. I knew without a doubt that the Living God had just called me to participate in His age-long plan—the redemption of the nations.